MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

King Charles begins a Caribbean tour overshadowed by calls for slavery reparations

The British government has ruled out both a formal apology and reparations, and Buckingham Palace has said the King will follow that line, since both matters are for the government

King Charles III arrived in the Bahamas on Tuesday to begin a nine-day tour of the Caribbean, his first since acceding to the throne in 2022, which will also take him to Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, where he will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The trip is overshadowed by calls for an official apology and reparations for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade.

The British government has ruled out both a formal apology and reparations, and Buckingham Palace has said the King will follow that line, since both matters are for the government. His aides insist, however, that the monarch, who will give three speeches during the tour, “will not shy away” from the subject and that the visit will not take place “in a bubble”. Charles remains head of state of the Bahamas and of Antigua and Barbuda, while Guyana has been a republic since 1970.

Pressure has grown in recent months. Commonwealth Secretary-General Shirley Botchwey has asked the King to apologise; Jamaica has filed a petition for reparations that the Privy Council will examine in March; and Ghana has promoted a UN resolution describing the transatlantic slave trade as the gravest crime against humanity. “I think it is the most defining moment for the Commonwealth since its creation,” said Patrick Vernon, UK representative of the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council. Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said the King “should realise that people would not keep raising the issue if his actions were anywhere near enough”. In Nassau, Rastafarian groups protested during the visit.

The Guyana stop is seen as the most delicate. The King will hold an audience with President Irfaan Ali, who has reiterated that his country deserves an apology, and the two will attend a reception marking 60 years of bilateral relations. The Palace hopes their personal relationship will smooth the meeting.

Charles has gone further than his predecessors in expressing his “personal sorrow” over the monarchy’s historical links to slavery. The Prince and Princess of Wales’s 2022 Caribbean tour was marked by criticism and by several countries announcing their intention to drop the monarchy.