Cape Town - While condolences poured in following the passing of the UKs Queen Elizabeth II, many South Africans also publicly expressed that they were not in mourning because of the damaging impacts of the crown linked to the country’s colonial past.
The Queen died on Thursday at the age of 96, after a 70-year reign.
Political party, ARA said her death was a “painful reminder” of the oppression caused by British colonial rule.
“The Royal family is the cause of destruction, turmoil, pain and suffering in many nations. The Queen and her family are thieves because they have stolen from the wealth of Africa, more so South Africa. The world's largest diamond, 'The Star of Africa’, which was mined in South Africa, was stolen and pieces of it were put on the British crown, royal sceptre and other royal jewellery - worn by the Queen. The 530-carat gem is approximately worth between $400 million (roughly R 6 947 000 000) and $2 billion (roughly R34 685 200 000). The saddest part of Elizabeth's death is not the fact that she is no longer with us, but more because not once did she apologise, let alone acknowledge or rectify the effects the decisions of her and her family had on the world, for the most part, Africa.”
EFF leader Julius Malema expressed similar sentiments during the peaceful picket that took place outside the offices of the Public Protector in Pretoria on Friday.
“It would be wrong for me to leave this mic without saying to Britain and everyone who cares, we do not mourn the death of a coloniser and a murderer who came and killed our people, and who proudly wore stolen goods on her forehead. The queen does not represent anything good. Britain has a lot of gold, yet they don’t have a single gold mine. Those are stolen goods. We must talk about reparations. We must talk about the return of the gold. We must talk about the stolen diamond,” said Malema
The Nelson Mandela Foundation took a different approach, saying: “For Madiba it was important that the former colonial power in southern Africa should be drawn into cordial and productive relations with the newly democratic republic of South Africa. For the same reason, South Africa becoming a full member of the Commonwealth again after its long apartheid-era absence had a special significance.”
PHD research scholar at the UCT San and Khoi Centre and the Centre for African Studies, Tauriq Jenkins, explained there were two aspects to consider.
“On the one hand, the role of the Queen was more symbolic during her reign because the powers in terms of the British parliament, the political system, were making all the decisions including implementing foreign policy etc. From our perspective as Africans, when we want to mourn the loss of the symbol of colonial power than what exactly are we mourning? Are we mourning the loss of the ultimate symbol of power? We say we are moving towards decoloniality through movements like Rhodes Must Fall (but) these nostalgic colonial resonances, somehow create a soft landing pad for the black disenfranchisement and pillaging of natural resources for a small minority. Let's never forget what happened,” Jenkins said.
Cape Times