Zimbabwe’s president launches study into slavery reparations

The
study
is
being
conducted
by
the
Zimbabwe
National
Elders
Forum
led
by
Dr
Felix
Mukonowengwe
and
other
members
include
academics
and
clergy.

Mukonowengwe
told University
World
News that
some
of
the
academics
involved
in
the
presidential
initiative
are
vice-chancellors
at
Zimbabwe’s
universities.

They
include
“vice-chancellors
such
as
Professor
Paul
Mapfumo
of
the
University
of
Zimbabwe
and
Professor
Eddie
Mwenje
of
the
Bindura
University
of
Science
Education.
We
also
have
Professor
Kuzvinetsa
Dzvimbo
[CEO
of
the
Zimbabwe
Council
for
Higher
Education].
Our
researchers
are
coming
from
our
universities
and
some
of
them
are
professors
like
[Mark]
Nyandoro
from
the
University
of
Zimbabwe,”
he
said.

The
commissioning
of
the
study
comes
shortly
after
a meeting of
55
Commonwealth
countries
held
in
Samoa
late
in
October
ended
with
a
communiqué
that
said:
“The
time
has
come
for
a
meaningful,
truthful
and
respectful
conversation
towards
forging
a
common
future
based
on
equity”.

The
Commonwealth
is
a
grouping
composed
of
Britain
and
its
former
colonies,
but
Zimbabwe
withdrew
from
the
bloc
in
2003
after
the
then
president,
Robert
Mugabe,
launched
a
programme
to
seize
land
owned
by
white
farmers,
leading
to
Western
countries
imposing
sanctions
on
the
African
country.

What
the
study
will
focus
on

At
the
recent
launch
of
the
study,
Mnangagwa
said
it
will
be
focused
on
colonial
injustices
suffered
from
1890
to
1980,
the
year
that
Zimbabwe
got
its
independence.

“The
proposed
study,
as
I
am
reliably
informed,
will
put
forward
recommendations
that
will
explore
options
to
assist
in
the
long-term
healing
of
affected
communities
as
well
as
for
rekindling
and
recreating
goodwill
between
the
Zimbabwean
society
at
large
and
the
former
colonial
power,”
said
Mnangagwa.

“We
have
observed
and,
indeed,
quite
recently,
former
colonial
powers
the
United
Kingdom
apologising
to
the
Mau
Mau
of
Kenya,
and
Germany
also
apologising
to
the
Mbanderu,
Herero
and
Nama
people
of
Namibia.
Therefore,
we
ask,
when
are
the
rest
of
us
in
the
former
colonies
going
to
receive
similar
apologies,
we
wonder.”

The
Zimbabwean
president
said
the
time
has
come
to
engage
Britain
to
seek
what
he
termed
the
much-delayed,
yet
important,
post-colonial
gestures
of
reparations,
restorations,
apology
and
reconciliation.

“Equally,
the
subject
of
reparations
is
not
new,
but
the
calls
for
restitution
continue
to
grow
louder
and
louder,”
added
Mnangagwa.

An
academic
who
is
part
of
those
leading
the
initiative
to
conduct
the
study,
Professor
Mandivamba
Rukuni,
said
they
will
also
hire
experts
to
gather
evidence.

Is
foreign
aid
a
form
of
payback?

In
an
interview
with University
World
News,
Professor
of
World
Politics
at
the
School
of
Oriental
and
African
Studies,
University
of
London,
Stephen
Chan,
who
was
recently
deported
from
Zimbabwe,
said
the
presidential
initiative
is
part
of
a
rhetorical
foreign
policy
and
will
lead
nowhere.

“It
also
has
fundamental
flaws
as
Britain
never
ruled
Rhodesia
directly
for
much
of
its
20th-century
history.
You
can
view
the
2,000
farm
seizures
as
reparations
for
the
policies
of
what
was
essentially
an
autonomous
white
government
not
directed
by
Britain.
Britain
might,
at
some
stage,
say
that
the
multimillions
of
foreign
aid
should
be
taken
into
account
in
any
rhetorical
war,”
he
said.

