Cloud of colonialism hangs over Queen Elizabeth’s legacy in Africa
Queen Elizabeth II. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
The British crown has an African problem. When the Queen dies, there will be an African problem.
Even the African Union is having trouble with a possible future Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen’s great-grandson, Prince Harry, who is a senior officer in the British Army, has been on a tour of Africa, and is due to return to Europe on Tuesday. He will arrive in the UK on Tuesday evening. Since then he is being treated for a cold which he contracted while on the African tour. On Monday morning he was admitted to a hospital in London for tests, but his immediate priority, after clearing the security checks, was to come over to the Queen’s official residence, Buckingham Palace, to visit Prince Philip.
The hospital is a 10-minute walk from Buckingham Palace, and the hospital receptionist knew that Harry was coming. She said, “I went to get him from his car and saw him coming out of the hospital, so I knew he was coming in for one of his visits.”
When Prince Philip left the hospital, it was with a convoy of armoured cars and bodyguards. Prince Harry and his convoy were escorted by three cars and a footman. Prince Philip, in an effort to be seen as a benevolent monarch, insisted on an honour guard of 20 soldiers. The Queen’s car followed in the other car.
Once the convoy arrived in Buckingham Palace, the Queen greeted her grandson with a flower on his buttonhole and a kiss on the cheek.
In recent years the British monarchy has suffered from a series of misfortunes that have left the Queen in tears. Queen Elizabeth has had to deal with the death of Princess Diana on August 31st, 1997; the death of John F Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963; the death of Elizabeth II on December 6th, 1952; and the death of Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris on August 31st, 1997.
The last of these was the most traumatic. The Queen was in her private home in Buckingham Palace when she received the news. She