Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, 6:28 by Written By Denis Chabrol
by GHK Lall
King Charles III is poised to set foot on this former colonial-suffused soil. May the best in Guyanese hospitality be extended to him and his retinue. Now, I mop my brow. It’s getting hotter and hotter.
A man has slapped me, flogged me, chained me, spat upon me, seized me from my home, terrorised the women, arrested the children. Yet, he comes with a thin smile and a clammy palm to cross my threshold. He calls himself a friend. Should I embrace him? I speak as one of the millions that perished, that struggled and suffered, that were tortured and maimed. Should my descendants be forgiving of the royal descendant of a royal line that disrupted and savaged my line? My line to humanity. My line to life. My line to that place of being an equal among men. My descendants should forgive. For that is godly. In fact, the central attribute of the god that was taught to me against my will by my former masters. Mercy, grace, peace. Let those be. Even if this regal descendant cannot have the decency, cannot find the smallest degree of humanity in himself, to say three words. Not I love you. But simply: I am sorry. We who know better, having traveled through minefield and tripwire, the overseer’s lash and the horse’s trample, must still say our own three words: I forgive you. We should have the majesty of rising above King Charles III and leave him to live with the memory of the savagery of his no apology opportunity forfeited.
I shall not tarnish this painful homage to my ancestors and those of the Black race that reared me. Today, I shall speak of those who refuse because they still see Africans and Indians as rubbish. Or, more sharply, what reinforces that sense of white superiority. If that’s the sole remaining jewel in King Charles III’s crown, let him have it. But I urge my fellow Guyanese to be of two receptions on this occasion of a royal visit. At the official level, Pres Ali is encouraged to represent the best that Guyana and Guyanese have to offer. At the citizen level, let us all stand as silent silhouettes to honor the passage of the millions that succumbed to the most bestial afflictions that man has ever inflicted on man. Like Banquo’s ghost in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, let that silence, those accusing shadows, be the greeting that haunts King Charles III.
He lives in the lap of luxury off the blood and tears of forebears long gone. He is a prime beneficiary of the pain of peoples subject to the worst of brutalities that could be conjured. War was declared against a people, and the most terrible atrocities were committed. Apologies and remorse could be rightly expressed for the Jewish Holocaust that claimed six million. But not a word of regret can form itself in the mind, can force its way past the lips, can be said so that it can be heard for 15 million that went down into the ocean or on the plantation. It seems that there are gradations of men. Like eggs in the supermarket, or fruits on the stand, there is what’s accepted, there’s what’s rejected.
King Charles III should be able to shake Pres Ali’s hand with a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eye. But what about his disposition when his line advances and there is Prime Minister Mark Phillips and Minister Juan Edghill? An apology may entail admission of some responsibility. But in the face of the defiance of no apology, it must be that Darwin’s Natural Selection just went into reverse gear. No apology signifies clinging onto inhumanity. No apology represents barbarity at its most nauseating, at its infuriatingly lowest, and its unutterably vilest. Thus, a king condemns himself to the crown of low commoner. King Charles III has to follow the counsel of his handlers and advisers. He must also learn and grow into that role that is more than a king. He must be a man.
Today, I write of the abomination of no apology. I couldn’t even get to reparation. Welcome to Guyana, Charles. Arise from the knees. Take the place I reserved, if only to touch the warmth of men of goodwill.
