A rather large bill......

“I’m not sure where all the nonsense about black people being African has come from”

It was a reference to the black population of Britain who have emigrated here directly from Africa , mostly in the last 30 years or so.

Whose forebears come from areas in African that were never involved in the slave trade, either as slaves or traders in slavery.

The people I know view themselves as an entirely different to the Caribbean community who mostly have their origins in a different area of Africa.
And although they might be happy to be included in any money share, they would not view themselves as the descendants of slaves.

I hope that clears up what I meant.

Not all Caribbean people originated in Africa either.
Some were from this country, Ireland, Asia, Portugal, more indentured than slaves but still not free.

Lenny Henry has co-authored a book, ' The Big Payback' which is where his suggestion originates and why it's currently all over the media.

BBC article refers
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yqn2x490zo.amp

Have to admit he's come a long way since he was a support act with the B&W Minstrels in Bournemouth.

Ah, so it’s a sales technique. That explains the humour.

Sorry this really annoys me! It was of it's time... Wrong...we know that now... you learn from History or should. No we should not pay. It was well over hundred of years ago! I am not responsible for what my ancestors did!

No! ….. spend money on the deserving causes of today!

So people who have never owned slaves pay money to people who have never been slaves. It doesn’t make any sense to me and where is the money coming from?

GrannyGravy13

^The past is a different country, and it’s inadvisable to travel there^

Very true. If every country in the world who ever dealt in slavery, trafficking imprisonment or murder, etc etc, of the vulnerable, had to pay reparations, the world would collapse economically!
It is an impossible ask however sorry we are for what our forefathers did!
Very recent wrongs sure… catch the perpetrators and make them pay. But Lathyrus3 has it right too. Impossible situation.

grandmattie Or The Vikings who plundered Scotland and took white generally females as slaves.

Seems to me he's using an outrageous demand to promote his new book by grabbing media attention.

I wonder how much of his British income he would be willing to part with?
I wonder how much the original natives of the islands whose land all the black people now own would like in compensation from them?
While I abhor slavery, would all those descendants of slaves be willing to return to the land of their ancestors to live? Think they would think themselves generally better off, perhaps?
We have been out of the islands, at their behest for generations, so why are we responsible for their current woes?

That's the funniest thing I have ever heard from Lenny Henry

grandMattie

Will the African chiefs and Arab traders, who gleefully provided the slaves, contribute to the reparations? What about the other countries like France and the Netherlands?
And what about the Barbary pirates who went as far as Scandinavia for their white slaves - very many from Cornwall - provide us with money?

Great questions. Could not agree more. The parts the tge Tribal Chiefs and Traders played is often not mentioned on purpose

To sanitixe and trvialise the parts played in this awful natter

Ali what anout the huge fortunes spent on acquring country mansions , propery and ither assets the ruling classes stockplied through slavery.

No one seens to mention thise thing

"All black people " So this would include black slave owners but not white slave owners that sounds like discrimination

I wonder how much of his British income he would be willing to part with?
FranP if Sir Lenny Henry can prove he was descended from slaves then he'll be expecting a pay-out, not to pay in!!

Maria59

"All black people " So this would include black slave owners but not white slave owners that sounds like discrimination

Yes, a local dignitary was the son of a slave and a plantation owner and became a slave owner himself. He was compensated by the British Government for the ownership of 86 slaves.

Ps he had 20 children; there could be quite a lot of descendants.
A conundrum as he was both slave and slave owner.

What about the thousand dead from the Famine in Ireland .. also the Romans who invaded us ? it goes on and on ...

Personally I think the people who were paid money for their slaves, by the government taxing working people until 2015, should now return it with interest.

I also believe that the money generated by these payments has enabled the slave owners’ descendants through education, to have the majority rule in the UK in finance and politics.

Nobody can live life backwards. To lump Lenny Henry and David Lammy together as professional victims is quite revealing though.

I like LH's serious acting and in the past he was amusing. DL, I don't know so much about but he speaks well.

.

British seamen never ever had to go inland in Africa to capture people as their own family and friends kidnapped them and brought them to the Ports. They often received nothing more than trinkets in payment. They gave no value to human lives.

My black Barbadian friends and neighbours always say that they feel more allegiance to Britain than Africa. They also, whilst understanding that it must have been horrific for their slave ancestors, are grateful in a way that it happened as, if it hadn't, they would be living in the horror that is Africa and not on the beautiful and wonderful island that is Barbados.
.

Absolutely not. Let's work on making today's victims are compensated like the sub-postmasters, the HIV scandal for those with Haemophilia, the Waspi women, etc, etc. Also, how do we decide who is eligible? In the same way that one of my family members has inflicted enormous damage on several of the children in our family (including the death of my brother) I don't expect reparations from his mother for giving birth to this monster.
I can see a public apology being made and a celebration of how slaves from yesteryear helped the country but I don't think reparations are necessary or right.

Barbadosbelle, l too was thinking that some descendants of slaves might well be thinking that their lives, as a result, are better than that of those living in the country from which their ancestors were taken. Having said that, it doesn’t in any way excuse slavery.

Perhaps the common folk of Britain could ask the French for reparations for the Norman invasion in 1066, the effects of which are still apparent today.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/17/high-house-prices-inequality-normans

SueDonim

Perhaps the common folk of Britain could ask the French for reparations for the Norman invasion in 1066, the effects of which are still apparent today.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/17/high-house-prices-inequality-normans

And the people from the highland clearances.