Comment: The Queen is dead! Long live the King!
For the first time in 70 years and 214 days of the Queen’s reign, we hear these words for the first time! Queen Elizabeth II passed away last September 8, leaving the world divided in its evaluation of her legacy and her country’s records. Of course, it is our duty to pay our respects to her family and her people during this sad day, but it is also our right as Africans, who have been part of her “subjects” for years, and still are part of the “Commonwealth”, to re- evaluate this relationship.
It goes without saying that the Queen has ruled her Empire once as the head of a colonialist power that was tightening its grip on hundreds of millions of colonised people. In Africa alone, the Queen was seizing the lands and wealth of: Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Southern Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania ( formerly Tanganyika and Zanzibar), South Africa,
Northern Rhodesia ( Zambia), Southern Rhodesia ( Zimbabwe), Nyasaland ( Malawi), Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Egypt and Sudan.
No one can say that the liberation of these countries was peaceful or smooth, maybe there were various levels of violence executed by the British colonialist against this or that country, but in all cases, the colonial exploitation and abuses were real. This is just to say that, yes we will present our condolences to the British Government and people over the death of the Queen, but we also have no right to hide the terrible history her country has in all these African countries and elsewhere. The colonial heritage is still alive in front of our eyes, embodied by the Commonwealth, which stands as a reminder of this joint past that is still influencing our present and continues to have its impact on the future of our coming generations. We believe that time has come for the United Kingdom to recognise its past atrocities, wrong- doings and also achievements if there are any, in order to start building a common future with all its previous colonies on the basis of strict and genuine mutual respect and shared interests, if it really wants to rid itself of the violent and cruel past it still prides itself of, that is, if we believe all the archaic ceremonies and traditions the Crown still maintains.