Quit the Commonwealth

CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES need to quit the Commonwealth as well as ditch the monarch as head of state, British Barbadians have said.

As Jamaica, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda and the Bahamas all follow Barbados’s lead and move towards independence, questions are being raised about how much will really change unless those nations go further and leave the post-colonial Commonwealth club.

Marion Hinds, from Longsight, Manchester, who now lives in Leicester and regularly travels back to Barbados where her parents were born, told The Voice: “In order to have full independence we should be moving away from the Commonwealth too because isn’t this the purpose of why these countries became a republic in the first place to govern themselves.

“So why do they still feel the need to hang on to the hem strings of the Commonwealth, so they haven’t fully removed themselves yet?”

Coronation

The questions are being asked as British royalty gear up for the coronation of King Charles, pictured below, on May 6. There is growing frustration that “not much has changed” since Barbados removed the British Monarchy as its head of state, with British Bajans saying the idea of Caribbean islands “governing themselves” needs to be a clear strategy about what happens once the glitzy republic ceremonies are over.

Ms Hinds has been a paediatric nurse since 1999 and a specialist public health nurse since 2005. She said the move was “one of the first steps towards the process of recovering reparations for the human rights abuses and the pillaging of countries under colonialism”.

Sandra Gaskin moved to Barbados from the UK last November and claims Britain did not invest in the Caribbean country, which has left the Prime Minister Mia Mottley and President Sandra Mason with a lot of groundwork to do, before they can focus on other important issues.

She told The Voice: “They need to make sure they look after the citizens and not be influenced by the Chinese money, yes it’s needed as Britain has done noth-

By Sinai Fleary

ing over the years about investing in Barbados and the region.”

In the early 19th century, Haiti became the world’s first Black republic and the first independent Caribbean nation after overthrowing French colonial control.

The country has been credited for influencing other Caribbean and African nations to fight for independence from colonial powers.

Guyana became a republic in 1970, followed by Trinidad and Tobago in 1976, and Dominica also became a republic two years later.

In November 2021, Barbados became the first country to cut ties with the British Royal family in over 30 years, prompting a new republicanism movement across the region.

Jamaica recently announced its Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC) — which will facilitate the process to sever ties with Britain — signalling that republic status is on the horizon.

But for one leading campaign group, the move should have happened years ago.

Rosalea Hamilton is part of the Advocates Network Jamaica, which is a group of individuals and organisations that have committed to advocating around the issues of human rights.

Speaking to The Voice from Jamaica, she describes the idea of Jamaica moving towards republic status as an “old question.”

She said: “That is an old story, the times have always been right! Prior to independence, we ought not to have had a monarch as a head of state.”

Ms Hamilton said the bigger picture is about making “the people sovereign”, and listening to the voice of the majority of Jamaican people.

She added the process is not just a “fixed destination” but an on-going process of leading itself and making things better in the “day-to-day lives of our people”.

She said: “It’s about how do we create a governmental framework that can deliver freedom, self-determination, and human rights for the Jamaican people.”

Ms Hamilton said cutting ties with Britain will also help dismantle colonial mindsets that still remain in some sectors of the country.

“It’s just another phase of the struggle for freedom, self-determination and humanity. The issue with who we are as African people is still on the table.

“We still look in the mirror and we don’t see and we don’t feel proud about who we are. We still think it’s better if we are lighter skinned than accepting our black skin.”

According to Ms Hamilton, the legacy of slavery and colonialism is still present in Jamaica and exists in the “intergenerational cycle of violence”.

She describes Jamaican society as being “bred in a violent institutional arrangement of slavery and those sociological and psychological realities of violence and abuse continue today”.

She also noted that the education system and curriculum desperately needs to be decolonised, so the history and significance of Jamaican heroes like Marcus Garvey, can be taught to the next generation — rather than a strong emphasis on Britain.

Ms Hamilton stressed the colonial mindset is not just rooted in the curriculum but also extends to the school uniform policy of most Jamaican schools, which limits students “in their capacity to express themselves including in how they wear their hair”.

She said the hair and uniform policies are “policing” Jamaican students and the stringent hair policies that ban dreadlocks are racist and discriminatory and need to be reformed.

CALL FOR ACTION:

Marion Hinds, far left, wants Barbados to move away from the Commonwealth; left, Roselea Hamilton believes Jamaica shouldn’t have had a monarch as head of state prior to independence

“That’s our hair, our natural hair, there are no limits to how white people carry their hair, why should we limit how we carry our hair?” she asked.

Letter

The Network started in 2021, and last year they wrote an open letter to Prince William and Kate condemning their visit to Jamaica during the COVID-19 pandemic and using “scarce taxpayers’ dollars” to pay for the cost of visit.

Since then, awareness about the legacy of the British Royal family, slavery and colonialism in Jamaica and the Caribbean has grown, but Ms Hamilton says more education is needed.

“There are Jamaicans that are just learning that the Royal family owned, trafficked, enslaved and profited from the institution of slavery — it’s never taught in school. Jamaicans are hearing for the first time that enslavers were compensated, that is not something you learn.”

Ms Hamilton insists more public education is needed so citizens know how to approach a potential referendum on the subject of removing King Charles III as Jamaica’s head of state.

Members of the Rastafari movement in the past have used their voice to call for reparations and for Jamaica to become fully independent.

“This is our country, it belongs to us and we have to shape and determine its future,” she added.