Is the Queen of the United Kingdom still relevant?

Last week, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, celebrated her 70th year on the throne. The milestone makes Queen Elizabeth the longest serving monarch in the UK’s history, having surpassed Queen Victoria’s 63-year reign seven years ago. It also makes her the third longest serving monarch in history.

In the UK, the anniversary was marked with four days of festivities and pomp – with events graced by members of the royal family in various places.

In Tanzania, celebrations were held at the British High Commissioner’s residence, with Foreign Affairs minister Liberata Mulamula as the guest of honour. In a jovial mood, the minister gave a speech about relations between the two countries, and toasted to the health of the Queen and President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

In attendance were at least a thousand diplomats, businesspeople, and “friends of Britain”. The High Commission had gone to great lengths to ensure that it was an event to remember. The idea was: if you cannot be in London, we’ll bring London to you. And it worked. The ambience, the music, the food and the booze. It was such as waste being a teetotaller in such company. This was “high society” Tanzanian style, courtesy of Her Majesty’s government.

In person, UK High Commissioner David Concar is an archetypal British gentleman, stoic and reserved, trained to open his mouth without saying nothing at all. Sir Humphrey Appleby would have been proud, but on this occasion, he was at his charming best, He may not be French, but the evidence suggested that he probably had a glass or two of the French’s finest to loosen his tongue.

And he was so smooth. His speech was brilliant, providing many interesting historical titbits for the nerds in the audience to be deeply engaged.

Before these celebrations, probably few were aware that the former Princess Elizabeth became queen on February 6, 1952 while on a trip to Kenya. The princess and husband were staying at Treetops, a lodge about 158km from Nairobi, where she famously “went up the tree a princess and came down the following morning a queen”. Since then, there have been 14 British prime ministers and, as Concar made sure that the audience didn’t miss it, 44 Italian prime ministers!

Speaking of an overdose of democracy.

The world that surrounded the Queen then was very different. World War II had just ended. India had just gained independence. Africans were agitating for theirs. The Mau Mau uprising had started in Kenya and the British unleashed men like Idi Amin to end it. But history could not be stopped.

The sun was setting on the British Empire. “The wind of change blowing through Africa has become a hurricane,” declared Kwame Nkrumah when hosting the Queen in 1961. Thus the Queen was faced with huge questions over the significance of the monarchy.

To the British, as it is said, it is the Queen who puts the “united” in the United Kingdom, giving the nation a strong cultural grounding which serves it well in times of change. Therefore, through the anti-colonial struggles, the Cold War, Brexit and Covid, the Queen has been instrumental in ensuring that her subjects stood together.

In Africa, where the British have been in rapid retreat – only two percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s trade is with the UK – the Queen maintains influence over diverse independent nations which have often held diametrically opposed ideological positions. Without the Queen, there might not have been the Commonwealth today.

In the early 1960s, Nkrumah’s rule was becoming increasingly totalitarian, and the West was concerned that Ghana was getting a bit too close to the USSR. So, the Queen’s trip was planned to neutralise the Soviet connection in Ghana. Nkrumah’s response was telling: “Whatever is blown into the limbo of history, the personal regard and affection which we have for Your Majesty will remain unaffected.”

Indeed, even the likes of Mugabe and Nyerere were equally enchanted. These men were products of their times – the British monarchy meant something when they were growing up. However, standing amidst the crowd at the High Commissioner’s residence, one could have wondered what the Queen meant to African millennials present there.

One Tanzanian intellectual tried to address that issue. His discourse was based on the importance of culture and history for development, thus arguing that is what the Queen is to the British and that is what she should be to us. But I doubt whether the people reaping the rewards of the margarita-induced bliss at the High Commissioner’s residence had the capability for such convoluted reasoning.

In my opinion, the reason is simple: the British monarchy is awe-inspiring.

The Queen is a relic of the age past that is fascinating to many. Born closer to the age of slavery in America than to the age of the internet, she epitomizes a time when individuals and nations wielded unbridled power over others. That’s fascinating. The billionaire princes of the day may inspire envy but they have no mystery around them. The royal family, despite the incessant media reporting, does, and that has turned them into a different kind of celebrities in the world.

Whatever meaning Tanzanians attach to the monarch, the occasion probably meant more to them. The big event highlighted the fact that, after years in the dark, the British were announcing that they are back in business, and that people should expect big things.

That might be more relevant, huh