As President Dame Sandra Mason assumed her position above Prince Charles on the steps arranged in Golden square, the significance of Barbados’s Independence honours ceremony was palpable, even to me as a British Jamaican watching from 4,000 miles away.

Three hundred and ninety-four years after the start of colonial rule, Barbados had finally divorced herself from sovereign leadership by a foreign monarchy. Across the Atlantic, a furore erupted as journalists and public commentators reckoned with their Queen’s loss of a country held under rule for so long. Many reasoned that Britain’s former charge had come under the influence of another foreign State, a different reality too uncomfortable to imagine.

The retreat of Prince Charles from the pulpit in Bridgetown, for the final time as son of the sovereign, was a novel image to me. This ceremony was the first of its kind during my lifetime. After the excitement of watching such an auspicious occasion, my thoughts returned to Jamaica. In another epoch, the sun never set on the British Empire; it stretched to a quarter of the Earth’s total landmass.

Over time, though, the Crown’s influence has changed as new leaders and new nations ascend. At the start of this reign, Queen Elizabeth II was monarch in 33 countries, but today 16 nations and territories remain, Jamaica amongst them.

It’s remiss to discuss the British Monarchy in Jamaica without acknowledging the history of how the relationship began. In 2001 The Transatlantic slave trade was recognised in the UN Durban Declaration as a crime against humanity. The total scale of loss and underdevelopment caused by the colonial project is almost incalculable. Jamaica’s past cannot be undone; that does not mean her future must be determined by terms dictated centuries ago.

Under global hegemony, in the reality of a world in which the British Empire existed, it’s true that some of us have benefited from our proximity to Britain. For example, The Windrush Generation were able to travel to England, while Jamaica remained a colony of the empire. Theirs was a position of privilege relative to Jamaicans before and after, who were granted no right or invitation to set foot in the UK. Patently, Jamaica’s continued position as a realm ruled by The Queen serves to reify and maintain that hierarchy.

In January, the Nationality and Borders Bill is to be read in The House of Lords after being voted up by the House of Commons of British Parliament. Clause nine would make law that British citizenship itself can be revoked without notice from people born in the UK. Only nationals who have a right to claim citizenship elsewhere, by descent of foreign parents for example, will be affected.

Loyalty to the Crown was once sacrosanct for many Jamaicans; some called Britain the motherland. Generations later, despite their labour and migration, status and statehood seem unconfirmed.

It has been argued that Jamaica has not yet reached a level of economic development that would justify a Jamaican head of State. A similar idea was posed at the time of Independence. In 1962 commentators posited the stage of Jamaica’s social development and cast doubt on the new nation’s ability to exist as a stable democracy.

The existence of a developmental stage at which Jamaica should have her own head of State implies pastoral and benevolent qualities of monarchy. Is it true that Jamaica should at some point become a parliamentary republic only when arbitrary goals or conditions have been met, or is it the case that Jamaicans have always deserved sovereignty?

That the monarchy persists is testament to the far-reaching psychosocial effects of empire. The law itself also predicates caution calling for referenda in matters so intrinsically bound with the constitution.

I understand that other policy is more immediately important than the reform required to make Jamaica a republic. Governments have access to limited resources to change legislation; Bills that protect and enhance the lives of citizens on the island should be prioritised, and they are. But, as Jamaica approaches her 60th year of Independence, and The Queen her platinum jubilee, it’s our obligation to consider their futures.

What will Jamaica look like when every child learns that their countries’ leadership has thrown off the vestiges of colonialism and their sovereignty is not circumscribed; how then will they chart Jamaica’s future?

tharajohnsonreid@gmail.com