THE 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) opens in St John’s, Antigua, today amid a deepening rift over slavery and reparation, with Caribbean leaders welcoming British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s openness to a formal apology for chattel slavery but firmly rejecting his dismissal of reparation as “not the right answer”, insisting that reparatory justice must remain at the heart of the talks.

Burnham’s position in an op-ed for The Guardian newspaper in England, days before his arrival in Antigua and Barbuda for the summit, was immediately seen by Dr Ralph Gonsalves, senior advisor and elder for The Repair Campaign, as Britain yielding to mounting international pressure to negotiate.

“They coming to the table, but they coming kicking and screaming,” Gonsalves, who served as prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines for 24 years, told the Jamaica Observer on Saturday.

“It’s a positive move, but we have to understand that this is only the commencement of the journey, and that they are coming kicking and screaming,” Gonsalves said.

At the same time, he said he expects that the tone of the discussions at the summit would be “respectful, frank, honest, and at times robust”.

GONSALVES… it’s a positive move, but we have to understand that this is only the commencement of the journey, and that they are coming kicking and screaming

Gonsalves said that while slavery and reparation were not formally on the CHOGM agenda, there is no doubt that the issues will be raised by Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders, as well as their counterparts from Africa and India.

He pointed to the United Nations General Assembly adoption of a resolution on March 25, 2026, declaring the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement as “the gravest crime against humanity”, arguing that the matter had assumed global significance.

“This matter has gone beyond us. It is central to us, but it has gone beyond us. It’s the same way that there’s a tribal war between two sets of Slavic peoples
— Russians and Ukrainians
— but it has global implications,” Gonsalves told the Sunday Observer.

On Saturday, Caricom Chairman Prime Minister Philip J Pierre outlined in a statement that the regional bloc was ready to engage with the United Kingdom, but rejected Burnham’s position that reparation was not “the right answer”.

Burnham, who will attend the November 1-4 CHOGM, has said he is “open” to listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of Britain for its role in the slave trade, but ruled out considering financial reparation.

“I do not believe that is the right answer,” he wrote in The Guardian. “I do not think that British people today can be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part.”

BURNHAM… I do not think that British people today can be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part

Burnham instead offered a “structured dialogue” with those affected by the slave trade, saying, “Having these difficult conversations to safeguard the Commonwealth for the future is the right thing to do. It is also the patriotic thing to do. Not just because it is in our interests, but because the Britain I believe in is confident, decent, and brave. We led the world in abolishing slavery
— and we can show leadership again today.

“I want to express my sorrow and regret for the pain and suffering of so many millions and to recognise the way it still shapes our world today,” he added.

In his response, Pierre, the prime minister of St Lucia, said Burnham’s expression of personal sorrow and regret for the suffering caused by slavery and its continuing effects, together with his willingness to consider a formal apology on behalf of the British State, represented a significant development.

“No British prime minister has gone this far before. It would be wrong of us not to say so, and we welcome it in the spirit in which it appears to be offered,” Pierre said. “For more than a decade, this community has asked for exactly such a dialogue. We are ready to engage.”

However, the Caricom chair said the community did not accept the argument that reparations were inappropriate or that Britain’s responsibility had ended because present-day citizens had not personally participated in slavery.

“Reparatory justice has never been about individual guilt. It is about the responsibility of states and institutions
— and that responsibility does not expire with the passing of generations,” he said.

Pierre pointed to Britain’s role in legislating for, protecting, and profiting from slavery, as well as its decision to compensate enslavers at Emancipation while formerly enslaved people received no land, wealth, or compensation.

He noted that the loan raised to compensate enslavers was still being repaid by British taxpayers until February 2015.

The consequences of slavery, he said, continue to be felt across the Caribbean through chronic disease, inequalities in education and opportunity, economies shaped by extraction, national debt, and vulnerability to economic and climate shocks.

Pierre said a formal apology would be an important first step, but argued that it must be accompanied by practical measures to address the lasting effects of slavery.

He pointed to Caricom’s 10-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice, which includes a formal apology, public health, education and training, cultural heritage restitution and reconnection, psychological rehabilitation, technology and innovation, entrepreneurship, debt cancellation, monetary compensation, and decolonisation.

