Analysis: To some, the sight of King Charles being welcomed to Faleolo International Airport by Samoan police in white gloves and something closely resembling pith helmets might be a joyful synthesis of Commonwealth cultures.
To others, it will be seen as an embarrassing anachronism, a relic of an empire whose memory is celebrated by just one nation in the Commonwealth.
At a banquet hosted on Thursday evening by Samoan Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa, King Charles was mentioned in the prayers before dinner, Newsroom’s Sharon Brettkelly recounts. The reverend Dr Siale Salasulu blamed the royals for bringing the bad weather with them, as torrential downpours and strong winds continued into the night.
That’s not the only baggage that Charles brings.
The biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, being held this week in Samoa, is again focused more on the British Empire’s harmful legacy gunpoint colonialism, land confiscations and slavery, than it is on what the 56 member nations can do together to enhance global trade and security, and mitigate climate change.
In 2021 when he had no real constitutional duties or accountability, Charles expressed regret over the “appalling atrocity” of slavery, which had left an “indelible stain” on the world. But now he’s King and what he says actually matters, he’s become more cautious about acknowledging British fault.
More and more Commonwealth nations have freed themselves from the British apron strings. Barbados, one of the nations brutalised by slavery, lowered the Royal Standard for the last time in 2021.
Who can blame member nations for remaining focused on this painful past, when it has so fundamentally shaped their present? Fourteen Commonwealth nations are on the United Nations list of “least developed countries”. These are defined as “highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks, with low levels of human assets”.
‘I mean no disrespect to King Charles, but I think he would do well to assess whether he – as King of England – has any moral authority to lead the Commonwealth. I actually wonder, if the headship rotated it might change things.’
Dr Areti Metuamate (Ngati Kauwhata, Ngati Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngati Haua, Mangaia)
By contrast, Britain has the sixth highest GDP in the world – a reflection of a century of transfers from its once asset-rich colonies – and yes, among those “assets” were shackled men, women and children.
Arguably, asset transfers have continued. There’s frustration that Global South nations are expected to bear the same obligations to cut climate emissions; even though it’s developed nations like the UK (and a few others member states like New Zealand) that have profited from generations of industrialisation.
Dr Areti Metuamate is a prominent New Zealand academic who heads Ormond College at the University of Melbourne, and is a visiting fellow at the Australian National University Pacific affairs department. He says the value of the Commonwealth in the 21st Century is now nothing more than symbolic.
“Given the history of the British Crown in our part of the world, it is odd that people have so much faith in an association that both perpetuates the idea that the British monarch sits above us all, and that in practical terms does very little for the everyday people in our Māori and Pasifika communities,” he says.
At latest count, only 15 Commonwealth countries – including NZ – still have King Charles as head of state. Yet Charles remains the head of the Commonwealth.
“I mean no disrespect to King Charles, but I think he would do well to assess whether he – as King of England – has any moral authority to lead the Commonwealth,” Metuamate says. “I actually wonder if the headship rotated it might change things.”
On Friday morning, as the Caribbean nations in particular exert growing pressure for Britain to pay reparations for the slave trade, the King is to obliquely address concerns in his first speech as Commonwealth head.
Buckingham Palace has briefed selected UK media, saying Charles will recognise “the path of history”. He will remind members that “all nations are equal in this unique and voluntary association”.
He will speak of the necessity of finding opportunities for young people, the “existential threat” of climate change, and offer advice on how the private sector can help address its effects.
What is Charles’ advice worth? Many Commonwealth nations would argue that Britain has lost all moral authority – not through the historic crimes of slavery and confiscations, per se, but through its ongoing failure to constructively discuss this legacy.
Reparations may or may not make it onto the table at some point, but Britain should at least engage in a process of acknowledgement and reconciliation.
As long as it refuses to discuss the ongoing harm, it hampers the Commonwealth’s capacity to work together constructively on contemporary challenges.
