According to the UK’s newly-elected opposition leader, we should be grateful that Britain ended slavery – and should stop moaning about the past. Remarkably, Kemi Badenoch is also of Nigerian descent. In this clip, she goes as far as to allege that those seeking reparations are simply being manipulative.
OK, let’s just ignore the fact that the UK gave itself a 400-year developmental headstart by building up its economy on the back of the barbaric exploitation of African people.
Abolition-proud Britain didn’t give up its African colonies until much later, and colonialism is another form of enslavement. Zimbabwe for instance, wasn’t ‘free’ until 1980 (the year of Badenoch’s birth), but even after independence, the UK sanctioned the African nation to high heaven as soon as it tried to assert sovereignty with land reforms that would have seen territories stolen by the Brits returned to Africans.
After colonialism, neo-colonialism: London has exploited its economic power to further control African nations and keep them impoverished – for example, though predatory lending via the IMF and World Bank (institutions it played a key role in shaping).
The UK has no statute of limitations on serious crimes. Does Badenoch, who has vowed to uphold the law, really think the unspeakable suffering inflicted on Africans by the British – with negative consequences felt by millions of Black people to this day – was just a misdemeanour that can simply be brushed off?
Video Credit: GB News