‘Love and love alone’ - Rastafarian high priest explains embrace of royal couple

While protests mounted all across the Corporate Area, Trench Town locals say they are happy to have welcomed the heir to the British throne.

Yesterday evening, while making their way to the Trench Town Culture Yard Museum for a tour of the facilities, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton, were greeted with shouts of 'We love Prince'.

This was a far cry from the welcome expected from residents of the home of reggae music.

Earl 'Chinna' Smith, leader of the Bingi Strong band which provided entertainment, told THE STAR that while he was not excited for the royal visit, he would never deny a prince.

"I wasn't excited or anything, but I'm just happy to know that the prince want to hear music like this," said Chinna, a Rastafarian high priest.

"If you have one minute fi deal wid di prince, weh you a guh do, resist him and fire bun him? Dem ting deh a outdated ting. Di prince waah play our drum, alright that is a connection as simple as it look. Weh you a guh do, tell him doh play our drum? Like how do Rasta man tell woman doh play di drum? That is just too much resistance."

Smith said, "We understand di prince and him a come from a lineage weh a crazy, crazy thing happen, and there is a whole heap a thing weh dem to deal wid towards us."

However, he said that the history is not enough reason for him to harden his heart towards a member of the human race.

Technicians for the band, David McLeod, 29, who has met three generations of British royals on their visits to Jamaica, said that this encounter was a pleasant one.

"It was a very good experience. The energy was very positive. I just like everything. I like the gathering, the welcoming, everything everything's was just all good."

McLeod said that he met Queen Elizabeth II during her 2002 visit to the island, then later Charles, the Prince of Wales in 2008.

"I was young back then when I met him, I was in school. I think we sang something for him. I don't remember, but at the school where I went it was bare positive vibes, it was a good vibration. The turnout here same thing; a good welcoming."

Harry Joseph, an 85-year-old band member, is an advocate for reparation. He said he is hopeful that Prince William will remember this visit to Trench Town when he ascends the throne.

"This prince here is the future king of England and the United Kingdom, so we glad that he come here to make a tie with us so that when he becomes king, he can help us in a more positive way, cause the authority and everything will be in his hand," Joseph said.