Black cloth covers the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II that hangs in Antigua’s Parliament – a sign of the island’s mourning and an unintended symbol of a possible Caribbean future without the British monarchy.

The Queen’s death has given a tailwind to republican movements in a region once dominated by the British Empire, analysts say, while calls continue for an apology for the slave trade and penance for the sins of colonization.

The idea “has entered the mainstream ‘common sense’ discourse as a broader spectrum of society looks at the issues and wonders what the monarchy ever did for us?” says Kate Quinn, associate professor of Caribbean history at University College London.

Republicanism dates back to the end of the second Elizabethan era, Quinn said, “but her death and the accession of Charles added further impetus to debate on the issue in the region.”

Antigua and Barbuda were the first to launch plans to become a republic after the Queen’s death, with Prime Minister Gaston Browne telling the media he hopes to hold a referendum on the issue within three years.

His counterpart in the Bahamas has signaled similar hopes, but without giving a timetable.

“It’s always on the table for me,” Prime Minister Phillip Davis said in an op-ed published by the Nassau Guardian newspaper the day after the Queen’s death. “I have to hold a referendum and the people of the Bahamas have to say ‘yes’ to me.”

Jamaica, too, is considering “moving on,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness told the royal son Prince William during a disastrous trip through the Caribbean earlier this year.

They are following a path pioneered by Barbados, once known as ‘Little England’ but whose ruling Labor Party last year used its majority to approve a constitutional amendment removing the Queen as head of state.

Barbados’ move has both inspired and made wary of Antiguans.

“Barbados just became a republic, they’re doing pretty well,” Kelly Richardson, a fashion designer in Antigua and Barbuda, told AFP in the capital, St. John’s.

He predicted that the Caribbean would be “more together, stronger” when the other kingdoms – Jamaica, the Bahamas, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda and Belize – Republics would .

Others warned that Antigua is making the move just because Barbados has done it.

“Was it on our agenda before Barbados made the jump? It just doesn’t look like it, so I’m concerned about that,” said another Antigua resident, Reul Samuel.

Prince William’s grueling Caribbean tour in March was followed by a visit from the Queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward, during which he canceled a leg to Grenada following pro-Republican protests.

But polls conducted in Barbados ahead of the transition last year showed a Windsor’s popularity stood out. Prince Harry was rated positively by 41 per cent of those polled – with the rest of his family being in their teens in the polls. (The Queen was not included in the poll.)

Whether that had anything to do with Harry’s marriage to American multiracial actress Meghan Markle, the couple’s decision to step down as working royals, or their openness about race and the crown, the data didn’t show.

The recent questioning of the relevance of the British monarchy “must be understood in the broader context of calls for reparations, the royal family’s failure to apologize for the monarchy’s role in the historical crimes of slavery and colonialism and their contemporary legacies”. other problems, says Caribbean historian Quinn.

Modern day royals have alluded to what King Charles has called the “appalling atrocity” of slavery “that stains our history forever”.

In Jamaica, William echoed his father’s words, expressing his “deep sorrow” and calling the practice “abhorrent”. “It should never have happened,” he said.

But no formal apology has been issued so far.

Republican leanings appear to be stronger in the Caribbean nations, which have already taken the far greater step of political independence from Britain.

For the remaining overseas territories — Cayman, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat and further north Bermuda — there is little evidence the queen’s death will prompt them to seek independence, Quinn says.

Whether they do it or not, the decision “has to be made by the people, not politicians,” said former Bermuda Prime Minister Sir John Swan, who resigned as leader of his party after the island gained independence in a 1995 referendum overwhelmingly rejected, told AFP.

“The world is going through a very turbulent period right now,” he said, citing the pandemic, global warming, the cost of living and conflicts like the Ukraine war.

“Each country has to decide not so much how it was treated in the past … but face the reality of how things are today.”