King Charles III to acknowledge ‘darkest days’ of British colonial rule during Caribbean tour | Monarchy

King Charles III will acknowledge the “darkest days” of colonial rule and slavery during a tour of Caribbean countries beginning this month, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said on Friday.

The king will first travel alone to the Bahamas and Guyana, followed by a trip with Queen Camilla to Antigua and Barbuda, where Charles will deliver a speech to a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government, the palace said.

Charles, 77, who is still undergoing treatment for cancer, will visit former colonies now independent of Great Britain and members of the British Commonwealth.

He remains head of state of the archipelago nations of the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda, a largely ceremonial role.

The palace spokesperson told reporters that the king’s visit, from October 27 to November 4, would not “roll back the ‘darkest days of our past,’ as His Majesty described them.”

Charles used the phrase in a speech in Barbados when he attended the ceremony in which the country became a republic in 2021, removing his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as head of state.

He also said at the time that the “appalling atrocity of slavery” blighted Britain’s history.

The palace said Charles had worked to recognize “the wrongs of the past” and “correct continuing inequalities”, and that during this journey he would “renew his personal, whole-hearted and ongoing commitment to this process”.

The British government last month reiterated its rejection of calls for slavery-related reparations to be paid after a Jamaican delegation submitted a petition to Charles on the issue.

It called on the monarch to submit three questions on the legality of the transatlantic slave trade to the Caribbean island’s highest appeal court, based in London.

The modern British royal family has expressed remorse for the brutal slave trade that enriched their ancestors, but, like the British government, has not issued an official apology for the slave trade.

The palace said discussions on colonial heritage and the slave trade were “important” but “primarily issues for governments to address”.

During a 2022 tour of the Caribbean, Charles’ son Prince William and his wife, Catherine, faced anti-monarchy protests and calls for reparations for slavery. Charles’ younger brother, Prince Edward, canceled a visit to Grenada later that year after pro-republican protests.

In Antigua and Barbuda, the royal family will attend a parade to mark 45 years of independence.

Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America, is a republic and Charles will make a state visit to mark the 60th anniversary of its independence from Britain.

The trip will feature numerous meetings with local people and focus on each country’s “dynamic present and promising future,” the palace said.

The program includes meetings with cricket legends in Antigua and Barbuda, where the West Indies team is based, and meetings with environmental defenders responsible for the Guyana rainforest.