O’Marde says Coronation of King Charles was “vulgar”

“Extremely Vulgar”. That’s how Chairman of the Antigua and Barbuda Reparation Support Commission Ambassador Dorbrene O’Marde is describing the official coronation ceremony of King Charles III.

“I think it’s extremely vulgar. The British people sleeping on the streets, that country isn’t doing too well …”

O’Marde said the cost of putting the ceremony; a quarter of a billion dollars, was also outrageous”.

Royal fans lined the street overnight ensuring that they don’t miss one moment of the pump and flair while the organizers of the ceremony reportedly spent millions to make it a grand affair

“Take up a quarter billion pounds and spend it on what essentially is nothing but a feel-good exercise for those who still cling to this concept of a born monarch that you hold that position because of the accident of your birth and that a nation bows down to you, swears allegiance to you just based on who your mother and your father were. I think that’s vulgar,” he said during an interview with Observer Radio

But O’Marde who is also the Vice-Chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission said said there must be a complete rejection of the concept of lineage authority, that one has authority over this country and this population just by the nature of his birth.

“It is in this Caribbean that slavery received its most fierce challenge, culminating, of course, in 1803, 1804, of Haiti becoming the first black republic in this part of the world. We move forward after emancipation…We are responsible in many ways for dismantling the British empire through our struggles.

“We are now at a point where we must also advance those struggles as our forefathers but that does not end the struggle for political freedom, governance, and self-governance. It does not end with political independence…” he said.

O’Marde says perhaps now is the time for representatives from 12 Commonwealth countries to join forces to call on King Charles to acknowledge and apologize for the impacts and the ongoing legacy of British genocide and colonization.

“We’re asking essentially for an apology for the crimes that we have identified in our ten-point plan. And these are the crimes of the slave trade of slavery and the genocide of indigenous people. That is the reparation struggle. That is essentially what we’re asking for. We’re asking Britain to help our societies to recover from the historical wrongs that have been committed against us,” he added

Adding, “And as far as the reparations struggle is concerned, we find ourselves in a very strange position. We are demanding reparations from our head of state. And that situation needs to be clarified.

He said the newly crowned King should start the conversation that he

promised back when he was in Rwanda, “when he made a statement that the conversation about enslavement is a conversation whose time has come”

“We ask him to honor that statement and a statement that he has repeated in various forms over the last couple of years. And so it is that to continue the conversation, to discuss reparations, to heed and respond to the call of Caribbean heads of government, to sit at the table and have a negotiation and discussion about reparations.” O’Marde added

He said over 100 historical treasures were identified in several British museums.

“Two of the main ones being those from Jamaica and there also continues to be the question of the doctrine of discovery”, he added.

All this comes as Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gonsalves said that he is hoping to see his country try again to transition to become a Republic.

“It is something I am hoping to see consummated… the severing of the umbilical cord between our country and the British Monarchy. King Charles knows that… and he and I have discussed that in very amicable ways,” he said