By Reuben Abati
Post-colonial relations between former European countries and their former colonies have always been coloured by the memory of colonialism, the heritage of slavery and despite the passage of time, this has remained a continual element between former colonial masters and the sovereign, independent states that emerged after the end of colonialism. It is therefore not entirely surprising or shocking that this is being played out as Queen Elizbeth II begins her final journey, having died at the age of 96, after 70 years on the throne, the longest reigning monarchy in British History since the Stuarts took the throne in 1066. Leaders of the world have paid tributes to her distinction as one of the most influential figures of the 20th and 21st centuries who personified dignity, selflessness, graciousness and decency in public life, with great authority on the world stage.
The government of Canada declared ten days of mourning, Brazil has also declared three days of mourning, in countries across the world, including the United States, Australia and Nigeria, flags are being flown at half-mast in honour of a monarch who was a commanding presence in British public life for seven decades, and indeed the only monarch that many Britons have ever known, justifying PM Liz Truss’s statement that Elizabeth II was “the rock upon which modern Britain was built” She led the monarchy and her people through the best of times and the worst of times – 15 Prime Ministers from Winston Churchill’s second coming (1951 -1956) to Liz Truss whose formal appointment as Prime Minister was one of her last duties, more than 10 Summer Olympics, seven Popes of the Catholic Church and 14 American Presidents – whom she met personally with the exception of Lyndon Johnson. She was an exemplar of duty, and a force for moderation and reconciliation, through milestones and traumas at both personal and public levels. But just as there are many who share these views and have continued to pay tributes to her, there are others who object.
Even before the announcement of Her Majesty’s demise, a Nigerian Professor, Uju Anya of the Department of Modern Languages at the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States had written on twitter that she wished the Queen would die an “excruciating death…in agony.” She said: “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.” Professor Anya accuses the Queen of having had a hand in the genocide against her people, the Igbos of Nigeria, during the Nigerian civil war, 1967 -70. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and others have since taken her to task. Twitter has taken down her tweet. Carnegie Mellon University has since distanced itself from her statement. But she remains adamant. She blames the Queen for the Nigerian Civil War. In Australia, Prof. Sandy O’Sullivan, a Wiradujuri, sounding very much like her CMU colleague, says Elizabeth II was not a bystander to the effects of colonization and colonialism, rather she was an architect of it. “She had a job for decades” says O’Sullivan, “that oversaw action that made indigenous people’s lives worse.” Other politicians have also had their say. In South Africa, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) issued a statement in which the political party describes the Queen as “the head of an institution built up, sustained, and living off a brutal legacy of dehumanization of millions of people across the world…We do not mourn the death of Elizabeth, because to us her death is a reminder of a very tragic period in this country and Africa’s history.” Specifically, the EEF blames Queen Elizabeth II for the British Royal family’s war against the Xhosa, and for the exploits of Cecil Rhodes in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Here in Nigeria, Omoyele Sowore, Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) has flayed the Nigerian Government for directing that flag should be flown at half-mast for Queen Elizabeth. In an official tribute, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari had declared that the history of Nigeria would be incomplete without a chapter on Queen Elizabeth. She first visited Nigeria in 1956, she sent Princess Anne to represent her at Nigeria’s independence in 1960, and was again in Nigeria in 2003 when the country hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). I observe, however, that Elizabeth II remains popular among ordinary Nigerians. Since her death, there has been an outpouring of tributes from persons who either sighted her in 1956, or 2003, or had the opportunity to meet her or work with the British during her reign. Families have been exhuming pictures of their parents with the Queen or of themselves. Nigerian diplomats who have had cause to serve at the Court of St. James or the Commonwealth have been forthcoming with praise. Nigerian communities in the UK have even announced different patterns of family attires (known locally as “aso ebi”) at the high price of between 50 and 100 pounds per yard, which at the rate of the standard five yards would come to a tidy sum of 250 pounds or 500 pounds. Nigerians love to celebrate the death of a person who lives up to a ripe age, and the Queen did, and she lived well too.
Out of excitement, some Yoruba in the UK are even circulating the news that they intend to perform Oro rituals in honour of the Queen. The Queen was a patron of many charities, trusts and societies around the World. How the Oro cultists would enforce a restriction of movement and insist that all women must stay indoors around Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey at certain ritual hours remains to be seen. Also here in Nigeria, a young politician, Ahmed Garba has suggested that the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, established in the year of Nigeria’s independence, 1960 should be renamed after Queen Elizabeth. This has been condemned by Alaigbo, an Igbo socio-cultural group, which asked that it is Aso Rock, Nigeria’s Presidential Villa that should be named after the Queen.
This writer has deliberately painted the foregoing picture to document as much as possible, an impression of responses to the Queen’s exit, as dictated by emotions, politics, memory and ideology. In Edinburgh, Scotland, and also in London anti-monarchy protesters who held up signs, or asked “Who elected him?” – disciples of Walter Bagehot, and promoters of Republicanism, were arrested as Charles III was proclaimed King and as the Queen’s cortege travelled to Edinburgh. In Scotland, anti-monarchists, booed and heckled. But would all this taken together, taint the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II? Certainly not. While it is true that no one should speak ill of the dead, it is also true that some people have inherited ancestral pains that they feel obliged to express. The mixed responses from parts of the Old British Empire are an affirmation of how the sun has since set on that Empire and how the foregoing truly represents the burden of service and duty that the late Queen carried and the price she has had to pay for her hereditary privilege. […]
