Caribbean islands St Kitts and Nevis to meet with pub giant Greene King to discuss slavery reparations

Islands were home of slaves owned by Greene King founder Benjamin Greene 

These days they are regarded as great destinations for a Caribbean holiday.

But the islands of St Kitts and Nevis once had darker links to Britain – as the home of slaves owned by Greene King brewery founder Benjamin Greene.

Now officials on the islands say they have arranged meetings with the firm – Britain’s leading pub company and brewer – to discuss the issue of reparations, in the form of compensation or investment in education.

Following Greene King’s 2020 admission of historical wrongs in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, the company vowed to become a ‘truly anti-racist organisation’, with its leadership team to ‘fully embrace antiracism in philosophy and practice’.

The Berkeley Memorial stands in the centre of the Circus in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis (stock photo)

St Kitts and Nevis once had darker links to Britain – as the home of slaves owned by Greene King brewery founder Benjamin Greene (stock photo)

Research into founder Benjamin Greene, who began the company in 1799, found he had owned 231 slaves, whose labour was used on sugar plantations, in St Kitts.

He was compensated the equivalent of around £500,000 in today’s money when British trade in enslaved people was abolished in 1833.

While the firm renamed four pubs which had names with racist connotations, three called The Black Boy, in Bury St Edmunds, Sudbury and Shinfield, and the Black’s Head in Wirksworth, there has been disappointment at the lack of a concrete commitment to the island where these wrongs took place.

Carla Astaphan, chairman of the St Kitts and Nevis reparations committee, told the Sunday Telegraph that reparations should be made, and that ‘discussions are planned to look at some form of reparatory justice for St Kitts and Nevis’.

Prof Verene Shepherd, Jamaica’s reparations lead and chairman of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, has previously suggested that European governments owe Caribbean nations billions in reparations for centuries of slavery and subsequent colonial rule.

The member states of the Caribbean Community (‘Caricom’) developed a ten-point plan setting out its demands for repertory justice, but little progress has been made with European governments, and it has now also trained its sights on institutions once involved in the slave trade.

Last year it was reported that the Royal Family would be among those institutions asked to make amends.

Greene King yesterday could not confirm or deny that talks were scheduled over possible reparations (Pictured: St Kitts)

Research by Desirée Baptiste, the writer and researcher, revealed that the King is the direct descendant of Edward Porteous, a merchant who used slave labour on tobacco plantations in Virginia.

The Royals also played a part in founding the slave-trading Royal Africa Company, from which they earned a return.

The shift in strategy, from pursuing government agreements to seeking institutional reparations, was inspired in part by former BBC correspondent Laura Trevelyan, who has given £100,000 to atone for her family’s ancestral slave holdings.

Greene King yesterday could not confirm or deny that talks were scheduled over possible reparations. The company gained the ‘King’ in its name after a merger in 1887.

Nick Mackenzie, chief executive officer at Greene King, said: ‘It is inexcusable that one of our founders profited from slavery and argued against its abolition in the 1800s.

‘In 2020, we took decisive action, publishing an action plan for how we can play our part in ‘Calling Time on Racism’.

Since then we have been working hard to become a truly anti-racist organisation and have invested, and continue to invest, in supporting race diversity in our business, the pubs sector and our wider communities.

‘But we know we still have more to do on this agenda. Our focus will continue to be on listening to our teams’ priorities and acting to ensure racism and discrimination have no place within our company or broader society.’