David Comissiong, the deputy chairperson of the National Task Force on Reparations in Barbados, has issued a clarification after it was reported that his organization had Benedict Cumberbatch's family in its sights.
U.K. newspaper The Telegraph published an article on December 30 which stated that Cumberbatch and his family were among those being eyed to target in a bid to gain financial compensation for the descendants of slaves on the Caribbean island.
According to the publication, Cumberbatch's seventh great-grandfather bought the Cleland plantation in the north of the island in 1728. A reported 250 slaves were kept on the plantation until the abolition of slavery more than 100 years later.
Upon the abolition of slavery in the 1830s, slavers in the Caribbean were paid compensation by the British government for the loss of their business. The government's loan to compensate the slave owners was totally paid off in 2015.
With Cumberbatch's ancestor's reportedly receiving compensation worth around $1.2 million in today's money, The Telegraph asked Comissiong if descendants of the plantation's owners would be pursued for reparations.
"This is at the earliest stages," The Telegraph quoted Comissiong as saying in response. "We are just beginning. A lot of this history is only really now coming to light."
However, in an op-ed published by online outlet Barbados Today on January 2, Comissiong has accused The Telegraph of quoting him out of context and "putting words" in his mouth. He further charged that the newspaper has embarked on a "mission to concoct its own narrative" about the reparations campaign.
Comissiong stated that a journalist for the British newspaper asked him if Barbados "intends to pursue a reparations claim against the family of someone named Benedict Cumberbatch, and when one answers that one does not know who Benedict Cumberbatch is nor anything about his family's supposed involvement in slavery in Barbados, that answer is reported as my having asserted that Barbados has not ruled out pursuing a reparations claim against Mr. Cumberbatch and his family!
"And then suddenly there is a big international news story about Barbados pursuing a Reparations claim against the said Benedict Cumberbatch!"
Clarifying the series of events, Comissiong explained that the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which includes Barbados, in 2016 "advanced a reparations claim against six Western European governments—inclusive of the government of the United Kingdom—for Reparations for the damage that Barbados and the other CARICOM nations experienced during the centuries of European-orchestrated Native genocide and African enslavement.
"And the claim was advanced against the national Government because it constitutes the institutional linkage between the European nation's present and its past.
"In the following years, CARICOM and by extension Barbados, extended the Reparations claim to currently existing European companies and institutions that were either directly implicated in the crimes committed during those centuries of genocide and enslavement or that benefitted financially from the said crimes."
"To date, neither CARICOM nor Barbados has officially leveled a Reparations claim against a European family," added Comissiong.
"And, clearly, the reason is that it is much easier to establish a Reparations claim against a legal entity such as a national Government or a company than it is against a family. A family, after all, may be subject to all types of discontinuities and admixtures over an extensive period of time."
According to The New York Times, Cumberbatch said in a 2007 interview that his mother had told him not to use his real name professionally, fearing he might become a target of reparations suits by descendants of slaves.
Newsweek has reached out to a representative of Cumberbatch for comment.
A series of anti-monarchy protests were staged around the Caribbean in 2022 as members of the royal family undertook visits to a number of Commonwealth nations in the area to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee.
The most polarizing of these tours was undertaken by Prince William and Kate Middleton, who on their visits to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas were met with demands to address the royal family's historical associations with slavery and engage in discussions about reparations.
In November 2021, Barbados officially became a republic with Prince Charles traveling to the island for the swearing-in of its first president. This has increased discussions among neighboring countries over moving towards ending their own relationships with the British monarchy.
During their March 2022 visit to Jamaica, William and Kate were told by Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness that the country was "moving on" and intends to "attain, in short order, our development goals and fulfill our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country."
The southern Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines voted once before on the removal of the queen, who passed away in September 2022, as head of state in 2009. The referendum, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass, saw 43 percent vote in favor of removing the monarch and replacing her with a president.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
