As a strong supporter of reparations, Barbados has had to reconsider purchasing land from a former slave-owning family

Drax Hall sugar plantation, Barbados, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Barbados’ prime minister, Mia Mottley, is well regarded as a progressive world leader and strong champion of the Caribbean region, outspoken on issues ranging from climate justice to reparations. Her administration’s recent expression of interest in a land purchase from a descendant of slave traders, therefore, struck a sour note, eventually prompting her to address the nation on April 23 and announce that the deal would be put on pause. To many, the fact that the purchase was even on the table seemed out of step with some of the issues Mottley has taken action on. In late 2020, for instance, amid global Black Lives Matter protests, her government decommissioned a statue of British Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson from its place in Bridgetown’s National Heroes Square because of the role he played in the transatlantic slave trade — a symbolic gesture that spoke volumes about the social temperature of the island — and announced its intentions for self-governance. A year later, Barbados became the world’s newest republic, replacing then British monarch Queen Elizabeth II as the country’s head of state. Imagine the surprise, then, when the land in question was revealed...