Racism claims threaten royal rift with the Commonwealth
Critics ask questions about value of long-standing ties with the institution after Sussexes’ allegations
RELATIONS between the Royal family and the Commonwealth have been damaged following claims of racism by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the Queen has been warned.
Senior figures across the Commonwealth say the interview, in which the couple revealed that concern had been expressed by a member of the family over the colour of their as yet unborn son Archie, threatened to create an unbridgeable rift.
Nowhere has the impact been felt more keenly than on the African continent, where the Duke and Duchess were greeted so enthusiastically during their tour of South Africa in 2019.
Mohammed Groenewald, a Muslim community leader who showed the couple around a mosque in Cape Town, said the interview brought back unwelcome memories of “British colonial racism”.
At one stage, the Sussexes even aired the possibility they might make a home in Africa. In Uganda, Nicholas Sengoba, a columnist with the Daily Monitor, said it was questionable whether the heads of Commonwealth countries should still be “proud to eat dinner” with members of the British Royal family.
In Kenya, one Nairobi resident, Syliva Wangari, said she felt let down by the claims, pointing out that the country was where the young Princess Elizabeth was visiting in 1952 when told of the death of her father.
“We feel very angry seeing our fellow African sister being harassed because she is black,” said Ms Wangari.
Similar views are being voiced in Caribbean countries, particularly in Barbados, which plans to become a republic by November 2021.
Guy Hewitt, a former Barbadian high commissioner to the UK, said the interview “underscores and affirms that Barbados did make the right decision to have a native born citizen as head of state”. He added: “Young people are responding and really putting support behind Harry and Meghan.”
The impact is also being felt in those countries previously regarded as still wedded to having the Queen as their head of state, such as Australia, which voted against a republic in 1999.
Malcolm Turnbull, the former prime minister and a long-standing republican, said the repercussions would see a renewed move for the country to cut its ties with monarchy.
He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “After the end of the Queen’s reign, that is the time for us to say: ‘OK, we’ve passed that watershed. Do we really want to have whoever happens to be the head of state, the king or queen of the UK, automatically our head of state?”
But Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, said the legacy of colonialism and issues of racism were not in themselves reasons to cut centuries old ties.
“The answer is not to suddenly toss out all the institutions and start over,” Mr Trudeau said.