In a well-researched and penetrating book, Raphael Chijioke Njoke provides a newer and refreshing Pan-African historical perspective, germane and imperative for understanding and appreciating the complex and challenging positionality and temporality of the late legendary British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II in her relations with Africa, particularly during the turbulent years of decolonization, postwar commonwealth, and resurgent nationalism.
The author explains, from a historical perspective, how Queen Elizabeth II managed to mediate the incompatible needs of Africans (ordinary and educated nationalists) committed to the dismantling of vestiges of colonialism, oppression, and injustice with those of the British public largely committed to maintaining the colonial order in Africa. Njoku chronicles the sociopolitical and cultural conditions under which the queen emerged, including the variegated expectations from the royal family, the British political elites and Africans. The author surmises that while the Queen was inclined towards the rapid advancement of democracy and development in Africa, “the bounds of her constitutional prerogatives would not allow her to override the decisions of elected politicians under whom her office and activities revolved” (20). Queen Elizabeth II made frantic efforts to maintain and diplomatically advance the British national interests in Africa while deploying the Commonwealth platform as a soft power mechanism to deodorize the rapacious cum devastating consequences of colonial exploitations. In rationalizing her policy choices with Africa, the Queen and the political class strived, albeit unsatisfactorily, to meet all the expectations of both the ordinary and emergent African nationalist leaders.
Raphael Njoku argues that the exploitative and dehumanizing activities and policies of top British colonial administrators in different parts of colonial Africa coupled with the exiling and toppling of indigenous chiefs and kings in colonial Gold Coast (Ghana), Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, and other places under the watch of the Queen made her commitment to democracy and freedom questionable. British colonial administration in Africa was often rancorous, suffused with the use of brute force against locals who resisted unjust colonial policies and programs. Through an engaging discourse analytical approach, the book—schematically divided into six chapters—exposes the multilayered dilemmas the Queen found herself in, trying to balance irreconcilable interests among different actors.
Furthermore, the book meticulously unpacks the place of Queen Elizabeth II in Afro-British relations during the cold war era. Njoku argues that the cold war politics created a challenging situation for the Queen and the British government determined to ensure the erasure of socialist tendencies in the continent. Achieving this required top-level diplomatic, political, and royal maneuvers particularly in managing some nonconformist, radical nationalist African leaders who wanted to hobnob with Russia and other socialist enclaves during the cold war. The book explains how Queen Elizabeth II, working in sync with American government, used shuttle diplomacy, particularly royal tours of different African countries such as Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, to ensure that UK and her Western allies’ ideological agenda were formidably pursued and sustained. One very interesting revelation from the book is that which avers that Winston Churchill was highly instrumental in defining and shaping the policies and programs of the Queen with Africa and the international community. Before now, little was known of how other individuals influenced Queen Elizabeth II’s policy choices but Raphael Njoku’s book fills this lacuna by inserting Winston Churchill as one of the most influential trusted allies, supporter, and adopted father of the queen, whose idiosyncrasies intermeshed with those of the queen to define her relations with Africa. Moreover, the book adumbrates the underlying philosophy behind the formation of the Commonwealth and how the queen envisaged it as a platform to advance distinct, strategic relations with Africa radically different from the degrading and dehumanizing trappings of colonialism.
In Chapters Four and Five, the book shows the complex challenges that were animated in Afro-British relations during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, arising from the differences in leadership and sociopolitical perceptions. While the relations were cordial with conformist leaders, the relations failed to spur mutual trust when radical leaders such as Idi Amin emerged. Notwithstanding, the Commonwealth project recorded some modicum of positive achievements in Africa, especially in the areas of economic development, particularly through the financing of major development projects like dams, roads, education, and other infrastructural facilities. Also, in sociocultural spheres, the Commonwealth was a huge success. Through the Commonwealth Games, citizens of member states excelled globally in different areas of sports by winning medals and flying the flags of their countries. Furthermore, the book details the impact of the Commonwealth in the advancement of peace, education, women empowerment, and global democratic advancement, germane and imperative for Africa’s development. More importantly, the book makes a bold addition to the contemporary discourses on the place of the British monarch in Africa’s development by examining the potentials of King Charles III to advance the promotion of mutual, transformative African development through the Commonwealth.
In sum, the book makes immense contributions to the advancement of African history by centering the place of Queen Elizabeth II in the entire gamut of Afro-British relations during decolonization, postwar commonwealth, and Africa’s development, 1947–2022. The book enriches the debate on the role of the British monarchy in Afro-British relations.
