By Isabel Infantes
ST JOHN’S, Antigua and Barbuda, Nov 3 (Reuters) – King Charles told Commonwealth leaders on Tuesday his greater understanding of the horrors of slavery had made him more determined to address past wrongs, but they needed to look to the future and ensure “evil need not have the last word”.
The run up to the gathering of the 56 member states, which comprise mostly former British colonies, has been dominated by talk of whether Britain should apologise or pay reparations for the role it played in the transatlantic slave trade.
While neither the king nor Britain has so far given such an apology or discussed paying reparations, both Charles and new prime minister Andy Burnham have talked of using the Commonwealth to address modern needs, by providing support on climate change, education and health.
Burnham has also gone further than other prime ministers by saying he was open to Britain apologising for slavery and officials were holding talks with national leaders at the summit in Antiga and Barbuda to discuss what form that could take.
“We cannot change the actions of those who came before us,” Charles, the head of the Commonwealth, told leaders in his opening speech. “We can, however, learn from the past.
“The transatlantic trade in enslaved persons still casts a shadow over these islands and other members of our Commonwealth. As I have said before, that shameful chapter of history is one that fills my heart with horror and my soul with the most profound personal sorrow.”
Charles said the more he had “furthered my own understanding of the issues, through listening, learning and looking”, the more committed he had become to finding ways for the different countries to build modern partnerships that can address the wrongs of the past.
He listed access to education, jobs and opportunities, as well as intra-Commonwealth trade and climate change resilience as ways of helping those “who struggle against hardship and disadvantage”.
Burnham has also said he would like to discuss debt resets for smaller Commonwealth nations and has announced a £40 million ($54 million) investment into critical infrastructure in the Caribbean over the next three years.
“For, as any sailor navigating the seas knows, we cannot command the winds, least of all where the winds of yesterday have delivered us – but we can choose how we set our sail,” Charles said.
(Reporting by Isabel Infantes; writing by Kate Holton; additional reporting by Yoruk Bahceli Editing by Nia Williams and Michael Holden)
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