Queen Elizabeth II undid colonialism

What do the following countries have in common? Sudan, Ghana, Malaysia, Cyprus, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Kuwait, Jamaica, Uganda, Kenya, Malta, Malawi, Gambia, the Maldives, Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Tonga, Fiji, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Seychelles, Grenada, Zimbabwe, Brunei, and a bunch of others.

Yup – they all gained independence from the Crown under Queen Elizabeth II.

That’s before we consider the likes of de facto political independence of former dominions like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and even South Africa.

Here’s a track record our most staunch decolonising campaigners would be envious of. Sure, there’s more to decolonisation than political independence.

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Some of those countries fell under the Crown in the reign of her grandfather, King George V. Imagine the awkwardness of being a little girl, listening to your grandfather’s conquering ways, only to undo it all later in life.

The point is that if you’re looking for a legacy that got the decolonisation programme off the ground, Queen Elizabeth shines among the brightest. Her manner of reforming within Britain was also exceptional.

This queen knew what needed to be done to make improvements both locally and globally. And, sure, there are those among our fold who will be pining over the Cullinan diamond, and believe that it is cause enough to shun the late monarch. Maybe that’s a dispute for another day.

Certainly, it would have been another to Monday 12 September 2022, had the queen insisted South Africa remain British and sent the troops in, Falklands Style.

That’s the reality many aren’t willing to grapple with. Here’s a lady who inherited a system we might not like.

We may not like the colonial system, what it had created, and the results of it, but what cannot be disputed is that Queen Elizabeth II did many a thing to undo those things we do not like.

If that’s not enough, answer this: What more would you have liked her to do and how much of what she accomplished could she still have accomplished going with your plan?

The first lesson of being an effective monarch is maintaining the buy-in of your subjects by using your hard and, more often than not, soft powers to lead to evident progress.

If you have no value, you can’t exactly do much. Playing that game for about 70 years is surely exhausting and I’m willing to wager that many defectors would hardly have survive a day. We’ve gotten used to our African independence, a reality that she had a role in playing.

What we’ve done with that independence and how we’ve gotten on, relative to other countries, is a matter for us to reflect on.

Perhaps you can blame her ancestors for causing a mess, but you’ll find it difficult to blame her.

If there’s a single lesson I’d like to take from Queen Elizabeth II, it’s probably that you can do what is deemed to be right even when it goes against the expectations of those who built your world around you.

Rock on, Liz! Thanks for the lessons in wielding power with restraint.

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