Reparations Activist Says Queen Should Apologise For Slave Trade
24 August 2019, 16:50 | Updated: 24 August 2019, 17:14
A reparations activist and former treasurer of the Africa Reparations Movement, says that the Queen should apologise for Britain's role in the slave trade.
Linda Bellos OBE told LBC that the current head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, should apologise for Britain's participation in the slave trade.
She told the station: "I believe that a former Prime Minister did apologise, but he was the head of the government, it's was the State in whose name this was done and that means the current Queen or a future monarch should apologise.
Darren Adam called the suggestion 'tokenism', but Bellos responded by saying that modern day Britain continues to benefit from the slave trade.
She continued: "We are beneficiaries, we may not be responsible but you and I, and all the people in this country, benefit.
"Something wrong happened, and it didn't happen over a ten year period, it happen over at least two centuries.
"The legacy of enslavement, and the view that African people are of no value, is still with us today, and I believe that we can change that by at least exploring conversations, knowledge, facts about what really happened."
Ms Bellos also welcomed the news that Glasgow University will pay £20m in reparations, which signals the first scheme of its kind for major British institutions.
