Adesuyi Leslie-Ajayi.

Adesuyi Leslie-Ajayi

Supporting Kemi Badenoch MP and Tory leader on the impracticality of reparations today, despite its moral imperative of justice, I also do not think reparations will work now after 300 years of slavery and reparations.

Where do you begin? Who gets paid, individuals or countries?  How much gets paid? Is payment in one fell swoop and spread over time?  The direct victims are long dead but their descendants have the scars. How do you factor in the contributions of Africans who profited in the slave trade? Some blacks owned slaves in the US.

I believe it was after the US Civil War was time to compensate the enslaved black Americans with 40 acres and a mule. However, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln changed that trajectory and caused resentment leading to the Jim Crow Era and lynching.

John F Kennedy’s introduction of Affirmative Action for black Americans and enforcement of workplace Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ( DEI) were part of his cashless reparations. Yet he too got killed like Lincoln!

There can be NO Material or fiscal compensation that can assuage the barbarity and savagery of slavery. It was a case of might is right.  To try it is to cheapen the suffering.

I think what is needed now are

1. Freedom of affected people and nations to carry out economic,  governmental and developmental policies that they please without undue interference.
2. Favorable investments,  economic,  scientific,  educational and diplomatic and priority to the nations and people blighted by slavery and colonialism by the beneficiaries of the heinous epoch.

Africans and blacks need to learn that weakness tempts aggressors to become predators.

India ( which was colonized for nearly 300 years) and China have by self-effort become military,  economic,  space and industrial powers.

The best reparations are the ones Africans by a ” Never Again ” determination give to their people and themselves in Africa.

This includes good governance, and scientific, economic,  engineering, and technological advancement that will prevent such from ever recurring.

We must stop expecting handouts that will be embezzled. The world is a jungle and predators don’t apologize to prey.

See the Porcupine that hurts and prevents the tiger from devouring it because of its sharp and piercing spikes.  This is the analogy and metaphor that Africans and once vulnerable people must adopt. Not the gossamer hope of penitence of those who are ready to exploit others.  Be human and homo sapiens too.

*Adesuyi Leslie-Ajayi is a Professor of Medicine