Follow Us on Google
The demise of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022, has provided the needed opportunity for some people, especially those from the former British colonies in Africa, Asia and other places to remind Britain of its exploitative and divisive colonial past. Many of them have expressed diverse emotions over slavery and dehumanization of colonized people. But some of them went too far to speak ill of the dead and dissociate themselves from the mourning of the longest reigning British monarch. Even in the United Kingdom (UK), some people are questioning the relevance of the monarchy in a democratic world. Without going into the details of their reservations on the departed monarch and her being the symbol of the power that sanctioned slavery and colonialism, it is worth saying that the Queen who was born in 1926 and who ascended the throne in 1952 following the death of his father, King George VI, cannot be solely blamed for slavery, colonialism and the post-colonial wars in Africa, including the genocidal Nigeria/Biafra war of 1967-1970.
Queen Elizabeth II was born after slavery has been abolished. As a constitutional monarch, her role as the head of the state is purely ceremonial. The political power lies with the prime minister and members of the parliament. She was on the throne when most colonial people gained independence. The Queen’s reign witnessed some of the colonized countries assuming the leadership of their countries as well as the headship of the government. The critics of the monarch should be abreast of the maxim that the Queen reigns, the Prime Minister rules. The late monarch deserved all the accolades from world leaders and other people since her demise. She presided over a more racial tolerant UK. For a little over 70 years, the monarch has piloted the affairs of the Commonwealth of Nations efficiently and with great honour and dignity. Her charity works speak for themselves.
During her reign, one of the royals married someone of a mixed race, something that would never have been contemplated before. The Queen did her best in the circumstances she found herself and she should be allowed to rest in peace. Those speaking ill of the dead in defiance of the long-held African belief on reverence to the dead, such as Prof. Uju Anya of Carnegie Mellon University, United States, Prof. Sandy O’Sullivan of Australia, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) of South Africa and others represent their personal opinions. Such diatribes are highly misplaced. The dead should be treated with respect and those who mourn should be given the space to manage their grief. In his moving tribute to her mother, the Queen, King Charles III said: “Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today.” And the Queen never wavered in her promise in 1947 to serve her people and the Commonwealth.
With the ascension of King Charles III, only time will reveal if there will be some changes in the monarchy and its relationship with the people of the UK and the Commonwealth nations. Good enough, the King assumed office at a relatively old age with a lot of experience on UK and global affairs. All these will be allowed to moderate his reign. To the former colonies and her people, especially those in Africa and in Nigeria, the blame game should be over by now. We must begin now to assert ourselves in all that we do to build an egalitarian society and make governments in Africa to work. Admitted that colonialism was bad enough, it also has some good sides, no matter how much we try to intellectualize and diminish them. While condemning colonialism and its symbols, let us spare a thought on the roles of our forefathers in the colonial project. Before colonialism, as Chinua Achebe portrayed in his classic, Things Fall Apart, the African society was not perfect or idyllic before the unwarranted encounter between Africans and the white men. Unfortunately, Africans participated actively in the slave trade and the subjugation of their own people. They, one way or the other, actively worked for the success of colonialism. Some of them allied with the white man to break their peoples’ resistance. For instance, when Okonkwo killed the white man’s messenger, the rest of the people retreated instead of joining Okonkwo in the war. They refused to act like one people. That was why they were easily conquered.
Things fell apart for African people because of disunity and because things were not really together for all the people. The Igbo society the white man met was at a stage of disequilibrium, when some of its inhabitants were in need of social reforms. The outcasts and other social rejects were in need of freedom and liberation. The white man’s religion and education were, to the outcasts, agencies of progress and freedom and they embraced them with both hands. These social rejects were among the first group to be trained as interpreters, clerks, teachers and lawyers.
No matter its imperfections, colonialism provided a form of law and order that the society required at that epoch for its development. The colonialists might have formed nations without fidelity to ethnic boundaries, faith and cultural homogeneity; they inaugurated the creation of some modern states or nations in Africa. The little development seen in some of the colonized nations was during colonial rule. We cannot continue to weep over our perceived predicament or be playing the victims always. We have wept enough.
Nigeria since independence has not fared so well and it will be inappropriate to continue to blame the white man for all our woes. We must be man enough to admit our faults and our inability to develop our country beyond where Oyibo left us. Blaming the white people for being responsible for our problems will amount to romanticization of our past. Instead of indulging in such pastimes, let us resolve to realistically begin to build a good society by instituting good governance and observance of the rule of law, the bedrock of democracy.
However, Britain should not be oblivious of mounting complaints from the former colonies as regards looted artifacts and the dehumanization of Africans and find ways to redress some of them through restitution and reparation. In some cases, offering apologies to the victims can lead to healing and restoration. Apart from the first few years of our independence when the regional government was in place and a few years after the Nigeria/Biafra war and the oil boom years, Nigerians have not fared so well under self-rule. Neither the military nor democratic leaders have been good to Nigerians. The same ills that trail us shortly after independence are still dragging us backward to the extent that some people remember with nostalgia the period of colonial hegemony when there was light, water, education and health. Despite our oil wealth, Nigeria is still the poverty capital of the world, teachers in our public universities have been on strike for the past seven months, our electricity supply has been epileptic and our road transport system is still chaotic and corruption is rife in public service. Our law enforcement officials take bribes with reckless abandon and there is corruption in the judiciary as cases drag for so many years.
Millions of Nigerians have no potable water and most practice open defecation. Our housing deficit is put at over 17 million. The number of our out-of-school children has reached 20 million. In spite of having 23 years of unbroken democracy, our democracy is still defined by ethnicity, religion, money and not competence or strength of character. Self-rule has not translated to the envisioned good life, security of life and property. It has not led to happiness and prosperity many politicians promise all of us.
In place of the colonial masters, we have a new set of colonizers who are shamelessly nepotistic and clannish. Independence has come with it post-colonial tensions, fears, alienation and wars. These are some of the issues, Nigerians and other Africans still brooding over the atrocities of colonial rule to ponder about and come out with pragmatic solutions. Dwelling so much in the past and complaining mournfully always will not and will never solve our problems, whether caused by our colonial masters or our forefathers or ourselves or all combined.
We must be willing to break away from our ugly past and move forward. However, the UK government and the monarchy need to review their relations with the Commonwealth of Nations and assist them in their developmental strides.
