A few things to know about King Charles and the Caribbean

special edition of The Voice
September 2022 edition of The Voice
guest-edited by Prince Charles.

 

 

 

1. Prince Charles guest edited the Black British newspaper The Voice weeks before becoming King.

In a prescient headline, the paper spoke of a “shared vision for change”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. In another 2022 royal encounter with the Caribbean community, Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall made special guest appearances in an edition of the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. The Platinum Jubilee special programme led to some humorous encounters with Trinidad-born actor Rudolph Walker, who plays Patrick Trueman in the programme. The exchanges between Rudolph’s character and the royal couple was a joyous celebration of Trinidad rum.

 

 

3. Representing the Queen at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda in June, Prince Charles said that each Commonwealth member’s constitutional arrangement, as republic or monarchy, was purely a matter for each member country to decide. Giving his blessing to Commonwealth nations which become republics - following in the footsteps of 36 Commonwealth nations, including Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Dominica and Barbados in the Caribbean, he described the Commonwealth at CHOGM as a “free association of self-governing nations”.

 

 

4.The last Caribbean visit by Prince Charles was to Barbados, where he attended independence celebrations in November 2021.

Prince Charles at Barbados's independence ceremony in November 2021
Prince Charles attended Barbados's 2021
Independence/ Republican celebrations

Even before the bunting could go up for the Barbados celebrations, there is much talk about republicanism moves across the wider Caribbean’s remaining countries still retaining the British monarch as the head of state.

Caribbean Intelligence followed a 2021 discussion in which historians and constitutional experts assessed the path ahead for those Caribbean countries which wanted to replace the monarchy as their head of state.

 

 

You can keep up with Caribbean and diaspora news – royal and otherwise – on our Caribbean Intelligence news feed page.

 

 

 

By Debbie Ransome

 

For many in the Caribbean diaspora in Britain, Rudolph Walker is a national treasure. Not

 

 

Caribbean Intelligence review of Sweet Li Jie by David Dabydeen

Review by Debbie Ransome, Managing

Advertise with us