King Charles III will acknowledge the “darkest days” of colonial rule and slavery as he tours Caribbean countries on a visit starting this month, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said on 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 address 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 spokesman told reporters that the king’s visit, from Oct. 27 to Nov. 4, would not “run 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 where it became a republic in 2021, removing his mother, the Queen. Elizabeth II, as head of state. He also said then that the “appalling atrocity of slavery” stains the history of Britain. The palace said Charles had worked to recognize “the mistakes of the past” and “correct remaining inequalities,” and that on this trip he would “renew his personal, sincere and ongoing commitment to that process.” The UK government last month reiterated its rejection of calls for slavery reparations after a Jamaican delegation submitted a petition to Charles on the issue. to refer three questions about the legality of the transatlantic slave trade to the Caribbean island’s highest appeal court based in London. Modern British royals have expressed remorse for the brutal slave trade that enriched their ancestors, but like the UK government they have not issued an official apology for the slave trade. The palace said discussions about colonial legacy and the slave trade were “important” but “mainly matters for governments to address”. On a tour of the Caribbean in 2022, Charles’s son, Prince William, and his wife, Catherine, were greeted with anti-monarchy protests and calls for reparations for slavery. Charles’s younger brother, Prince Edward, later that year canceled a visit to Grenada after pro-republican protests there. In Antigua and Barbuda, royalty will attend a parade to commemorate 45 years of independence. Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America, is a republic and Charles will pay a state visit on the 60th anniversary of its independence from Britain. The trip will include many meetings with local people and will focus on “the vibrant present and promising future of each country,” the palace said. The program includes meetings with cricket legends in Antigua and Barbuda, where the West Indies team is based, and meetings with conservationists responsible for the Guyana rainforest.
