King Charles III Heads to the Caribbean on October 27: Bahamas and Guyana First, Then Antigua and Barbuda for Commonwealth Summit as Slavery Reparations Demands Grow
LONDON — King Charles III and Queen Camilla set off on October 27 for a Caribbean tour running through November 4, visiting the Bahamas and Guyana first before heading to Antigua and Barbuda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), as calls from the region for Britain to pay reparations for its role in the slave trade grow louder.
The Commonwealth is a group of 56 nations, mainly former British colonies, encompassing some 2.7 billion people and headed by Charles; its leaders meet every two years. At the previous meeting in 2022, Charles expressed deep personal sorrow over slavery, and the issue is expected to be prominent once again.
Last month the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), a group of 23 member and associate member states including the Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica, said it would push for reparations to be on the CHOGM agenda. CARICOM Secretary-General Carla Barnett said last month that the Caribbean has consistently asserted that reparations is fundamentally about justice, about recognition, accountability and transformation. Commonwealth Secretary-General Shirley Botchwey said last week that the time had come for discussions about reparations, be they financial or in some other form such as the return of artefacts.
Buckingham Palace has said the monarch will not shy away from Britain's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade during the tour, but will not formally apologise, in keeping with British government policy, which also excludes making any financial reparations. A palace spokesperson noted the work the king himself has done over many years both to acknowledge the wrongs of the past and to find creative ways to right inequalities that endure.
From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were abducted and sold into slavery by European merchants, with Britain transporting an estimated 3.2 million people, making it the second most active European nation after Portugal. Charles remains head of state of a number of Caribbean nations, including the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：英国国王查尔斯三世（2023年7月）。图片为美国联邦政府作品、公共领域，经Wikimedia Commons使用。Image: King Charles III in July 2023, a work of the U.S. federal government in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
