PM BROWNE WARNS ABOUT RISK OF ‘ECONOMIC RECOLONIZATION’ IN EMANCIPATION MESSAGE

Prime Minister the Right Honourable Gaston Browne has used his national address to mark Emancipation Day to call attention to enduring inequalities in political and economic power around the world, nearly two centuries after the abolition of slavery.

He says, “Too often, asymmetries of political and economic power are deployed to constrain sovereign policy choices.” He cautions that, “These practices risk becoming modern instruments of economic recolonization, perpetuating dependency in place of genuine partnership and shared prosperity.”

Prime Minister Browne says the call for reparatory justice is even more compelling in this global context, noting that it is neither “an appeal for charity, nor an exercise in assigning inherited blame.”

The head of government adds, “Repair requires taking meaningful measures to address structural inequalities produced” by slavery and colonialism.

Slavery was legally abolished across the British West Indies on August 1, 1834, following the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act.