I recently wrote an article about the UK Parliament’s role in creating, maintaining and delaying the abolition of Transatlantic African Trafficking and Chattel Enslavement. If Parliament were to face up to this history and its impact, it could contribute to the repair that is needed in a world that remains racist towards Africans both on their continent and in the diaspora.

I discovered that at least one of my ancestors was an enslaver. John Crewe was compensated £5,102 for 234 enslaved people in 1834; that would be worth over £800k today. The enslaved women, men and children he was ‘compensated for’ in Barbados received nothing. In the greater scheme of history this personal background is a tiny matter to the world, but not to declare my ancestors’ responsibility for these crimes would be hypocritical. I denounce this perpetrator – my ancestor who committed crimes against humanity.

Although some might argue that they, and others like them, were merely acting within the moral constraints of their time, underpinned by the structural ignorance of racism, I don’t find such retrospective relativism persuasive. It is partly true; it would have taken imagination to be different from the norm. But there were (and always are) individuals who rise above the taken-for-granted assumptions of their time and attain a higher standard of ethics. In the case of John Crewe and other relatives of mine, they failed. Together with others involved in colonialism and enslavement, the responsibility for crimes and harms in the UK’s former colonies lies with individual colonisers but also those who supported them. I would like to apologise for their actions and the impact that they had on enslaved and colonised peoples and to contribute to action that leads to recognition, reparation, and recovery.

Gloria Daniel, founder of tteach Plaques and creator of the 50 Plaques and Places project (first exhibited in 2023 with part-funding from SOAS School of Law, Gender and Media), initiated this plaque (see above) as part of a wider strategy to publicly acknowledge Britain’s institutional complicity in the transatlantic trafficking of African people. As co-creator – with Jane Daniel – of the Black Lives Matter plaque that “flips the script” on traditional Blue Plaques (originated by William Ewart MP, whose family wealth was rooted in the exploitation of enslaved Africans), Gloria Daniel’s work challenges the legacy of erasure embedded in Britain’s commemorative culture.

The John Crewe plaque emerged from this reparative methodology and was proposed by TTEACH as a memorial to the 234 named enslaved Africans registered on Crewe family plantations in Barbados. Emma Crewe, descendant of John Crewe, was invited to contribute a testimonial following conversations with Gloria Daniel about institutional accountability. In recognising the family’s receipt of financial compensation and political influence – including through Robert Crewe-Milnes’ role in securing the 1916 SOAS Charter – TTEACH asserts the enduring impact of slavery’s legacy in contemporary institutions and the necessity of ethical acknowledgment in spaces of power.

See here for the full open access article about this family history but also about strategic and structural ignorance in the UK parliament: International Journal of Parliamentary Studies