Is­rael B. Ra­jah-Khan SC LL.D. (Hon­oris Causa)

Pres­i­dent, Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion

As His Majesty, King Charles III, makes his vis­it to the Caribbean, the African di­as­po­ra in the re­gion and through­out the world, once more, is won­der­ing when the sov­er­eign pow­er and Eng­land’s Par­lia­ment will sum­mon the in­ner strength and moral courage to of­fer an apol­o­gy for that coun­try’s role in en­slav­ing Africans for over 300 years.

I had sent a let­ter to Her Majesty Queen Eliz­a­beth II on June 23, 2017, un­der the head­ing: “Great Britain” must of­fer a sin­cere apol­o­gy for its par­tic­i­pa­tion in the transat­lantic slave trade and African slav­ery. I got no re­ply or ac­knowl­edge­ment of this let­ter from Queen Eliz­a­beth II. Thus, on Jan­u­ary 3, 2023, I sent a let­ter to King Charles III on the sub­ject mat­ter. I wrote to him the fol­low­ing:

“I humbly sub­mit a copy of a let­ter I sent to your moth­er, Her Majesty Queen Eliz­a­beth II – please see en­closed. I re­ceived no re­ply or of­fi­cial ac­knowl­edge­ment of this let­ter. I had sent same to the UK Em­bassy in Trinidad and To­ba­go and the same scant cour­tesy was af­ford­ed to me – no ac­knowl­edge­ment or re­ply. I am send­ing you this mis­sive with the hope that you, as the new Sov­er­eign of UK, will of­fer a sin­cere apol­o­gy for Eng­land’s role in en­slav­ing Africans for over 300 years.”

My let­ter to Queen Eliz­a­beth II told a lit­tle bit of the sav­agery and atroc­i­ties met­ed out to our African broth­ers/sis­ters. All the peo­ple in the Caribbean – es­pe­cial­ly the African di­as­po­ra in the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go – anx­ious­ly await your apol­o­gy.

I am not a mem­ber of the African di­as­po­ra, I am a Trinida­di­an-born East In­di­an whose fore­bears found them­selves as “In­den­tured Slaves” in Trinidad – thus I em­pathise with my African broth­ers and sis­ters of the African di­as­po­ra in the Caribbean and through­out the world.

Atroc­i­ties suf­fered

by the African slaves

I, take this op­por­tu­ni­ty, once more, to doc­u­ment a syn­op­sis to you, King Charles III, of the atroc­i­ties in­flict­ed up­on the African slaves dur­ing the 300 years of slav­ery by Eng­land in the Caribbean.

“The slaves re­ceived the whip with more cer­tain­ty and reg­u­lar­i­ty than they re­ceived their food. It was the in­cen­tive to work and the guardian of dis­ci­pline. But there was no in­ge­nu­ity that fear or a de­praved imag­i­na­tion could de­vise which was not em­ployed to break their spir­it…burn them alive; roast­ed them on slow fire; filled them with gun­pow­der and blow them up with a match…make them eat their own ex­cre­ment; drink their urine.

“Im­pos­si­ble as it is to sub­stan­ti­ate hun­dreds of cas­es, yet all the ev­i­dence shows that these bes­tial prac­tices were nor­mal fea­tures of slave life in the Caribbean. The tor­ture of the whip had “a thou­sand re­fine­ments”. If the slaves were tied to a lad­der, it was the “the tor­ture of the lad­der”; if he was sus­pend­ed by four limbs it was “the ham­mock.” The preg­nant woman was not spared her “four posts.” A hole was dug in the earth to ac­com­mo­date the un­born child.

“The tor­ture of the col­lar was es­pe­cial­ly re­served for women who were sus­pect­ed of abor­tion, and the col­lar nev­er left their necks un­til they had pro­duced a child. (N.B. the new­born child was the prop­er­ty of the slave own­er). The blow­ing up of a slave had its own name – “to burn a lit­tle pow­der in the ar­se of a n****r. Ob­vi­ous­ly this was no freak but a recog­nised prac­tice.” For fur­ther de­tails see The Black Ja­cobins by CLR James.

