STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The death of Queen Elizabeth is a moment for some countries to decide if they really want a King Charles. Of course, there is a Commonwealth of Nations, countries associated with the United Kingdom, in many cases from a history of colonialism. And within that Commonwealth is a smaller group, the Commonwealth of Realms (ph), 14 other countries that still recognize the British monarch as their sovereign.
A Martinez revealed that several countries are debating this question. He spoke to Natasha Lightfoot, who is at Columbia University and wrote a book about Antigua called “Disturbing Freedom.”
NATASHA LIGHTFOOT: It’s perhaps the outpouring of grief and the calls for respect and dignity that tend to suggest whitewashing the Queen’s legacy and basically trying to document any kind of critical response to what the Queen’s life meant in her time as monarch.
A MARTINEZ, BYLINE: Queen Elizabeth ruled over the declining years of the British Empire. How can the monarchy break away from its colonial past, with most members being former colonies of the British Empire?
LIGHTFOOT: That would probably be a difficult prospect, given that for much of the colonized world, monarchy has been the symbol of the theft of land, the theft of human resources. It would take the form of an apology. And the problem with an apology is that such an apology could become a legal basis for restorative justice claims, and that would probably cost the British Treasury millions, if not trillions of pounds. So I don’t think the work that really needs to be done to atone for the atrocities of the colonial past will probably be included under the new monarch.
MARTINEZ: So in a strange way, Professor, it almost sounds like for the monarchy, for King Charles, it’s almost better if he doesn’t deal with it and moves on.
LIGHTFOOT: Well, better for him, but is it better for the millions of people around the world who have suffered under the weight of British colonialism? It’s actually much worse for them, because the result in many of these countries has been pretty clear signs of underdevelopment, climate uncertainty, economic uncertainty. There is no way to really separate colonialism from all of this. And of course, the death of the queen has become this important moment, trying to get past the idea that the monarchy is merely symbolic and that there are real political and material consequences for this kind of political organization.
MARTINEZ: Yes. King Charles is now the head of state for these Commonwealth nations. Is having someone with the title of king in 2022 just a step with the times?
LIGHTFOOT: Well, sure. There are many Caribbean nations including countries like Trinidad and Tobago or Guyana or Dominica in the 1970s and, as recently as last year, Barbados, which have removed the monarchy from their documents but remain in the Commonwealth. Remaining a constitutional monarchy means that your independence is somewhat limited. It is burdened with the shadow of the monarchy still in the background.
MARTINEZ: You know, I asked you, professor, because it just seems strange that someone is the head of state for a nation where it’s probably fair to say, at least, that it might be hard to think that he shares. some of the cultural values or customs of these nations.
LIGHTFOOT: Not just cultural values and customs, but certainly the burden of care of the responsibilities of the state. There will undoubtedly be a great distance, not only culturally but also politically and economically, between the actual role of the British monarch and what the prime ministers of these nations actually have to do every day.
MARTINEZ: For nations that are former colonies that are in the Commonwealth now, what do they get out of it?
LIGHTFOOT: The Commonwealth, as a collective of former colonized nations, represents a sort of strength-in-numbers approach. For the post-colonial state, it promotes collective trade agreements. It, you know, encourages collective climate solutions. But it must be said that these member countries, as a conglomerate of mostly developing nations, need these collective solutions offered by the Commonwealth in part because of centuries of extractive colonialism. So it’s a very circular thing, isn’t it? The Commonwealth is a dues-paying organisation. So nations do not get these benefits simply because they were a British colony.
MARTINEZ: How do you think it might evolve now under King Charles?
LIGHTFOOT: That remains to be seen. It depends on how King Charles approaches his sense of what the responsibility of the British monarchy is to the former colonies. What we’ve seen of King Charles’ previous stretch as a prince didn’t seem entirely radical, did it?
MARTINEZ: And I know Antigua is going to have a referendum on that. How do you expect them to try to move forward on this?
LIGHTFOOT: Well, the island of Antigua and Barbuda – they’ve been independent for 42 years, preceded by roughly 350 years of British colonialism. So the imbalance is clear. To bring the referendum to a place where it will actually succeed, these ongoing conversations would be needed. The history of decolonization in the Caribbean held by Britain was one where all these islands had very similar constitutions. They were basically cookie-cutter and were often created primarily by the British, in negotiations with a few small leaderships coming from each of the territories in the Caribbean. There is a real sense that independence must begin by taking into account potentially many different elements of these constitutions, and thus not just the issue of the head of state, but many other issues.
MARTINEZ: This is Natasha Lightfoot, associate professor at Columbia University.
Professor, thank you.
LIGHTFOOT: Thanks so much for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF TUNDE JEGEDE “The Waters: THE ESSENCE”)
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