The authorities in Barbados are working to clean up the country’s slave past. One of the moves they are now looking at is seeking reparations from the families of slave owners who made good money from slavery.
One of these families is the family of Oscar-nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch. It reports The Telegraph.
One of the actor’s ancestors bought the Cleland plantation in the north of Barbados in 1728. About 250 slaves were kept on the plantation, which operated for more than 100 years, before slavery was abolished in 1834.
The family is said to have made very good money from the plantation operation, and when slavery was abolished the British state paid out a large sum as compensation to the family, a sum which today would be equivalent to around NOK 12 million.
Played slave owner
Cumberbatch himself has played a slave owner on two occasions, most recently in the Oscar-winning film “12 years a slave” from 2013.
The background of the family has long been known, and in 2018 he stated the following to The Telegraph:
– We all have a past, and you don’t have to look far to see my family’s past as slave owners. We were part of the sugar industry, and it’s quite shocking, he said.
According to several media outlets, Cumberbatch’s mother, actress Wanda Ventham, urged her son not to use the Cumberbatch name publicly in his career, fearing that the family’s history would attract attention.
Wants land areas
Much of the background to the legal settlement that will now take place is that the conservative British politician Richard Drax is under great pressure from Barbados to return large areas of land he has inherited, which were previously used for sugar plantations.
Barbados has announced that it will apply for compensation in an international arbitration court if he refuses to give this back.
If Barbados were to succeed, this would open the door to prosecuting other relatives of rich slave owners as well.
This is where the Cumberbatch family comes into play.
The British royal family may also risk having a claim made against them.
David Comissionng is deputy chairman of the committee in Barbados which is now working on redress after slavery.
When asked what will happen to the Cumberbatch family, he will not say specifically what will happen.
– We are at an early stage in the process, and are just getting started. There is a lot of history that is only now coming to light, he tells The Telegraph.
David Denny is the leader of an organization for peace in the Caribbean, and is speaking out for all relatives of slave owners to be prosecuted.
– All relatives of slave owners who have received benefits from the slave trade should be asked to pay back, he says.
