Jamaica Ups the Ante to Shun Prince William and Kate From the Caribbean Island
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Prince William and Kate’s Caribbean tour is causing more stir about colonialism and slavery.
As the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge set to travel to their next stop, Jamaica on Tuesday, after leaving Belize, some Jamaicans are planning to protest their arrival, calling for slavery reparations and apologies from the British family, and are refusing to participate in the Platinum Jubilee Celebration of Queen Elizabeth II.
The group, Advocates Network wrote an open letter to William and Kate, signed by one hundred prominent Jamaicans namely politicians, lawyers, songwriters, theologians and scholars.
The group attached 60 reasons why the royal family should apologize to Jamaica which include “the exploitation of Jamaica, the transatlantic trafficking of Africans, the enslavement of Africans, indentureship and colonialization.”
The protest is expected to take place on Tuesday at the British High Commission in Kingston.
Jamaica says it is in talks to remove Queen Elizabeth as Head of State. This comes after Barbados became a republic, distancing itself from the monarchy in November.
Prince William and Kate canceled a trip to a farm in Belize after villagers resented their arrival on land in dispute with a group in which William is a patron.
The Opposition in Jamaican Parliament led by Mark Golding, says though it will participate in the celebration, the British monarch needs to “make an authentic and profound apology for the role played by their family in the Slave Trade, chattel slavery and the plantation system, and also for a public acknowledgment that they benefited from it.”
William and Kate will be in Jamaica from March 22 to 24.
