The Wessexes dropped Grenada from their tour because of slavery & reparations

Almost one month ago exactly, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness welcomed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge into his office. Before William and Kate even had the chance to sit down, Holness gestured to the television cameras (which were broadcasting live) and he fired the Cambridges. He fired the entire monarchy and said that Jamaica doesn’t need their colonialist nonsense anymore. It was an incredible moment in a tour full of horrific imagery from Will and Kate.

Following the Flop Tour, all of the palace lackeys swore up and down that they would learn from the Cambridges’ mistakes, and that all future tours would be less colonalist and not as horrendously tone-deaf. The test case is now, with the Earl and Countess of Wessex beginning their Caribbean tour. Originally, they were supposed to do drive-by stops in Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Then on the eve of their departure, the Wessexes dropped Grenada from their tour. The Wessexes and the palace didn’t explain why. Allow the Independent to explain it though:

It was announced on Thursday that Grenada has been removed from the Wessexes’ itinerary, with no official explanation as yet. However it comes days after after fresh details emerged regarding Britain’s role in the enslavement of Black people in the island nation while it was a colony. Research commissioned by the Bank of England in the wake of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020 recently revealed that ownership of two plantations and 599 people was transferred to the financial institution in the early 1770s. The names of the 599 enslaved people can be viewed within the free exhibition, launched last week, at the bank’s museum on Threadneedle street in central London.

Though the Bank of England has previously apologised for its historical links to the slave trade, this insight regarding its direct ownership of Black people has caused upset among the Caribbean diaspora and, in particular, descendants of those who were enslaved under the regime which dealt in the trade of sugar, cofee and Africans.

Ambassador Arley Gill, Chairman of the Grenada National Reparations Committee, said: “this exhibit at the Bank of England’s museum in London brings home to us now — if we were not aware of it before — the exploitation of Grenada as a colony of Great Britain and its institutions, and should intensify our urgent call-to-action to every Grenadian to join the fight for reparations and reparatory justice for the descendants of enslaved people here in Grenada, The time has come for the British government and the descendants of British elites who benefitted from the enslavement of our ancestors to own-up to this heinous crime against humanity – and do the right thing.”

[From The Independent]

So Bank of England commissioned a research project into their own history in the slave trade and their business ties to chattel slavery? And then they organized an exhibition so that everyone could see them acknowledging this dark, disturbing history? Well.. on one hand, that’s an incredible self-own, but on the other hand… I mean, at least they’re not just issuing blanket denials. They’re trying to bring their f–ked up history into the light. I absolutely agree that this is part of the reason why the Wessexes dropped Grenada from their tour. Incidentally, it looks like they’ll be flying into a sh-tstorm in Antigua and Barbuda too:

Now, ahead of Edward and Sophie’s visit, the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission has written an open letter, criticising the Royal Family for past comments on slavery.

“It has become common for members of the Royal Family and representatives of the government of Britain to come to this region and lament that slavery was an ‘appalling atrocity’, that it was ‘abhorrent’, that ‘it should not have happened’,” the letter says. “We hear the phony sanctimony of those who came before you that these crimes are a ‘stain on your history’. For us, they are the source of genocide and of continuing deep international injury, injustice and racism. We hope you will respect us by not repeating the mantra. We are not simpletons.”

The European slave trade resulted from the “wilful acts of white Europeans aimed solely at Africans”, the letter adds. “We know that the Crown ‘owned’ enslaved Africans as late as 1831, three years before the passage of the Emancipation Act. Those enslaved included our ancestors. We ask that you respect that. We know that no one today in your family was alive when the crimes against humanity were committed, (but) please do not tell us that again either – as others before you have done. We know that everyone in your family continues to live in the splendour, pomp and wealth attained through the proceeds of the crimes.”

[From Sky News]

Phony sanctimony?? Does the reparations committee understand that the Windsors exclusively trade in phony sanctimony? That is their only currency! Seriously, this open letter is so badass. Antigua and Barbuda said “don’t you bring your mealy-mouthed colonizer bullsh-t to our house, y’all better just stay home.”

PS… I wrote this Thursday evening and so much crap has happened since then, so there will be another post about it, lmao!!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.