Without Queen Elizabeth
Life will never
be the same
NAIROBI,
Kenya: The first time I heard of Princess Elizabeth and a few days later Queen
Elizabeth I was nine years old. Either name meant very little to me. Even when
we were swamped with gifts marking her coronation, it was just a pleasant
surprise even though our teachers tried to explain, but failed miserably, what
there was so much fuss about Queen Elizabeth.
However, as
the years went by and I got to learn more and more about the Royal couple and
even glimpse them on their many visits to Kenya and, much later, watch them
live on the TV screens, first in black and white, then in living colour. I had
heard Her Britannic Majesty speak sometimes on my crackling crystal set and on
the rare occasion I could afford the 50 cents or a shilling to go to the cinema
or when the late Pius Menezes showed us the Queen and Prince Philip in
newsreels.
However, it
was not until I became a journalist and ventured into the sometimes ugly world
of Commonwealth and International politics that I really came to appreciate H.M.
the Queen. There was something truly reassuring about her. As long as she was
alive, I felt, the people of Great Britain and the Commonwealth were safe. Even
when British politicians were trying desperately to turn back the tide of Asian
immigration from East Africa when Enoch Powell was forecasting “racial rivers
of blood” in Britain, the Commons and the House of Lords were both fidgeting
with the realms of justice for the Asians exiles, I felt as long as the Queen
was there, we would be all right.
Over the
years, the Queen and Prince Philip visited Kenya many times. Kenya’s first
president, Jomo Kenyatta, and several of his ministers were very enamoured of
the Queen. The President always delighted in showing off his rose garden to the
Queen. In turn, Her Britannic Majesty never forgot that she, Princess Elizabeth,
accompanied by Prince Philip, ascended the throne on their first visit to Kenya.
There was no surprise then that successive Kenyan Presidents and their ministers
held the Queen in high esteem. What also continued to delight the members of
the British Commonwealth and the various populations of the member countries
was the vigour with which she continued to defend the Commonwealth of Nations
through successive British governments.
There is a
bond between the people of the British Commonwealth and the Queen which I hope
will survive for a very long time, especially as a tribute to her and in her
memory.
Most Goans, Asians,
Seychellois, Mauritians and other nationalities adopted the Queen as their own
when they met her in Eastern Africa and this love of her continued to grow
after they rebuilt their lives in the United Kingdom. With the Queen’s passing,
many thousands of hearts are aching and the tears are often uncontrollable. Without
her, the world will never be the same. Nor will the UK, and England, in
particular, be the same. The Queen’s wings of eternity that shrouded all of her
people from harm have headed off to the heavens and we are all orphans of
sorts. Neither Prince Philip nor King Charles III were (or will ever be) loved as
much as the Queen was. Universally too. Prince Diana came close to winning the
hearts.
I read a
Kenyan comment he or she could not care less that the Queen was dead. After all,
the writer said, “it was her people who came to Kenya, killed our people, took
our lands, made slaves of us and created a hell”. The brutality of the British
colonialist particularly in Africa and other parts of the world is horrific, to
say the least, and it is magnified further when one remembers the slave trade
(even though they played a big part in ending it).
She silenced the whole of western Africa the night she danced with Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah.
Regardless of
Britain’s past sins, only a rare and unique person like the Queen could have earned
their love and respect and enduring admiration.
I feel at a
personal loss. I am not sure about tomorrow. I miss her already.
Cyprian
Fernandes
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