Activists praise PM’s Drax backtrack

Pan-African activists have led praises for Prime Minister Mia Mottley after she withdrew the government’s bid to compulsorily purchase Drax Hall plantation lands for homes.

Richard Drax, 66, a Member of Parliament in the ruling British Conservative Party, was expected to receive some $7.5 million but in a late-night address on Tuesday, Mottley said that was on hold as the government continues negotiations aimed at a payout of reparations for centuries of atrocities inflicted on enslaved African ancestors here.

Dr George Brathwaite, a University of the West Indies Cave Hill lecturer in political science and international relations, commended the prime minister for backing off from the purchase, contending that Drax should not get “one red cent” of taxpayers’ money.

“I don’t think the Government of Barbados should pay one red cent to Drax,” he told Barbados TODAY. “We need the land for housing purposes, let it be given, let it be a grant, let it be part of the reparations.

“They have raped too much from us which has really caused aspects of our underdevelopment, and I think that, while acknowledging any atrocities in the past through slavery, I think Mr Drax himself, the descendant that is the owner, is making a serious error when he said he does not think that they should be paying any reparations. His argument, to me, is fundamentally flawed.”

The UWI academic suggested that Drax needs to not only apologise for and accept what happened in the past but also find a way to compensate Barbadians for his ancestors’ actions.

“The best way he can pay back is to give up the lands free of cost,” Dr Brathwaite insisted. “You already built an empire based on what happened here, and it ought not to continue by robbing a poor small island developing state [of] its money.”

He also suggested that the prime minister would have faced public backlash had she not paused the land acquisition.

“As important as housing is to us… there has to be a pause, and you have to look at this thing from multiple angles. And certainly, as I said, the arguments by Drax do not hold water for me. It’s a weak argument,” he declared.

A coalition of Pan-Africanist organisations in Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago also applauded the PM for suspending the land purchase and urged her to push for the property to be handed over to Barbados without requiring compensation.

The group comprises Gerald A Perreira of the Organisation for the Victory of the People of Guyana; Felipe Noguera, Pan-African and Indigenous Movement, Trinidad and Tobago; Onkphra Wells of the Pan-African Coalition of Organisations, Barbados; and Miguel Lorne of Jamaica’s Marcus Garvey People’s Political Party.

“As the living descendants and authorised representatives of the captured Africans who suffered unspeakable crimes against their humanity at the hands of Richard Drax’s ancestors, we are calling on the Government of Barbados to publicly call on Richard Drax to hand over the property to the Government and people of Barbados, free of charge, as a gesture toward reparation,” the group said in a letter submitted
to Barbados TODAY.

“For our part, we will mobilise forces throughout the region, the Global South and the UK to support this demand and to put the spotlight on Richard Drax and the crimes against humanity committed by his ancestors.”

The four Pan-Africanist organisations said they agreed with noted Pan-Africanist and backbench parliamentarian Trevor Prescod, who chairs the Barbados National Taskforce on Reparations, that the government should not be entering into any [commercial] relationship with Drax “especially as we are negotiating with him regarding reparations”.

They recalled that Drax Hall Plantation was described as a “killing field” of enslaved Africans, referring to historian Sir Hilary Beckles’ description of the 30 000 enslaved people on Drax estates in Barbados and Jamaica who died over 200 years. The Draxes owned a plantation in Jamaica, which they sold in the 18th century and at least two ships that brought captured Africans to the Caribbean.

According to the regional groups, the Drax family played a pivotal role in the development and initiation of the Barbados slave code, which denied enslaved Africans basic human rights, including the right to life.

“We are calling on governments throughout the Caribbean,” they added, “to boldly announce that forthwith, they are repatriating all lands formerly owned by slave traders, without compensation to their descendants, as part of the reparations owed to us for the horrific crimes committed against our ancestors, crimes which continue to this day to have a devastating impact on us, their descendants.”

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb