London may be plastered with posters praising the Queen’s life, but not everyone sees royalty with rose-colored glasses. The metropolis is now home to expatriates from several countries bruised by British colonization and slavery. Nationals of Jamaica, one of the last countries still linked to the monarchy, increasingly dream of doing away with the symbol of the crown.
A reggae beat fills the atmosphere as you enter London’s Brixton. It is in this “Little Jamaica” south of the Thames that tens of thousands of Jamaicans settled after the Second World War.
Nearly 800,000 descendants of this Caribbean island now live in the UK.
One of them, Ordene Simpson, wearing white rasta braids, was busy preparing for a neighborhood party last Saturday by installing loudspeakers that would spit out revolutionary lyrics a few minutes later. The centuries of English slavery have marked his country too much for him not to want the end of the monarchy.
“I mean no disrespect to the Queen, but when I think of the monarchy, it’s outrage. They took away our dignity for centuries. We are their subjects. They can study us. But we are not guinea pigs on which they can experiment! »
Jamaica has lived under the yoke of royal powers since the time of Christopher Columbus. The capital, Kingston, was a hub of slavery under English rule. It is estimated that around 600,000 Africans were forcibly displaced there.
“They never treated us fairly. We got here [au Royaume-Uni] driven by poverty,” recalls Ordene Simpson.
A little further in this district filled with colorful shops, we come across “Mme Brixton”. She has been selling her household products there for thirty years after leaving her native Jamaica. She doesn’t want to give her real name, but willingly shares her expatriate vision. “It is not the late queen who is responsible, it is those before her. But what they did to us in the past… we forgive, but we don’t forget,” she said. She launches into a diatribe about all the misdeeds of foreign powers against her people. “America is a republic, and it is worse. »
Mme Brixton still considers itself English, and therefore attached by default to the British crown. “People there [en Jamaïque] have a different perception from here. Here, we understand things that they do not understand. […] If you don’t like the rules here, go away! »
She is still of the opinion that the crown must repair its wrongs, but not by money. “Who are they going to give this money to? In government? They’ll put it in their back pocket. They should build schools, hospitals, roads. »
A monarchy that does not apologize
The last royal visit to Jamaica dates back to March. Prince William and his wife, Kate, had spoken of their “deep sorrow” over slavery, but without apologizing. This passage had provoked demonstrations in the country.
The Jamaican Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, then explicitly demanded from the princely couple the “independence” of his country from the crown in addition to demanding reparations.
“But Jamaica is, as you will see, a very proud country…and we are moving forward,” he said. And we intend… to realize our true ambition to be an independent, fully developed and prosperous country. »
Jamaicans, who have had their own government since 1962, also seem to want to turn their backs on the monarchy. Nearly 56% of them agreed last July to abandon the symbol of the king, according to a poll published in a local newspaper. This proportion was 44% in 2012.
I mean no disrespect to the queen, but when I think of the monarchy, it’s outrage. They took away our dignity for centuries. We are their subjects. They can study us.
Barbados is the last former British colony to have repudiated the monarchy at the head of their state in 2021. The neighboring islands of Antigua and Barbuda are also weighing the idea.
Too long a mourning
Jamaica’s prime minister has declared a 12-day mourning period on the death of Queen Elizabeth II. “One day is fine. But twelve is way too much,” observes another Anglo-Jamaican, who calls himself “Bionic”. Leaning on his reggae CD store, he chats with loyal customers about their Monday day off.
“According to my religion, all humans are equal under God. When I see a king, I see a human. He becomes a diplomat. This is not a good time to talk about the future of the monarchy in the West Indies.
The silence of the various Jamaican associations in the United Kingdom called by The duty to comment confirms this annoyance.
In Brixton, however, the breeding ground remained fertile for resentment of the British crown. Posters with the slogan “Down with the Monarchy” are plastered on the walls of the neighborhood. A demonstration to that effect is scheduled for Monday.
This report was funded with support from the International Journalism Fund Transat-The duty.