Kingston, 4 September 2026 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, is leading a delegation to the United Kingdom to advance Jamaica’s push for reparations for the African ancestors who suffered under hundreds of years of enslavement on the island.

The Minister’s visit is timed to coincide with the filing of a petition to His Majesty King Charles on Monday, September 7, 2026.

The petition asks the King, in his capacity of Head of State of Jamaica, to refer three questions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Jamaica’s highest court.

The three questions are specific to the transatlantic chattel enslavement of Africans in Jamaica. The petition is not a demand for payment.

Minister Grange said “this novel legal approach is being taken after years of deliberations and is intended to ensure the long outstanding settlement for the hundreds of years of the most horrific abuse that our African ancestors endured - the gravest crime against humanity.”

While in the United Kingdom, Minister Grange will also participate in an ecumenical Church service, focused on remembrance, justice and repair, at the New Park Road Baptist Church in South London on September 6.

“September 6 is an historic day. On that date in 1781 the slave ship ‘Zong’ set sail from the African west coast towards Black River in Jamaica. We cannot forget the victims and the survivors who made it to Jamaica, nor how the crew of the Zong threw at least 132 enslaved Africans overboard in an act of mass murder that was representative of the horrors of the slave trade in Africans.”

Minister Grange will lay a floral tribute in honour of the victims of the Zong massacre.

Minister Grange will also meet with officials of the British Museum to advance discussions on the repatriation of artefacts that were taken from the Jamaican soil and taken to the United Kingdom during the colonial era. “They are priceless, they are significant to the story of Jamaica, they belong to the people of Jamaica and we are working to bring them home,” she said.

The Minister Grange delegation includes representatives of the Office of the Attorney General, the National Council on Reparations, as well as officers of her Ministry.

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