Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex have cancelled part of their upcoming royal tour of the Caribbean at short notice, and that cancellation includes Grenada.
The news broke on several online media platforms including the Independent that the couple will no longer be visiting Grenada as part of a six-day trip – scheduled to begin on Friday – in celebration of the Queen’s platinum jubilee.
According to the article the decision was made following consultation with the government of Grenada and on the advice of the governor-general.
GBN has since confirmed via Press Secretary Philomena Robertson that a mutual agreement was reached by both parties.
The changed plans come days after fresh details emerged regarding Britain’s role in the enslavement of Black people in its former colony.
Research commissioned by the Bank of England in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests revealed that ownership of two plantations and 599 people in Grenada was transferred to the financial institution in the early 1770s.
The names of the 599 enslaved people can be viewed at a free exhibition, launched last week, at the bank’s museum in central London.
Though the Bank of England has previously apologized for its historical links to the slave trade, the revelation that it directly owned Black people has caused upset among the Caribbean diaspora.
In the 1770s, two plantations in Grenada, and their enslaved workforce, were offered to the Bank as security on a loan made to a business called Alexander & Sons. The business soon went bankrupt, giving the Bank a stake in the plantations by default.
Chairman of the Grenada National Reparations Committee, Arley Gill, has been heralding the call for reparations for Grenada.
Ambassador Gill has since addressed the Bank of England’s exhibit noting that it is a reaffirmation of the exploitation of Grenada as a colony by Great Britain and its institutions and an urgent call to intensify the fight for reparations.
