On the first stop of a nine-day tour, King Charles acknowledged past suffering, while Caribbean leaders and reparations groups say words alone are not enough ahead of the Commonwealth summit in Antigua.
King Charles III began a nine-day Caribbean tour in the Bahamas on Tuesday, speaking at a youth rally in Clifford Park, the site where the country gained independence from Britain in 1973. He said some of what is best in Bahamian culture was "born out of darkness" and that it is right to acknowledge the suffering of the past, while also pointing to the climate threat facing a nation where about 90 percent of the land lies below two metres. Reports said protesters at the rally held placards reading "pay what you owe us".
The tour continues with a solo state visit to Guyana before the king is joined by Queen Camilla in Antigua and Barbuda, where he will attend the Commonwealth heads of government meeting, which the Commonwealth Secretary-General has said will run from 1 to 4 November. Charles said leaders would discuss the legacy of slavery there, and Secretary-General Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said reparations would be on the table. The Bahamas National Reparations Committee said his remarks fell short of what justice requires, while Guyana's president, Irfaan Ali, called the king's recognition a first step and said an apology should come next.
The UK government is understood not to have advised the king to offer an apology or reparations, in keeping with established policy, and no modern monarch has formally apologised for Britain's role in the slave trade. Buckingham Palace says the programme will focus mainly on modern partnerships, young people and climate issues. The 77-year-old king is receiving treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer, and last month Jamaica, where he remains head of state, filed a petition in a London appeals court to advance its push for reparations.
