Bahamas Prime Minister Says King’s Actions Reflect a Small Step Toward Reparative Justice
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Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis said the monarch’s charitable programmes amount to a limited form of reparative action, stressing that reparations go beyond cash and include acknowledgment, education and training. He also said any move to make the Bahamas a republic would have to be decided by the public in a referendum.
Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis told Sky News that King Charles III is already offering a modest “form of repair” for the legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade through initiatives such as the King’s Trust scholarships for Commonwealth students. Davis said reparations are not only about money, but also about recognition, education and training as essential first steps toward justice.
“For me, repair and reparation is not absolutely money, simply, money,” Davis said, adding that financial compensation can be difficult for governments to contemplate.
He said he understood the difficulty the British government faces in considering large-scale financial reparations and noted that the King acts on the advice of his ministers. Davis argued that the monarch’s scholarship programme could reasonably be seen as a reparative measure, even if it falls far short of what many would consider full accountability.
When asked about removing the monarch as head of state, Davis said the decision belongs to the Bahamian people and would require a referendum, which he described as “agnostic” but “open to it” if the public decides. He said the country has moved forward since independence in 1973, while acknowledging that views on becoming a republic remain divided among citizens.
The comments came after the King’s two-day visit to the Bahamas, the first leg of his Commonwealth tour that will conclude at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua, where slave-trade reparations will be discussed.