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Kingston (Jamaica) (AFP) – Jamaica is “moving” towards a destiny as an independent country and its transformation into a republican regime is “inevitable”, said Prime Minister Andrew Holness, on the sidelines of a visit by Britain’s Prince William to the Caribbean island.
At a press conference, Holness said that William’s three-day visit to the island – which sparked protests over the UK’s role in the slave trade in the former colony and calls for reparations for his actions – offers an opportunity to address unsolved problems”.
As the prince, second in line to the British throne, conveyed his grandmother’s “deep affection” for Jamaica, Holness said the country’s transition to a republican model was only a matter of time.
“It is inevitable that we move towards a republic to fulfill the will of the people of Jamaica and our ambition to become an independent, developed and prosperous country,” Holness later said on his Twitter account.
A member of the Commonwealth since 1962, the island is a constitutional monarchy and its head of state – like that of 14 other countries – is Queen Elizabeth, who has just celebrated her 70th anniversary of reign.
A Jamaican break with the monarchy would follow in the footsteps of another Caribbean island, Barbados, which formally declared itself a republic in a November ceremony attended by William’s father, Prince Charles.
Hours later, at a state dinner in the capital, Kingston, Prince William, who arrived accompanied by his wife Kate, expressed his “sorrow” to Jamaicans over Britain’s involvement in the slave trade.
“I want to express my deep sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent and should never have happened,” William said, calling the transatlantic slave trade an atrocity that “stains our history forever.”
Hundreds of thousands of African slaves were forcibly brought to Jamaica during the British colonial period and forced to do back-breaking labor on the island’s huge plantations.
In 2015, then-British Prime Minister David Cameron rejected claims for compensation before a visit to Jamaica.
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