While Queen Elizabeth II was revered by many in Africa, her death also reignited a different discussion — one that involves the legacy of the British Empire and the brutality with which the monarchy treated people in its former colonies.
Some members of a younger generation of Africans who grew up in a post-colonial world lament that the queen never faced the dark aftermath of colonialism head-on or offered a formal apology.
They say they want to use the moment to draw attention to the oppression and horrors suffered by their parents and grandparents on behalf of the British Empire and to demand the return of the Crown Jewels – rare and enormous diamonds – taken from Africa.
“You can look at the monarchy from the perspective of afternoon tea, fancy dress and charities,” says Kenyan lawyer Alice Mugo, 34. “But there is also a damnable side, and to ignore it is dishonest.”
Mugo says he recently found his grandmother’s so-called “movement pass,” a document issued when Kenya’s British colonial government declared a state of emergency to help quell the Mau-Mau anti-colonial rebellion; passes restricted free movement.
Elizabeth was young and was on an official trip to the country in 1952 when she was informed of her father’s death and that she would become queen. The crackdown on Kenyans, which began months after she ascended the throne, led to the creation of an extensive system of detention camps and cases of torture, rape, castration and murder of tens of thousands of people.
People mourning the queen’s death, says Mugo, are unaware of how her government has robbed millions of their basic freedoms.
Similar views were expressed by the South African political party Economic Freedom Fighters, which said in a press release that it would not mourn the queen “because her death recalls a very tragic period in this country and in African history”.
Discussion of how Africans should view the queen went viral when Nigerian Uju Anya, a professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, tweeted wishing the queen “haunting” pain on her deathbed for having led a “thieving, rapist and genocidal empire”. When she was criticized — including by the university itself and by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon — Anya reaffirmed what she had said.
“If anyone expects me to express anything other than disdain for the queen, they can continue to hope — that will never happen.”
For some people in Africa, Elizabeth was an admirable figure who represented continuity and balance in a changing world. In Ghana, tributes to Maa Lizzy were shared on Twitter.
“Over the years, watching how she behaved and seeing her engagement with the causes she committed to at age 25, I’ve learned to admire her,” says Yemi Adamolekum, director of Enough is Enough Nigeria, a network of organizations that promote good governance. “She’s continued to work towards it her entire life, and I think there’s a lot to admire about that.”
African leaders expressed their grief over the queen’s death and offered condolences to the UK and the royal family. The presidents of Kenya and Ghana have ordered the flags to be flown at half-mast in the coming days, drawing criticism on social media.
Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria, wrote on Twitter that “the history of modern Nigeria will never be complete without a chapter on Queen Elizabeth II, a global personality of enormous stature and a leader unparalleled.”
William Ruto, president-elect of Kenya, described the Queen’s leadership at the head of the Commonwealth as admirable. The association, which grew out of the remnants of the British Empire but has lost much of its past glory, has nonetheless attracted new members such as Rwanda, Gabon and Togo, which have no colonial ties to the UK.
For Naledi Mashishi, 27, whose South African grandmother was forced to sing the British anthem “God Save the Queen” daily at school, Elizabeth II will forever be the face of the empire and its bitter legacy.
In the wake of the queen’s death, Mashishi joined the voice of a large number of young South Africans who are demanding the return to the country of the diamonds that form part of the Crown’s jewels. Cut from the Cullinan, discovered in South Africa in 1905 and considered the largest diamond found, the rare gemstones adorn the top of the imperial state crown and sovereign scepter, both used in the coronation of the United Kingdom’s monarch.
The diamond was a gift to King Edward VII by the Afrikaans government after the South African War, also known as the Anglo-Boer War. But black South Africans question the minority government’s right to give away a gemstone found at a time when blacks were subjected to brutal exploitation. On her 21st birthday in 1947, the Queen gave a speech in Cape Town, which lived under racial segregation, swearing that she would dedicate herself to serving the Commonwealth.
“I think there’s something very false about saying that the queen or the current royal family has nothing to do with the past,” says Mashishi. “Meanwhile, they continue to wear stolen jewelry, no worries.”
But, observers say, with the Queen’s death, difficult discussions about the British Empire’s past actions in Africa will only continue to gain steam. “Much more than diamonds are at stake,” says Lebohang Pheko, economist and senior researcher at the South African think tank Trade Collective. “There will be no more easy conversations around this.”
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