IN the last week of August, it was reported that a visit from the British Royal Family is taking place in October 2026. Such visits are at the expense of the host, and there are many reasons that this is completely inappropriate: from the history of slavery and colonization to the current issues of national concern; from the instability of the grid that should provide consistent, reliable electricity to the state of the roads. There is, importantly, the call for reparations—a regional demand that comes from collaborative work to develop the CARICOM Ten-Point Plan for Reparations, which starts with a formal apology.

There ought to be no entertaining of any representative of the empire responsible for the trafficking of human beings, enslavement, and the gross conditions that extended beyond abolition.

This country does not need, and would, in fact, suffer as a result of this visit. Many people continue to be enamored by the British Royal Family, seeing nothing wrong with its existence. For them, it’s somehow glamorous and even coveted, which can only be the viewpoint of people who refuse to acknowledge the history and the very real, persistent consequences of the inhumane, violent, capitalistic behavior that family.

This newspaper published commentary from residents of The Bahamas, many of which were disturbing. Many responses are, frankly, bewildering and embarrassing. One person said they were “thrilled” and expressed excitement about meeting people in the “Royal Family.”

Why?

Some suggested that receipt of international aid is somehow related to—even contingent on—taking on the burden of hosting the people who refuse to make formal apologies for the transatlantic trade in enslaved people, slavery, colonization, and the continued effects of these grave crimes. This visit has been conflated with “creating stronger diplomatic ties.” The ties do not need to be any stronger. The demand for reparations, however, needs to be more central to the relationship.

Another person said, “My reaction is just questioning, like, why? Why is he visiting? What’s the purpose? Didn’t we recently have one from, I think it’s his son, William, and his wife?” These are fair questions. The purpose of the visit needs to be made clear, along with the cost to the Bahamian people which, to be clear, should be zero dollars.

The Bahamas National Reparations Committee released a statement on the upcoming visit. It made excellent points with regard to this useless, expensive, demoralizing endeavor.

Struggling to survive, yet playing host?

The Bahamas National Reparations Committee said, “The truth is that this country is not well. Our power grid fails us. The cost of living grinds us down. Our health system carries the weight of a people who have never fully recovered from what was done to them. These are consequences. Consequences of chattel slavery. Consequences of colonization. Consequences of a system that broke up families, worked bodies to death, packed human beings into the holds of ships like cargo for weeks on open water, and sold them on arrival. A system that then paid the enslavers and not the enslaved, when it ended.”

The power imbalance is not accidental

One of the most jarring comments from a resident of The Bahamas pointed to the power dynamic between The Bahamas and the British Crown, but completely ignored the injustice. “It’s good,” they said, “to have ties to people with power.”

Why should a former colony look to a colonizer with googly eyes, admiring its power? That power is not inherent. It did not come from nowhere. It’s a result of the exploitation of this land, this people.

In its statement, The Bahamas National Reparations Committee noted, with regard to slavery, “The greatest beneficiary of that system was the British Crown[…] It was our ancestors who then endured more than a hundred years of colonialism so that the empire could continue to extract what it had not yet taken. That wealth built Britain. It did not build The Bahamas. This is Britain’s Black Debt.”

The Bahamas has suffered as a result of the actions of the British Crown and its refusal to make repair, despite consistent demands.

Institutions are complicit

“We must remove every institutional vestige of the Crown from our land, our governance, and our psyches. That is not a radical position. It is the next step of everything we say we believe about who we are. The next step in our march to a common loftier goal,” said The Bahamas National Reparations Committee.

Quoted directly from its press release, the committee calls on the British Government to:

1. Formally apologize for its role in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans and the colonization that followed;

2.  Commit to honest discussions with the governments of every nation that formed part of that empire;

3.          Understand that our desire is not to pass judgment, but to receive justice.

A Decade for Accelerate Action

We are now in the Second International Decade for People of African Descent as proclaimed on December 17, 2024. Then-Chair of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, Barbara Reynolds, said, “It is now time to turn the rhetoric into reality, the acknowledgment into answers and the apologies into action to address the unfinished business of racial justice. For reparatory justice to right historical wrongs. For environmental justice, for sustainable development and for digital justice to assure the future of all peoples.”

