When the British government abolished the slave trade in 1833, it used £20 million, 40 per cent of its national budget, to compensate slave owners. The amount of money borrowed was so large that it wasn’t paid off until 2015.
For Lenny Henry, this meant the realisation that for his entire working life, he had been paying to compensate former slave owners for losing “the privilege to work my foremothers and forefathers into the grave”.
Here Henry, along with journalist Marcus Ryder, investigates why the descendants of slaves not only never received any compensation, but may actually have reimbursed former slave owners via their taxes. In this fascinating and compelling book, the authors make a strong case for reparations – which they stress is not just about money, but “truly repairing the harm that has resulted from the transatlantic slave trade”, including the scourge of racism.
Henry argues that children are not born racist but goes further, asserting that the majority of adults are not “clever enough (or stupid enough) to generate the sheer tonnage of racial prejudice we have today”. Indeed, “the systematic categorisation of people into races with hierarchical values” only began in the 16th century with the transatlantic slave trade and its dehumanisation of entire populations.
The Big Payback: The Case for Reparations for Slavery – an accessible examination of the legacy of the slave trade
We Did OK, Kid by Anthony Hopkins: An engaging and tersely written memoir
Tom Paulin wins PEN Heaney Prize for Namanlagh
After Oscar: the Legacy of a Scandal by Merlin Holland – A dramatic and engaging narrative
This book asks difficult questions in a surprisingly simple manner, often breaking the thornier issues down into digestible bites by turning them into a dialogue between the two authors. They examine the legacy of the slave trade in the modern world and the steps taken by some institutions to address their own involvement, including the practice of “reparations washing”.
They not only make a convincing case for reparations but also delve into how to finance them, with the help of economist-turned-anthropologist, Bhavik Doshi, and investigate if such a scheme could ever happen in reality with Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
Despite the gravity of the subject matter and the sometimes technical nature of the material, The Big Payback never gets too academic for its own good, and is shot through with the trademark humour that has made Henry one of Britain’s best-loved comedians over four decades. It even includes a recipe for his take on traditional Jamaican ‘Saturday soup’, and finishes with the text for a play penned by the comedian to humanise some of the issues raised in this vital book.
