ABSTRACT
Claims for reparations for the atrocities and long-term damages caused by the enslavement of dozens of millions of Africans during the transatlantic trade have a traceable historical dimension. They became publicly and politically more visible and stronger after the declaration of the Durban conference in 2001, which condemned slavery as a crime against humanity and called on the former European colonizing countries for an official recognition and apology. The Caribbean region has experienced the longest history of slavery and colonialism worldwide. The unpaid forced labor of millions of enslaved Africans in highly efficient plantation economies became the major source of Europe’s wealth and hegemony—a thesis which was first presented in the 1940s by Trinidadian historian Eric Williams and has been further developed and debated among scholars. The Caribbean Community Reparations Commission has on various occasions acknowledged the strong contribution of the historical protagonists as ancestors to the reparations struggle.
