In a year when Queen Elizabeth II celebrated seven decades on the throne, Jamaicans proudly commemorated their own anniversary.
Around the capital, Kingston, are signs bearing the number 60.
It marks the 60th anniversary since Jamaica gained independence from Britain in 1962.
Parades and festivals have been held as part of a year-long celebration under the theme: "Reigniting a nation for greatness."
But despite the importance placed on Jamaican independence, Queen Elizabeth remained the country's head of state until her death, with King Charles III now taking over.
And while many people have expressed deep sadness at the Queen's passing, others believe now is the time to cut the country's ties to the monarchy altogether.
Calls for Jamaica to follow the lead of Barbados and become a republic are growing louder.
So too are demands for the Royal family to address its historical ties to the horrors of Jamaica's past.
A mixed response to the Queen's death
In a busy outdoor market in downtown Kingston, music blares loudly from every corner.
People from all over the city come together to buy everything from fruit and vegetables to electronics, while pedestrians weave through cars crawling down the busy roads.
Born around the same time that Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, 70-year-old stall holder Marie Mitchell stops to reflect on the role the monarch played in her life.
"I grew up hearing about her … we go to school, we talk about the Queen and the King and the Prince and the princesses," she said.
Shirley McLean is selling newspapers with headlines about the Queen's death splashed across the front pages.
She met her majesty on several occasions during six royal visits to Jamaica.
"She was … a people person," she said.
"She has done a lot and now she's gone, we give our condolence."
One man, John Sinclair, said he'll miss the Queen's grace and kindness. Marjorie Lowe described her as a mother figure.
But across town — and the generational divide — are younger Jamaicans who view the country's ties to the monarchy as seriously outdated.
"I've never been one to acknowledge the Royal family in that regard," 36-year-old JD said while filming a TikTok dance video with his friends.
"But it's sad losing a loved one so, in that regard, I feel sorry for the family. But for me personally, it's neither here nor there."
JD believes it's well past time that Jamaica becomes a republic.
Recent polling suggests he is in the majority.
An awkward Royal visit signals shifting sentiment
When Prince William and his wife Catherine visited Kingston earlier this year, it did not play out the way the palace was hoping.
The so-called "charm offensive" through the Caribbean was panned as plain offensive.
Critics described parts of the tour, such as the Royal couple shaking hands with children through a wire fence, as a cringeworthy colonial throwback.
Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness also surprised many when he publicly flagged his support for a republic, informing the couple that his country was "moving on".
Writer and activist Staceyann Chin and her daughter Zuri were among a crowd of people who protested against the visit outside the British High Commission.
"The British monarchy should have left us a long, long, long, long time ago and it becomes more urgent each day that passes," she said.
"You know, my daughter is here. I would love to say, 'yes, we have dispensed with the monarchy here in Jamaica'.
"I'd love to say that, 'no, we don't have a king. The people who rule, the people who are heads of state, are people who the people choose.'"
Ms Chin wants Jamaica to achieve more than becoming a republic.
She is also calling on the monarchy to apologise and pay reparations for its historical ties to slavery.
"A robust apology, an articulate, eloquent, broadly evidential apology that acknowledges the harm that the British colonial empire has wrought upon so many," she said.
"And that reparations conversation has to begin with a conversation between those who were themselves wronged and those who now have been the beneficiaries of what was taken from us."
Jamaica's place at the centre of the slave trade
Hundreds of thousands of enslaved people are believed to have been brought to Jamaica from Africa as part of the transatlantic slave trade, which hit its peak in the 18th century.
"In many ways, places like Kingston are the Ellis Island of slavery," said Trevor Burnard, the director of the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull.
"It was easily the largest destination of enslaved people in British America."
Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, was the site of an immigration processing station that saw nearly 12 million people arrive to become Americans.
Professor Burnurd said many of the enslaved people worked on sugar plantations in conditions causing such a high mortality rate that more were constantly being brought in.
Jamaica had been claimed by Christopher Columbus in 1494 on behalf of the Spanish monarchy.
Spanish settlers then devastated Jamaica's Indigenous inhabitants and introduced slavery to the island before being attacked by the English in 1655.
Brooke Newman, an Associate Professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the British monarchy's links to slavery began with Queen Elizabeth I.
"She essentially allowed one of her subjects to engage in an illicit slave trade, Sir John Hawkins," she said.
"But a century later, during the 17th century and the reign of King Charles II, that is when England really launches officially into the slave trade … because Charles II grants a charter to a slave trading company."
His younger brother, who would one day become King James II, was then the governor of the company, the Royal African Company.
"And they are sending over hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans to the colonies, primarily in the Caribbean, and then in mainland North America," she said.
The British parliament eventually passed a law banning the slave trade in 1807, although it was not until 1833 that slavery itself was abolished in the colonies.
Prince William acknowledged Jamaica's painful history during his visit in March, expressing what he described as "profound sorrow".
"Slavery was abhorrent, and it should never have happened," he said.
He was echoing comments made by his father, now King Charles III, when he told the ceremony marking the shift to a republic in Barbados that slavery "forever stains our history".
For some, it is a step in the right direction but one that does not go far enough.
Apology, reparations demanded by Jamaicans
Rosalea Hamilton is one of the leading voices on calls for change in Jamaica but has her own mixed feelings about the Queen's death.
"I remember in school debating whether the Queen was human," she said.
"Because we had this very idealised idea, a fairy tale idea of a queen, and she was perfect. And it was always good things.
"So I understand the grief and the pain of Jamaicans who feel saddened by her loss."
The scholar and advocate was one of a number of people who published an open letter to the now Prince and Princess of Wales ahead of their Kingston trip, urging them to "sey yuh sorry!" for the monarchy's past slavery links.
She believes reparations, which some estimate could cost billions of dollars, are a necessary part of the conversation.
"Compensation takes many forms. There's institutional compensation, that's on the table. There's debt forgiveness, that's on the table," she said.
"So it's not simply about cash payment, it's about a process of healing and repairing."
Ms Hamilton is somewhat encouraged by the language used by King Charles in Barbados but is more hopeful of the direction his heir may eventually take.
"I think they're growing up in a different world, they're growing up in a world where the generation that they're a part of are no longer going to be silent," she said.
'Make the place a better place'
Zuri Chin is among the youngest Jamaicans trying to make a difference now.
She proudly held up the sign she made for the protest she attended with her mother.
"Kings, Queens and Princesses and Princes belong in fairy tales," it reads.
"Not in Jamaica."
The 10-year-old believes the monarchy has no place in the nation she is growing up in.
She wants to see a Jamaican as head of state sooner rather than later.
"I think we just need someone who can make the place a better place," she said.
"Care for us, care for the citizens, care for everyone in the country."
