A response to Andy Burnham: We need an apology and reparations

Verene A Shepherd, vice-chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, responds to UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s openness to a formal apology for the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans and chattel slavery. She says a formal apology is needed to begin healing wounds and repairing cultural destruction caused by colonialism and enslavement. The commission has long sought dialogue on apology and reparations but has received only expressions of regret. Shepherd recalls that in 2015 David Cameron rejected reparations demands and proposed a £25 million UK-funded prison project in Jamaica.