Recent reporting has highlighted a joint effort by member nations of the African Union and member nations of the Caribbean organization CARICOM to hold European nations accountable for "historical mass crimes" related to slavery. A recent summit meeting in Accra, Ghana resulted in statements calling for formal apologies from European nations that were involved with enslavement and financial reparations to address the ongoing negative effects of the Atlantic slave trade. The delegates of the seventy-five nations representing the African Union and CARICOM were reportedly buoyed by recent announcements from the Church of England designating £100 million in reparations funding for its involvement in enslavement. The full Church of England report is available here. Some estimates suggest that the total owed by Britain alone to Caribbean nations for the effects of its involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade could amount to over £18 trillion.
Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.
Reparations Commission Research Historian
Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey
