Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Dr Amery Browne has called for the re­moval of what he called “im­pe­r­i­al ar­ro­gance” from dis­cus­sion on repara­tions.

Browne made the com­ment while speak­ing to Com­mon­wealth lead­ers yes­ter­day in Apia, Samoa, at the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing (CHOGM).

He was ac­com­pa­nied by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and UK High Com­mis­sion­er Vish­nu Dhan­paul.

A me­dia re­lease from the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs said Browne re­spond­ed to com­ments from UK Prime Min­is­ter Sir Keir Starmer, who had in­di­cat­ed that the is­sue of repa­ra­tions and an of­fi­cial apol­o­gy should not be on CHOGM’s agen­da.

“There should be no place for any­thing re­sem­bling im­pe­r­i­al ar­ro­gance at the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing,” Browne told those gath­ered at the Meet­ing of Min­is­ters of For­eign Af­fairs of the Com­mon­wealth.

He re­mind­ed the del­e­gates that this “is our Com­mon­wealth.”

Browne’s ad­dress al­so fo­cused on the on­go­ing neg­a­tive im­pacts of chat­tel slav­ery, colo­nial­ism and geno­cide com­mit­ted against na­tive peo­ples, and the role of re­gion­al and mul­ti­lat­er­al or­gan­i­sa­tions for ac­knowl­edge­ment, apol­o­gy and mean­ing­ful jus­tice to be re­alised.

The call for repa­tri­a­tions has been grow­ing in re­cent years.

Dur­ing a tour of eight Caribbean coun­tries in 2022, the Duke of Cam­bridge, Prince William, stopped short of apol­o­gis­ing for slav­ery, call­ing it “ab­hor­rent.”

Fol­low­ing that tour, Row­ley said it was time for the UK to pay, fi­nan­cial­ly, for its wrongs.

“Tonight, I want to say to Prince William, hav­ing said that, I be­lieve you. But I be­lieve you more if you do what you must now do, which is the of­fer of repa­ra­tion to the peo­ple who were wronged,” Row­ley said as he ad­dressed a PNM cel­e­bra­tion in com­mem­o­ra­tion of Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Shouter Lib­er­a­tion Day in March that year.

Last year Cab­i­net ap­point­ed the Na­tion­al Com­mit­tee on Repa­ra­tions to pur­sue repa­ra­tions for Na­tive geno­cide and African en­slave­ment from all Eu­ro­pean colonis­ers.

The com­mit­tee’s plan for ret­ri­bu­tion in­cludes re­ceiv­ing a for­mal apol­o­gy, debt can­cel­la­tion, as well as the elim­i­na­tion of pub­lic mon­u­ments and sig­nage that cel­e­brate those who, it said, ben­e­fit­ed from colo­nial crimes.

— Jensen La Vende