South Africa, a country with a complicated history and connection with the British Crown, has been noticeably subdued in its response to Queen Elizabeth’s death over the past week. Some people here are quietly mourning her and thinking back on her special friendship with Nelson Mandela, but others would rather discuss the controversial and long-lasting effects of the British Empire.
“I wouldn’t say I don’t like the Queen – no, no, no. But my everyday reality is [affected] by the impact of colonisation,” university student Sibulele Steerman, speaking while straddling an open sewer in a poor community outside of Cape Town. Many young South Africans now are critical of the concessions made during the country’s transition to democracy in the early 1990s and want the West to do more to apologize for centuries of colonial exploitation.
My grandmother liked the Queen. But we’re a different generation,” Ms. Steerman pointed out that calls have been made this week on social media demanding that Britain restore the “stolen” South African diamonds that are part of the Crown Jewels. On his 66th birthday, colonial officials presented King Edward VII with the Cullinan diamond, the largest ever found.
In 1947, Queen Elizabeth and her family took a converted warship to Cape Town, South Africa, the southernmost point of Britain’s huge African dominion. As of that time, King George VI of the United Kingdom was still officially recognized as the leader of South Africa, despite the country’s independence.
Black-and-white newsreel video shows Elizabeth and her sister Margaret playing tag and joking with sailors on the deck of HMS Vanguard in the shadow of Table Mountain.
However, once ashore, the royal party’s attention shifted to the pressing matter of assisting Britain in maintaining its global influence and economic linkages at a time when many nations were shedding the constraints of empire in the wake of the war.
Princess Elizabeth turned 21 in Cape Town, and to celebrate, she gave a serious speech on her future role as Queen.
“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong,” Princess Margaret made the proclamation in a worldwide televised address. There was a royal birthday party hours later, and the city’s elites – who were nearly all white – dressed to the nines. Only one other black man, rising ballet sensation Johaar Mosaval, was there that night.
“I felt absolutely enraptured. Honoured. Overwhelmed. I felt this is remarkable to see her on her 21st birthday,” Mr. Mosaval, who is now 94 and feeble but still very stylish, reflected on his life in Cape Town this week. He was invited to perform at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London a few years later.
“I was the first black in the world to join the Royal Ballet. I still have the programme of the coronation as proof that I danced a solo for her Majesty,” he said proudly, going on to praise the Queen for “the very great part she has played all over the world”.
The royal train expedition through southern Africa in 1947 was widely acclaimed as a triumph. “These events in South Africa are being watched by the whole world. They will silence many voices which have been all too ready to say that the days of the British empire are over,” declared a British newsreader at the time.
But the truth was that the British Empire had already begun to decline. When a racist white-minority government took power in South Africa, they instituted a brutal policy of racial segregation known as apartheid, which had a devastating effect on the lives of the black majority.
This caused the country to withdraw from the Commonwealth, a loose network of former British colonies, and to face decades of international isolation. Half a century passed before Queen Elizabeth could visit South Africa again because of the country’s readmission to the Commonwealth. After years apart, she returned to Cape Town in 1995, where she was greeted by Nelson Mandela, the country’s freshly elected president and the man tasked with guiding the country through the tumultuous but eventually successful transition from apartheid to democracy.
“It was a very unusual relationship,” Zelda La Grange, who served as Mandela’s private secretary, reflected on their swiftly built friendship this week. “On one occasion he visited her at Buckingham Palace… and said: ‘Elizabeth, you’ve lost weight.’And, of course, the Queen burst out laughing. And afterwards Mr Mandela’s wife said: You can’t call her Elizabeth, she’s the Queen of England.’ And he said: ‘Why not? She calls me Nelson.”
Is there a price that had to be paid for that tight relationship? It may have contributed to the ANC administration led by Nelson Mandela’s unwillingness to squarely challenge Britain on the topic of reparations, which would have compensated South Africa financially for the harm done to its economy and society by centuries of exploitation and colonization.
“I don’t believe that President Mandela raised the issue,” said Mamphela Ramphele, a prominent anti-apartheid activist and politician. “Queen Elizabeth as an individual probably cared. But the fact is that [she was] a symbol, and the head of the British [state], and there weren’t really any steps taken to acknowledge, let alone to… undo the structural inequalities that were built into a racist, exploitative South Africa, both during the colonial period, under apartheid, and even post-apartheid.”
She pointed out that the Commonwealth countries share many similarities, but their financial resources are locked away in London. Nonetheless, the Queen’s visit to Cape Town in 1995 was a potent symbol of post-apartheid South Africa’s reintegration into international society and the end of the country’s outcast status. The Queen insisted on visiting numerous townships beset by violence in the new South Africa despite security concerns.
“It was a big thing. People were curious to see her. There were about 10,000 people here, and it was nearly chaotic. But it mattered that she came to the black township. She could have stayed in the city, and she was not scared, not scared,” said Ezra Cagwe, a retired sports coach who attended one overcrowded royal event in Langa township.
“It’s not like people are so sad here today. [The visit] was a long time ago, and she was old, as well,” said Mr Cagwe. “I don’t think there’s any connection at all between Britain and South Africa,” said a woman, hanging out washing outside her makeshift shack.
“Nothing is getting better here. There’s more violence, more crime, more poverty,” said one of three schoolgirls, walking past and admitting they knew and cared very little about the British Royal Family.
While younger South Africans may not have experienced the humiliating treatment and racist “bantu education” that black people did during apartheid, older South Africans are more likely to remember, favorably, the educational possibilities offered to them during the days of empire.
Although the screens in the bar of the posh Kelvin Grove Club were stubbornly set to rugby and cricket on a recent visit, there are still many white South Africans in Cape Town who possess British passports and who have mourned the Queen’s passing.
While younger South Africans may not have experienced the humiliating treatment and racist “bantu education” that black people did during apartheid, older South Africans are more likely to remember, favorably, the educational possibilities offered to them during the days of empire.
Although the screens in the bar of the posh Kelvin Grove Club were stubbornly set to rugby and cricket on a recent visit, there are still many white South Africans in Cape Town who possess British passports and who have mourned the Queen’s passing.
“I think [the Queen] has been a great supporter of South Africa. Colonialism is a dirty word in this country, but I’m a supporter of colonialism and I think there were many good aspects… which probably outweighed the bad things,” said Craig Strang, sitting with friends before a log fire.
However, the national attitude has tended to avoid royal nostalgia and instead concentrate on the topic of colonization, if calls to major radio stations are any indication.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be a shock that some 30 years after the end of apartheid, so many South Africans are still fighting to escape poverty and inequality.
“Most South Africans are saying: ‘Give us an opportunity to be frank in our assessment of [the Queen’s] legacy.’ This is the person we look at and think: ‘Ha – that’s the face of the British colonial empire, an institution that enriched itself through violence, through theft, through oppression,” said Clement Manyatela, who presents a popular morning show on Radio 702.
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