The British writer, producer, and broadcaster Afua Hirsch has raised worry about the BBC’s coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death in the UK, which emphasizes how African countries attained freedom while she was in power.
Speaking on The Big Bulletin last Wednesday, she said, “And you know one of the things that bothered me about the conversation about the passing of the Queen in the UK is the media narrative in Britain, especially pioneered by the BBC which talks about how under Queen Elizabeth’s rule African nations were given independence.”
“No one was given independence,” she said. “People had to fight for it. Ghanaians had to die for it and in some cases went to prison for it. And it was fought for and won.”
The current Commonwealth of Nations was legally founded by the London Declaration in 1949, which modernized the organization and established member states as free and equal, according to Hirsch, who has considerable understanding of the relationship between Africa and Britain.
“And Britain at the time, Ghana being the leading light on the African continent pushing for independence, Britain took a very strategic view that it was better to transition to something that sounded more equal that allowed it to preserve it control and influence,” she said.
Hirsch argued that the Commonwealth of Nations had unfairly favored Britain over its former colonies after the death of the king who had ruled for the greatest period of time in British history.
“To be honest with you, it’s not a club of equals,” she said. “The British Commonwealth, the British Monarch sit at the head of it. Why is it not the Ghanaian Commonwealth or the Indian Commonwealth. The reality is Britain has ultimate power in the Commonwealth because it is the direct descendant of the British Empire.”
