I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Friday, July 16th.

This year with the Juneteenth federal holiday and a greater national focus on the anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre,

more Americans have been getting more familiar with the history of slavery and the amount of

money plundered in that context from black families over the centuries.

Well, now, Reuters is reporting that the nation of Jamaica is preparing a petition to Queen Elizabeth for the UK

to pay around $10 billion in reparations for some of the financial effects of slavery there.

The UK ruled Jamaica in the colonial era independence only came in the 1960s.

So what might reparations from the UK to Jamaicans look like? And could this process

offer any kind of a model for the United States? With me now is Selwyn Kudjo, professor of

Africana Studies and comparative literature at Wellesley. He has been chair of the history of ideas

at Wellesley, and among other things, a director of the Central Bank

of Trinidad and Tobago. Professor Kudjo, we appreciate your time for this today. Welcome

back to WNYC. Well, Brian, thank you for having me back again. It's a love to be on with you.

Can we use this opportunity to go over some history first that many listeners may not know,

such as we know 1619 in this country, much better now, as the year of the arrival of the first

enslaved people, thanks to Nicole Hannah-Jones.

Who brought the first enslaved people to Jamaica and when?

Certainly the British are the ones who brought them into Jamaica as part of their plans to sort of utilize the sugar industry

to enhance their wealth in their country. As a matter of fact, a lot of the people in England live off. The profits from slaves,

as a matter of fact, in 1776, 40 members of the British Parliament were making their money

from the investments in the Caribbean. And of course, we can't forget Haiti, which of course was the richest country in the

British, in the Western Hemisphere, we're not only inaugur, important end in the slavery,

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