King Charles III told a summit of Commonwealth countries in Samoa on Friday (October 25, 2024) that the past could not be changed as he indirectly acknowledged calls from some of Britain’s former colonies for a reckoning over its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The British royal understood “the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate,” he told leaders in Apia. But King Charles stopped short of mentioning financial reparations that some leaders at the event have urged and instead exhorted them to find the “right language” and an understanding of history “to guide us towards making the right choices in future where inequality exists.”

Also read: Should America pay reparations for slavery?

“None of us can change the past but we can commit with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right the inequalities that endure,” said King Charles, who is attending his first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) as Britain’s head of state.

His remarks at the summit’s official opening ceremony echoed comments a day earlier by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that the meeting should avoid becoming mired in the past and “very, very long endless discussions about reparations.” The U.K. leader dismissed calls from Caribbean countries for leaders at the biennial event to explicitly discuss redress for Britain’s role in the slave trade and mention the matter in its final joint statement.

But Britain’s handling of its involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade is seen by many observers as a litmus test for the Commonwealth’s adaptation to a modern-day world, as other European nations and some British institutions have started to own up to their role in the trade.

“I think the time has come for this to be taken seriously,” said Jacqueline McKenzie, a partner at London law firm Leigh Day. “Nobody expects people to pay every single penny for what happened. But I think there needs to be negotiations.”

Such a policy would be costly and divisive at home, Ms. McKenzie said.

The U.K. has never formally apologized for its role in the trade, in which millions of African citizens were kidnapped and transported to plantations in the Caribbean and Americas over several centuries, enriching many individuals and companies. Studies estimate Britain would owe between hundreds of millions and trillions of dollars in compensation to descendants of slaves.

The Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis on Thursday said he wanted a “frank” discussion with Starmer about the matter and would seek mention of the reparations issue in the leaders’ final statement at the event. All three candidates to be the next Commonwealth Secretary-General — from Gambia, Ghana and Lesotho — have endorsed policies of reparatory justice for slavery.

Mr. Starmer said Thursday in remarks to reporters that the matter would not be on the summit’s agenda. But Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland told The Associated Press in an interview that leaders “will speak about absolutely anything they want to speak about” at an all-day private meeting scheduled for Saturday.

King Charles said in Friday’s speech that nothing would right inequality “more decisively than to champion the principle that our Commonwealth is one of genuine opportunity for all.” The monarch urged leaders to “choose within our Commonwealth family the language of community and respect, and reject the language of division.”

He has expressed “sorrow” over slavery at a CHOGM summit before, in 2022, and last year endorsed a probe into the monarchy’s ties to the industry.

King Charles — who is battling cancer — and his wife, Queen Camilla, will return to Britain tomorrow after visiting Samoa and Australia — where his presence prompted a lawmaker’s protest over his country’s colonial legacy.

He acknowledged Friday that the Commonwealth had mattered “a great deal” his late mother Queen Elizabeth II, who was seen as a unifying figure among the body’s at times disparate and divergent states.

The row over reparations threatened to overshadow a summit that Pacific leaders — and the Commonwealth secretariat — hoped would focus squarely on the ruinous effects of climate change.

“We are well past believing it is a problem for the future since it is already undermining the development we have long fought for,” the king said Friday. “This year alone we have seen terrifying storms in the Caribbean, devastating flooding in East Africa and catastrophic wildfires in Canada. Lives, livelihood and human rights are at-risk across the Commonwealth.”

King Charles offered “every encouragement for action with unequivocal determination to arrest rising temperatures” by cutting emissions, building resilience, and conserving and restoring nature on land and at sea, he said.

Samoa is the first Pacific Island nation to host the event, and Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa said in a speech Friday that it was “a great opportunity for all to experience our lived reality, especially with climate change,” which was “the greatest threat to the survival and security of our Pacific people.”

Two dozen small island nations are among CHOGM’s 56 member states, among them the world’s most imperiled by rising seas. Her remarks came as the United Nations released a stark new report warning that the world was on pace for significantly more warming than expected without immediate climate action.

The population of the member nations of the 75-year-old Commonwealth organization totals 2.7 billion people.

A protester holds a sign during a rally to demand that the United Kingdom make reparations for slavery.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Commonwealth heads of government are to push for a “conversation” on reparations for the transatlantic slave trade when they meet for the association’s first summit in two years, the BBC reported on Thursday (October 24, 2024).

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the focus of the summit should be on “real challenges on things like climate in the here and now… rather than what will end up being very, very long, endless discussions about reparations on the past”.

Also read: Should America pay reparations for slavery?

But CARICOM, a group of 15 Caribbean countries, has indicated it will push the UK government on the issue at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa, which begins on Friday (October 25, 2024).

Diplomatic negotiations have resulted in the issue featuring on the draft summit communique, which the BBC said it had seen.

The document, that could still change, says: “Heads, noting calls for discussions on reparatory justice with regard to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement… agreed that the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity.”

The UK did not initially want any language in the communique about reparations, the broadcaster said.

Bahamas foreign minister Frederick Mitchell told BBC radio on Thursday: “Once you broach the subject, it may take a while for people to come around but come around they will.”

He called on the UK to “apologise” for its role in the slave trade, saying: “It’s a simple matter. It can be done — one sentence, one line.”

Mr. Starmer’s official spokesman earlier this week said the UK government’s official position is not to pay reparations and ruled out an apology at the summit.

Members of the Commonwealth, comprised of 56 nations that were mostly former territories of the British empire, “want the conversation to start” but “there appears to be even a reluctance to have the conversation,” Mitchell told the BBC.

King Charles III is the ceremonial head of the Commonwealth, and 14 of its members, including several in the Caribbean. He is also attending the summit.

The British royal family, which benefited from the slave trade over centuries, has also faced calls to apologise.

CHOGM, which takes place every two years, will see Commonwealth leaders select a new secretary-general nominated from an African country, in line with regional rotations of the position.

All three likely candidates have called publicly for reparations for slavery and colonialism.