“I say to you, Your Majesty King Charles III, I am quite aware that a na­tion can­not turn back the hands of the clock and your coun­try’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the African slave trade and African Slav­ery must be judged by that par­tic­u­lar pe­ri­od of his­to­ry and mankind, but it is not too late to of­fi­cial­ly and for­mal­ly an­nounce, on be­half of your coun­try, that your na­tion is con­trite and sor­ry for the atroc­i­ties af­flict­ed up­on Africans for a con­tin­u­ous pe­ri­od of 300 years.

“The lead­ers of your na­tion must not bury their heads in the sand as the prover­bial os­trich, in the hope that with the pas­sage of time, the Africans di­as­po­ra through­out the world and es­pe­cial­ly those re­sid­ing in Britain and its for­mer colonies, will for­get your na­tion’s cru­el­ties in­flict­ed up­on their fore­fa­thers. 4

“The Jews, wher­ev­er they may find them­selves, will nev­er for­get the cru­el­ties in­flict­ed up­on their fore­bears by Adolf Hitler, and so too the African di­as­po­ra will nev­er for­get Eu­ro­pean (in­clud­ing Britain) cru­el­ties up­on their fore­fa­thers.

“Your Majesty, King Charles III, I state the above be­cause in 1823, the then Leader of your Par­lia­ment, Fow­ell Bux­ton, on the top­ic of the abo­li­tion of African slav­ery, stat­ed in Your Par­lia­ment:

“…slav­ery will sub­side, it will de­cline, it will ex­pire, it will burn it­self down in­to the sock­et and go out…we shall leave it gen­tly to de­cay – slow­ly, silent­ly, al­most im­per­cep­ti­bly to die away and be for­got­ten…”

“Your Majesty, Britain’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the transat­lantic slave trade for 300 years will nev­er be for­got­ten by the African peo­ple of the Caribbean and else­where, and I thus im­plore Your Majesty and the British Par­lia­ment to do the civilised and de­cent thing – beg the par­don of the African di­as­po­ra in the Caribbean and through­out the world: of­fer once and for all an of­fi­cial, sin­cere apol­o­gy on be­half of your na­tion for the atroc­i­ties you com­mit­ted for 300 years against Africans – say on be­half of your na­tion that all of you are con­trite and sor­ry: beg our par­don.

“Your Majesty should note that the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go is the on­ly coun­try in the world which has de­clared the Abo­li­tion of African Slav­ery by “Great Britain” a na­tion­al hol­i­day, “Eman­ci­pa­tion Day,” which is com­mem­o­rat­ed by the peo­ple of my coun­try on Au­gust 1st each year.

“It is al­so of in­ter­est to note that the found­ing fa­ther of our na­tion, first Prime Min­is­ter of In­de­pen­dent Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Hon. Dr Er­ic Williams, pos­tu­lat­ed and con­clu­sive­ly proved that Britain abol­ished the African Slave Trade and African Slav­ery when it was no longer prof­itable to your na­tion.

“The eco­nom­ic rea­sons were more pro­nounced and promi­nent than the so-called hu­man­i­tar­i­an rea­sons of your na­tion and its Par­lia­ment.

“And I ask the ques­tion: Are you and your Par­lia­ment, and maybe your ju­di­cia­ry, hes­i­tant to say sor­ry on the sole ground of repa­tri­a­tion to the African di­as­po­ra – once more eco­nom­ic rea­sons? If Your Majesty and your coun­try are re­luc­tant to say you are con­trite and sor­ry on the grounds of fi­nan­cial con­sid­er­a­tion, I point­ed­ly say to all of you: You are noth­ing but mere pre­tenders of up­hold­ing jus­tice for all but sim­ply a bunch of im­moral and de­gen­er­ate hyp­ocrites.”