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.