King Charles heads to Caribbean as calls grow for slavery apology

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Britain’s King Charles III will begin a tour of the Caribbean Tuesday as pressure mounts on Britain to apologize and pay reparations for its role in the slave trade.

Charles will arrive in The Bahamas on Tuesday at the start of a nine-day visit that will also take in Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, where he and Queen Camilla will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), a biennial summit of 56 nations.

Charles’s first visit to the Caribbean as monarch comes amid growing calls for Britain to make reparations for its leading role in the transatlantic slave trade.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Shirley Botchwey said last week it was time for discussions about reparations. Asked by Sky News whether the King should apologize over the UK’s historic role in the slave trade, Botchwey said: “It wouldn’t hurt to have that.”

“That’s what the countries have asked for,” Botchwey added. “I don’t believe we can run away from it. But it is important to determine the form that reparations should take, and that is something that will emerge eventually.”

Meanwhile, the Caribbean Community, or Caricom, a group of 23 member and associate member states, said last month it would push for reparations to be on the agenda at CHOGM.

“The Caribbean has consistently asserted that reparations is fundamentally about justice,” Caricom’s Secretary-General Carla Barnett said in a speech. “It is about recognition, accountability and transformation, and about building a just and equitable future for the descendants of those who, as the chattel of colonial owners, endured untold suffering, loss of life and freedom.”

The King can only act on the advice of his ministers when he represents the country abroad and despite the renewed calls, he has continued to follow UK government advice against issuing a formal apology for the UK’s role in the slave trade. Buckingham Palace has said he will not apologize during the Caribbean tour as such questions were “matters for governments to address,” but that he will “not shy away from the darkest days of our past.”

At the last CHOGM, in 2024 , Charles acknowledged that “the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate,” but he stopped short of an official apology and did not directly engage on the subject.

Jonathan Reynolds, the UK’s business secretary, on Tuesday said reparations are not a “reasonable request.” Reynolds told Sky News that he was “sensitive to British history” and that “we should be able to talk about it,” but that past events should not be attributed to current generations.

In recent years, the British monarchy has adopted a more conciliatory tone when addressing the horrors of slavery. During a visit to Kenya in 2023, his first trip to a Commonwealth nation as head of the body, Charles said the “wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret.”

At least 12.5 million Africans were abducted and sold into slavery by European merchants between the 15th and 19th century and Britain is estimated to have had a role in transporting about 3.2 million people.

When slavery was abolished in Britain in 1834, the government compensated slave owners the equivalent of £17bn ($22.5bn), but slaves received nothing, according to research by University College London.

CNN’s Max Foster contributed to this report.

安迪·布坎南/法新社/盖蒂图片社

英国国王查理三世将于周二开始访问加勒比海地区，与此同时，英国面临着越来越大的压力，要求其就奴隶贸易中所扮演的角色道歉并支付赔偿。

查尔斯将于周二抵达巴哈马，开始为期九天的访问。此次访问还将包括圭亚那和安提瓜和巴布达。在安提瓜和巴布达，他和卡米拉王后将出席英联邦政府首脑会议（CHOGM），这是由56个国家组成的两年一度的峰会。

查尔斯作为君主首次访问加勒比海地区之际，英国正因其在跨大西洋奴隶贸易中扮演的主导角色而面临越来越大的赔偿呼声。

英联邦秘书长雪莉·博奇韦上周表示，现在是时候讨论赔偿问题了。当被天空新闻问及国王是否应该就英国在奴隶贸易中的历史角色道歉时，博奇韦说：“道歉并无坏处。”

博奇韦补充说：“这是各国提出的要求。我认为我们无法回避这个问题。但重要的是要确定赔偿的形式，而这最终会水落石出。”

与此同时，由 23 个成员国和准成员国组成的加勒比共同体（简称加共体）上个月表示，将推动将赔偿问题列入英联邦政府首脑会议的议程。

加勒比共同体秘书长卡拉·巴内特在一次讲话中表示：“加勒比地区一直坚持认为，赔偿的根本在于正义。它关乎承认、问责和变革，也关乎为那些作为殖民统治者财产，遭受难以言喻的苦难、生命损失和自由丧失的人们的后代，建设一个公正公平的未来。”

国王在代表国家出访时，只能听取大臣们的建议。尽管各方呼吁不断，他仍然遵循英国政府的建议，拒绝就英国在奴隶贸易中所扮演的角色正式道歉。白金汉宫表示，国王在加勒比海之行期间不会道歉，因为此类问题“应由各国政府处理”，但他“不会回避我们历史上最黑暗的时期”。

在 2024 年举行的上一届英联邦政府首脑会议上，查尔斯承认“我们过去最痛苦的方面仍然引起共鸣”，但他没有正式道歉，也没有直接谈论这个问题。

英国商务大臣乔纳森·雷诺兹周二表示，赔偿并非“合理要求”。雷诺兹告诉天空新闻，他“尊重英国历史”，并且“我们应该能够谈论它”，但过去的事件不应归咎于当代人。

近年来，英国王室在谈及奴隶制的恐怖历史时，采取了更为和解的语气。2023年，查尔斯王子以英联邦元首的身份首次访问肯尼亚，期间他表示，“过去的罪行令人无比悲痛和深感遗憾。”

15至19世纪期间，至少有1250万非洲人被欧洲商人绑架并贩卖为奴，据估计，英国参与了约320万人的贩卖。

据伦敦大学学院的研究显示，1834 年英国废除奴隶制时，政府向奴隶主支付了相当于 170 亿英镑（225 亿美元）的补偿，但奴隶却一无所获。

CNN的马克斯·福斯特对本报道亦有贡献。