Dr
Knox
Chitiyo,
the
associate
fellow,
Africa
Programme,
at
Chatham
House,
a
global
think
tank
on
international
geopolitical
matters,
and
a
former
senior
lecturer
of
history
and
war
studies
at
the
University
of
Zimbabwe,
said
the
proposed
study
is
important
as
it
will
build
on
existing
work
on
Zimbabwe’s
history
and
historiography.

Chitiyo
said
the
study
may
also
be
a
useful
addition
to
wider
African
and
global
research
outputs
on
colonialism
and
land.

“Whether
the
study
can,
or
will,
be
used
to
demand
reparations
remains
to
be
seen.
What
is
likely,
however,
is
that,
once
concluded,
the
project
will
be
an
important
addition
to
Zimbabwe’s
history,
and
it
might
also
become
an
important
background
or
contextual
document
regarding
future
Zimbabwe-UK
relations,”
he
said.

Asked
what
could
be
the
role
of
academics
or
scholars
in
such
a
study,
he
added:
“It
is
vital
that
this
study
be
research-driven
and
evidence-
and
memory-led.
The
information
would
come
from
various
sources,
including
oral,
primary,
anecdotal,
secondary
sources,
and
so
on.
Academics
or
scholars
[alongside
communities]
would,
thus,
need
to
have
a
major
role
–
perhaps
a
primary
role
–
in
this
project.”

On
whether
or
not
Britain
should
pay
reparations
for
colonialism,
Chitiyo
said
this
is
a
complex
issue
and
is
part
of
a
wider
global
debate
on
slavery
and
colonialism.

Slavery
reparations
and
country
relations

He
noted
that
UK
Prime
Minister
Sir
Keir
Starmer
and
UK
Chancellor
of
the
Exchequer
Rachel
Reeves
have
both
stated
that
the
UK
will
not
pay
slavery
reparations,
adding
that
this
probably
also
applies
to
colonial
reparations.

“The
question
of
whether
the
UK
should
pay
financial
reparations
for
slavery
and
colonialism
is
a
very
contested
and
highly
polarising
issue
within
the
UK,
and
between
the
UK
and
former
colonies.
Nevertheless,
the
UK
government
has
acknowledged
the
need
for
further
dialogue,”
said
Chitiyo.

He
said
an
apology
from
the
UK
on
slavery
and
colonialism
would
send
an
important
signal
regarding
the
UK
government’s
willingness
to
seriously
engage
on
this
issue
as
some
other
former
colonial
governments,
including
the
Netherlands
and
Germany,
have
apologised
for
slavery
and
their
colonial
past.

He
said
reparations
and
reparatory
justice
can
range
from
the
symbolic
apology,
to
debt
relief
and
financial
reparations.
But,
the
current
and
previous
UK
governments
have
not
been
willing
to
contribute
financially
to
reparations.

The
scholar
said
that
what
is
also
clear
is
that
the
slavery
and
colonialism
debate
is
not
going
away
and
is
now
a
high-level
diplomatic
issue
and
one
which
is
significant
as
regards
relations
between
developing
nations
and
the
UK,
and
also
the
evolution
of
the
Commonwealth.

“On
taking
office,
UK
Foreign
Secretary
David
Lammy
spoke
of
his
desire
for
a
‘reset’
in
the
UK’s
relations
with
the
Global
South.

“The
Global
South
are,
in
turn,
exerting
greater
agency
and
influence
in
global
affairs
and
agenda-setting.

“It
is
clear
that
the
question
of
reparations
is
now
a
significant
factor
in
the
UK’s
relations
with
developing
countries,
particularly
the
Caribbean
and
Africa.
If
the
UK
does
want
a
genuine
reset
in
its
international
relations,
particularly
with
its
former
colonies,
it
will
have
to
engage
more
meaningfully
on
this
issue,”
he
added.

