THE Jamaican Government will formally petition Britain’s King Charles lll on reparation for slavery on September 6, which the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange has described as a “historic day”.

Grange addressed the matter on Tuesday during her contribution to the 2026/27 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives.

She told the Parliament that September 6 marks the date in 1781 when the Zong slave ship departed West Africa for Jamaica with 442 enslaved Africans. She outlined that throughout the journey the ship ran into trouble and the captain kept throwing enslaved Africans overboard in order to claim insurance for loss of cargo. The result was that 140 enslaved Africans were killed and the ship finally arrived in Black River, St Elizabeth, on December 21, 1781.