SLAVE-TRADE KINGS: A ROYAL BUSINESS

King Charles of England is on a four day visit to Kenya at the invitation of President Ruto. Aside from heading the country that dispossessed and killed countless Kenyans in the 20th century, his family actively participated in the slave trade. Just to paint the picture, he inherited $500 million dollars upon his mother’s death, and a significant portion of that is proceeds from the enslavement of Africans. It goes deeper, as the king’s ancestors directly used slave labour.

He is a descendant of Edward Porteus, a 17th-century tobacco plantation owner in Virginia, who received a shipment of at least 200 enslaved people from the Royal African Company in 1686. The Royal African Company (RAC) was a British trading company established in 1672 during the reign of King Charles II of England. It held a monopoly on English trade with West Africa for the transportation of enslaved Africans, gold, and other commodities. The company played a significant role in the Atlantic slave trade, as it was responsible for shipping tens of thousands of enslaved Africans to the British colonies in the Americas during the late 17th century and the early 18th century.

The RAC was granted a royal charter, which gave it exclusive rights to trade along the west coast of Africa and between Africa and the English colonies in the Americas. The company's primary goal was to profit from the sale of enslaved Africans to work on plantations and in other industries in the Caribbean and North America.

Despite all this, Kenya has ironically blocked the airing of allegations of UK Army abuses before the king’s visit. Before a news conference could be held at a hotel in the capital Nairobi, a lorry with at least 20 police officers and two smaller trucks blocked access to the venue, according to a Reuters reporter. The police also allegedly gave the hotel's management a letter that warned them not to host the event.

This will worryingly hamper efforts at reparations even as calls are growing in the country for the monarch to address the historical crimes whose consequences are still felt today.