King Charles visited Guyana as President Ali pressed for an apology over slavery. Buckingham Palace promised unflinching honesty.
King Charles III visited Guyana last week as the country’s president pressed for a British apology over slavery, and Buckingham Palace said Saturday that the king will address Commonwealth leaders this week with “unflinching honesty” about the shameful aspects of British history.
Charles arrived Thursday in Georgetown, the second stop on a nine-day Caribbean tour that began in the Bahamas. President Irfaan Ali greeted him at Cheddi Jagan International Airport, where the king inspected a guard of honor before attending a state reception. The visit marks 60 years of relations since Guyana’s independence, and it was the king’s first in the country since 2000, when he visited as a prince, The Associated Press reported. Guyana was the site of one of the Caribbean’s biggest slave revolts, in 1823. Ali, who invited the king, told ITV News that recognizing historical wrongs is a first step and that moving to an apology is the next one. He accused Britain of having exploited the region. A royal spokesperson said the king and the president have a very warm relationship.
On Friday, Charles visited a site where local people were executed during British colonial rule and paused to reflect, a gesture seen as showing awareness of past injustice. Demonstrators holding placards of the Guyana Reparations Committee gathered in Georgetown during the visit, Reuters reported. The king has acknowledged Britain’s central role in chattel slavery but has stopped short of an apology. In the Bahamas, he said it was only right to acknowledge the great suffering of the past in the islands and beyond, according to the Globe and Mail.
The British government has long rejected apologies and reparations. Accounts of the prime minister’s position differ: Reuters and Yonhap reported Prime Minister Andy Burnham was open to a formal apology but ruled out reparations, while the Globe and Mail said he has kept the long-standing refusal on both. Leaders of affected Commonwealth countries will discuss the issue at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda, where reparations for slavery will be on the agenda, according to Commonwealth Secretary-General Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey.
Information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, AFP via Kuwait Times, Reuters, Yonhap, Africanews and The Globe and Mail.