As British royals visit Jamaica, protesters demand slavery reparations

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Protesters in Jamaica raised their fists Tuesday as they donned T-shirts emblazoned with a pair of shackled Black wrists surrounded by the phrases “Seh Yuh Sorry!” and “Apologize now!” as they demonstrated simply hours earlier than Prince William and Kate arrived.

The protest in entrance of the British Excessive Fee in Kingston comes a few days after dozens of outstanding leaders in Jamaica publicized a letter demanding that Britain apologize and award its former colony slavery reparations. Additionally they decried the weeklong Central American and Caribbean tour that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge launched into Saturday, which coincides with Jamaica’s sixtieth independence anniversary and the seventieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.

“Kings, Queens and Princesses and Princes belong in fairytales, NOT in Jamaica!” learn one poster held aloft by a younger woman who joined the protest.

The royal couple’s journey, which started with a cease in Belize adopted by scheduled visits to Jamaica and the Bahamas, was organized on the queen’s behest as some nations debate chopping ties to the monarchy like Barbados did in November.

Mike Henry, a veteran Jamaican lawmaker, mentioned in a telephone interview that whereas the subject has been mentioned, he worries that calls for for an apology and reparations could be rendered moot if the island stopped pledging allegiance to the queen.

Maziki Thame, a senior lecturer on the College of the West Indies, famous that Jamaicans have been searching for reparations for many years.

“This isn’t a brand new trigger,” she mentioned in a telephone interview as she ready to hitch the protest. “The query is whether or not it’s going to get any traction…whether or not the British are able to cope with their historical past.”

The British empire managed Jamaica for greater than 300 years and compelled a whole bunch of 1000’s of African slaves to toil the island below brutal circumstances. Sugar changed tobacco and cocoa as the primary crop, with some 430 sugar estates reported by the mid-1700s, up from 57 practically a century prior, in response to Jamaica Info Companies, a authorities company.

The group protesting the royal go to famous in its letter that the British raped and killed 1000’s of slaves because it sought an apology for 60 causes, together with “for refusing to acknowledge the historic commerce in Africans as against the law towards humanity,” and for “pretending that the British led the abolition motion, when our ancestors labored, prayed and fought laborious for this.”

Thame, the college professor, mentioned she and lots of different Jamaicans usually are not celebrating what is called the queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

“That does not communicate to us in the way in which they may think about that speaks to us,” she mentioned. “Within the twentieth century, Jamaicans have moved past celebrating the crown.”

Prince William and Kate are scheduled to spend two days in Jamaica, the place they’re anticipated to satisfy with authorities officers and tour Trench City, the gritty birthplace of rocksteady and reggae the place Bob Marley grew up.

Forward of their journey, Jamaican singer Beenie Man advised TV present Good Morning Britain that the U.Ok. nonetheless controls the commonwealth of Jamaica: “It is all in regards to the Queen, and the Queen serve and the Queen this and that – however what are they doing for Jamaica? They are not doing something for us.”

The monarchy has mentioned that Britain and Jamaica have a powerful commerce relationship, with the island exporting items together with rum and uncooked cane sugar to the U.Ok. It additionally famous the creation of packages focusing on poverty, safety, pure catastrophe administration, social points and the financial system.

An estimated 55,000 British residents stay in Jamaica, whereas some 800,000 folks of Jamaican descent stay in the UK. The connection between the 2 nations soured in recent times after some Caribbean individuals who had lengthy lived in Britain legally had been denied jobs, housing or medical care, with some deported as a result of they did not have the required paperwork. Britain has since apologized and pledged compensation.

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