The Secretary-General of the Commonwealth has suggested that the King should apologise for slavery.
Speaking before King Charles’ visit to the Caribbean, which begins next week, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said that an apology for slavery “wouldn’t hurt” and that the “time has come” for a discussion about reparations.
Asked whether the monarch should apologise, the Commonwealth chief told Sky News: “That’s what the countries have asked for ... It wouldn’t hurt to have that. Not at all.”
The King, who will travel to the Bahamas, Guyana, and Antigua and Barbuda, will “not shy away” from discussing the historical slave trade on the trip, but will stop short of apologising for Britain’s role in it.
As head of the Commonwealth, the King is expected to make speeches in all three countries, culminating in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, at which heated debate is expected over the issue of reparations.
However, he will follow Government advice not to issue an official apology. A Buckingham Palace spokesman previously said that the monarch would instead find opportunities to “reflect and renew his personal, wholehearted, and continuing commitment” to acknowledging the “darkest days of our past”.
Ayorkor Botchwey’s comments will put further pressure on the King, who must navigate what has been described as a “diplomatic tightrope” between the demands of some Commonwealth campaigners and UK Government decisions.
Ayorkor Botchwey, a staunch supporter of reparations, said on Thursday that many Commonwealth countries were asking for an apology, and that her view was that the “time has come” to discuss it.
She said: “I don’t believe we can run away from it. But it is important to determine the form that reparations should take, and that is something that will emerge eventually.
“Us as countries sit around the table to discuss, as difficult a subject as it is, I believe that countries will come to some conclusions. So whether it takes the form of financial reparations or reparations in kind, that is for the countries to decide on.”
When pushed on what she meant by “reparations in kind”, Mrs Ayorkor Botchwey said it could involve “concessional financing”, “return of artefacts” and “climate issues”.
During an eight-day tour, spanning three island nations, the King will “acknowledge the wrongs of the past” in his own way.
A Palace spokesman said: “It is important to note here the work His Majesty himself has done over many years both to acknowledge the wrongs of the past and to find creative ways to ‘right inequalities that endure’.
“As you would therefore expect, opportunities will be found during the visit to reflect and renew his personal, wholehearted and continuing commitment to that process.”
Ayorkor Botchwey took over the role of Commonwealth chief from Baroness Patricia Scotland, who stepped down in March last year. Ayorkor Botchwey, previously Ghana’s foreign minister, has said that “financial reparations is good”.
Caribbean campaigners have called for slavery reparations to be on the upcoming trip’s agenda, and envoys from Jamaica and other former British colonies have already petitioned the monarch to help their campaign to be compensated for the slave trade.
Last month, Olivia Grange, Jamaica’s culture minister, led a Jamaican delegation to London to file the petition with the King, the country’s head of state.
She later announced in Jamaica’s Parliament that the King had referred the matter to the Privy Council, which, under 19th-century legislation, remains the highest court of appeal for Jamaica.
Grange described the monarch’s referral as a “big deal”, telling Parliament: “The King could have ignored us. The King could have delayed responding to us. The King could have made a decision not to refer the questions to the Privy Council, or he could make a decision to refer the questions.”
A hearing on the matter has been provisionally set for the week of March 8, 2027, and the committee could give an opinion on whether slavery was illegal – and whether Britain is under a legal obligation to offer a “remedy”.
Should this move prove successful, other Caribbean nations with the King as head of state might follow suit and replicate the strategy.
It comes amid growing calls for reparations, which have been consistently rejected by successive British governments.
The Government has said it considers the historic slave trade abhorrent but will not pay reparations, after legal advice that it is not necessary for acts that were not violations of international law when they were committed.
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