Long may she reign over… Over us? (conclusion)

I don’t know very much about national anthems, but the British one, drilled into me and millions of other unfortunates like me all over the world, must be one of the strangest. How could one’s national anthem be based on praying to God to save a monarch, and wishing that monarch to reign over you for a “long” time? Bad enough for an English citizen, but downright ridiculous for colonials held in subjection. It was further compounded in the colonial days by forcing my generation and our forebears to sing lustily:{{more}}

“Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves…..Britons never, never will be slaves.”

So, what of us, forced to accept a ruler not of our own choosing, subject to constitutional provisions not of our own making? No wonder Chalkdust sang that “Somebody in Whitehall mad”. Well, if we accept second class status, many other people, not just those in Whitehall, must be mad also.

There is more to it too. I was brought up in the Church of England, of which the British monarch is “Supreme Governor”. As reality began to hit me (race and class), I began to question why should we be singing a hymn like:

“The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God made them high and lowly, and ordered their estate”.

It was only much later in life that I was able to make the connections.

When Queen Elizabeth II began her 60-year reign, the ink had hardly dried on the fingers of those Vincentians over the age of 21 who were only allowed to vote for the first time under Adult Suffrage in 1951. So too had many Africans in British colonies on that continent. Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, among our neighbours, had preceded us. Interestingly, though the “Dominions” of Canada and Australia had many years before obtained this right, it was restricted to the white citizenry. The original inhabitants of Canada, the First Nations, whom we call Indians and Eskimos, had to wait until 1960, and in the case of the Australian Aboriginal people, two years later. In the enclave of what the British called Rhodesia, Zimbabwe today, a guerrilla war had to be waged and won before that right could be exercised by the vast majority of its people in 1980.

With all her best intentions and grace, Queen Elizabeth was powerless to stop these injustices perpetrated by her people on other “subjects” of hers. For us therefore, the monarchy is no positive force in propelling our constitutional and political development or the expansion of freedom and democracy for our people.

Rather, it represents a powerful symbol of mental enslavement and assumed inferiority of black people, who are supposed to be proud to have been “civilized”, “christianized” and “democratized” by our colonizers. It is a reminder of the alleged “superiority” of the so-called “bluebloods”, people who are by extension “more cultured”, “better”, than we are, and hence whom we ought to be glad to have reign over us.

Just as at times like the Jubilee, all the livery, finery and trappings of the “royalty” are brought out to bedazzle us, so too there are institutions left behind in our society which perform similar roles. Reflect on the robes of the traditional churches and the grand processions of the legal fraternity, designed to instil awe.

There is no need to personally vilify “Good Queen Bess”, as the English called their first Queen Elizabeth, sponsor of the pirates like Drake and Hawkins, in order to make the case for us to put an end to this protracted era of shame. She has her qualities, her trials and tribulations, her triumphs and Jubilees, her own Kingdom. Good for her!

We have another historical experience with which we must grapple. One of our principal tasks now must surely be to put an end to this monarchical charade, rest aside the monarchy, not just the British one, but the very concept itself, and move to put in place constitutional, social and value systems relevant to our forward march. Our desire must not be for someone to “reign” over us, but for us to be blessed with bounteous rain, so that our crops may flourish and provide us with the basis for ending hunger, poverty and underdevelopment.

Renwick Rose is a community activist and social commentator.