Barbados Official Denies That Reparations Committee Is Considering Acting Against Benedict Cumberbatch

A current story going round claimed that actor Benedict Cumberbatch, whose ancestors are recognized to have owned slaves on the island of Barbados again within the 18th and nineteenth centuries, was going through potential reparations on account of this household historical past. Whereas it’s true that there are lively efforts underway in Barbados and elsewhere to aim financial reparations for hundreds of years of slavery within the historic report, an official within the Barbadian authorities has denied that Cumberbatch is part of these makes an attempt.

Politician David Comissiong took to the op-ed part of Barbados Right now to make clear statements he’s presupposed to have made within the Telegraph story, saying he was taken out of context and his true which means misconstrued:

“A very good instance of the approach is the Every day Telegraph journalist asking me if Barbados intends to pursue a reparations declare in opposition to the household of somebody named Benedict Cumberbatch, and when one solutions that one doesn’t know who Benedict Cumberbatch is nor something about his household’s supposed involvement in slavery in Barbados, that reply is reported as my having asserted that Barbados has not dominated out pursuing a reparations declare in opposition to Mr Cumberbatch and his household!”

Commissiong, who holds the place of Deputy Chairperson of the Nationwide Job Drive on Reparations in Barbados, says that opposite to the Telegraph story, the duty drive is not making an attempt to enact reparations from the “Dr. Unusual” star:

“Thus far, neither CARICOM nor Barbados has formally leveled a reparations declare in opposition to a European household.

“And, clearly, the reason being that it’s a lot simpler to ascertain a reparations declare in opposition to a authorized entity akin to a nationwide authorities or an organization than it’s in opposition to a household. A household, in any case, could also be topic to all kinds of discontinuities and admixtures over an in depth time period.”

The exception to that assertion was within the case of Richard Drax, a rich British member of parliament and proprietor of the Drax Corridor plantation on the island.

Cumberbatch has commented on his household ties to slavery prior to now. In a 2007 interview with the Scotsman, he spoke on the tough topic:

“There are many Cumberbatches in our former Caribbean colonies…When their ancestors misplaced their African names, they known as themselves after their masters. Reparation circumstances are ongoing within the American courts. I’ve received mates concerned in researching this scar on human historical past and I’ve spoken to them about it. The difficulty of how far you need to be prepared to atone is fascinating. I imply, it is not as if I am making a revenue from the struggling — it is not prefer it’s Nazi cash.”

Nevertheless, Cumberbatch has not commented on the current reparations story as of this writing.