Posted on 05/07/2026 6:54:19 AM PDT by Cronos
A Green Party candidate who has pushed for Britain to pay trillions of pounds in slavery reparations is descended from a Nigerian royal family that traded slaves, it has been claimed.
Antoinette Fernandez is the “reparations officer” for the Green Party’s Global Majority Greens group, which works towards “racial and environmental justice”.
Ms Fernandez is also the daughter of a billionaire - Antonio Oladeinde Fernandez - who was one of Africa’s richest men.
The candidate for Lea Bridge, Hackney, has campaigned for taxpayers to pay reparations for the transatlantic slave trade, and has previously said politicians who oppose it “show an appalling arrogance”.
Her mother is a descendant of the Obas (kings) of Lagos, some of whom are documented as “major” slave traders who made “lucrative commissions from slave deals”.
One of her ancient relatives owned 1,400 slaves, and a second brought back slaves that had been sent to Brazil to build houses in Lagos, according to a historian.
They added that the family accrued wealth during the slave trade, which they used to purchase “velvet clothes, royal umbrellas, hats, and stylish robes”.
Britain helped to abolish the slave trade in 1807.
(Excerpt) Read more at gbnews.com ...
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the Alaafins (Obas) expanded via cavalry raids northward, buying or seizing war prisoners fueled by European gun demand, while Aro middlemen raided treaty-violators for export slaves post-1820s Oyo collapse
Benin's Obas traded ivory and pepper initially but shifted to slaves (especially after 1700s male export bans lifted), using Edo middlemen; Lagos Obas like Akinsemoyin (c.1704) invited Portuguese/Brazilian merchants, granting slave monopolies via raids and wars.
Benin Obas like Orhogbua (1550s–1578) negotiated directly with English/Dutch for goods, while Lagos became Bight of Benin's top port by 1700s, surpassing Whydah; Oyo supplied via Porto Novo, Badagry, Lagos, with cowries as key payment
After UK's 1807 Slave Trade Act, the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron seized 1,600 ships (1808–1860), freeing 150,000 Africans, and coerced 50+ African rulers into anti-slavery treaties.
Oba Kosoko (1845–1851) refused to end trade despite British overtures; in 1851, after failed diplomacy, Royal Navy bombarded Lagos twice (Nov/Dec), killing 17 British but deposing Kosoko with superior firepower
1852 Treaty Details
Article I banned slave exports forever, with severe punishments; Article II expelled European slavers, destroyed barracoons; Article III allowed British force if violated; Article IV mandated freeing current export slaves to British colonies
Trader or capturer? Maybe go after tribes in afreakah who captured their bros and sold them. No?
If they think they are still slaves then the only people that should pay are Slave Owners
It is kinda ironic that the descendant of slave traders who hunted and enslaved people before selling them onwards - if she wants the BRITs to pay for slavery considering that:
Thanks to William Wilberforce, the 1807 anti slave trade act was passed in the UK parliament.
Britain’s efforts to end the international slave trade, post-1807 Slave Trade Act, spanned over 60 years (1808–1867+), involving diplomacy, naval patrols, and military actions, with massive financial and human costs. The Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron alone freed about 150,000 Africans by capturing ~1,600 ships, while treaties pressured dozens of rulers globally.
West Africa Squadron cost ~£40 million by 1845 (equivalent to £2–£4 billion today), up to 1/2 Royal Navy budget at peak, with annual estimates £500,000–£1 million in 1860s.
Squadron deployed 2,000+ ships over time (up to 25 simultaneously), involving thousands of sailors; ~2,000 British deaths mostly from malaria/yellow fever, not combat
It was the British who ended the trade globally - if not for their billions of pounds spent and efforts, we would still have this evil around
Instead of reparations, why not just string up the descendants of all slave owners and traders?
Her ancestors were BOTH capturers and traders
So what? We aren’t responsible for what our ancestors did.
Well, there is that......
Which, of course, is not taught in schools - only that Whites are uniquely responsible, in perpetuity, for slavery.
William Wilberforce headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for 20 years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807.
A true hero - unknown, and unstudied in the British education system
Ahhhh, reparations indeed, paid from his family proceeds?
Correction to article:
“Britain helped to abolish the TRANSATLANTIC AFRICAN slave trade in 1807 BECAUSE IT COMPETED WITH THEIR IRISH SLAVE TRADE.”
“Instead of reparations, why not just string up the descendants of all slave owners and traders?”
Technically, that’s kind of threat against Kamala and Barack, as both of their ancestors were very active in the slave trade.
Kamala’s family fortune, in particular, traces directly back to her slaver ancestors.
It is flat canceled out.
That makes the idea have a usefulness for us any time some British activist or politician proposes it even if we don't support the idea.
Here is the elephant in the room:
The United States was founded in 1776. The U.S. did not exist prior to 1776. So then what country is responsible for the burden of the idea of slavery reparations from 1619 to the year 1775?
Only one country can be responsible. Only one.
Should reparations include the option to return to your original country?
There is no irony overall.
There was slave plantations in 30 colonies of The Empire for 200 years.
The only irony is the idea that finally the crime was ended and that somehow that equates to innocence of the crime across the board for all time.
The crime of slaving was still committed by The Empire. It happened from 1616 all the way to the 1800s. The first Empire colony to have slaves was Bermuda.
It does not go away. It will always be there.
This is why this topic keeps coming back up. It does not go away. It will always be there.
Remove the option and replace it with requirement and the idea becomes a good one.
“Which, of course, is not taught in schools - only that Whites are uniquely responsible, in perpetuity, for slavery.”
And that is a misjustice to the slaves.
The African slavers who raided, captured and then sold the slaves to Arabs (or even Jews) and Europeans and then the ‘white’ slave owners (plus the black, native american etc. slaveholders) WERE all culpable.
by singling it out as “whites” this is “othering”
Wilberforce in my opinion was one of the greatest heroes in the world - he labored DECADES for what he believed in and fought and won!
“Britain helped to abolish the TRANSATLANTIC AFRICAN slave trade in 1807 BECAUSE IT COMPETED WITH THEIR IRISH SLAVE TRADE”
That is false.
The idea that there was a massive “Irish slave trade” in the 1700s and 1800s that competed with the Transatlantic African slave trade is sheer nonsense. In the 17th century, Irish people were sent to the Caribbean, but they were mostly indentured servants, not chattel slaves. Unlike African slaves, Irish servants were not typically held in hereditary, lifetime servitude. Britain did not end the trade to favor a different type of slavery. The abolition of the slave trade in 1807 was the result of a 20-year campaign led by activists like William Wilberforce
I am ready to castigate the Brits for the things they DID do wrong, but equally when they did the RIGHT thing, they should be praised.
The losers who go on about “wage slavery” are the same types who whined when their Momma told them for the fourth time to bet their fat butts outta bed before noon — on a work day.
Yes, the British empire did profit from slave trading - especially to the Caribbean.
But, I would argue that it was PURELY due to the British empire that slave trading and slaveholding ended. They alone had the power to enforce this and once it was enforced, the culture changed.
You take an Oba Nigerian or a Tourag or a Hejazi Arab from 1826 and you tell him that slavery is bad and he would not understand you - you would be talking gibberish. But his descendants today might not contemplate this.
The crime remains a part of history, but the act of stopping it—against the Empire’s own economic interests at the time—represents a pivotal moment of moral progress that shouldn’t be dismissed as mere irony. the specific act of abolition was an economic net loss in the short to medium term. So, while the Empire had grown rich from slavery, it spent a staggering amount of that wealth to stop it
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