The Death of Queen Elizabeth; Why Africa will keep loosing

By Mutabazi Sam Stewart

There are two close relatives of mine who were overwhelmed by emotions because of the death of the Queen of England, Elizabeth II. One of the two started following keenly when the announcement came through that close family members of the queen had been summoned to Balmoral to be at her bedside before she breathed her last. This was a clear indication that it was just a matter of time before the official announcement of the queen’s. In fact I would suggest that the queen could have been already dead but they had to prepare the world to receive the news in a more exalted approach. Besides, the first relative of mine was very devoted to the queen that he told us that when the news finally broke that the queen was dead, he whimpered irrepressibly.

He went on to apprise us that during the course of the days of morning and preparations for burial, he slept late and practically didn’t go to work because he was glued on TV viewing the funeral programme to the days end. He said he had got love for the queen through his sister who constantly loved the way the queen carried herself in public and her ways of dressing. He says, from that time, he treasured the queen unreservedly. We tried to persuade him that the queen had grown old and scrawny and therefore it was predictable that her death would come sooner. All this could not comfort him. He was not productive at work. He was moody and watched and read all the details about the queen with utmost interest and attention. I was really worried for him and questioned why a mature person could have such strong feelings on a person so distant and unbeknown to him.

The second family member of mine, this time a lady, was even more emotional. She sat me down to educate me about the British imperator. Her talk made me realize how little information I had about this old monarch. She took me through how kings and queens are selected and the setup of the entire lineage. She knows each member of the royal family and the probabilities each has of becoming the King or the queen. Not like the first relative, this one said she didn’t love the Queen but she has been profoundly following the monarch’s history. In fact she said she hates the queen because she (the queen) ordered for the killing of Princes Diana in 1997.

She said the death of Diana was instructed by the Queen because the princes was embarrassing the kingdom and if she had lived longer, Diana would have hooped the Kingdom Bare. Thus jettisoning her was a better option in order to save the reputation of the powerful monarchy. She said she loved Princes Diana so much that she was completely devastated when Diana died. Because of Diana, she kept following the goings-on of the kingdom and is now very knowledgeable about all the affairs. She discerns every detail about the kingdom because she has read the history and latest news about what happens. She said she has to follow the funeral proceedings of the queen because she has to know every information about the kingdom but not because she loved the Queen. As a matter of fact she said she loves Prince Harry and Megan now because of the late Princess Diana.

I listened to these two relatives of mine at different times and it got me conjecturing how two adult people could be engrossed in matters that are of very little significance but so dear to their hearts. It was a deliberate and well-crafted agenda of the British government and systems to endear the world towards their monarch. They spared no power in trying to achieve this feat and they succeeded to a great extent. They captured the attention of many people in making them appreciate the British culture and monarchical procedures.

The entire episode of the queen’s death was meant to show the world something extra ordinary to the people. The British Monarchy is an industry of its own. By presenting it to gullible people all around the world, it captures their imagination and bamboozles them as they yearn for more information about the kingdom. The British monarch is alive to this fact and will do everything possible to protect and promote the image of the centuries old tradition, including, if need be, killing some of the royals who may want to destroy or spoil their agenda.

As the world, including my two relatives wasted time on something that should ordinarily be of less significance to them, but has been made important by the powerful media and craftsmanship of the British empire, more people wasted a lot of their time watching and reading about a person they hardly knew but whom they knew they knew through manipulated propaganda. If Africans can spend weeks dedicating their time to funeral proceedings of a 96 year old monarch that has died due to old age, it answers one of the fundamental questions why our countries are poor and our cities are not productive. We have misplaced feelings as countries in Africa.