Perspective: Royal Visit to Jamaica

March 27, 2022 | By Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie |

We saw the cruelty extended to George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, a white racist cop,  now a convicted criminal, no differently to the treatment meted out to shackled slaves as they were brutally held in insanitary conditions, in the hull of ships through the middle passage.

The shackled slaves did everything in that hull.

Many died from starvation, lack of medical care, disease, and downright brutality.

They also raped their female slaves and used them as breeders to keep their human stock replenished.

We therefore have no reason as descendants of shackled slaves to want to welcome brutal enslavers or their collaborators and beneficiaries of proceeds from slavery to Jamaica today.

Newspaper

A UK Newspaper has accused Lisa Hanna, MP for Southeastern St Ann of snobbing Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William. Lisa Hanna, a PNP Opposition Spokesperson On Foreign Trade, has denied that allegation.  We have no evidence one way or the other of her conduct or if she has been accused wrongly.

On the contrary, if the former Miss World Lisa Hanna, a black Jamaican chooses to snob a descendant who is the recipient of wealth earned off the backs of the enslaved, we have no good reason to condemn this Jamaican MP.   We honour freedom of conscience and expression in Jamaica.

Reparation

We need to get reparation or compensation for crimes committed against humanity committed by our former enslavers. For over 300 years the UK and their Royal Family have enjoyed wealth and what goes with it from slavery. Trusts have been set up to continue to earn interest to maintain their lifestyle.  The enslaved Jamaicans captured in Africa and transported to the West Indies have not gotten any settlement for the wrongs committed against them by the slave trade.

Prince Charles and now Prince William have both condemned acts of slavery, but have refused to apologize …. as did David Cameron.

We urgently need an apology and compensation in cash as we do wish to move on in good stead. PM Holness told Prince William so directly and most clearly.

David Cameron

Former UK PM David Cameron insulted Jamaicans in 2015 on a visit to Jamaica when while addressing a Joint Sitting of the Jamaican Parliament said inter alia:

“We condemn the atrocities of the past, but we should move on”

Further Commentary

Were I in Parliament as a MP or Senator I would have gotten up and politely walked out of the House. It was an insult of no mean order. Cameron’s family, based on well kept records, benefitted directly from the slave trade. The slave trade made the Cameron family wealthy.  Hon. David Cameron is a beneficiary of such slave inherited wealth.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is a poet, elegist, author and senior international journalist who writes for Vision Newspaper.