King Charles has said that deepening his understanding of the horrors of slavery has made him more determined to address the wrongs of the past, as Caribbean leaders and campaigners intensified demands for an apology and reparations from Britain. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
“We cannot change the actions of those who came before us,” Charles told leaders at the opening of the Commonwealth summit in Antigua and Barbuda on Tuesday. “We can, however, learn from the past.”
“The transatlantic trade in enslaved persons still casts a shadow over these islands and other members of our Commonwealth,” he said. “That shameful chapter of history is one that fills my heart with horror and my soul with the most profound personal sorrow.”
Charles said the more he had furthered his understanding “through listening, learning and looking”, the more committed he had become to building modern partnerships capable of addressing past wrongs. But the king stopped short of an apology or explicit support for reparations, instead pointing to education, employment, intra-Commonwealth trade and climate resilience as ways of tackling continuing hardship and disadvantage.
“For, as any sailor navigating the seas knows, we cannot command the winds, least of all where the winds of yesterday have delivered us, but we can choose how we set our sail,” he said.
Though speaking as head of the Commonwealth, and this speech would have been drafted by Charles personally along with his advisers, palace aides have indicated there would be “no surprises” in it for the UK government.
Andy Burnham refused to be drawn on whether the UK might offer further financial contributions to the Commonwealth stopping short of direct reparations. The UK prime minister told reporters: “I’ve been very clear that we do not support reparations, and I made that quite abundantly clear in the piece that I wrote in advance of coming here. But it’s not the case that we don’t support countries in the Commonwealth around development and helping them with debt issues that they’ve got, green finance. That’s what we’ve done under all governments, and in my view, we should continue to do as part of being a Commonwealth.”
Pressed on whether this could mean additional financial contributions that would weigh on the taxpayer, Burnham said: “Well, you’re getting ahead. What we need to have is that meaningful dialogue where we take time to listen, and let’s be clear: the Commonwealth is an important part of our trade too. It’s a two-way arrangement. You know, trade is up between the UK and the rest of the Commonwealth in the last year quite significantly, actually. So you need to see it in that way as well. It benefits Britain to be here, listening to people, building that new partnership, and that’s good for growth in Britain.”
Reparations are not formally on the agenda of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm), where trade, climate resilience and finance, sustainable debt, democracy and opportunities for young people were among the stated priorities of the 56-member bloc. But sustained campaigning by Caribbean governments and a growing international reparations movement have propelled the issue to the centre of political debate surrounding the gathering.
Opening the summit in St John’s, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, the country’s prime minister, Gaston Browne, said “fairness” required an “honest engagement with our shared history” and called for meaningful and respectful dialogue on reparatory justice and the enduring consequences of slavery and colonialism.
Burnham had said he was open to Britain apologising for slavery, with officials holding talks with national leaders in Antigua about what that could entail. He has also proposed discussions on debt resets for smaller Commonwealth nations and announced £40m ($54m) for critical infrastructure in the Caribbean over the next three years.
But Caribbean leaders have stressed that dialogue must extend beyond an apology. Philip J Pierre, the chair of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), described an apology as an “essential first step” but said an “apology without repair is incomplete”. He said any structured dialogue must allow consideration of the entirety of Caricom’s 10-point reparations plan, including public health, education, cultural restitution, psychological rehabilitation, debt cancellation and monetary compensation.
Britain’s royal family benefited from the trade, but Charles is politically neutral and is not expected to offer an apology. A palace spokesperson said it would “not be appropriate” for the king to announce a change in government policy.
According to the AFP news agency, Burnham discussed slavery with the Barbados prime minister, Mia Mottley, during a meeting on Monday, one of several bilateral meetings the prime minister is expected to have at the summit. They discussed how Britain was “offering a structured dialogue for communities impacted by the transatlantic slave trade”, including the “next steps”, Downing Street said.
Outside the heavily secured summit venue, protesters gathered with placards declaring: “We know what you did and we can see”.