Should Britain pay reparations for slavery?

Manveen Rana (0:01)

From The Times and The Sunday Times, this is The Story. I'm Manveen Rana.

Dressed in an off-white suit and striped tie, and sporting bright blue maracas in his hands, the king has been showing off his moves. Leading a parade of people dressed in big feathered carnival costumes at a procession in the Bahamas. This is his first visit to some of the Commonwealth's Caribbean hotspots since he became king. But it hasn't all been plain sailing. The trip has been overshadowed by growing calls for the king and the British government more generally to recognize the country's historic role in the transatlantic slave trade.

SPEAKER_2 (0:54)

The United Kingdom benefited tremendously from slavery.

Kate Mansey (0:58)

What do we want?

Gaston Browne (1:00)

What do we want?

Sathnam Sanghera (1:01)

Reparations!

SPEAKER_2 (1:03)

What an apology says to us is that you have accepted responsibility and you have also committed yourself to repair the damage that you have done.

Manveen Rana (1:12)

In the Bahamas, the king acknowledged Britain's role in the dark past of these islands.

King Charles III (1:18)

We know that some of what is best in Bahamian culture today, the most joyful, the most hopeful, the most bright, was born out of darkness. It is only right that we should acknowledge the great suffering and injustices of the past in these islands and beyond even as we rejoice in the successes of the present and build new opportunities for the future.

Manveen Rana (1:53)

Later today, the King will address the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit and some Caribbean countries are hoping for a formal apology and even the promise of reparations, something Andy Burnham waited in on.

SPEAKER_7 (2:07)

Andy Burnham will devise a formal apology for Britain's role in the slave trade. Number 10 said the historic statement would be decided in consultation with the countries and communities most affected.

Manveen Rana (2:19)

So should the British government apologize? Are reparations fair or affordable? And how much will history shape the future of the Commonwealth?

The Story today. Should Britain pay reparations for slavery?

Kate Mansey (2:49)

I'm Kate Mansey. I'm Assistant Editor and Royal Editor at The Times. And right now I'm talking to you from Antigua.

Manveen Rana (2:57)

Kate, even before this particular trip started, it felt like it was going to be a difficult one. Why was that? Just remind us of some of the history.

Kate Mansey (3:08)

Well, this was always going to be high stakes. So the King has come over to the Caribbean for a three country visit. But the main highlight of the visit is of course Chogham.

That stands for Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. This is a big meeting that happens every two years. So it's a biennial meeting. And it's all the leaders of the 56 nations of the Commonwealth coming together. The King is head of the Commonwealth. So he opens with a big ceremony, a big address. All the countries are there to hear what he's got to say. In some form or other, some of the leaders don't come, but they send representatives.

Why does it matter this time? Well, since the last Chogham, which I was at in Samoa in 2024, we've had growing calls for slavery reparations. So there's a group called CARICOM, which is Caribbean nations joining together, and they're all calling for the UK to pay financial compensation for their role in transatlantic slave trade.

They want, number one, an apology, and number two, they want reparations, as they call it, financial compensation for harms done in the past.

Manveen Rana (4:22)

That obviously adds a lot of pressure to this trip, and we know that the Commonwealth is something the King particularly cares about. Was there also pressure on the palace, given the last royal visit to the Caribbean didn't quite go to plan?

Kate Mansey (4:37)

Well, that's right. I was here in 2022 in the Caribbean with the Prince and Princess of Wales as they are now, Kate and William. They were Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the time, and that was a disastrous tour. There's no two ways about it. They were left standing in Jamaica when Andrew Holness, the Prime Minister of the country, told them that he would be moving on. His country would be moving on, as he put it, from the royal family and breaking away.

Andrew Holness (5:04)

And we intend to attain, in short order, our development goals and fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country.

Kate Mansey (5:20)

Four years later, that still hasn't happened. And Jamaica remains a realm of which the king is head of state.

But it was incredibly awkward. There was also this disastrous PR moment. We were in Trench Town, and they went to greet a group of children, but they were behind a kind of wired fence.