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King Charles to evoke colonial 'darkest days' on Caribbean tour / Photo: © POOL/AFP
King Charles to evoke colonial 'darkest days' on Caribbean tour
King Charles III will acknowledge the "darkest days" of colonial rule and slavery while touring Caribbean countries on a visit beginning this month, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said Friday.
The king will first visit the Bahamas and Guyana alone, followed by a trip to Antigua and Barbuda with Queen Camilla, where Charles will give a speech at a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government, the palace said.
Charles, 77, who is still receiving treatment for cancer, will visit former colonies that are now independent from Britain and are members of the British Commonwealth.
He remains head of state in the archipelago nations of the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda, a role that is largely ceremonial.
The palace spokesperson told reporters the king's visit, from October 27 to November 4, would not "shy away from the 'darkest days of our past' as His Majesty has described them".
Charles used the phrase in a speech in Barbados when he attended the ceremony in which it became a republic in 2021, removing his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as head of state.
He also said then that the "appalling atrocity of slavery" stains Britain's history.
The palace said Charles had worked to acknowledge "the wrongs of the past" and "right inequalities that endure", and on this trip would "renew his personal, wholehearted and continuing commitment to that process".
The UK government reiterated last month its rejection of calls for the payment of slavery reparations after a Jamaican delegation filed a petition addressed to Charles on the issue.
It called on the monarch to refer three questions on the legality of the transatlantic slave trade to the Caribbean island's highest court of appeal based in London.
Modern British royals have expressed remorse for the brutal slave trade that enriched their ancestors, but like the UK government have not issued an official apology for the slave trade.
The palace said discussions about the colonial legacy and the slave trade were "important" but "primarily matters for governments to address".
On a 2022 Caribbean tour, Charles's son William and his wife Kate were met with anti-monarchy protests and calls for slavery reparations.
Charles's younger brother, Prince Edward, later that year cancelled a visit to Grenada after pro-republican protests there.
In Antigua and Barbuda, a state named after its two main tropical islands, the royals will attend a parade to mark 45 years of independence.
Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America, is a republic and so Charles will be making a state visit on the 60th anniversary of its independence from Britain.
The trip will feature plenty of meetings with local people and will focus on "the vibrant present and promising future of each country", the palace said.
The programme includes meetings with cricketing legends in Antigua and Barbuda, where the West Indies team is based, and meeting conservationists responsible for Guyana's rain forest.
R. do Carmo--JDB
