King Charles III begins an eight-day Caribbean tour on Tuesday, and Buckingham Palace has already said what he will not do: apologize for slavery. The British government, for its part, has ruled out paying reparations.
The people the visit is meant to honor are not waiting quietly. Britain carried about 3.2 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, second only to Portugal, and the descendants of the people it carried now make up most of the populations of the countries the King is visiting.
Three stops, three sets of demands
Charles is due in The Bahamas from Oct. 27 to 29, then Guyana from Oct. 29 to 30. He will go on to Antigua and Barbuda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Nov. 1 to 4, where reparations are expected to come up.
The palace has said the program “will therefore not shy away from ‘the darkest days of our past'” while staying “oriented to the vibrant present and promising future.” Charles has previously called slavery an “atrocity” that “forever stains our history” and has expressed his “personal sorrow”. He has stopped there, on the advice of the government.
The Bahamas National Reparations Committee told the King not to arrive “empty-handed”, as the Nassau Tribune reported in September. The group wants a public apology, and it urged him to visit Clifton Heritage Park, a site tied to the enslaved, warning that if he does not, he is “complicit.” It also called the monarchy “a holdover from an arrangement this country accepted at Independence” and renewed its call for The Bahamas to become a republic. It criticized the cost of preparing for the visit while the country faces failing power infrastructure and unaffordable living costs.
In Guyana, ITV News reported this month that everyone it spoke with, from the president to former plantation workers, said Britain owes the country a formal apology.
Jamaica asks the King for a legal ruling
Jamaica is not on the itinerary, but it is part of the visit. A Jamaican delegation filed a petition asking Charles to refer three questions about the transatlantic slave trade to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, the highest court of appeal for Jamaica. The questions ask whether the forced transport of Africans to Jamaica was lawful, whether it was a crime against humanity, and whether Britain owes restitution. Jamaica’s government said it was encouraged by the palace’s engagement on the matter.
The British government “reiterated last month its rejection of calls for the payment of slavery reparations,” AFP reported. The King, 77, is still receiving treatment for cancer.
Prince William and Kate met reparations demands and anti-monarchy protests on their 2022 Caribbean tour, and Prince Edward cancelled a visit to Grenada that year because of pro-republican demonstrations. The King’s first stop is Tuesday.
Have your say