Reparations task force plans new strategy to bring Drax to talks

The National Task Force on Reparations is planning a new strategy to bring Richard Drax, the ancestral owner of the historic Drax Hall Plantation in St George, into negotiations over his family’s role in slavery, after what its chairman described as repeated refusals to engage.

Task force chairman Ambassador David Comissiong said the former Conservative Party parliamentarian, whose family played a pivotal role in the development of slavery-based sugar production and the landmark Barbados slave code in the 17th century, continued to refuse to meet Barbadian officials to discuss reparations for the inhumane treatment of enslaved Africans on the plantation.

Comissiong, Barbados’ ambassador to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), said the matter involving Drax remained unresolved.