Queen Elizabeth II: A Ruler of the Times

 

“Why is everyone talking about this lady?” My youthful in-law is awed by the huge impact of the death of Queen Elizabeth II in global news. I explained to her that the Queen had been hugely historical, coming from a stock that once controlled a quarter of the globe through imperial, colonial power, reduced to fourteen countries currently under her headship. The fascination increased as I explained the Queen’s oversight of the Commonwealth, through which the current independent states continuously receive diverse benefits from the former colonizer.

A mother and beneficiary of the Free Maternal Aid from Britain, the youngster quickly grasped my explanation that after gaining independence, the Queen’s country has continued to support Ghana in Grants and Aid. Indeed, the Commonwealth has heavily supported education among Ghanaians who study overseas. It supports not only learners, but the nucleus family as well, many of which beneficiaries refuse to return to the country to help, thereby, defeating the purpose of the Commonwealth Scholarship. 

The conversation also reminded me of a question that has nestled in my heart throughout my growing years and postcolonial studies. How did the Queen feel about those former colonies that fervently wrenched their independence from Britain but have not really managed their resources for economic autonomy, as they so boisterously claimed in pre-independence days? The uncertainty describing the period after independence as (post)colonial or postcolonial highlights the blur regarding the pastness of the past, in academia as in geo-politics. 

A more crucial question is how the former colonized have utilized their independence to further human interests. Most of African independence fighters promptly became local colonizers as soon as the foreign colonizer left. Contemporary Ghanaian society is smirched with layered forms of degradation in human rights. In many domestic spaces, young girls labelled “maid servants” are treated in dehumanizing ways. Rapacious Parents molest their children, even sell them into child labour. State structures established and paid to protect and improve human rights are nauseously intrepid, hence, focus strays from human to wealth. Betrayal from a foreigner does not cut as deep as betrayal from one’s own.

Therefore, in mourning the Queen of England, we also ponder on our responsibility and/or complicity in (mis)handling natural, infrastructural and human resources. Objective analyses of management of resource in pre-colonial, colonial and (post)colonial days would constitute effective guide. We should also seriously contemplate our failure in making education work to maximum benefits, the growing superficiality in fixating on certification instead of nurturing knowledge and skills which enable effective utilization of resources for genuine independence.

Honouring the Ruler

The globality of the mourning is itself a history, violent past, nations within the commonwealth fighting to localize state headship, notwithstanding. Indeed, through her quiet but gritty leadership, Queen Elizabeth II symbolized stability through tumultuous changing times. Respectfully, Ghana, India, others are flying their flags half-mast for a week. One national reported that Hong Kong has not mourned any of its past leaders in the heightened manner they are mourning the Queen.

Even in Belfast where the struggle to leave the UK is quite fierce, the statesman who proclaimed the Kinship of H.M Charles III eulogized the late Queen as “a lady who has contributed so much to the country, to the world, to the Commonwealth!” One state figure described her as “one of the threads that binds UK together”. A BBC reporter aptly summed public emotions as the Queens’s remains moved from Balmoral to Edinburg: “… a final display of devotion to the Queen”. Strolling in the Green Park was themed gratitude: “… the slow quiet walk through the park, the mood sombre and thankful”. Laying flowers, queuing on the street for a glimpse of King Charles III or Queen’s cortege emanated from the urge to “do something or go somewhere as a way of paying their respects”. Across the globe, people share “wonderful memories of a wonderful lady” and “… thank the Queen for her wonderful service”. My mother, belonging to the pre-independence generation, simply refers to her as "our original Queen". The do not knows should read for a glimpse of the complex colonial history that continuously shapes our present to avoid replication colonial patterns.

Dignifying the Dead

Queen Elizabeth II, a model of style and fashion decency, sitting posture and social interaction is also exemplifying socio-cultural decorum in death. She authored her funeral arrangement. The small cortege has impressed my in-law, compared with the large ones she often witnesses in Ghana.

“Sometimes, history unfolds quietly”, was how a reporter conceptualized the quiet weepy “river of people” from Balmoral through Aberdeen to Edinburg through to Buckingham Palace to Westminster.  Similar respectful silence greeted the pronouncement of the death of one Royal Majesty and the installation of another Royal Majesty in Welsh and Belfast. To the effective communicator, the respectful hallmarks the public’s genuine honour for the Queen. 

Funerals have become a major source of noise pollution and violent invasion of privacy in Ghana. Music blares from dawn to dust for burial and continues the following day, noise and revelry detracting heavily from solemn occasions. Valuable lessons of sombreness from the royal funeral.

