King Charles Joins Bahamas Carnival Fun During Royal Visit

King Charles embraced the carnival atmosphere in the Bahamas, dancing along and ringing a pair of traditional Bahamian hand bells during a vibrant Junkanoo celebration.

On the first full day of his Caribbean visit, the monarch set aside the sensitive debate over slavery and reparations to watch a spectacular Junkanoo parade sweep through Nassau’s main streets. The procession featured high-energy dancers in elaborate, brightly coloured costumes.

Charles had been expected to observe the festivities as guest of honour alongside Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis. But the parade’s infectious rhythm soon drew the King into the action.

He began by tapping his feet before accepting the bells and moving to the music. Then, after appearing to glance mischievously back at his police protection team, the laughing monarch stepped into the crowd.

The spontaneous display of enthusiasm offered a glimpse of Charles at his most relaxed, despite the demanding royal schedule he continues to maintain at the age of 77 while undergoing ongoing cancer treatment.

Junkanoo traces its history to enslaved communities and has since become a powerful expression of Bahamian identity, cultural pride and friendly competition. It was therefore fitting that the country’s head of state should receive a parade of his own.

Earlier, the King was welcomed by Prime Minister Davis at the House of Assembly on Parliament Square, marking the second major public greeting of his tour. He also met Bahamian students taking part in building programmes run by The King’s Foundation before heading out to enjoy the street celebrations.

David Brown of Brown’s Restaurant presented Charles with the local speciality crab and rice. Brown recalled that the King joked by asking whether he had made enough food to share around.

Charles also paused to speak with Marv Cunningham, the owner of Mr Mix Bahamas, about the business’s gin-based cocktails.

With a laugh, the King told him to save one for later, adding that he could use a drink.

Cunningham showed him the cocktail, which combines coconut water, condensed milk, London Dry Gin and a touch of nutmeg. He described it as an ideal drink for the heat, served “shaken, not stirred — just like James Bond.”

The King later took part in an impromptu walkabout, greeting residents and shaking hands with people who had gathered in Parliament Square.

Only four protesters calling for reparations were present along the parade route. Local police later asked them to leave the area.

The demonstrators, members of the Bahamas National Reparations Committee, held homemade signs bearing messages including “Pay us what you owe us,” “Run us our money” and “BRIT: Belongers, Receivers, Investors, Traders of Slavery.”

Noelle Nicholls, chair of the committee, said the group wanted both the Bahamian government and Charles, as the country’s head of state, to recognise that the monarchy represents a Crown linked to “one of the gravest crimes against humanity.”

She added: “Although you are here on Bahamian territory as our head of state, you remain a symbol of the atrocity inflicted upon our ancestors.”

‘We are demanding an apology for those crimes, and reparations for the harm that was done. 

‘So we think it’s important to be present, so that amidst the pomp and pageantry of the celebrations, which are for some people a celebration, are for us also a sombre occasion. 

‘Because this is the King returning in a way that has still not atoned for the sins of the past.’

When asked about the palace view that Charles cannot apologise for the UK’s historic role in the transatlantic slave trade because it is a matter for government, Dr Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean, a campaigner, said: ‘He is a part of our government too, he’s the head of it. The King of the Netherlands has apologised.

‘And so we think that the King has the power and the authority to make a statement as our head of state or, you know, in his position as the head of the legacy of this family.’

Charles also met Bahamian students involved with The King’s Foundation Building Craft Programme for The Bahamas.

Developed by the Lyford Cay Foundations, a Bahamian education charity, it focuses on preserving and developing traditional skills such as carpentry, stonemasonry, blacksmithing, shingle roofing and lime plastering.

Earlier in the day he had paid his respects to the fallen as he inspected the troops of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force in a solemn start to the second day of his tour.

Charles, wearing a set of medals with the Order of Merit neck order – and, of course, his sunglasses – in the bright heat of Coral Harbour on the island of New Providence, spent an hour with the RBDF, speaking to hundreds of service men, women and veterans.

He laid a wreath at the ‘Flamingo Monument’, which commemorates the four Bahamian Marines who died in the sinking of HMBS Flamingo on 10th May 1980. 

A handwritten card, signed Charles R, carried the message ‘in everlasting remembrance’.

