The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were met with anti-colonial protests upon their arrival in Jamaica last Tuesday. 

Last week, William and Kate embarked on a week-long tour of former British Caribbean colonies - Belize, Jamaica, and the Bahamas - to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. But the royal couple’s visit to Jamaica was not entirely well-received.

The royal tour was seen by many as a PR disaster, as photos of the couple riding resplendently on a jeep and shaking hands with Jamaican children through a wire fence served only to recall Britain’s unforgivable colonial history. 

Protesters claimed that the royal family directly benefited from the slave trade. 

A brief history

Britain annexed Jamaica from the Spanish Empire in 1655 and gained full control of the Island by 1670. 

Following the sugar industry boom in the 17th century, enslaved West Africans were imported by the British to work on Jamaican sugar plantations. Working conditions on the plantations were brutal.

Slaves were treated as sub-human; they were deprived of any personal rights and often subjected to physical and sexual abuse by their masters. 

Jamaica became the largest producer of sugar in the world. Nearly a million African slaves were brought to Jamaica in total, and by the end of the 17th century the black population was five times larger than the white population. 

Slavery was only abolished in 1834, but life for the average Jamaican improved very little. Society remained divided due to the power disparity between the classes, and the lower classes were disproportionately black.

Jamaica declared its independence from the British Empire in 1962, but the Queen remained the head of state. It is now a British Commonwealth realm.

Anti-colonial sentiment in the Caribbean

Since the Black Lives Matter movement has gained momentum in the last couple of years, the sustained impact of the British Empire’s legacy on black Caribbeans has become more widely discussed. 

Anti-colonial sentiment has swept across the Caribbean nations. In 2021, Barbados, another former British colony, gained full constitutional freedom after suspending ties with the British crown. Jamaican politicians had also been considering following the footsteps of Barbados and removing the Queen as head of state, but it could take years for the Island to become a republic.

After the Duke and Duchess’ arrival Tuesday, 350 protesters assembled outside the British High Commission in Kingston, Jamaica, to take a stand against Jamaica’s ties to the British monarchy. Many of the demonstrators demanded reparations for Britain’s involvement in the slave trade. 

Some of the protester’s placards read “Apologise now!” and “Kings, queens, princes and Princesses belong in fairy tales, not in Jamaica''. 

Jamaican human rights activist and demonstration organiser, Opal Adisa, said: “Kate and William are beneficiaries, so they are, in fact, complicit because they are positioned to benefit specifically from our ancestors, and we’re not benefitting from our ancestors.

“The luxury and the lifestyle that they have had and that they continue to have, traipsing all over the world for free with no expense, that is a result of my great, great grandmother and grandfather, their blood and tears and sweat.”

She added that an apology from the royal family would be the “first step towards healing and reconciliation.”

The British monarchy had an instrumental role in the slave trade. Elizabeth I became involved with John Hawkins, a British slave trader, and Charles II encouraged the expansion of the slave trade. The Royal Adventures, which later became the Royal African Company, was founded by Charles II’s Royal Charter, and he and his brother ploughed money into the enterprise.

After the slave trade was abolished, the British government paid £20 million - which equates to £17 billion today - to slave owners as compensation for their loss of free labour. This debt was only paid off 7 years ago by British taxpayers. 

But the descendants of West African slaves have never received financial redress.

Last year, the Jamaican government proposed to request financial compensation from Britain for the wealth that was generated from the slave trade. 

Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, speaks of plans to remove the queen as the head of state. He told Prince William there were ‘unresolved’ issues and informed him that the country was “moving on”. 

He added: “We intend to attain in short order our development goals and fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country."

‘Tone deaf’

On Wednesday, the royal couple were pictured trying to reach through a wired fence to shake hands with Jamaican children. The image was ridiculed for being distasteful and the Duke and Duchess were criticised for being ‘tone deaf’.

On the controversial image, Author Malorie Blackman tweeted: “Do Prince William and Kate employ even one person of colour in their PR depts and run the optics of such images below by them first?”

Comedian Al Murray also reshared the image with the satirical caption “YES THAT’S THE BEST PICTURE YES LET’S GO WITH THAT.”

Another image of the pair playing drums with reggae musicians sparked claims of cultural appropriation.

The Duke’s speech

The royal couple were aware of the adverse response to their tour, and the Duke chose to address Britain’s involvement in the slave trade in his speech on Wednesday. 

At the Governor General of Jamaica’s dinner, William expressed “profound sorrow” at the “abhorrent” slave trade. He stated that it “forever stains our history” and “should never have happened.”

However, the Duke received backlash for failing to offer an apology on behalf of the royal family, with many claiming that “sorrow” is not “sorry”.

Advocates Network, the organisation behind Tuesday’s protests, claimed that the speech was a confirmation of “the insensitivity of the Royal family to the plight of Jamaicans today, both here in Jamaica and in Britain.”

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