After Queens death, former colonies seek blood diamonds back

When Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, there was an outpouring of grief across the world. Britain had lost its longest-serving monarch and the world sympathised. But hours after the Queen’s death, many in India started wondering about the fate of Kohinoor, one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, that adorned the crown of the Queen.

When British media reported that after Elizabeth’s death, the Kohinoor will go to Queen Consort Camilla, many Indians on Twitter asked, why not return it to whom it belongs?

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The demand to return artefacts from crown jewels is not exclusive to India. Many former British colonies have called for the return of jewels looted from their lands. Recently, South Africa sought the return of the Great Star of Africa, the largest cut diamond in the world at 530 carats, TimesLive, a South Africa-based news website reported.

Also known as Cullinan I, the Great Star of Africa occupies a place on the sceptre of the royal crown.

The Great Star of Africa must be returned to South Africa with immediate effect, said Thanduxolo Sabelo of the African National Congress KwaZulu-Natal, CNN reported. The diamond was a gift to King Edward VI after it was discovered in a private mine in 1905, according to the Royal Collection Trust. But South Africans think otherwise.

The Great Star of Africa, which the Queen has flaunted for so many years, is a symbol of oppression for the African people, activists say. Nearly 6,000 people across South Africa have signed a petition calling for the return of the diamond which is currently valued at nearly $400 million.

But for the Africans, it is more than just the value. It represents a colonial burden, a testimony to a reality that they live even today. “The minerals of our country and other countries continue to benefit Britain at the expense of our people,” African Transformation Movement (ATM) MP Vuyo Zungula said to a local media outlet.

Referring to the departed Queen, he added, “We remain in deep, shameful poverty, we remain with mass unemployment and rising levels of crime due to the oppression and devastation caused by her and her forefathers.”

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Zungula has a list of demands, which goes as far as to state that South Africa should leave the Commonwealth and draft a new constitution.

Clearly, it is not just the value of the diamond, but the morality of a transaction under colonial rule that is being questioned. Was a gift by South Africa’s Transvaal government (British-run) to King Edward VI really a gift? Is a diamond that was found in a private mine, not a blood diamond?

Questions such as these may be lurking like shadows in the corridors of Buckingham Palace. But former colonies are asking them out loud.