The 1^st  of August is Emancipation Day in the former British colonies in the Caribbean. It’s a day where we commemorate the passing of the Slavery Abolition Bill in 1833 by the British government. This act formally abolished slavery in British colonies with, on paper, enslaved people gaining their freedom through British Law from 1^st August 1834.

In reality, enslaved men and women over the age of six were forced to work for their former masters, uncompensated, for a further four years as part of an apprenticeship period.  Real freedom was granted on 1^st August 1838 when the British government passed a bill for complete emancipation. Following the passing of this bill, 750,000 Africans were freed, but with no real power to exercise their freedom, many were forced to work for their former slave masters for exceptionally low wages. This colonial period lasted until the 20^th century and during this period Black people in the Caribbean were denied political, economic and social power.

The impact of slavery on the progress of people of African descent has been immense and this year, in St Kitts and Nevis, Emancipation Day was used to reflect on reparations and how the effects of slavery can be addressed.

Reparation is the process of repairing the damage caused by slavery – a crime against humanity. The reparation movement has a long history with former colonies advocating for justice and European countries failing to take responsibility for the crimes they committed in their quest to enrich their nations.

To tackle the issue of reparations in the Caribbean in a more structured manner, the CARICOM Reparations Commission was established in July 2013 and their mandate was to:

“Prepare the case for reparatory justice for the region’s indigenous and African descendant communities who are the victims of Crimes against Humanity (CAH) in the forms of genocide, slavery, slave trading, and racial apartheid.”

This mandate led to the formation of the CARICOM Reparations Justice Program which includes a Ten-Point Action Plan.  This plan outlines clear steps that are required for reconciliation and justice for nations affected by the transatlantic slave trade, and we were delighted to see that action point five covers the public health crisis.

Reparations and Public Health

The recognition of the impact that slavery has had on the health of the people of the Caribbean is very important. The Caribbean has one of the highest incidences of hypertension and diabetes in the world and both of these conditions are risk factors for a number of other diseases.  Our ill-health is a direct result of slavery with the CARICOM Reparations Committee explaining that the unaddressed “nutritional experience, physical and emotional brutality, and overall stress associated with slavery, genocide, and apartheid” has created a non-communicable disease pandemic.

Research into the lifestyles of enslaved Africans demonstrates that their poor nutrition and emotional brutality started during their journey across the Atlantic.

The conditions on the slave ships were deplorable.  Enslaved Africans were chained together on decks that were overcrowded, unsanitary, unbearably hot, lacked oxygen and they were subjected to frequent physical and sexual abuse.  During the three to six-week journey across the Atlantic, enslaved Africans were fed boiled rice and salted fish which was the start of their new life of poor nutrition.

Once they arrived in the Caribbean, as we know, the brutality continued and so did the lack of access to nutritious food.   Research has suggested that their meals rarely varied and consisted of salt meat or salt fish and Guinea corn, and sometimes yam, bananas or plantains. If slave masters were feeling particularly generous, enslaved Africans were given treats such as tobacco, molasses and rum. As time progressed, enslaved Africans had to find and grow (yam, okra etc) more food to supplement what they were provided with and be creative in their meal preparation. This creativity has led to our modern-day dishes such as jerk chicken, souse, pig foot soup etc. which satisfied their hunger but wasn’t always healthy.

The lack of nutritious food led to many health problems and this combined with the brutality and trauma of slavery led to high infant and maternal mortality, and this high maternal mortality rate in Black women still persists today.

Today, a shift from homemade foods to a more Westernised diet rich in processed foods that are high in sugar, salt and saturated fat has exacerbated our diet-related health challenges. Additionally, the multigenerational trauma caused by four hundred years of slavery, which has been articulated by Dr Joy Degruy’s concept of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome,  links the behaviour and attitudes displayed by Black people today to slavery and highlights another important non-communicable disease that is a legacy of slavery – mental illness.

As the origins of the current public health crisis in the Caribbean can be traced back to slavery, the CARICOM Ten-Point Reparations Action Plan calls for “the injection of science, technology, and capital beyond the capacity of the region” to address this crisis.

We support CARICOM’s Ten-Point Action Plan and will continue to do our part to tackle NCDs in the Caribbean.

Sources

1. Bristol City Council. Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery: The End of Slavery [Online]. Bristol City Council. [Viewed on 28^th August 2020]. Available from: http://www.discoveringbristol.org.uk/slavery/against-slavery/freedom-from-slavery/apprenticeship/slavery-end/
2. CARICOM Reparations Commission. Ten-Point Action Plan [Online]. CARICOM. [Viewed on 28^th August 2020]. Available from: https://caricomreparations.org/caricom/caricoms-10-point-reparation-plan/
3. Guzman, RF. The Feeding of Slave Populations in the United States, the Caribbean and Brazil. Some Remakes on the State of the Art.   Lat. Hist. Econ. 2012; 20(2):5-35.
4. Lewis, T. (2005). Transatlantic Slave Trade [Online] Britannica. [Viewed on 28^th August 2020] Available from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/transatlantic-slave-trade
5. The University of Glasgow. Enslaved People’s Lives. [Online]. The University of Glasgow. [Viewed on 28^th August 2020]. Available from: https://runaways.gla.ac.uk/minecraft/index.php/slaves-lives/