Newly inaugurated Kenyan President William Ruto was all smiles as he traveled with several other African leaders to Westminister Abbey for the burial of Great Britain’s longest-serving monarch Queen Elizabeth II.
However, many Africans on social media were not too pleased to see their leaders bussed around while other heads of state like US President Joe Biden drove their motorcade.
One popular tweet demanded why African leaders “even bothered to go” when “it’s obvious their absence wouldn’t have been noticed either way…neo-colonization is real.”
Not only African leaders used the buses. French President Emanuel Macron, the Emperor of Japan, the King of Bahrain among others, also rode in a bus to the funeral. Organizers planned for VIP to be transported with the coaches to ease congestion and help with logistics according to Politico, who viewed the guideline document.
Following the Queen’s death announcement, words like “Mau Mau” and “Dedan Kimathi” began trending on social media. Rather than commemorate Elizabeth’s passing fondly, many Kenyans online chose to use the occasion to revisit their painful colonial past.
Queen Elizabeth’s II death marked the end of a long reign, and reignited thoughts of countries ending their association with the Royal Family’s rule.
Going back in history, discussions about the UK’s imperial past have been rampant since Queen Elizabeth II died at age 96 on September 8. After her coronation in 1952, the late monarch inherited an already crumbling empire.
Following World War II (WWII), many of Great Britain’s colonies took advantage of the nation’s weakened economy and began demanding independence from the Crown. In 1947, India became a sovereign nation after a protracted and bloody de-colonial movement that lasted nearly two decades and resulted in the creation of Pakistan.
The following decades were marked by revolutions across the Empire, which resulted in the independence of Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Tanzania, Malawi, and Kenya, to name a few.
By her Platinum Jubilee this past June, only 15 Commonwealth realms still swore fealty to her; Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, the United Kingdom, Antigua and Barbados.
Following independence, many former colonies chose to join the Commonwealth of Nations, an organization that Queen Elizabeth fiercely championed.
Macharia Munene, a professor of history at United States International University Africa (USIU), remarked in VOA Africa that “with independence, she was able to transform herself into a likable person.” She promoted this cause through numerous Royal Tours to her former colonies, which helped to rehabilitate her image from the face of oppression to a benign, apolitical figurehead.
Kenya has been one of the 56 Commonwealth members since gaining independence in 1963. Through the Secretariat, one of three main Commonwealth organizations tasked with supporting member countries to achieve Commonwealth aims, Kenya has received assistance in developing strategies to promote youth employment, legal advice on reforming laws against gender-based violence, and developing debt management systems.
It is a member of several Secretariat-run programs such as the Commonwealth Clean Ocean Alliance, Sustainable Blue Economy Group, and Mangrove Ecosystems and Livelihoods Action Groups, all of which focus on “the exploitation and maintenance of a healthy marine environment.”
Between 1920 and 1963, Kenya was a settler colonial state with white settlers at the apex of society, Government, and the economy. Black Kenyans were subject to violent discrimination in the form of over-taxation, denial of medical services, forced identification, forced labor, land seizure, and the forfeiture of their own cultures.
In October 2018, following a contentious referendum on the 2017 Presidential Elections, Kenya participated in the Commonwealth Election Professionals Initiative, which aims to teach nations how to run fair and trusted elections. It also sent athletes to compete in the recent Commonwealth Games.
Aside from its participation in the Commonwealth, Kenya has also maintained strong economic ties with Great Britain, citing its erstwhile colonizer as one of its biggest trading partners. Former President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered four days of mourning for the woman he described as “one of the most iconic figures of the 20th and 21st centuries”.
Although Kenyatta, whose father Her Majesty’s troops imprisoned for his involvement in Kenya’s fight for independence, seemed willing to bury the hatchet and join the rest of the world in mourning Elizabeth, Kenyan citizens shared mixed reactions.
Following the Queen’s death announcement, words like “Mau Mau” and “Dedan Kimathi” began trending on social media. Rather than commemorate Elizabeth’s passing fondly, many Kenyans online chose to use the occasion to revisit their painful colonial past.
