Sylvia Colombo: The British monarchy’s relationship with its former Caribbean colonies needs to change

It was supposed to be one of those moments that William and Kate, now Prince and Princess of Wales, manage so well. In front of the cameras, they are pure sweetness and sympathy with the public. But a botched meeting in Jamaica nearly destroys the royal family’s effort to forge ties with its former Caribbean colonies. Organizers predicted a meeting with young people and children who would be separated from the royal couple only by a… grid.

The image turned out to be a disaster, as the audience seemed caged and ended up being a clear and direct reference to what the Caribbean was like during much of the British Empire, a place where slavery caused immense suffering and still negatively affects social indices until today. All this so that European countries, like the United Kingdom, could live in economic strength.

Both William and Kate’s trip, which passed through Jamaica, Belize and the Bahamas, in March, and Edward’s (younger brother of the now King Charles III) and his wife, Sophie, who visited Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, and Antigua & Barbuda, in April, ended up having adverse results for the Crown. At the time, the idea was to stimulate the celebrations for the Queen’s Jubilee, which celebrated 70 years of reign.

Both couples were celebrated by the general public, but people were also seen at various points carrying banners saying “Atonement now”, or “United Kingdom, your debt to us remains open”.

Although there was a party, a warm welcome and affectionate crowds to welcome the members of the royal family, the bitter taste was left by the demonstrations of groups that want a public apology from the British state for the evils caused by colonization and that countries continue to have the Crown. British, in this case now King Charles III, as head of state, eliminate this vestige of the past.

This already happened in Barbados, in November of last year, when the country removed the figure of Elizabeth II from the post of head of state, transforming itself into a republic – and with a woman, former judge Sandra Mason, as president of the country. . At the ceremony was then Prince Charles, who wished the country luck.

As in Barbados, republican sentiment has long existed in other Caribbean countries that, although independent, still maintain the figure of the British monarch as head of state. The movement to rid itself of this vestige of a painful past intensified, however, with the murder of George Floyd in the USA in May 2020 and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Both the new King and Prince of Wales, on their recent visits to the Caribbean, have referred to slavery as “an aberration” and something “that should never have happened”. In addition, the new monarch and his predecessor, Queen Elizabeth II, said they welcomed and supported the decisions of nations wishing to disassociate themselves from the United Kingdom.

The gestures of goodwill, however, are little for the more radical groups that want, in addition to a severing of political ties, also financial compensation. This could be a thorn in the side of the reign of Charles III and, of course, also for the newly started government of the conservative Liz Truss, since this last item would have to be approved by the British Parliament, if carried out.

Jamaica is the country that is advancing most rapidly in this direction. On the same trip as William and Kate, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness spoke openly alongside the prince about the need for financial reparation. The country has been independent since 1962, but now it has a new head of state, King Charles III, which is an anachronistic lack of logic. William, in a polite response, only celebrated Jamaicans’ history of struggles, independence, and local culture, as well as condemning slavery, but did not talk about money.

Belize, independent since 1981, although geographically located in Central America, but administered during the British yoke along with the Caribbean countries, has also been expressing the will to stop being a parliamentary constitutional monarchy linked to the United Kingdom. Belize has an active group of academics working on the preparation of documents and research on the decolonization process and wants to be called upon to talk about it with the Crown.

In Antigua and Barbuda, also independent since 1981, Prime Minister Gaston Browne asked Prince Edward to “help mediate” with the Crown and the British government to negotiate financial reparations. “We continue to have the (then) Queen as head of state, but we aspire to become a Republic. I don’t want to embarrass you on your visit, just let you know. We hope to count on your diplomatic influence so that we can have reparatory justice in relation to the that happened in the past”. And he added: “Our civilization must understand and recognize the atrocities that occurred during colonization, only then will we bring balance to the relationship and we can openly debate common themes.” Edward said nothing, but took the message.

Although most of the former British territories in the Caribbean are now independent countries, this is not the case for five of them, which remain under the wing of the United Kingdom: Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos. Its future also remains uncertain.

When talking about the influence of the British monarchy today, we are talking much more about symbols than politics. After all, this is managed by governments. What Caribbean countries are asking for these days has much more to do with the current British government than the current monarch. Even so, in times when images and emblematic figures have so much weight in world geopolitics, what the new king says will have a direct influence on the course of the Caribbean. At first glance, both Charles and his family do not seem to want to put obstacles in the way of decisions in these sovereign countries. Already financial reparations and apologies on behalf of the United Kingdom will also have to summon other spheres of power and society.

The Caribbean countries that were colonized by the British today have enormous problems of poverty and inequality, and there is no way to ignore the fact that they are a legacy of that time. If the moral debt was already visible before, it will be even more so with the change of the holder of the British throne. This is not a subject that should remain open.

Decolonization is not just a way out of the colonizing country. But it is also a multi-stage process, which may or may not involve financial redress. This will be an essential chat at any upcoming tea party between Charles and Liz.