A rather large bill......

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

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?

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

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

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.

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?

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

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!

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

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.

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

“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.

Sir

windmill1

Maybe, then, the British government should pressure the Italian government for appropriate reparation for the thousands of Ancient Britons who were abducted and forced into slavery during the Roman Occupation 2000 years ago?

(Has Mr Lenny Henry got a project coming up which needs a bit of publicity? He's been out of the spotlight for quite a while.)

Sit Lenny has a new book out today. 🤔

GrannyGravy13

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

I am white, so far as I’m aware, my ancestors from Northern Europe, Ireland Scotland, wales and north west England were all white.
I’ve no idea what it feels like to be descended from enslaved people. I have some idea what it was like for my ancestors in the mid 19th century who somehow got themselves from the south east to the north west when agricultural work dried up but they knew of the industrial revolution and got themselves to Manchester and the dark satanic mills in the towns beginning with B (as recently described by a conservative mp as those awful towns beginning with B]

Soi can’t dismiss LennyHenry or David Lammy as professional victims. I’ve not walked in their shoes. I know something of Ancestor Syndrome. I believe we are seeing something of it in Israel now.

I don’t say our country can afford or even should financially compensate anyone with slave ancestors, I do believe we shouldn’t dismiss the continuing pain. A friend carries his families slave name, he can’t trace beyond d a great grandparent. My ordinary family grace a relative to 1675

I can't think of anything more likely to divide people even further.

Saw this response on YouTube. Worth thinking about.
youtu.be/6WcGQZajklM?si=Znca_jN-h5isc7Gn

Modern day slavery going on under our noses in this country is more worthy of attention.

Perhaps Mr Henry would like to spearhead a campaign to root out this evil?

GrandMattie makes good points.

Hengis Pod and his lovely wife Senna may have something to say on this slave reparation malarkey.

Lenny should stick to acting

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?

Quite!

Britain was far from the only country that had an Empire back along - and basically no longer does. Demanding money from present generations for what past generations did would not be right anyway - as we weren't the ones responsible in any shape or form for that.

Yep...I was surprised to hear recently that even some of us got kidnapped into slavery and I think it was quite a few of us that got kidnapped like that too!

If we handed over money being demanded for "reparations" to everyone demanding some = our country would be well beyond bankrupt....as we simply don't have it anyway. So much for "Britain is a rich country" = not any more matey. Britain is a country with a huge amount of debt anyway and little being done in the way of taxing the rich enough. But even if our rich did get taxed fairly (if only!) there would be nowhere near enough to cover even a portion of what is being demanded.

“Viking slavery, or thralldom, involved the capture, sale, and use of enslaved people as a crucial part of their economy, with slaves serving as agricultural and household labor. Slaves were acquired through raids on places like the British Isles and Eastern Europe, as well as from debt or punishment for crimes within Viking society. The extensive trade networks established by the Vikings were a major source of wealth, with slaves being sold in markets from Christian Europe to the Islamic Middle East. “
Slavery has gone on for centuries. Many of us are probably descended from slaves.

Speak to anyone who tried to get dole money in that time with all those vacancies. They would have got short shrift from the dole office

I strongly suspect that you would ave to employ a medium for that. Just about all of the generation who would be unemployed at that time must be dead by now.

I', not sure where all the nonsense about black people being African is coming from. Clearly the people Henry is talking of are descended from Afro-Caribbean slaves. Not to mention that actual Caribbean countries they were taken to which were just about abandoned post independence from the Empire...

And hell, anyone who thinks that the £millions paid to slave owners in compensation for loss of their 'property' is sufficient 'reparation' needs to do some thinking...

Post slavery the ex slaves were treated almost as badly as they were when they were slaves...

Wyllow3

I think its one of those demands that ask for the impossible but there may be more realistic goals like "repairing" the damage that the hostility and "pushing into ghettos" that the Windrush Generation and their descendants suffered.

Inviting people over to fill jobs white workers would not do, and treating them like *hit on the whole: is never a wise move.

Rubbish.
The first windrush generation came here in 1948. Three years after the end of the 2nd world war ( in Europe) ended.
We needed workers to fill the jobs that all those killed were doing.
Speak to anyone who tried to get dole money in that time with all those vacancies. They would have got short shrift from the dole office.

sunami

The £20 million in 1833 was paid to slave owners. The slaves didn't receive anything.

Yes - the money was paid to the slave owners to release slaves - not to 'released' slaves.