King Charles III begins Caribbean tour by acknowledging the 'great suffering of the past', but without an apology

Acknowledging suffering instead of apologising

77-year-old King Charles III, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, began a nine-day tour of three Caribbean countries in the Bahamas on Tuesday. At a youth rally held at the historic site where the Bahamas officially gained independence in 1973, the King said it was 'right to recognise the great suffering and injustices of the past on these islands and beyond'. According to AFP, protesters greeted him with placards reading 'pay what you owe us'. Charles has previously described the slave trade as the 'darkest days' of British history, but, as the agency notes, modern monarchs have only expressed regret to varying degrees — none has yet issued a formal apology, while the British government avoids the idea of financial compensation.

Pressure is mounting

Several former colonies are demanding that the King take a new step towards atonement for colonisation and the transatlantic slave trade, from which his ancestors profited for centuries. Last month Jamaica, where Charles remains head of state, filed a petition with the London Court of Appeal 'to advance Jamaica's claims for reparations for African ancestors who suffered hundreds of years of enslavement'. Guyana's President Irfaan Ali, who will meet the King, told ITV News that acknowledging the 'darkest days' is only a 'first step', and that 'the next step is an apology'. Commonwealth Secretary-General Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey told Sky News that it 'wouldn't hurt' for the King to apologise and that 'the time has come' to discuss reparations — whether in the form of financial payments or otherwise.

The summit and the climate

The question of reparations will officially be on the table at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in St John's on 1–4 November, which the King will attend with Queen Camilla during the final stage of the tour, after solo visits to the Bahamas and Guyana. Botchwey described the upcoming summit as 'like no other before it', with a focus on investment and trade opportunities for the 56 member states, as well as on climate resilience schemes: in her words, countries suffering from the climate crisis 'are not the polluters'. Buckingham Palace, for its part, insists that the tour is an opportunity to look forward, meet young people and discuss pressing issues such as climate change: in his speech in the Bahamas, the King noted that 90% of the country's territory lies below two metres above sea level. The programme includes meetings with a coral restoration project in Antigua and Barbuda and with rainforest conservation efforts in Guyana.