The Durban Declaration and Program of Action—the outcome from nine days of complex dialogues at the August 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance—has yet to be appropriately implemented.

The Durban Declaration acknowledged “that slavery and the slave trade, including the transatlantic slave trade, were appalling tragedies in the history of humanity not only because of their abhorrent barbarism but also in terms of their magnitude, organized nature and especially their negation of the essence of the victims, and further acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity and should always have been so, especially the transatlantic slave trade, and are among the major sources and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and that Africans and people of African descent, Asians and people of Asian descent and indigenous peoples were victims of these acts and continue to be victims of their consequence.”

Rather than wasting taxpayer dollars to play host to a family with a genocidal legacy, the Government of The Bahamas ought to address the issues of race and racism in this country. It needs to contribute to the end of the idea that racism does not exist in The Bahamas because the majority of the population is black. Racism is here, and it will be able to stay as long as it goes without confrontation. There are useful tools to facilitate this conversation, and there are practices that have been undertaken elsewhere to help people to face the truth of their histories and the connections to challenges of contemporary life.

The Durban Declaration is an excellent tool, as it names sources and causes of racism, preventative measures, and effective remedies, and it offers a program of action specific to Africans and people of African descent (as well as other groups including Indigenous Peoples, migrants, and refugees). It includes actions at the national and international levels, complete with strategies that include legal framework, international instruments, and engagement with civil society, the private section, and young people.

Key acknowledgements from the Durban Declaration include:

A. Colonialism led to racism and xenophobia

“We acknowledge the suffering caused by colonialism and affirm that, wherever and whenever it occurred, it must be condemned and its reoccurrence prevented. We further regret that the effects and persistence of these structures and practices have been among the factors contributing to lasting social and economic inequalities in many parts of the world today.”

B. Racisms affects women and girls differently

“We are convinced that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance reveal themselves in a differentiated manner for women and girls, and can be among the factors leading to a deterioration in their living conditions, poverty, violence, multiple forms of discrimination, and the limitation or denial of their human rights. We recognize the need to integrate a gender perspective into relevant policies, strategies and programmes of action against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in order to address multiple forms of discrimination”

C. Complete history is critical

“We emphasize the importance and necessity of teaching about the facts and truth of the history of humankind from antiquity to the recent past, as well as of teaching about the facts and truth of the history, causes, nature and consequences of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, with a view to achieving a comprehensive and objective cognizance of the tragedies of the past.”

D. Formal apologies are required

“With a view to closing those dark chapters in history and as a means of reconciliation and healing, we invite the international community and its members to honour the memory of the victims of these tragedies. We further note that some have taken the initiative of regretting or expressing remorse or presenting apologies, and call on all those who have not yet contributed to restoring the dignity of the victims to find appropriate ways to do so and, to this end, appreciate those countries that have done so;”

E. Bad actors are responsible for ending the harm

“We are aware of the moral obligation on the part of all concerned States and call upon these States to take appropriate and effective measures to halt and reverse the lasting consequences of those practices.”

The Durban Declaration affirmed the victims of human rights violations “should be assured of having access to justice, including legal assistance where appropriate, and effective and appropriate protection and remedies, including the right to seek just and adequate reparation or satisfaction for any damage suffered as a result of such discrimination, as enshrined in numerous international and regional human rights instruments, in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.”

F. National Human Rights Institutions are necessary

“We recognize the importance of independent national human rights institutions conforming to the Principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights[…] including ombudsman institutions, in the struggle against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, as well as for the promotion of democratic values and the rule of law. We encourage States, as appropriate, to establish such institutions and call upon the authorities and society in general in those countries where they are performing their tasks of promotion, protection and prevention to cooperate to the maximum extent possible with these institutions, while respecting their independence”

The effects of slavery and colonization are present in our daily lives in The Bahamas. A visit from the British Crown does nothing to improve our situation. In fact, it makes it worse by continuing the fairy tale for far too many Bahamians who are still willing—perhaps desperate—to believe in it, ignoring the political issues it complicates.

The power dynamic is the result of violence, and the wealth disparity is the result of the ultimate theft—land, people, culture, and natural resources. Hosting a person owing us this great debt is foolish, and it’s incongruent with the call for reparations, which remains necessary and only grows in urgency.