Being a republic would be symbolism for Jamaica — but powerful enough to change it?

When Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, last week, they were met by protests calling on William to apologize for centuries of enslavement of Africans when the Caribbean island was a British colony.

An open letter from a hundred Jamaican civic and cultural leaders demanded British reparations for that past. The Prince — who was on a Caribbean tour as part of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II’s 70th anniversary on the throne — did say the monarchy regrets the legacy of slavery.

“I want to express…