Michael Abrahams | On not mourning the Queen

Queen Elizabeth II has died, and I express condolences to her family and other loved ones, as I would to families, friends and admirers of anyone else who has passed. However, when I saw Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ announcement of 12 days of mourning, including the prohibition of celebratory activities on a particular day, I felt anger and annoyance.

I have learnt, with age, experience and maturity, to refrain from making public statements influenced by knee-jerk reactions. Such reactions are often based on emotions, and sometimes these emotions come from a place of bias, and they blunt our objectivity. Having reflected on my feelings, contextualised the situation, and evaluated why the declaration elicited a negative response, I would like to share my thoughts on the matter.

The Queen represented the British monarchy. I am a black Jamaican, descended from persons who were disenfranchised by the British, under the watch of the monarchy. So, my perception of the monarchy is not a positive one. To be fair, Queen Elizabeth did not ask to be queen. She gained that title simply because she was the daughter of a king who died. The concept of showing a disproportionate amount of respect to someone who achieved their status because of hereditary privilege, rather than sacrifice, labour, grit and determination, also does not sit well with me. Why should I respect someone simply because of whose uterus they departed from, or from whose testis half of their DNA arose?

REPARATIONS

The monarch’s death has reignited conversations about the legacy of the British monarchy and discussions about reparations. Unfortunately, much of this legacy is painful for the descendants of those adversely affected, and these discourses have provoked the dehiscence of wounds we have been valiantly trying to heal. We are reminded of the British Empire’s role in the exploitation of countries, subjugation of their people, and theft of their possessions, as well as the genocides, enslavement, dehumanisation, beating, torture, rape and murder of many of our ancestors. Yes, these events took place before most of us were born, but the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism still haunts us, affecting our financial, social, mental and physical well-being, as even our high rates of hypertension and type II diabetes have been deemed sequelae of our many years of slavery.

The matriarch of the British royal family is not responsible for these atrocities, but she benefited from the spoils of the pillaging and plundering that took place under the watch of her ancestors and the fruits of the labour of the enslaved and the colonised. During her reign of 70 years, she had the opportunity to apologise for the actions of those who preceded her, but she did not. As Cornell University Professor Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ tweeted on the day of the monarch’s death, “If the queen had apologized for slavery, colonialism and neocolonialism and urged the crown to offer reparations for the millions of lives taken in her/their names, then perhaps I would do the human thing and feel bad. As a Kenyan, I feel nothing. This theater is absurd.”

FEEL DISRESPECTED

I feel him. Even today, as I write this I feel disrespected by a system Queen Elizabeth II was at the helm of. For example, after her death, I came across an interview with British rapper, journalist and activist Akala that brought a stinging reality home to me: today, it is easier for a German to visit the UK than it is for many members of the Commonwealth. Allow me to contextualise and explain why this offends me. The Germans bombed Britain during World War I and World War II. However, German descendants of those who attacked the country are allowed to visit it freely. They do not need a visa. On the other hand, there are Jamaicans, and others, who are descendants of those who fought alongside British soldiers, and even lost their lives defending the nation, who now face a challenge to even visit its shores for a vacation. When I visited England a few years ago with my family, it was an ordeal to obtain a visa. I had to fill out reams of pages of forms, get a job letter proving I have a job, obtain a letter from my children’s schools stating that they were in fact in school, provide a letter from a relative living in the UK stating that he is a citizen and is inviting us to visit, state the address I would be staying at, and divulge other personal information, in addition to paying a significant fee.

According to Sir Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the US and the OAS, “It is right that we should all mourn her passing, and unashamedly shed a tear, joining her family in their deep loss, for it is our collective loss too.” I disagree. No one has the right to dictate who should mourn and who should not. Sir Ronald is free to shed as many tears as he wishes. On the other hand, I will shed none, at least not for the Queen. I reserve my mourning for those I knew who were dear to me and the hundreds of my fellow Jamaicans murdered since the start of the year.

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator and human-rights advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or follow him on Twitter @mikeyabrahams.