Barbados Government's Land Acquisition at Drax Hall Plantation Raises Concerns over Reparations: A Closer Look

A simple definition of reparation(s) is the making of amends for wrong or injury done.

British newspaper The Guardian recently published a report that the Barbados government plans to pay millions of pounds sterling for approximately 15 hectares of land at Drax Hall.

This plantation in the parish of St George has been the subject and focus of discussions about slavery and reparations, and is now becoming one of acquisition, housing development and the further enrichment of a descendant of slave owners.

Parliamentarian Trevor Prescod, chairman of the Barbados National Taskforce on Reparations seems dumbfounded, saying: “What a bad example this is. Reparations and Drax Hall are now top of the global agenda. How do we explain this to the world? The government should not be entering into any [commercial] relationship with Richard Drax, especially as we are negotiating with him regarding reparations.”

But what are the emotions of persons like Sir Hilary Beckles, Icil Philips, David Denny, Professor Pedro Welch, and other advocates for reparations?

Reparations in purest and simplest forms should be about redress and compensation from the oppressor to the oppressed.

However, it seems as if the people’s treasury is soon to be converted into an automatic teller machine for British member of Parliament Richard Drax, the current owner of Drax Hall plantation.

Icil Phillips, who once lived nearby, is quoted as saying: “The planned deal is an atrocity, and a case of the victims’ descendants now compensating the descendant of the enslaver. He should be giving us this land as reparations, not further enriching himself … at the expense of Barbadians. As Barbadians, we must speak out against this.”

Whoever is saying that reparations and the land deal are two separate and distinct items should pause and think again because the Observer newspaper, sister to the Guardian and published on Sundays, reported in 2022 that owner Richard Drax was asked to hand over all or a substantial part of Drax Hall plantation. If he refused, legal action would follow.

Maybe things have changed.

But for the sake of transparency, openness, accountability, and above all, in the greatest interests of the republic’s public, this now conspicuous and salient matter should be debated within the walls of the people’s parliament.

Ultimately, to the mind that conceived reparations, remember it is about an act of making amends for wrong or injury done.

It should never include any arrangement that further enriches enslavers and their ancestry.

Michael Ray