Ghana hosted an 'historic' reparations conference last month, where the Caribbean Community (Caricom) presented its updated 10-point plan for reparative justice. The event, called Next Steps, was the first major gathering since the UN resolution in March declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. It concluded with a global framework for reparatory justice, including formal apologies, compensation, and debt relief. A key demand was compensation for gender-based violence, placing the issue at the forefront of the campaign for redress.
Historical amnesia addressed
Prof Olivette Otele, a historian at Soas University of London and member of the Guardian's Legacies of Enslavement advisory panel, said the move was long overdue. 'As somebody who has been working on this history for several decades, I am very happy,' she said. 'There was a lot of consultation about this. This is something that was missing. We can finally share that history, but also the role that women played and the extreme violence they experienced.'
Of the 20 million Africans forcibly transported across the Atlantic, about 30% were women, and 1.2 million experienced sexual violence, according to Caricom's plan. A 2023 Brattle report on reparations for chattel slavery said it was 'reasonable to assume that 100% of enslaved women over the age of 10 were subjected to sexual abuse by enslavers.'
Legal codification of exploitation
During the transatlantic slave trade, the legal doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem ('that which is born follows the womb') was codified in 1662 in Virginia. This meant enslaved women were property of the owner. 'Women were currency, they could be bought, exchanged. They were a reproductive tool being impregnated to extract more enslaved people, more labour, more profit,' Otele said.
The legacies continue today in misogynoir and the adultification of young Black girls. Otele noted that while the grooming of white working-class girls is discussed, 'we never talk about the grooming of young Black girls. They are at the bottom of the social ladder like young white girls, yet their stories are ignored.'
Resistance and future steps
Otele emphasized the role of Black women in resistance, such as Queen Nzinga of Ndongo, Solitude of Guadeloupe, Nanny of the Maroons, and Nanny Grigg. 'Women were always at the forefront of resistance and Black liberation,' she said. 'They were working in the houses so would have information about what was happening in the master's house.'
Historians like Hilary Beckles, Barbara Bush, Verene Shepherd, and Stella Dadzie have shed light on this history, but more work is needed. Otele noted that few Black women have been able to study this history due to perceptions of partiality, but hopes the conference will open doors for mid-career Black women scholars.
