By Charminae George
Saturday’s coronation of King Charles who is the twin island nation’s head of state has reignited calls for reparations and constitutional reform.
Dorbrene O’Marde, chairman of the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission, discussed the two points the body has been advocating for on yesterday’s Observer AM show.
“We are asking for reparations…We are asking Britain to help our societies to recover from the historical wrongs that have been committed against us,” O’Marde said.
He then discussed constitutional reform.
“As republicanism is concerned, we are suggesting, essentially, recognising how insulting it is for us that our head of state is also head of state of the country that enslaved our ancestors.
“We find ourselves in a very strange position…demanding reparations from our own head of state,” he said.
King Charles is head of state in eight Caribbean countries. Within the past year, political leaders in the Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, and St Kitts and Nevis, as well as Antigua and Barbuda, have all indicated their plans to review their positions as constitutional monarchies.
O’Marde also remarked on the steps King Charles III has taken to acknowledge the slave trade.
Buckingham Palace recently said that it is co-operating with an independent study exploring the relationship between the British monarchy and the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries.
“I think he has been consistent with his statements. In Barbados, in Rwanda, in conversations he had quite recently…at an exhibition in the United Kingdom. His decision, a couple of weeks ago to open the records of the monarchy on slave trade…I think all of these are important steps,” O’Marde said.
On a post on Observer’s Facebook page, local residents also had the chance to share their thoughts on retaining the British monarch as head of state.
Most of the comments echoed O’Marde’s stance.
One person wrote, “I’m more concerned about a public apology for the sins of their celebrated leaders and various ways they can offer compensation to us. Monetary donations, scholarships, opportunities for persons to work within their territories with minimal requirements and so on.”