While the British press remains fixated on Meghan Markle’s latest As Ever jam release and whatever tea Prince Harry happens to be drinking, more serious royal business is taking place in London.
According to The Guardian, a Jamaican delegation made the long journey to deliver a landmark slavery reparations petition to King Charles III, Jamaica’s current head of state. But the King was unavailable to receive it, with Buckingham Palace confirming that Charles is spending his summer break at Balmoral in Scotland.
Jamaican Culture Minister Olivia Grange arrived in Britain with members of the country’s National Council on Reparations to formally submit the petition on Monday, September 7.
Jamaica is not asking Charles to personally determine whether Britain owes reparations. Instead, the country wants him to refer three key legal questions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council: whether Britain’s enslavement of Africans in Jamaica was lawful under English law, whether it breached international law, and whether Britain now has a legal duty to provide redress.
A £7.6 billion figure has previously been linked to Jamaica’s wider reparations campaign, but Grange emphasized that Monday’s petition does not contain a specific financial demand. She said Jamaica continues to face structural harm created by centuries of slavery and colonial rule, affecting areas including education, healthcare, and the country’s ability to respond to modern crises.
Grange described the effort as a possible route toward a “long outstanding settlement for the hundreds of years of the most horrific abuse that our African ancestors endured.”
Charles’ absence has already drawn criticism, largely because he is not simply a visiting foreign dignitary in this situation. Technically, he remains King of Jamaica. Although the Caribbean nation gained independence from Britain in 1962, it retained the British monarch as its head of state.
Graham Smith, CEO of the anti-monarchy group Republic, accused Charles of avoiding an issue directly tied to the institution he leads.
“For now, he remains the King of Jamaica; he has a responsibility to address these concerns, instead of choosing to go on holiday to Scotland,” Smith said. He also pointed out that the royal family has never issued a formal apology for its historical links to slavery. “Just one word would be a start—sorry.”
Those connections go beyond symbolism. Research published in 2023 found that Charles’ royal ancestors profited from slavery. Britain also abstained earlier this year when 123 countries supported a United Nations resolution recognizing chattel slavery as the gravest crime against humanity and calling for reparatory justice.
The dispute comes as Jamaica considers cutting one of its remaining major constitutional ties to Britain. Legislation introduced in 2024 would remove the monarch as head of state and replace him with a Jamaican president.
Grange’s delegation is also taking its campaign beyond the palace. Meetings with British lawmakers are planned, alongside discussions at the British Museum about the repatriation of Jamaican artifacts taken during the colonial era.
“We may have different history, different heritage, different skin color, but it’s about humanity,” Grange said.
