Queen Elizabeth II’s death has sparked mixed feelings in Africa, much of which her country colonized for centuries. Various African statesmen have paid solemn tributes, while others have taken a more critical view of Britain’s colonial actions and legacy.
Britain’s longest-serving monarch made several trips to Africa during her 70-year reign, visiting some 20 countries across the continent.
The chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, sent the block’s “deepest condolences” “to the royal family and the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth countries” on the death of the queen.
In several African countries that are members of the Commonwealth, official flags are flown at half mast for seven days in honor of the late queen.
‘A force for good’
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also described her as “an extraordinary and world-renowned public figure who lived a remarkable life. Her life and legacy will be fondly remembered by many around the world. The Queen’s commitment and dedication during his 70 years on the throne he continues to set a noble and virtuous example to the world.”
In Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the Queen will be missed for “her inspiring presence, her calm, her steadfastness and, above all, her great love and belief in the higher purpose of the Commonwealth of Nations, and in their ability to be a force for good in our world. Queen Elizabeth visited Ghana in 1961.
Former Ghanaian President John Agyekum Kufuor told DW in Accra that the late queen was a good person.
“She was a world-class grande dame, and virtually the entire world has mourned her. Naturally when I heard [news of her death], I was saddened because to me she presented herself as a very good human being. She is a lady of virtue, very humane and considerate,” she said.
Sanusi Lamido, the 14th Emir of Kano, Nigeria, told DW that the queen’s death is a great loss to the world.
“We have all seen her as a great leader, as a world leader. The queen she has been an icon, she has always been present in the lives of most of us, ”said Lamido.
Many young Africans, who only knew the queen as the face of the British monarchy, were equally awed. Ghanaian businesswoman Alima Bawa spent some personal moments with her queen when she received an award from her in 2019.
“The news of her passing is so devastating that her unparalleled humility, dignity and courage of service will live on in me and especially in the lives of the young people she inspired,” Bawa told DW.
dim view of the queen
But others in Africa have been less enthusiastic about mourning the British monarch, whose country has a checkered history across much of the continent. Britain’s dominance over African countries continued well into the 20th century, with Kenya only becoming independent in 1963.
Hardi Yakubu, a pan-African activist, said the late monarch’s legacy cannot be told without the exploitation and imperialism that the British perpetuated in Africa.
“The British monarchy is not a glorious institution, the British monarchy that Queen Elizabeth led and represented is not something to celebrate,” he said.
For him, the queen and the monarchy have been a symbol of the exploitation of Africans, in particular, and of a brutal repression of people in other parts of the world as well.
“Queen Elizabeth had a glorious opportunity and chances to right these wrongs by acknowledging the atrocities of the ignominious empire not only in Africa but also in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean… to apologize and pay reparations for this, but she chose not to do so. That was his choice,” Yakubu said.
He added that it is inconceivable to separate her from the empire she served.
“You cannot separate the person from the institution,” Yakubu stressed.
These views are also held in other countries, including South Africa, which endured years of apartheid.
South Africa’s opposition political party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, said in a statement that its members do not mourn the queen’s death “because for us her death is a reminder of a very tragic period in this country and in African history.”
The Economic Freedom Fighters blamed the queen for failing to acknowledge the atrocities of her empire, or for apologizing for her mistakes in many parts of the world.
“If there really is life and justice after death, may Isabel and her ancestors get what they deserve,” the statement concluded.
Anger at colonial-era atrocities
On social media, some Africans and people in the diaspora have expressed their anger at the late monarch and the colonial crimes she presided over.
US-based African scholar Uja Anya wrote on Twitter: “If anyone expects me to express anything more than disdain for the monarch who oversaw a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and whose consequences those living today are still trying to overcome, can continue to wish on a star.”
Karen Attiah, a columnist born in Ghana and Nigeria for the washington posthe wrote: “Black and brown people around the world who were subjected to horrendous cruelties and economic deprivation under British colonialism are allowed to have feelings for Queen Elizabeth. After all, they were also her ‘subjects’.”
Kenyan author Shailja Patel also recounted how brutal the British empire was under the queen. She wrote that 15 months after “a girl climbed up a tree one day as a princess…and came down the next day as a queen, the whole region of Aberdares was declared off-limits to Africans. Orders were issued to shoot the Africans”. In sight.”
“Some survivors of rape, castration, starvation, forced labor and torture in the British colonial gulag in Kenya are still alive,” Patel wrote. “They never received the apology they asked for.”
Looking to the future
Asked by DW what he thought of the criticism of the late queen, former Ghanaian leader Kufuor said he was not going to “criticize people for what they think. I’m telling you what I think. The queen, I’m not going to stop visit her with the sins of her fathers from ancient times”.
He said the world has progressed beyond the atrocities of the past and what is needed now is a spirit of “interdependence, centering humanity above all as the reason why something should exist.”
With the queen’s death, her eldest son, Charles III, the former Prince of Wales, now leads the country in mourning as the new king. He also assumes the role of head of state for 14 Commonwealth realms.
“I hope he is aware of the implications and challenges of the responsibilities that have been placed on him as king. He should have a good example from his mother,” Kufuor said of the new monarch.
Edited by: Sonia Phalnikar
