Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced Friday he is open to his government issuing a formal apology for the country's historical participation in the slave trade, marking a major shift in British policy.
The change could pave the way for King Charles III to apologize during his upcoming visit to former colonies. Burnham, writing in The Guardian, rejected calls for financial reparations, stating British people should not be "held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part."
However, Burnham said his predecessors had refused to have an "honest conversation" about the legacy of British involvement in the slave trade "by sticking our heads in the sand." He has asked former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to lead a global effort to restructure debt for some of the poorest former British colonies, noting that "listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process."
A formal apology, if issued, is unlikely to satisfy critics who have long demanded financial compensation for trafficking about three million enslaved Africans on British ships across the Atlantic in the 1700s and 1800s. Last week, Hilary Beckles of the CARICOM Reparations Commission urged the king to acknowledge the enrichment slavery presented to the royal family, noting the wealth passed to Charles's children "all came out as significant sums" from the chattelization of African people.
Until Friday, Britain's government had rejected both a formal apology and reparations. Charles, on a seven-day Caribbean visit, has previously called slavery an atrocity that "forever stains our history" and said "it is only right that we should acknowledge the great suffering of the past." A Commonwealth meeting in Antigua and Barbuda is scheduled for Tuesday.
