Let’s be frank: you can’t believe in meritocracy and applaud hereditary entitlement and privilege at the same time. You can’t believe in hard work and accept that some of us live off others. You can’t criticise dynasties in politics and accept the divine right of kings.

Looking at it from that point of view, I don’t think Queen Elizabeth II deserved any awards or a standing ovation. I am not going to be hypocritical about that now that she has passed; nor am I going to gloss over the harrowing memories of the history of the empire she presided over, culminating – for us Mauritians – in the excision of the Chagos archipelago. Nor will I, as an African, forget generations of Africans who endured a brutal period of British colonial history during the Queen’s long reign. No, I won’t.

Having said that, I really have a lot of time for the Queen because, just by being who she was, she advanced the cause of women and did so much for generations of us in a way many so-called feminists could not.

At a time when men still wielded all the power, Queen Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne was an enormous symbol for all women. As Rachel Cooke reminded us in The Guardian*, “When she was crowned, women could not take out mortgages in their own names, nor could they be fitted with a diaphragm without producing a marriage certificate.” Without expressing any political opinions, just by being there and looking on, with Prince Philip following in toe, two steps behind, she marked the turn of a whole generation that saw many firsts for women, including Margaret Thatcher as prime minister, followed by two more during the Queen’s reign.

At a time when women were deemed to be too emotional for many positions, the Queen’s stiff upper lip through thick and thin and the dignity with which she carried out her duties up to the last day of her life – remember that she swore in Liz Truss merely two days before she departed – must have influenced the mindset of many and changed our sense of who can handle top jobs. More importantly, she managed egos of such a wide range of prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Boris Johnson with a lot of tact and dexterity. The fact that she earned the respect and friendship of Churchill for me tells a whole story.

But it is not just women that she represented well. She also undoubtedly gave a graceful and dignified image of the British people as a whole. When you think of Britain, the first thought that jumps to mind is not the local pub – symbol of the legendary British hospitality – where your acquaintance invites you so you can buy him a drink because he paid for yours the day before; it is not the drunk football hooligans causing mayhem in the stadia; it is not the self-proclaimed ‘celebrities’. It is undoubtedly Buckingham Palace at the heart of which stood the Queen – uncontroversial, unchallenged, collected, unfazed, unperturbed. She was the symbol of Britain. I sometimes think she occupied a space that would otherwise have been filled by ‘celebrities’ with made-to-order hips and breasts of the likes of the Kardashians.

That 68% of British citizens still today endorse the monarchy is one of the Queen’s greatest achievements. It is arguably a testimony that the symbolism is well worth the money spent on the palace. Think of the disaster that the Kardashians or the football hooligans would have been for the Brits. 

Go in peace, Your Majesty. Whatever you stood for in the world’s turbulent and cruel past; whatever ‘gifts’ from India and Africa the palace is still holding on to; whatever I think of hereditary privilege, I still smile when I look back on what you did for my kind and for your country. And if only for that, you deserve our deference and admiration.

_{*September 11^th, 2022.}