What was supposed to be a “charm offensive”, drumming up enthusiasm in the year of the Queen’s platinum jubilee, ended up looking more like a long goodbye, with the headlines spotlighting antiroyal protests from Belize to the Bahamas, failures to address legacies of slavery, and the news that Jamaica is planning to ditch the Queen as head of state.
It may well be time for the royal family to face up to the fact that the sun is setting on the Commonwealth realms, those final remnants of the empire that they once embodied – and not a moment too soon.
The issue is just as hotly debated in the likes of Australia (54% of people there would support becoming a republic) as it is in Jamaica, but packing William and Kate offto the Caribbean has inevitably focused minds in that region. Though republican camps in the Caribbean have long cited the effect of colonialism and slavery on the present-day fortunes of their countries, a new reckoning is afoot, against the backdrop of the global Black Lives Matter movement. Thanks to the attention the royals command, the disintegration of British overseas rule is being documented in real time. It’s no wonder the royals were gracing last weekend’s UK front pages in damage-limitation mode, with William offering a half-apology for a tour blighted by protests and bad headlines.
This story is from the April 01, 2022 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the April 01, 2022 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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