The King was received by Commander Defence Force, Commodore Floyd Moxey and other dignitaries, with lines of troops waiting in their distinctive white uniforms in the sun.

Taking his place on a dais, the King took a Royal Salute from the Guard of Honour and Colour Party, formed by 106 Officers and Marines. 

The Band played a Royal Fanfare and the National Anthem of The Bahamas, before moving on to tunes including I Vow to Thee My Country and Abide With Me.

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The King also viewed a plaque commemorating his visit, alongside Coronation Medals, which will be presented to Royal Bahamas Defence Force personnel at a future date.

Proceeding to the ‘Flamingo Monument’, the King was told about the history of HMBS Flamingo, which sunk when it was attacked by Cuban MiG fighter aircraft, killing Marines Fenrick Sturrup, Austin Smith, David Tucker and Edward Williams.

The King met family members of each of the fallen Marines, and surviving crew member Force Chief Petty Officer Gregory Curry.

He then stepped onto HMBS Lawrence Major, a 56 metre ‘roll on/roll off’ vessel whose primary duty is response to natural disasters, where he spoke to dozens of service and retired service men and women asking them about their roles and length of service.

His schedule also featured a visit to conservation projects at Bonefish Pond National Park, highlighting the urgent need for environmental restoration and climate-resilience projects, as well as a visit to The Bahamas Boxing Academy which is helping offer opportunities for local youngsters through sport.

The King laughed as he was presented with a T-shirt featuring a muscular rendition of himself wearing boxing shorts, gloves and a crown.

Charles watched a youth boxing session in the training area and met young athletes and their trainers by the boxing bags, including Sanai Miller, 12 and his coach, Jermaine Gibson, members of the All Out Boxing Club who train at the academy.

Both wore the black t-shirts emblazoned with an image of the monarch, in a ‘gloves up’ stance, wearing purple boxing shorts, a boxing vest and a crown. 

‘Ha!’ said Charles, pointing and laughing at the shirts. ‘We made one for you, I had it made last night,’ Jermaine told him. 

Accepting the gift, Charles, still laughing, replied: ‘How generous.’ Afterwards, Gibson said: ‘We gave him one of his own, he said it was really good.’

The King also met Bahamas boxing champions, Steve Larrimore, who competed at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and won Commonwealth and Central American and Caribbean Games bronze medals in 1982, and Jermaine ‘Chu Chu’ Mackey, whose accolades include the Bahamian supermiddleweight title, WBA and WBC Caribbean champion and a Commonwealth title.

His day concluded with a garden reception at Government House where the King met Bahamians who have made significant contributions to the nation.

King Charles is currently on a nine-day visit to the Caribbean at the request of the British government taking in the Bahamas, Guyana and finally Antigua and Barbuda, where he will be joined by Prime Minister Andy Burnham for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

The trip is, however, being dogged by calls from local campaigners for a formal apology from the British government over the country’s role in the historic transatlantic slave trade and reparations.

The King, who acts on the advice of his ministers, addressed the thorny issue within hours of landing on Tuesday night saying: ‘It is only right that we should acknowledge the great suffering of the past, in these islands and beyond.’

Although he stopped short of offering an apology or financial compensation in line with government policy, aides say His Majesty will ‘not shy away’ from addressing the growing clamour that threatens to overshadow his visit to the Bahamas, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda this week.

A spokesman for the King made clear he would face ‘the most shameful aspects of our past’.

Whether it will be enough remains to be seen, with the Bahamas National Reparations Committee having already warned him: ‘Don’t come empty-handed.’

Buckingham Palace insists that His Majesty is ‘alive’ to the local strength of feeling, particularly given his role both as Head of the Commonwealth and as monarch in two of the countries he is visiting, the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda, where calls for action by the UK have been growing. ‘His Majesty will as usual not seek to ignore the past,’ an aide said.

As a result, he will tackle the ‘backdrop of wider discussions on colonial legacy’ head-on in a number of his speeches, as well as visiting sites with historic links to slavery.

But he will continue to be mindful of the British government’s firm line on the matter which, while acknowledging the ‘abhorrence’ of the historic transatlantic slave trade and its legacy that endures today, firmly rejects demands for compensation as it was not illegal at the time.

Any official apology from the King could be seen as opening the floodgates to billions in claims against the UK.