Its size and composition, and the mechanisms for setting it up, will become clearer as the movement for reparations develops. Here it is appropriate to concentrate on the governments of the countries that fostered and supported the slave trade, legitimized the institution of slavery, and profited as a result. An alternative approach would be to identify the companies and families who have made vast profits from slavery. There are plantation owners in Jamaica and titled families in England whose living heirs owe their wealth to slavery. This approach, however, would create more problems than it solved.
Reparation is more about collective responsibility than hereditary guilt.
But there are cases where individual works of art, now in a private collection, were originally obtained in the course of invasion or looting in Africa. Here the international law concept of restitution could be applied, restoring treasures to the country that most closely represents the people from whom they were originally stolen. Historians will advise as to which countries profited most from slavery and the slave trade. The major European maritime trading nations and colonizers can be easily identified, as can the United States, a country that grew rich on slave labor and the exploitation of African Americans. It may be significant that the U.S. government has been groping toward an apology for the wrongs done to African Americans over history.