The Barbados government is seeking reparations from families who grew rich through colonial slavery. In addition to the actor’s ancestors, there is also a wealthy MP and the British royal family.
The past fortunes of Benedict Cumberbatch’s ancestors are beginning to interest the government of Barbados closely. Becoming a Republic a year ago, the island of the Lesser Antilles, in the eastern Caribbean, has for several months increased its pressure on families who have enriched themselves through slavery. However, the situation concerns the British actor, who descends from a line of former landowners in Barbados.
The link between the Hollywood star and the history of the island did not escape the National Commission for Reparations. “We are only at the beginning stages.deputy chairman of the commission, David Comissiong, told the Telegraph December 30. A lot of that history is just being brought to light right now.”.
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An ancestor of Benedict Cumberbatch, Abraham Cumberbatch (1685-1750), merchant established in Bristol, had acquired in 1727 a sugar plantation in Cleland, in the north of Barbados. Some 250 slaves were part of the estate until the British abolition of slavery in 1834. Tremendously enriched by the plantation, the actor’s ancestors also received a large sum – the equivalent of more than a million current euros – in compensation from Her Majesty’s Government, following the abolition of slavery.
“You don’t have to look far to find our family’s slave past”had mentioned Benedict Cumberbatch in an interview granted in 2018 to the Telegraph qualifying as “shocking” this part of his family history. Ironically, the actor had played the American master of a cotton plantation ins Twelve Years a Slave released in 2013.
In 2014, the inauguration of Stacey Cumberbatch, a descendant of Cleland plantation slaves, as New York City Commissioner of Administrative Services cast a harsh light on the actor’s family past. . Citing a 2007 interview, an article by New York Times recalled then that the mother of Benedict Cumberbatch had ordered him to take a stage name, to avoid being targeted by descendants of slaves. What the star ultimately did not do.
Fight for repairs
While waiting to take on the actor’s case, the Barbados government has entered into negotiations with millionaire and British Conservative MP Richard Drax. The politician met with the island’s premier, Mia Mottley, in early fall. The authorities of Barbados accuse the Drax family of having played a major role in the triangular trade and the development of the sugar industry on the island, from the XVIIe century, in addition to still owning a plantation on site. Failing an agreement on reparations – several hundred million pounds – the case could be settled in court.
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A Reparations Commission was established in 2013 by the Caribbean Community (Caricom), of which Barbados is a founding state. The group experienced new momentum in the context of the economic crisis associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. “Reparations are not just a question of money, but also of justice”said Mia Mottley, calling for the creation of a Marshall Plan for the Caribbean funded by reparations at a Caricom meeting in July 2020. “I don’t know how we will be able to move forward if we are not first and foremost held to account, apologized and acknowledged that a wrong has been done.”
Apart from MPs and actors, the British royal family is also in the sights of Barbados. “The subject is being dealt with at the highest level of government”assures David Comissiong, quoted in November by the Guardian . “From the darkest days of our past and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever taints our history, the people of this island have blazed their trail with extraordinary fortitude”, had recognized Charles III – then Prince of Wales – during his trip to the island in November 2021, on the occasion of the proclamation of the Republic of Barbados and the inauguration of its first president, Sandra Mason. The word “reparations”, however, did not appear in the royal speech.
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