You are currently on a Caribbean royal tour through the Bahamas, Guyana, and Antigua and Barbuda. I understand that during this tour you will not issue a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, or address the role your own family played in it. You will instead express your “sorrow”, and this will make it easier for politicians to also dodge the question. Whether that is Kemi Badenoch calling an apology a “navel-gazing distraction”, or the prime minister, Andy Burnham, saying he would support an apology, while flatly opposing reparations.

Coincidentally, I’m also in the middle of a world tour for the English translation of my book, Jaguarman, a novel about how my enslaved Surinamese ancestors survived 300 years of hell on Earth. I travelled from Ghana to Indonesia to New York, when I was asked to respond to you, as soon as possible. That’s how it often goes in this strange story, I’ve noticed: people like you get centuries to find the right words, while we must scramble to respond to your actions. But, yes, I do have something to say.

Three........

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