UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said the concept of reparations for former colonial nations affected by slavery “is not about the transfer of cash”.
In his first comments since 56 Commonwealth leaders signed a statement saying the time had come for a conversation about reparations, Lammy told the BBC that was not “the debate people are wanting to have”.
The UK government previously ruled out paying reparations for slavery and Downing Street said its position included “other forms of non-financial reparatory justice too”.
Lammy said the UK would instead look to develop relations with African nations through sharing skills and science.
During his first visit to Africa as foreign secretary, Lammy said reparations were not about money, “particularly at a time of a cost of living crisis”.
Reparations are measures to make amends for past actions deemed wrong or unfair.
Cash payments – where a state gives money to a country whose communities it enslaved – are the most commonly understood type of reparations.
But they can take many forms, including an official apology or investing in health and education.
Speaking in Lagos, a Nigerian port city once central to the transatlantic slave trade, the foreign secretary said the period was “horrific and horrendous” and had left “scars”.
“I am the descendant of enslaved people, so I recognise that.”
The British government and the monarchy played a key role in the centuries-long slave trade from 1500, alongside other European nations.
Historians believe over three million enslaved Africans were transported by British ships.
Britain also had a key role in ending the trade, through Parliament’s passage of a law to abolish slavery in 1833.
Lammy said it was right that an apology had been made “and we commemorated the abolition of the slave trade” when Labour was last in power.
