Prince Harry Faces Diplomatic Test In Jamaica

Jamaicans angry about the enslavement and brutal treatment of their ancestors by the British have objected to Prince Harry's forthcoming visit to the Caribbean Realm.

Verene Shepherd, professor of history at the University of the West Indies, told Sky News: "In 1962 we had a kind of political separation. But decolonisation is not complete and Britain needs to make amends.

"There has been no settlement of the debt owed for the capture, enslavement and brutality of British on Jamaicans and our ancestors, and so I'm sorry, I object."

Prince Harry will fly to Jamaica from the Bahamas on the third leg of a Diamond Jubilee Caribbean Tour on behalf of the Queen, his grandmother.

His first stop was Belize, where he visited an ancient Mayan temple and palace and laid a wreath for British soldiers at Price Barracks.

His final destination is Brazil, but before that comes Jamaica as the country celebrates 50 years of independence from Britain.

It is also a year in which Jamaica's newly-elected Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has promised to cut ties with the monarch in favour of establishing the island nation as a republic.

Speaking exclusively to Sky News at a reggae concert in the capital Kingston to mark the 50th anniversary of independence, Jamaica's tourism minister said: "The Prime Minister's made it very clear she loves the Queen.

"British-Jamaica relations will not suffer as a result, it's just time has come for Jamaica to stand on its own two feet."

When it comes to Jamaican royalty, there is no bigger symbol than reggae legend Bob Marley.

Jacqueline Lynch-Stewart, of the Bob Marley Foundation, said: "I'm of the view that it is time to have our own symbol to look to, a symbol born and bred here in Jamaica.

"We need our own head of state now, and it is not disrespecting the royal family or the Queen, it is just part of our growth and development as a nation."

Perhaps the most awkward moment of the Prince's tour will come when he meets Prime Minister Simpson Miller at King's House, the home of the Governor General.

The prime minister's goal is a bold one - but one which appears to have little support on Jamaica's streets, where the main concern is not the complex issue of Realm v Republic but simply making ends meet.

"The Jamaican public it seems is more interested in the issues that directly affect their lives," explained broadcaster Earl Moxam.

"I think that the Jamaican people will be happy to see Prince Harry more as a celebrity than as someone symbolically representing the monarch."

Links to Jamaica's colonial past are unlikely to disappear overnight, but it would appear the Queen's days as the Caribbean island's head of state could well be numbered.