The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG


Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net 


KING Charles III greeted Bahamians in their own dialect yesterday, then told a Clifford Park youth rally it was “only right” to acknowledge “the great suffering and injustices of the past” on the same ground where he first watched the Bahamian flag raised in 1973.


Before he could begin his nine-minute speech, a spectator shouted: “We love you, King!” 

The 77-year-old monarch then opened with: “I reach. Amen.” 

The greeting, Bahamian for “I’ve arrived”, tickled the crowd of mostly schoolchildren and Bahamians watching from home.

Moments later, he turned serious, telling the crowd that some of the best of Bahamian culture “was born out of darkness”.


“I say transforming because we know that some of what is best in Bahamian culture today, the most joyful, the most hopeful, the most bright, was born out of darkness,” he said.


“It is only right that we should acknowledge the great suffering and injustices of the past in these islands and beyond, even as we rejoice in the successes of the present and build new opportunities for the future. I know that leaders of the governments of affected Commonwealth countries will be discussing these matters in Antigua and Barbuda next week.”


He stopped short of an apology for slavery, which Buckingham Palace had said before the tour he would not offer.


Much of the speech, however, was nostalgic.


“I am delighted to be back here at Clifford Park, in which I have such happy memories of representing my mother, Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, at the Independence celebrations in 1973,” he said. 

“I can hardly believe that it has been 53 years since I stood here and watched the Bahamian flag raised for the very first time.”


He recalled “attending no less than three, three independence balls in one night, and dancing with Dame Marguerite”, the wife of then Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling.


He drew more delight from the crowd when, praising Junkanoo, he name-checked three of its biggest rival groups, the Valley Boys, the Saxons Superstars and One Family.


“Now I have a feeling it is at this point that the prime minister will want me to declare an allegiance for the Valley, maybe the Saxons, or perhaps even One Family,” he said, as the prime minister and others watching laughed.


The King had landed at Lynden Pindling International Airport shortly after 4pm aboard an aircraft bearing the name “United Kingdom”. 

Dressed in a light grey suit and lavender tie, he slipped on sunglasses against the afternoon sun and stepped onto a red carpet, where Governor General Cynthia “Mother” Pratt, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis, in a purple tie, and other officials waited to greet him. 

After the national anthem, he inspected the guard of honour, then waved to onlookers as his convoy pulled away, past spectators who lined the route to Clifford Park.

It was a very different arrival from his first visit in 1973, when, as a 24-year-old Prince of Wales serving in the Royal Navy, he sailed into Nassau Harbour aboard the frigate HMS Minerva to represent his mother at the Independence celebrations.

Yesterday’s arrival began a nine-day Caribbean tour. 

After The Bahamas, the King will make a state visit to Guyana before travelling to Antigua and Barbuda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which runs from November 1 to 4.


At the rally, which also featured spoken-word performances by young people, the King said he wished it had not taken so long to return, but said the Commonwealth was a “very big and extensive association”. 

He warned that low-lying island nations were particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and other climate threats, and urged young Bahamians to take responsibility for building a sustainable future, pointing to more than 50 years of his own work with young people across the Commonwealth, including in The Bahamas.


Closing with a nod to both the national anthem, March On, Bahamaland, and the country’s longtime tourism slogan, he said: “So today, I can only invite you to take up the sacred task to play your part in the way that you build for yourselves and your own descendants truly sustainable futures. In the way you hold steady sunward, you have the chance to show the world how it truly is better in The Bahamas.”


He ended his speech with: “March on Bahamaland.”


Among the crowd was Sherial Mortimer, who was at Clifford Park for the Independence celebrations in 1973 as a 12-year-old junior high school student. Her great-grandchild took part in yesterday’s welcome.


“I feel so good because he took the time to come and check on our little nation, and not only for a couple of hours. He came here for days,” she said. 

“The most important thing I think about it is he is concerned about our youths. He looks like he wanted to be with the youth, which is so important.”


Robert Sadowski, an American who has lived in The Bahamas since 2013 and whose mother-in-law is of British descent, came to watch his daughter perform for the King.


“She was nervous, but they practised really well and put in the hard work, and it was an amazing performance I thought so far,” he said.


Not everyone shared the enthusiasm. Shavanda Rolle said The Bahamas should move away from the Crown.


“I feel as though we don’t need to be under the king anymore. We need to just be under The Bahamas and not under the Commonwealth of Nations,” she said. 

“Because what purpose is it serving The Bahamas here? Like I look around our country today. We still have people struggling.”


She said the system “trickles down to the governor general, the prime minister”, and that the country should be investing more in itself.