Sean Paul Offers Condolences To UK Fans After Queen Elizabeth II’s Death
Unlike some Jamaicans, including a few of his Dancehall compatriots, who have either remained mum, or rejoiced at the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, Sean Paul chose to maintain his usual neutral posture, expressing condolences to both his UK fans and family members.
“As a Jamaican, our biggest export is our culture – thanx 2 other countries 4 welcoming our culture. I always enjoy touring the UK & it has become a home away from home 4 me. Death is never easy to cope with, so to my UK fans, friends + family I’m sorry 4 your loss, May Queen Elizabeth II Rest In Peace,” the Dancehall superstar noted on his Instagram page on Sunday.
The passing of the Queen has given rise to renewed calls for the British Royal family, to pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved Africans from whose labour Britain became at one point the wealthiest place on earth.
This was perhaps the reason Dancehall selector Foota Hype, in response to the Temperature artist’s post declared: “She fi rest in horror!” and famous20music adding in support: “Foota Hype, same suh!!! Can’t under why Black ppl so easy to forgive who’ve done us wrong!? B4 and under her watch genocide, displacement, rpe, murder, theft, slavery, and the continuing of all of the above and more keep happening.”
However, over the years, Sean has stated that he personally is ambivalent about the issue, as he feels he is not owed any reparations, having come from family lines of both people who were slave masters and African descendants who were enslaved, his ancestry spanning Chinese, British, African and Portuguese.
The first time Sean spoke publicly on the issue of reparations was on Nitecap media in 2014, when the subject was brought up by host Peter Bailey.
“Maybe we should get something back, but other than that, I don’t really like to look at it that is the most important thing… there’s different ways to look at it; they do owe, but at the same time, who do they owe? Our forefathers? Do they owe us right now? And I am a mix-up kid too. I got many different blood… some of my ancestors are slaves; some of my ancestors are slavedrivers,” the We Be Burning artist had explained.
“So I am on the line where it’s like… I don’t really feel like I am owed nothing or I owe anybody anything. I am here as a different person from what my ancestors were and I am going to fight for justice every time,” he added.
The first time this year that Sean Paul said anything publicly about the Queen and the Royal family was in the UK in May, in an interview with Sky News’ Beth Rigby, when the host, among other things, asked for his opinion on the vexed issue of reparations.
At the time she pointed out that “some people would like a formal apology for the Royals role in slavery and they’ve demanded reparations” and whether he thought “it is the past”.
“I don’t live in the past. I don’t feel like I was the one who caused these problems,” Sean Paul had replied, after noting that his grandmother was a native of Coventry in the UK.
“However there are effects from it that still affect us up to today. So for me it is difficult. I have always been on the fence in terms of I feel like I am a Uptown kid in Jamaica who has not got much say, in terms of how the people feel. But now I am an entertainer dat waves the flag for the entire country. And so I must tell you, the people feel a bit left out,” he said.
The host had also mentioned that around that time, Beenie Man had said Jamaicans did not want Prince William in their country, and were not highly enamored with the Queen.
But Sean Paul had not zeroed in on the issue, but spoke more of his familial ties with England.
“That’s something that I have not put much thought into, honestly. My grandmother is from Coventry; she was born in Coventry; she grew up in Rugby; she met my grandfather here in the war – right after the war – and moved to Jamaica. So by the time I was born, we were already independent from 1962,” he said.
In late May, Sean Paul spoke on the issue of slavery, reparations and the Royal family during the time of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Caribbean Commonwealth tour, where they came under pressure to apologize and pay reparations for slavery.
He had told The Guardian that he found it “weird” as his grandmother who hails from Coventry “feels a strong connection to the royal family” but that his “friends who live in the ghetto” question what the Royal family has been “doing for us”, but nevertheless he understood both sides.