If we read history to learn about our ancestors and, by extension, ourselves, few subjects should be more compelling than the transatlantic slave trade. A large portion of humanity is tainted by its legacy. Yet for all the books, films and broadcasts generated by this year’s bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British empire, the discussion spawned by the anniversary has been muted.

Those hoping for a debate about apologies and reparations have so far been disappointed. It is not so much that there is indifference to what is sometimes called the “African Holocaust” or Maafa (a Kiswahili term for “disaster” or “terrible occurrence”). Few dispute that what happened was shameful. But there is a sense that it is something that remains in the past, despite talk about the continuing emotional damage to people of African origin and the contribution slavery may have made to under-development of Africa and the Caribbean.