And last night's UNCUT was all about the vestiges of the colonial legacy in Belize.
As you just heard, it's topical because William and Kate are coming to Belize to celebrate the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, who, lest we forget, is the Queen of Belize.
But, does the 21st century Prince still carry the taint of colonization, and, more specifically, of the trans-Atlantic slave trade from his royal ancestors?
That's what host Jules Vasquez asked pre-eminent scholar on Belize's colonial history O. Nigel Bolland - who joined the show via Zoom:
Jules Vasquez
"What would you say was the role of the British monarchs in the exploitation of Belize through colonialism? Because a lot of times people say it wasn't the monarchs it was the parliament but we know the the monarchs were instrumental in the establishment and institution of slavery."
O. Nigel Bolland - Historian and Author
"Yes indeed they were but the Royal Africa company was royal because it was run by the royals, it was James Duke of York, Charles 2nd brother who was the head of the Royal Africa company which had the monopoly of the slave trade and the biggest business in slaves of any company in the history of the business. He became James 2nd, so the royal family was intimately involved, some of the other people, the duke of this, the earl of that it's not just the royal family though, you go through some of the wonderful estates, you talk about theme parks, my own country has become a theme park, you can go back there to this wonderful estate and that wonderful estate and a lot of these places were build out the profits from the slave trade and from the labor of enslaved people in the colonies. It started way back when, the royals were very involved in it because at that point they had much more power than they do now. I don't blame this person or that person or this family or that family, yes, their past is tainted I'll say that much but the ones involved now are big cooperation."
