Comparative Drama

In an illustration of perfect cosmic timing, the week of November 27, 2022 saw two distinct public incidents involving the British Royal Family that worked serendipitously with one another to prompt necessary confrontations regarding their response to the history of British colonialism, or more accurately, their lack thereof. On November 29, Buckingham Palace hosted an event as part of the United Nations's 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. While such an event was meant to shed light on what Camilla, the Queen Consort, called "a global pandemic of violence against women," the microagressive remarks of Lady Susan Hussey stole the spotlight.¹ Hussey, Queen Elizabeth II's lady-in-waiting, approached Ngozi Fulani, the founder of the non-profit Sistah Space, and, as Fulani shared on social media, inquired repeatedly about where Fulani was "from." When Hussey did not receive what she believed to be a clear answer to her first inquiry, she proceeded to clarify, "what part of Africa are YOU from?," and upon Fulani explaining that she did not know, prompted, "but what Nationality are you?," to which Fulani replied, "I am born here and am British." Hussey, however, was undeterred. She continued asking where Fulani's people came from and when she first arrived to Britain until Fulani shared that her parents arrived in the U.K. in the 1950s. Hussey finally declared, "Oh, I knew we'd get there in the end, you're Caribbean!" I share most of the interchange as Fulani retold it to provide a clear impression of Hussey's persistence, a commitment to a line of inquiry determined to otherize Fulani, to make [End Page 29] her "from" somewhere else, thereby illustrating what L. Monique Pittman characterizes as "a strongly homogenous understanding of the United Kingdom that inadequately accounts for its long-standing cosmopolitan and multicultural communities."² The pull of this homogeneity therefore leads Hussey to suggest, while never outrightly stating, that someone with Fulani's name and skin color could not be fully conceived of as a British national, not really.

This racist incident framed Prince William and Princess Katherine's visit to Boston that same week, adding a pointedness to the remarks made by Reverend Mariama White-Hammond, Boston's chief of the environment, energy, and open space, later the same day as Hussey's demeaning exchange. As widely reported by news outlets, White-Hammond declared in her speech at Boston's City Hall, "On this day, I invite us all to consider the legacy of colonialism and racism. The ways it has impacted people around the world and its connection, its deep connection to the degradation of land and our planet that we are all seeking to serve. The stories lost, the species made extinct, but also the persistence of people in the face of oppression and the fundamental dignity of all of our relations."³ In context, White-Hammond's speech fits within the focus of the royals' visit—to award the Earthshot Prize, which funds five projects that strive to save the planet—by drawing attention to the relationship between colonialism, planetary exploitation, and environmental destruction. Nevertheless, it is White-Hammond's first line, "On this day, I invite us all to consider the legacy of colonialism and racism," that subsequently garnered the most attention, for as the racist Hussey exchange exposes, that legacy of colonialism and racism remains alive and well. In fact, as faux pas after faux pas by the royals make clear—from William seemingly blaming African people for overpopulation at the Tusk Conservation awards in 2021 to William and Kate's disastrous 2022 Caribbean tour, to concerns that Camilla would wear the "controversial" Koh-i-Noor diamond at King Charles's coronation—significant consideration of the legacy of colonialism and racism on the part of the royals has decidedly not taken place. These two occurrences thus reveal to transatlantic royal watchers just how tenuous the "post" in postcolonialism proves to be.

It can be difficult, however, to grapple with how to achieve a "post" to postcolonialism, if it can ever be achieved at...