In Jamaica, political leaders are beating the drum for a local and regional campaign to convince Britain to provide compensation for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. They're telling Jamaicans that the legacy of slavery is indeed the source of their troubles. A hotbed of leftist politics, the former British colony has a population of 2.7 million that's of overwhelmingly African descent.

"We owe reparations to ourselves and our ancestors," Rupert Lewis, a lecturer in government at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, told a gathering of school children in Kingston, the capital. The occasion was part of activities associated with Jamaica's commemoration of Britain's 200-year-old Abolition of the Slave Trade Act adopted March 25, 1807. The case for reparations is being made with lectures and the documentary film "The Empire Pays Back." [....]

What do ordinary middle-class Jamaicans of African origins think? Not surprisingly, many blame unaccountable and elitist political leaders for the country's mess - not its legacy of slavery and colonialism. They point out that Jamaica's decline started after it was granted independence in 1962. Part of the problem is a loss of values, many say. They also note that counties such as The Bahamas are doing well, despite legacies of slavery and colonialism under Britain. [....]

Curiously, reparations advocates demand reparations only from rich Western nations. Yet they never mourn over the millions of black Africans who disappeared into the Muslim slave trade. Nor do they regularly condemn the slavery that persists in Africa. They're silent as well about modern forms of slavery such as human trafficking, which even has been a serious problem in Jamaica.