African nation hails British Empire as liberators in major blow to slavery reparations campaign

Malawi is developing a slavery museum and restoring historic sites linked to the Arab slave trade, while seeking Unesco World Heritage status for them. People involved in the project describe British intervention against slave trading as liberation, a view that challenges reparations campaigns focused on Britain’s role in slavery.

The article says the Indian Ocean and Saharan trade routes operated for more than 1,200 years, and estimates that about 11 million Africans were taken to the Arab world between roughly 800 and 1900. In Malawi, British forces fought trafficking networks in the 1890s; the proposed heritage route would include several forts and sites such as Nkhotakota, where the article says trader Salim bin Abdallah sent around 20,000 enslaved people to the coast each year. The project also aims to examine the role of African leaders in capturing and selling people.