DEMANDS FOR reparations are growing across the Caribbean, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
The British monarchy have come under heightened demands from several Caribbean countries to undergo the reparatory justice process and issue an apology for their part in the slave trade.
It comes after Royal tours of the Caribbean earlier this year led by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, followed by Prince Edward and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex were bundled by photo-ops disaster and tone deaf gifts.
Niambi Hall-Campbell, Chair of the Bahamas National Reparations Committee, said: “As the role of the monarchy changes, we expect this can be an opportunity to advance discussions of reparations for our region.”
Hall-Campbell went onto to send her condolences to the Royal family before and acknowledging how Charles spoke of the “appalling atrocity of slavery” as Barbados became a republic.
She said she hopes he would lead in “justice required of the times. And that justice is reparatory justice.”
The Bahamas, including Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda and St Lucia, all led calls for the monarchy to lead in reparations for their islands over the slave trade and long-standing effects of colonialism.
During Willim and Kate’s visit to the island in April this year, a spokesperson from the Bahamas National Reparations Committee (BNRC), wrote an open letter to the couple as protests engulfed the island.
“We were motivated to write the letter to show that we do not owe this family and the regime they represent anything and to reject the notion that we are the model colony that won’t rock the boat.
“Bahamians are not limited to only being a legal jurisdiction for financial services; and an ideal tourist destination. We are a free and sovereign nation and believe that it is time to change our narrative to reflect that.”
Caribbean nations including Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Dominica and most recently Barbados are the only countries to have removed the Queen as head of state.
Jamaica has been most notable in its intentions to elect their own president followed by Antigua and Barbuda in the days after the Queen’s passing.
As former British colonies took in the news of the Queen’s passing, David Denny, General Secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration in Barbados told Reuters: ”Whoever will take over the position should be asked to allow the royal family to pay African people reparations,” said David Denny, general secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, from Barbados.
“We should all work towards removing the royal family as head of state of our nations.”
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All these folks calling for reparations are currently living in mental slavery. Genaration after generation lost because we continue to dwell on the past and not take advantage of all the opportunities that exist today.
We cannot and should not forget the sins of the past but it’s high time we start focussing on the future.
We are falling further and further behind as a people because we have decided that the only way forward is through reparations.
It’s time to move on.
If a coalition of England’s last five Prime Ministers could agree to gift England’s Caucasian-Jewish people £75m in 2017, to honour their German war time experience, then Reparation to Caribbean people, whose ancestors unpaid labour enabled England to become the first industrialised nation, ought to be swiftly offered by the English Treasury and the Bank of England.
With this knowledge one wonders how Prime Minister Cameron had the audacity to instruct the Jamaican Parliamentarian in 2015 to “move on from the painful legacy of slavery,” whilst rejecting their claims for reparation.
Look the UK and USA are not going to pay reparations. Face the truth unless a United African Navy and African Airforce turns up and blockades the shipping ports and enforcing a no-fly zone until they do.