British people don’t need to apologise for slavery – but the government does | Olivette Otele

By Olivette Otele · The Guardian Opinion

Andy Burnham’s intervention is important. Because when it comes to Britain’s role in the transatlantic trade, the collective amnesia is stunning Departing from his predecessors’ stances, the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, surprised us all when he stated he was open to listening to calls for an apology for the UK’s role in centuries of transatlantic enslavement. King Charles is expected to speak with “unflinching honesty” and “sincere sorrow” about the UK’s role in the transatlantic slave trade at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda today. Burnham was quick to add that financial reparations were off the table. But he was in favour of discussions about debt restructuring – one of the key concerns of the Caribbean community (Caricom) and the African Union. The opposition, led by Kemi Badenoch, argued that apologies were a distraction. Beyond political bickering and point-scoring lies a deeper question. Why does Britain struggle to fully understand its colonial past and to grapple with the negative impact of its legacies? One the one hand, the country celebrates its historical conquests as far back as the Battle of Hastings and applauds the wealth that derived from the products of colonisation, such as cotton . On the other, it refuses to accept that harm was caused to populations whose lands it forcefully occupied – and that the trafficking of African captives has changed how we think and what we assume about different racial groups to this day. Olivette Otele is a historian and distinguished research professor of the legacies and memory of slavery at Soas University of London Continue reading...