Updated on March 24, 2022 at 12 noon ET.
During a dinner hosted by the Governor-General of Jamaica on Wednesday night, Prince William condemned and denounced slavery in Jamaica, calling it “abhorrent” and expressing “profound sorrow” over slavery in the Caribbean country, according to CNN.
While speaking at the dinner Prince Williams said, “I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history,” according to CNN.
He continued, “I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent, and it should never have happened.”
The day before his apology, anti-monarchy protesters organized in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, to demand an apology from Great Britain, according to CNN.
Citizens in Belize protested the royals’ visit to their country so much so that the Royals canceled their planned Saturday trip to a cacao farm.
Two weeks ago, Prince William also received some criticism from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, Bernice King, for his controversial remarks on the Ukraine War in which he said that war is “alien” to Europe.
Prince William and his wife Kate have been on a week-long tour of the Caribbean, with planned stops at Belize and the Bahamas to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee year, the 70th anniversary of her coronation.
In a letter signed by more than 100 Jamaica leaders, it demanded an apology and slave reparations from Great Britain which once colonized the Caribbean country.
It read, “We see no reason to celebrate 70 years of the ascension of your grandmother to the British throne because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, have perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind.”
The letter continued, “During her 70 years on the throne, your grandmother has done nothing to redress and atone for the suffering of our ancestors that took place during her reign and/or during the entire period of British trafficking of Africans, enslavement, indentureship and colonization.”
In August, Jamaica will mark 60 years of independence from Britain and on Wednesday, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Prince William and Kate that the country plans on “moving on” so they can truly become independent, according to CNN.
There are some in the country who are hoping to use this moment to transition the country to a republic.
From CNN:
“Jamaica is as you would see a country that is very proud of its history, very proud of what we have achieved and we are moving on, and we intend to attain in short order and fulfil our true ambition as an independent, developed, prosperous country,” Holness said.
“There are issues here which are, as you would know, unresolved. But your presence gives an opportunity for those issues to be placed in context, put front and center, and to be addressed as best as we can,” the prime minister added.