The Queen understood and knew how to change with turbulent times. Her astuteness endowed her with grit and objectivity in duty. I join millions in paying respect to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, a dynamic leader of the times.

Rectifying Menstrual Poverty: Educational Approach

 

As laudable as is the idea of setting a day aside annually to raise awareness of pertinent issues across communities, it dampens the heart that attention wanes after the day and everybody goes back to routine. New issues that crop up to complicate existing ones might not get the necessary attention until the year rounds up again. That is the sure path to regression. Maintaining the conversation on pertinent issues might expedite sustainable progress. It has rightly been stressed that menstruation poverty requires constant national dialogue. In the June 13, 2022 edition of the Daily Graphic, one Rebecca Kwei urged Ghanaians to maintain the conversation on menstruation.

In her September 23 article, Miss Ajoa Yeboah-Afari reiterated the call for continuous engagement on the topic in her Thoughts of a Native Daughter column in The Mirror. The writers approach the topic of menstruation poverty from different angles but converge on the theme of dropping import taxes on sanitary napkins to enhance affordability for all girls. They also advocate free distribution of period products to reduce girls’ school absenteeism.

Being a body function rooted in utmost female intimacy, the slightest concession on menstruation implies a violent disruption of privacy. Even in a girls’ dormitory, dressing under watchful eyes of other girls raised the self-consciousness of a girl in her cycle. Every girl knows her cycle, so quantity of pads sent to school matched the length of a term. However, the biological make-up could go whacky at will and create shortage for a girl. Even on those rare occasions, asking (a) closest friend(s) for supplementary pad was done unobtrusively. In retrospect, those were privileged situations in the 80s.

Soiling self remains a most embarrassing situation for a girl, even to traumatic dimensions. Therefore, the discussion on menstrual hygiene/health should be wrapped in a cloud of utmost sensitivity and respect, not be warped by mercenary motives. Help should neither be intrusive nor patronizing but rather epitomize affirmation of female dignity. Conversely, Girls need courage to own their menstruation to avert various forms of female degradation.

There have been several calls to government to reduce various taxes on imported sanitary materials to create equity in accessibility. Others advocate free distribution of pads. Some advocates will like a review of VAT on locally manufactured pads. Magnanimous points but some have potential to deepen the disturbing dependency psyche which remains the root of national retrogression.

Therefore, the conversation must also be driven by current, raving economic reality. Considering the high birth rate, high female numbers and the early commencing of menarche, sanitary material demand will maintain a constant rising curve. In such critical times of escalating national debt and inflation, is it realistic to feed a dependency culture around menstruation and hope for sustainability?

The role of Parents

Parental responsibility in handling menstruation poverty must never be glossed in targeted period conversations. Any agency involved in the advocacy must consistently prompt parents about their primary role in providing for their dependent daughters. The fact that their neglect has potential to hurl girls into the arms of unscrupulous males, with potential consequences of unwanted pregnancy and premature birth, which deepens family poverty ought to interest neglectful parents. The reasoning that it is less costly to provide menstruation materials for their girl children than have a whole human addition to the family should also never be spared such parents. Responsible childbirth should be harped.

NGOs and other menstrual hygiene advocacy groups could rope in the Social Welfare for collaboration to heighten parental education that providing menstrual material is part of the latter’s maintenance responsibility. Minors should be able to report parents who renege on that responsibility to the Social Welfare. There ought to be some gentle penalization, such as counselling or a fine to the tune one sanitary pack, for delinquent parents who compromise their daughters’ dignity. A sense of accountability also constitutes effective solution.

Ownership through education

The best support for girls is the one that helps them to take ownership of their menstruation, not one which emphasizes their poverty status. Weaning girls from the dependency mentality is also a crucial part of the solution. An NGO in Uganda helps girls to make reusable sanitary napkins. How about targeting that through Creative Arts and Social Skills subjects at the basic and secondary levels respectively in Ghana? Production materials could be explored through inter-disciplinary collaboration.

Exploring the current practical-based curriculum concept to teach lifelong skills in designing and producing sanitary napkins locally, by girls, would constitute the most sustainable form of empowerment. Such a move is arguably pragmatic: Government might be compelled by a struggling economy to uphold existing taxes on menstruation materials or put a cap on the period of tax freeze. Corporate bodies will always be motivated by profit, not by girl needs. If a cross-section of the neediest can be helped to self-produce sanitary napkins, it would not only dignify them but also set some of them on a possible career path. A do-it-yourself approach is a much viable option for exploration.