How far should reparative justice go?
29:04 Share

Amid mounting claims for reparations for slavery and colonialism, historian Zoe Strimpel asks how far reparative justice should go.

Should we limit reparations to the living survivors of state atrocities, such as the Holocaust, or should we re-write the rulebook to include the ancestors of victims who suffered historical injustices centuries ago?

Alongside testimony from a Holocaust survivor and interviews with lawyers, historians and reparations advocates, Zoe hears about the long shadow cast by slavery - lumbering Caribbean states and societies with a legacy that they are still struggling with today.

Are demands for slavery reparations just another front in the culture war designed to leverage white guilt? Will they inevitably validate countless other claims to rectify historical grievances? Or are they a necessary step for diverse societies to draw in the extremes of a polarised debate so we can write a common history that we can all live with?

Presenter: Zoe Strimpel Producer: David Reid Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors Mala Tribich, Holocaust survivor. Michael Newman, Chief Executive, Association of Jewish Refugees. Albrecht Ritschtl, Professor of Economic History, London School of Economics Dr. Opal Palmer Adisa, former director, University of West Indies. Kenneth Feinberg, Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Tomiwa Owolade, journalist and author of "This is not America". Alex Renton, journalist, author and co-founder of Heirs of Slavery. Dr Hardeep Dhillon, historian, University of Pennsylvania. James Koranyi, Associate Professor of modern European History at the University of Durham.