To say sorry swiftly and honestly is convincing, but to do so for something ere you were born is ludicrous and contrived. So, who should apologise for 400 years of transatlantic slavery? Europe, Africa, Jamaica; none? Who for African slavery across the Sahara and Indian Ocean for 1,600-plus years, trading some 22 million bodies? You don’t care? Is justice such that we check for some but not others?

Arab, Indian, Mediterranean folk bought servants, guards, sugar, and date palm estate labour off camel trains crossing the Sahel or Dhows on the Indian Ocean; all black slaves sold by African chiefs. Slavery was passé, yet India, China never sold their teeming masses; so why did Africa? In Egypt, to be entombed alive in a pyramid with your dead master was duty; in South America, to sacrifice your virgin daughters to Toltec gods on Chichen Itza pyramids was parental obligation. Dead emperors in China had their troops buried alive to defend them in the afterlife; none was free in body or will. DNA research in Arabia, India, Levant, the Mediterranean, Europe, the Americas, Caribbean confirm Africa sold its people to foreigners for ages. So, should buyer, seller; Berber, Arab, European, African apologise for slavery?

Recently the archbishop of Canterbury, my leader, apologised for the slaughter by British soldiers of 400 Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Sikh protestors in India a century ago. “Prostrating himself full length, Justin Welby, said ‘The souls of those who were killed or wounded, of the bereaved cry out to us from these stones. I cannot speak for the British Government…but I can speak in the name of Christ and say this is both a place of sin and redemption.” ( Guardian, September 10, 2019) A bit much, but I believe in apologies, birthday parties, Santa Claus, public holidays. The world is hard, and all respite is welcome.

Will India apologise for the “Black Hole of Calcutta” when in 1756 the Nawab of Bengal suffocated Indian and British troops and civilians in a dungeon? Maybe not, as Lieutenant Colonel Robert Clive visited retribution so convincingly even Siraj ud-Daulah the Nawab was killed. This ancient tragedy gave astrophysics the term “black hole” to describe collapsing celestial bodies; what irony!

So what makes a good apology? It must be sincere, swift, and spontaneous. So why should Archbishop Welby apologise? Why not the British Government? My church has a lot to apologise for, but this is not on the list. Prime Minister Andrew Holness apologised to Tivoli Gardens residents, but on whose behalf, and for what; their evil insurgency or the police response? The Baptists in the UK apologised for slavery, yet they undermined slavery daily and treated their own biblically, so why?

An apology should also be current. The USA apologised to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II. The British apologised to Mau-Mau fighters and paid them cash in London; love it!

What about fourth party apologies when neither the “apologiser” nor “apologisee” was involved, or even alive — hypocrisy? When British Prime Minister David Cameron said “sorry” for slavery, was it for his Government or his beneficiary family, and why?

My mistakes are mine, so after I die do not extract tribute from my grandkids. If I wrong you, cuss me, sue me, slay me. I have one life, and it’s a beast. The errors of my forebears or my kids who I love dearly are theirs. I did not apologise to you in life, so leave them alone; check me in the other place.

Apologies get complicated when things which were legal are no longer so; or some once illegal are now legal, and some seek apologies from beyond the grave. Today ganja smokers want to sue the State for jailing them when ganja was illegal; and some seek an apology or more now slavery is illegal. Will criminals who got the “cat o’ nine” be paid for their suffering now that flogging is illegal? The Maroons were legal slave hunters; should they apologise? It’s legal to shoot birds and catch lobster, but most times it is not. The law is an ass. Apologise to Green Bay victims? But remember, “No angels died there!”

The State cannot escape as eternal life is in governments. Laws and treaties endure, so apologies are always in order, even if evidence is shaky. In times past rulers granted charters, etc, and were at times in the venture privately. The West India Company had limited liability, chartered by a Queen not owned by her. Should British taxpayers apologise? They opposed slavery, fought it for decades, hated West Indian planters, and the payment of £20 million of their taxes to owners for loss-of-use was a bitter pill, but they swallowed to get the Emancipation Act passed. It was good value!

Slavery was not State enterprise, so get apologies and more from those involved and who got benefits in Britain, Africa and Jamaica. Europe had laws which allowed people to own slaves; as did Jamaica, Africa, so sue them! Stay conscious!

Franklin Johnston, D Phil (Oxon), is a strategist and project manager; Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK); and lectures in logistics and supply chain management at Mona School of Business and Management, The University of the West Indies. Send comments to the Observer or franklinjohnstontoo@gmail.com.