King Charles has arrived in Antigua and Barbuda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which opens on Sunday, with slavery reparations set to dominate the politics around a summit whose official agenda does not include them. In St John’s, campaigners with Citizens for Reparatory Justice and allied groups are preparing billboards, placards, a candlelight vigil and other events under slogans including “Reparatory justice now”. Hilary Beckles, who chairs the Caricom Reparations Commission, has called the meeting the “Chogm of reparations” and its first round of reparations negotiations.
Britain’s position moved on Friday, within limits. Prime Minister Andy Burnham offered a structured dialogue and said he was open to hearing calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state, while explicitly rejecting direct financial compensation and instead floating help with debt pressures on poorer Commonwealth countries. In the Bahamas on Tuesday, Charles said it was only right to acknowledge the great suffering and injustices of the past, language of sorrow he has used since 2022; Buckingham Palace has indicated he will not apologise on Britain’s behalf, and a Palace letter to Dorbrene O’Marde, chair of the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission, directed questions about reparations policy to the British government.
Caribbean demands are usually framed more broadly than cash: debt relief, development finance, and investment in education, health and climate resilience sit alongside apology and recognition in the Caricom programme. Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean, chair of the Bahamas’ National Reparations Committee, said the King’s words fell short and that action equal to the scale of the harm is needed. The Caribbean has not secured unanimous Commonwealth agreement for foreign ministers to advance formal talks on historical harms.
The summit therefore opens with a defined gap. London offers dialogue and possibly an apology, and excludes money; the campaigners’ test is whether structured dialogue has terms, dates and a route to the forms of repair they actually seek. The communique, due at the summit’s close, is the document that will show which side moved.