Surprisingly, The Telegraph published an op-ed challenging the idea that the British people should pay reparations for slavery.
Then there is the problem of African responsibility for the enslavement of Africans. The slave trade across the Atlantic and also into Arab lands in North Africa and the Middle East would not have been possible without the collaboration and complicity of African kingdoms and their rulers. They sold on captives, often taken in tribal wars. If we are to pay for the sins of our fathers, surely the descendants of the Oba of Benin, the King of the Asante and many others beside should be paying as well?
Related: A reparations activist in the United States recently discovered she is related to slave owners and most likely a slave merchant.
