NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Chair of the Bahamas Reparations Committee today rejected Prince William’s speech on slavery and racism while in Jamaica as “not enough”, insisting that a full and formal acknowledgment of the Royal Family’s crimes against humanity could not be sidestepped.
The Duke of Cambridge reportedly expressed “profound sorrow” for the “atrocities” of slavery during an address to Jamaica’s prime minister and other officials, but stopped short at proferring an apology.
“Slavery was abhorrent and it never should have happened,” Prince William said.
“I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history.”
According to The UK Guardian, William also addressed the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which is today, and expressed gratitude to Jamaicans who helped to rebuild the UK after the second world war.
“We are forever grateful for the immense contribution that this generation and their descendants have made to British life, which continues to enrich and improve our society,” he said.
The Royal couple’s Caribbean tour that began in Belize, then Jamaica is on its final leg with their arrival in The Bahamas today to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.
The tour has inflamed anti-colonial sentiment in the region with calls for reparations and for former colonies to sever ties with the Commonwealth by seeking to become a republic.
In an interview with Eyewitness News today, BNRC chair Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean said: “The calls for the full and formal apology is the first point on CARICOM’s reparations 10-point plan. So, we acknowledge statements of regret. That’s the same thing that Tony Blair did, that’s the same thing that his father did. These statements of regrets and they always fall short of an apology.
“That’s a very planned position to say it’s a horrible thing.
“We all know it was a horrible thing, but we need the full and formal apology in order for you to take responsibility and from that point reparations can ensue.
“That’s the only thing we would accept at this point as being a genuine statement in regards to moving forward from the history that this family has.”
Several local groups have announced plans to protest or demonstrate the royal visit.
Priest Rithmond McKinney, head of the Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress Bahamas branch, said the community is demanding reparations and an apology for the injustices of colonialism and slavery.
Meanwhile, the BNRC in an open letter said the British royal family must reckon with its legacy of slavery, and colonization and ought not be treated with a trip funded in part by Bahamian taxpayers.
Hall Campbell-Dean continued: “It was a statement of regret for slavery, but there really wasn’t anything mentioned about colonization, which also greatly harmed and damaged people of this nation and the Caribbean in general. That’s where we stand on that.”
Hall Campbell-Dean was asked to describe what a full and formal apology would look like.
“The full and formal apology would look like a formal statement saying we apologize for the crimes against humanity enacted by our government, for slavery and the transatlantic slave trade,” she said.
“It would also include a recognition that reparations were actually paid to the slave owners when slavery ended for loss of their property.
“British citizens have actually been paying that tax well into the 20th century for reparations that the slave owners received.
“So, it requires the acknowledgment of the full and complete history, not just saying that was a horrible thing. We all know it was a horrible thing.
“What are you going to do about it.”
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