Apia, Samoa  -  Britain’s King Charles faced calls to reckon with his country’s colonial past Friday, as a summit of Commonwealth allies turned into a factious debate about the legacy of slavery and empire.

Leaders from the 56-nation Commonwealth -- made up mostly of British ex-colonies -- gathered for a summit in Samoa, hoping to prove the bloc is still relevant. But instead of uniting to tackle pressing issues like climate change, Charles III’s maiden summit as king has been overshadowed by history.

Many African, Caribbean and Pacific nations want to see Britain -- and other European powers -- pay financial compensation for slavery, or to at least make political amends.

They want this summit in particular to commit to a discussion on the topic of reparatory justice -- a debate Britain’s cash-strapped government has tried to stymie.   The Bahamas’ Prime Minister Philip Davis told AFP that a debate about the past was vital. “The time has come to have a real dialogue about how we address these historical wrongs,” he said.  “Reparatory justice is not an easy conversation, but it’s an important one,” Davis added.

“The horrors of slavery left a deep, generational wound in our communities, and the fight for justice and reparatory justice is far from over”.

The British royal family, which benefited from the slave trade over centuries, has also faced calls to apologise. But the monarch stopped well short of that on Friday, asking summit attendees to “reject the language of division”. “I understand, from listening to people across the Commonwealth, how the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate,” he said. “None of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure.”