Six years ago France was sad to have lost a friend. As we grieve the passing of la Reine and the end of this chapter in our shared history, French republicans feel sorrow once more, as we collectively grieve not the monarchy but the passing of la Reine.
Britain hasn’t had an easy ride for years. The derailing of what was once seen as a well-oiled machine and an orderly society was caused by the UK’s vote to leave the EU. Everything about Britain has seemed off balance since then.
Four different prime ministers in six years looks unfortunate. Boris Johnson represented Britain on the world stage. The expelling of the most moderate and sensible members of the Conservatives simply for questioning the hard line of the party was very odd.
Queen Elizabeth II told us that there was a measure of stability and decency in the country. Dame Vera Lynn said in her national address that we will meet again and we felt her warmth and remembered her words. A beacon in a rough sea is what the platinum jubilee celebrations were like.
Britain’s longest reigning monarch is no more. The new prime minister is wondering if France’s president is friend or foe. We fear that things will only get worse before they get better, as we hope that Britain will right itself again.
King Charles can choose the right words to comfort his subjects, but he can’t keep them warm during a tough and uncertain winter. Courage, Les amis.
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Agns Poirier is a writer and critic for the British, American and European press.
Queen Elizabeth II was a true embodiment of duty. Dramatic changes were witnessed in British culture and society. The UK is at a new crossroads now that she is dead.
We have watched as Britain has wrestled with political turmoil and instability in recent years. The country’s voice is no longer as important as it once was. The end of the second Elizabethan era could give Britain a unique opportunity to redefine its role in the world and shift its influence to historical justice.
The evils of slavery are still alive and well as an MP in a former colony. We question the wealth gained by the UK from its empire. Commonwealth nations disagree about the importance of reparative justice. In Jamaica, we would like to see Britain face up to its history of participation in crimes against humanity, as well as acknowledge its history of exploitation, and begin to take concrete steps to correct it.
As the world watches, King Charles and Prime Minister Liz Truss have a chance to redefine Britain’s image with action, not with what we call a “bag of mouth”
In 1952, when the Queen ascended to the throne, time moved at a slower pace. Britain’s leaders need to recognize that the country’s approach to its past is not in keeping with the expectations of its former colonies. It’s time to reset its political, economic and social systems for the future.
We in Jamaica will watch your country walk alone, backward into the future, if you don’t.
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The UN Development Programme goodwill ambassador is a Jamaican politician.
My parents are both civil rights activists and I was born in Canada. I was offered different opinions about the monarchy. The world’s most prosperous slave trade took place in the 18th century, and my mother held the crown partly responsible for persecuting Indigenous peoples. My mother was furious when I accepted an invitation to meet Queen Elizabeth II after I won the Commonwealth writers’ prize. She told them to stay home and write a chapter.
I could hear the voice of my father in my head. The first director of the Ontario Human Rights Commission admired the Queen for her politeness. He died before I wrote The Book of Negroes, a novel about a formerly enslaved African woman who goes on to serve the British in the American revolutionary war, and eventually goes to London to meet King George III and Queen Charlotte, to advocate for an end to the British slave trade. My father would have told me to meet the Queen. Tell me about her tea and cookies at home.
I met the Queen in Buckingham Palace after I bought a new suit. She inquired about the Book of Negroes, a British naval ledger documenting the exodus of 3,000 African–Americans to Nova Scotia at the end of the American revolutionary war. She joked that she would rather keep talking with me than discuss the next item on her agenda. Her friendly and self-deprecating manner reminded me that this was a person who had once been a child, was now a mother and a grandmother, and had sacrificed a lifetime job for which she had never applied.
I am not a fan of the monarchy, but the crimes of the empire could not have happened without the help of Canadians. Most of us see the King or Queen as the figurehead of the Commonwealth. We don’t believe the UK has much to do with our problems today. We now have the responsibility of righting the wrongs in our backyard. Like my father, I was a fan of the Queen. We need voices of calm, reason and caring during times of division. Someone can encourage us to embrace our angels.
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Lawrence Hill is a professor of creative writing and the author of The Book of Negroes and Croc Harry.
Prince Charles and Lady Diana were married in 1981 and I was a self-hating kid at the time. I don’t understand why he was a prince, or why their marriage was on American television all the time. Before there were any reality shows, it was part soap opera, part TV show and part reality show.
I was addicted to spectacle and I had to breathe every moment. Our lives were ravaged between misery and madness when I was born poor and fatherless. The spectacle was a way for me to escape from my life.
The anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the ugly and racist policies of Ronald Reagan and George Bush, and my college experiences were just some of the things that changed me in the 1980s.
I came to see the royal family for who they really were, mega-wealthy and mega-privileged beneficiaries and archaic symbols of colonialism, slavery and White supremacy that had wreaked damage on poor people and poor people of colour globally for centuries.
I was in favor of Princess Diana when she moved away from the royal family. I have cringed time and again, seeing people who still profess Queen Elizabeth II as a model for stability, decency and leadership.
In the US, there are people who think the entire royal family is a farce, and people who think it is disrespectful to criticize the Queen or the King. The British music scene, James Bond, and the revolutionary war bits we were taught in school are some of the things Americans don’t know much about the UK. The constant bombardment of royal family matters to us Americans because it cements our general knowledge about the UK or leads to a very callous kind of indifference of who and what is actually there across the Atlantic.
Always mourn the passing of a life. The human and honorable thing to do is to do it. The life of the Queen is not as valuable as that of my mother. While the Queen and her family get to bask in wealth from generations of plundering foreign lands, my mother should die with nothing. For the sake of saving us all, the very notion of a royal family needs to end.
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Kevin Powell is a poet, journalist, civil rights activist and author.
Indians have been absorbed by the news in the UK this month, as one British era draws to a close and brings with it an uncertain future. This is unrelated to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
According to new estimates, our economy has surpassed Britain’s in size, and in parts of the country where economic triumphalism meshes with majoritarianism, there has been particular glee.
Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, said the pleasure of surpassing Britain, which ruled over India for 250 years, supersedes the mere statistics of improved rankings.
The reality is different. Britain’s per capita income is 20 times that of the average Indian’s, and on every measure of development it is still ludicrous. The timing of the sun setting on the British empire and the rise of a new world order has proved irresistible to many who are aligned with India.
This says a lot about India’s self-regard as it does about its former ruler. Modi, despite being the first Indian prime minister born after independence, has sought more than any other to invoke the narrative of the shackles of colonialism being thrown off
Modi rearranged the centre of Delhi and installed a statue of Subhas Chandra Bose in the spot where a statue of King George V used to stand.
The horrors and depredations of British colonialism will not be forgotten, and will cast a long, dark shadow over India. With the passing of the Queen, these memories are brought to mind. As Britain mourns, buffeted by turbulent political ascensions ahead of a biting winter, politicians in India will reiterate the steady decline of their global influence. As the curtains are closing on the second Elizabethan era, India is young and hungry for jobs and development; how long Modi can continue to weaponise Britain’s legacy here will be one measure of his continued success.
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Rukmini S works as a data journalist in India.
Both developing and developed countries have been affected by the events of the past. The global influence of the UK will be further reduced and the British union and parts of the Commonwealth may be lost.
A beacon of calm, seemingly above the pettiness of local squabbles, the likes of which very few countries have had,Queen Elizabeth II has been a constant anchor for the UK during times of crisis, whether global, political, and even during the Pandemic. She had more global credibility than most of the UK’s political leaders.
Some Commonwealth states may have left but she is still engaged with them. With Britain losing her and getting a new monarch and a new prime minister, the country might not have the leadership needed to navigate these turbulent times.
The formation of developing-country global institutions to compete with the current industrial-country dominated ones has been a result of these global shifts. Staying in the Commonwealth is more beneficial than allying with new developing groups such as the Bric countries, according to many.
The voices of republicanism will increase in Commonwealth members like Australia and New Zealand. Scotland has been threatening to break away from the UK for a long time. The public would like the monarchy to be downscaled.
The intellectual, business and media elite in the UK don’t seem to grasp the dramatic and unfolding global power shifts. The post-Elizabeth II era may be a confusing, turbulent one due to the fact that they are not aware of them.
The old Commonwealth ties could possibly be the salvation of the UK if they were made more relevant. For this to be the case, King Charles will have to accept moral responsibility for the colonial past, the Commonwealth will have to shift from the UK’s dominance to equality, and the organization will have to be turned into a genuine trade bloc.
There is an open question as to whether the new prime minister, the new King and the governing elite are up to the challenge of navigating the turbulence that it brings.
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The School of Governance is at the University of the Witwatersrand.
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There was an amendment to this article on 15 September. An earlier version said that the Queen ascended to the throne in 1953.
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