LEADING REPARATIONS campaigners in Grenada are calling on its government to begin talks about the country becoming a republic.
The Grenada National Reparations Commission (GNRC) has told the government to begin consultations about removing King Charles III as its head of state.
Chairman of the GNRC, Arley Gill, said as Grenada prepares to celebrate 50 years of independence from the United Kingdom, next year, now is the time to begin the conversation.
“A conversation on Grenada becoming a republic and moving away graciously from the [British] Monarchy as head of state must commence in earnest,” Mr Gill said at a Reparations Forum held on Monday.
According to the National Archives of Grenada, between 1662 and 1807 Britain shipped 3.1 million Africans across the Atlantic Ocean in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The Africans who were forcibly enslaved were brought to British owned colonies in the Caribbean, including Grenada, and sold as slaves to work on plantations, generating millions of pounds for Britain.
Mr Gill urged Grenadians in the Caribbean and in the diaspora not to forget the horrors of slavery.
He said: “This is not something that we should put behind us and move on.
“We must join hearts and hands and as a strong, proud and resilient people demand justice! Fight for Fairness! And hold those responsible for the plunder, extraction and exploitation of our nation and for the inhumane treatment of our ancestors, accountable!
“Hold them accountable for the harms they’ve done and for the persistent problems that our people and nation have been subjected to 400 years of illegal and inhumane slavery, centuries of colonialism and 40 plus years of political independence, with limited social, economic and human development!”
Mr Gill addressed the longstanding legacy of slavery on the island and said “reparations cannot be seen as a side project.”
He said: “We must invest in and commit to the plans and processes needed to get us on a solid path toward securing what is owed to our ancestors and their descendants.”
Mr Gill also encouraged other Caribbean nations to “come together” and use the Caricom Reparations Commission to begin their fight for reparations and reparatory justice from European countries for their role in the slave trade.
Grenada gained independence from the UK in 1974 and commemorates its independence annually on 7 February.
Mr Gill also said the government of the Caribbean country should move to remove the names of any buildings, streets or institutions that has links to colonialism and slavery.
He said: “No one needs to remind us that after almost 50 years the names of our enslavers adorn our streets, and institutions, whether it is the Royal Grenada Police Force or His Majesty’s prison.
“We must also engage in a national conversation on republicanism.”
Mr Gill also said now is the time for Grenada to revisit developing a Caribbean Court of Justice to replace the British Privy Council.
He added: “It is an issue that goes fundamentally to the ideals of an independent nation, growing, maturing and defining itself-it forms part of the definition of who we are as a people.”
Some of those at the forum include Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, Professor Hilary Beckles Vice Chancellor and Chairman of the Caricom Reparations Committee and Dr Nicole Dowe, Vice Chair of the Grenada National Reparations Committee.
Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Since the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, demands for reparations continue to grow across the Caribbean.
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Could someone tell me who does Mr Gill represent please? Since I cannot remember a vote on this issue taken in his name
There never going to pay. So might as well forget it. If African and Caribbean Leaders came together as force then yes might do.