Between 1920 and 1963, Kenya was a settler colonial state with white settlers at the apex of society, Government, and the economy. Black Kenyans were subject to violent discrimination in the form of over-taxation, denial of medical services, forced identification, forced labor, land seizure, and the forfeiture of their own cultures.
Resentment toward the British authorities reached a fever pitch in 1952 when the Kenyan Land and Freedom Army (more commonly known as the Mau Mau) launched a series of attacks against the colonial Government, sparking what would be an eight-year war for independence.
The British reacted by implementing a state of emergency, resulting in the legal suspension of personal freedoms for natives and official permission for British troops to occupy the territory. Nearly 4000 native Kenyans were arrested only ten days into the rebellion. Ultimately, between 80,000 to 300,000 native Kenyans found themselves in prisons and concentration camps where they faced a variety of inhumane interrogation tactics such as beatings, sexual abuse, and starvation.
Between 1952 and 1956, 150,000 natives would die in bombing raids conducted by the Royal Air Force. More than one million Kikuyu people were taken from their ancestral lands and placed into concentration camps.
By the time the colonial Government lifted the state of emergency in 1960, approximately 100,000 to 300,000 native Kenyans had died, many of whom malnourished and sickly children. The British Government hid official records of its involvement in the uprising until 2012, when four Kenyan citizens sued the UK government for the trauma they endured during the rebellion.
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office released 1,500 documents and, in 2013, issued an official apology for the atrocities committed during the rebellion crackdown.
Dr. Njoki Wamai, an assistant professor of politics and international relations at USIU, commented in The Guardian that Britain’s erasure of such important history has helped play a role in rehabilitating the monarchy.
“Many of us have had to educate ourselves in public spaces and, because of the legacy of colonial education in Kenya, the Queen has been venerated and treated as an iconic figure,” Wamai said.
In recent years, the Royal Family has attempted to address and apologize for their role in Britain’s imperial legacy. At the Commonwealth Head of Governors Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, this past June, King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, apologized for Britain’s participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, claiming that it “forever stains British history.”
“I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery’s enduring impact,” he said. “If we are to forge a common future that benefits all our citizens, we too must find ways, new ways, to acknowledge our past. Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come,” King Charles said.
Indeed, the conversation in question has been ongoing for some time.
Like the new King’s mother before him, King Charles III has inherited a Commonwealth that is rumbling for change. The organization Queen Elizabeth II held so dear may lose several more realms, with nations like Jamaica, Antigua and Barbados, Canada, and Australia reconsidering if they wanted to have a monarch as their Head of State.
Other members, like India and South Africa, have begun removing colonial names and symbols. Although Togo and Gabon joined the Commonwealth this year, the passing of the organization’s most ardent believer has marked the beginning of a new era.
While Charles may be Head of Commonwealth, for now, in the future, members may choose to elect a non-monarch to the ceremonial position instead. In recent years, budget slashes and lack of funding have brought to question how much members benefit financially.
Though the organization claims to help facilitate more accessible trade relations between member nations, outside data is severely lacking to support this assertion. For critiques of the Commonwealth like Bert Samuels, a Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations member, any wealth derived from the commonwealth “belongs to England.”
“That wealth is something never shared in,” Samuels said.
While some African nations like Zimbabwe have already left the Commonwealth, it appears Kenya isn’t likely to revoke its membership any time soon. However, if the reaction to a photo of President Ruto’s bus ride during the Queen’s funeral ceremony was anything to go by, Kenyans have not forgotten the blood their forebearers shed in the name of the Queen and country.
Gitu wa Kahengeri, the Secretary General of the Mau Mau Veteran’s Association and a victim of brutality during the Mau Mau uprising will never forget how the colonial Government treated him personally.
“I personally will not forget that I was incarcerated for seven years. I cannot forget I was put together with my father. I cannot forget I left my children for seven years, without food, without education. That I will never forget,” Wa Kahengeri said.