British Conservative member of parliament, Richard Drax, who has come under fire for his family’s involvement in the trade of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, is set to receive a multi-million-pound payout from the Barbados government.
The payout is in relation to the Barbados government’s compulsory acquisition of 52 acres of land on the Drax Hall plantation.
The plantation was a central location of the genocidal oppression and exploitation of multiple generations of enslaved people in Barbados, and was the principal generator of wealth for the Drax family of the United Kingdom over hundreds of years.
Daina Davy tells us more.
The government is acquiring the land to construct houses for working class residents of the Drax Hall district who are sorely in need of enhanced housing accommodation.
By law in Barbados, whenever the government compulsorily acquires property, it is duty-bound to compensate the landowner by paying him the fair market value of the land being appropriated.
The compensation amounts to £3 million of Barbados’ national revenue.
Drax, reputed to be the richest member of the British House of Commons, is set to receive that compensation. The MP is the current owner of the Drax Hall Plantation and heir to much of the Drax family fortune.
In 2022, the UK Observer reported that Drax, the MP for South Dorset, travelled to Barbados to meet prime minister Mia Mottley.
It’s understood he was asked to hand over all or a substantial part of the Drax Hall plantation, with the threat that if he refused, legal action would follow.
Mottley’s spokesperson said the current Drax Hall purchase is not linked to reparations and the government constantly acquires land through this process.
But Drax has faced numerous calls by reparations activists to repair a modicum of the damage done to the black people of Barbados by transferring ownership of Drax Hall plantation to the Government and people of Barbados as a reparations gesture.
However, he has rejected these calls.
According to Deputy Chairperson of Barbados’ National Task Force on Reparations, David Comissiong, Drax has responded to such calls by maintaining that he can’t be held responsible for something that happened 300 or 400 years ago.
Mr. Comissiong says now, the said Drax not only says that he does not owe anything to the descendants of the people that his ancestors enslaved and exploited in order to build up the Drax family fortune, but he’s also willing to sit back and receive payment from the predominantly black Government and people of Barbados for a portion of the said so-called “killing field”.
Mr. Comissiong says he’s again calling on somebody, somewhere, to reach out to Drax to get him to appreciate the profound unrighteousness of the position he has adopted.
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