He said the proposed dialogue must allow for discussion of every element of the plan, as well as reparation for the genocide of Indigenous Peoples and the harm caused to people brought from India and China to sustain colonial systems.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua — Britain’s King Charles III upon his arrival at VC Bird International Airport in St. John’s, on October 30, 2026, stands alongside the governor general of Antigua and Barbuda, Sir Rodney Williams, during a welcoming ceremony. (Photo: AFP)

“A dialogue that begins by placing reparations outside the room cannot be a complete dialogue,” Pierre said.

The Caricom chair also acknowledged the United Kingdom’s initiative, to be led by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, to restructure the debt of the poorest Commonwealth countries.

He said the community would examine the proposal seriously but cautioned that most Caricom member states were classified as middle- or high-income economies and were routinely excluded from concessional relief despite their vulnerability to climate and economic shocks.

“Any initiative that is to be meaningful for our region must measure vulnerability, not income alone,” he said, adding that debt relief could not be used as a substitute for reparatory justice.

Pierre said the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Reparations, led by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, and the Caricom Reparations Commission, chaired by Sir Hilary Beckles, were prepared to work with the British Government on the terms, agenda, and timetable for structured dialogue.

He said he looked forward to meeting Burnham in Antigua and Barbuda.

“Our ancestors did not receive justice in their lifetime. We owe it to them, and to the generations who will come after us, to see this work through
— with dignity, with patience, and with resolve,” Pierre said.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness and Barbados’s head of Government Mottley also responded to Burnham’s comments.

“Jamaica takes note of news that the United Kingdom is now willing to engage meaningfully on the matter of reparatory justice,” Holness said in a statement.

“We are encouraged to learn that Prime Minister Burnham and his Government are open to listening to calls for a formal apology for chattel enslavement. We have always been open to having full and meaningful dialogue on this important issue. We welcome this development, coming in the wake of our legal petition which is now before the Privy Council. We look forward to the discussions and actions that will follow,” Holness said.

Mottley said her Government, “recognises and appreciates Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s acknowledgement that the transatlantic slave trade was a brutal and barbaric violation of human beings, and his offer of a structured dialogue, including his openness to a formal apology”.

PIERRE… pointed to Britain’s role in legislating for, protecting, and profiting from slavery, as well as its decision to compensate enslavers at Emancipation while formerly enslaved people received no land, wealth, or compensation

She said Barbados is committed to that dialogue and will take part in good faith as a member of Caricom.

“We also thank former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer who, in Samoa in 2024, joined fellow Commonwealth leaders in agreeing that the time had come for a meaningful conversation on reparatory justice. That decision opened the door to the process now before us,” Mottley said.

Stating that her country speaks on this matter with a particular memory, Mottley said that in 1661, under English colonial authority, the first comprehensive slave code in the English-speaking world was regrettably passed in Barbados.

“It defined African men, women, and children as non-human property and became the model for codes across the region and beyond. That system was built by law and enforced by the State,” she said.

“Dialogue matters because we are not yet on the same page on every element. On reparations in particular, our views differ, and we will say so plainly and respectfully. Honest disagreement on some questions should not hold back progress on the many others where we can readily agree,” Mottley added.

She thanked Burnham and his Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband “for breaking new ground and recognising that this is the right thing and the moral thing to do by ensuring that we move to the next stage of engagement on this difficult and emotional issue”.

Gonsalves, too, pointed to the importance of dialogue as he recalled that in 2013 when he took the matter of reparation to Caricom all his colleagues were supportive.

“We set up the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Reparations, we set up the Caricom Reparations Commission. We asked that national reparations commissions be set up in every country; we had the 10 Point Plan being devised and approved in 2014, and the show was on the road, so to speak. But some people said, ‘Man, this thing is a mirage, this is a fool’s errand,’ and so forth. But those of us who understood this issue, we knew,” Gonsalves said.

“Now Britain is saying they want to have a structured conversation and in that structured conversation, he’s open to the question of the apology, and to deal with matters looking forward in a number of areas
— debt relief, appropriate funding for this, that, and the other; and he recognised the horrors of slavery, and all the rest of it. So the British Government has come from a position of no apology to one where we will have this structured conversation,” Gonsalves told the Sunday Observer, adding that he expects “other things will emerge in the structured conversation”.

“So, they’re coming to the table kicking and screaming, but coming nevertheless,” he emphasised.

On Friday Britain’s King Charles III, who is on a Caribbean tour, arrived in Antigua where, as the head of the Commonwealth family of nations, he will preside over the four-day summit.