Initiatives
from
the
Caribbean

Godfrey
Mtindi,
a
Zimbabwean
international
development
consultant,
told University
World
News that
a
precedent
had
been
set
for
reparations
to
be
paid
to
Zimbabwe.

“From
the
historical
context
of
white
monopoly
capital,
which
exploited
slaves
and
was
compensated
when
slavery
was
‘banned’,
the
English
compensating
the
Afrikaners
in
South
Africa
for
the
inhuman
treatment
during
their
[Anglo-Boer
or
South
African]
war
(and
skipping
the
blacks),
Germany
being
made
to
pay
reparations
after
having
been
adjudged
of
having
started
the
First
World
War
by
the
Versailles
Treaty,
[and]
Germany
compensating
the
Jews
after
the
genocide
by
the
Nazis,
Zimbabwe’s
compensation
is
within
international
law,”
said
Mtindi.

He
said
the
academics
who
are
part
of
the
study
could
collect
primary
and
secondary
data
on
the
system
of
the
systematic
and
violent
removal
of
blacks
from
their
land
and
destruction
of
the
African
economy.

He
said
they
could
do
a
comparative
study
of
similar
historical
cases
of
colonialism,
slavery
and
quantify
the
loss
Zimbabwe
incurred
developmentally
from
1890
to
1980,
“and
trace
the
specific
companies
which
were
formed
in
the
UK
with
Zimbabwean
resources
and
money
that
was
laundered
there”.

In
2017,
Zimbabwe’s
then
minister
of
higher
and
tertiary
education,
science
and
technology
development
Professor
Jonathan
Moyo
commissioned research on
the
economic
impact
of
sanctions
imposed
by
Western
countries
on
the
country
after
it
launched
its
land
redistribution
exercise.

Preliminary
findings
said
Zimbabwe
lost
about
US$4.8
billion
worth
of
revenue
in
the
manufacturing
sector
in
2010
and
US$2.1
billion
in
2015
due
to
Western
sanctions,
according
to
the
preliminary
results
of
a
government-funded
academic
study
to
probe
their
impact
on
the
country.

But,
following
the
decision
by
Commonwealth
countries
to
have
a
conversation
on
reparations
last
month,
Lammy said the
concept
of
reparations
for
former
colonial
nations
affected
by
slavery
“is
not
about
the
transfer
of
cash”.
Lammy
said
the
UK
would,
instead,
look
to
develop
relations
with
African
nations
through
sharing
skills
and
science.

However,
Caribbean
nations
under
their
regional
grouping
called
Caribbean
Community
(CARICOM)
who
led
the
reparations
call
within
the
Commonwealth
came
up
with
a
10-point
plan
(for
reparatory
justice
in
which
they
called
for
a
full
formal
apology,
education
programmes,
healthcare,
debt
cancellation
and
direct
monetary
payments).

In
its
plan,
the
group
said
that,
at
the
end
of
the
European
colonial
period
in
most
parts
of
the
Caribbean,
the
British,
in
particular,
left
black
and
indigenous
communities
in
a
general
state
of
illiteracy.
Some
70%
of
blacks
in
British
colonies
were
functionally
illiterate
in
the
1960s
when
nation
states
began
to
get
their
independence,
they
added.

They
said
the
transatlantic
slave
trade
was
the
largest
forced
migration
in
human
history
and
has
no
parallel
in
terms
of
man’s
inhumanity
to
man.

“Generations
of
Caribbean
youth,
as
a
consequence,
have
been
denied
membership
and
access
to
the
science
and
technology
culture
that
is
the
world’s
youth
patrimony.
Technology
transfer
and
science
sharing
for
development
must
be
a
part
of
the
CARICOM
Reparatory
Justice
Programme,”
reads
part
of
the
10-point
plan.

Post
published
in:

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