Jamaica is planning to seek billions of dollars in reparations for slavery from Britain. Jamaica was a British colony from the mid-17th century until its independence in 1962 and remains part of the Commonwealth today. An estimated 600,000 Africans were brought to Jamaica as slaves. Olivia Grange, the minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sports, told Reuters, “Our African ancestors were forcibly removed from their home and suffered unparalleled atrocities in Africa to carry out forced labor to the benefit of the British Empire. Redress is well overdue.”