New Jamaican Prime Minister, Portia Miller Simpson, announces at her inauguration that Jamaica would be well on the way to becoming a republic by the end of the year. A previous attempt stalled in 2007. Jamaica’s change could influence other small Caribbean nations. Domenica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago have already become republics while Barbados has previously announced it intended to. Jamaica’s move is considered to be motivated by anti-slavery sentiment and a desire to distance itself from the colonial power and from final appeals to the Privy Council. The decision by the new Jamaican Government will have to pass at referendum.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
