King's Caribbean tour will not shy away from 'darkest days of our past'
In recent years, the King has expressed his "personal sorrow" at the UK's role in slavery.
King Charles’s forthcoming Caribbean tour will not avoid “the darkest days of our past,” Buckingham Palace has said.
During the trip, the King is expected to face fresh demands to apologise for the UK’s role in the transatlantic slave trade and to answer questions about possible reparations - compensation from countries that took part in the slave trade.
The King and Queen Camilla are due to visit Antigua and Barbuda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, with stops also planned in the Bahamas and Guyana during the eight-day tour beginning on October 27.
According to PA news agency, it is understood the government has not advised the King to apologise or to offer reparations.
The King has previously voiced his “personal sorrow” over the UK’s role in slavery.
A palace spokesperson said: “There are important discussions taking place in various fora about colonial legacy and the intergenerational impact of the transatlantic trade in enslaved persons.
“While these are primarily matters for Governments to address, His Majesty’s previous statements on them have been unequivocal, describing them as an ‘atrocity’ which ‘forever stains our history’.”
The palace said the tour will “principally be oriented to the vibrant present and promising future of each country”.
A number of African and Caribbean countries have called for a formal apology and reparations from nations that profited from the transatlantic slave trade.
In September, Jamaica’s government said it would present a petition on slavery reparations to the King, who is the country’s head of state.
Olivia Grange, the culture minister, said the petition would ask the King to refer three questions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council over the legality of the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica.
Last month, a Downing Street spokesperson said the transatlantic slave trade was “abhorrent” but that the UK’s position is that it does not pay reparations.