- Cyril Ramaphosa will visit the UK from November 22 to November 24.
- It may be significant that the first state visit is made by a major Commonwealth member.
- Charles III ascended to the throne following his mother’s death last month.
King Charles III, who ascended to the throne following the passing of his mother Queen Elizabeth II last month, revealed the first state visit he will be hosting on Monday.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, will pay a visit to the new king from November 22 to November 24. Ramaphosa’s three predecessors all made trips to the UK. Given the uncertainty surrounding the organization Charles is now in charge of, it may be significant that the first state visit is made by a major Commonwealth member.
In contrast to the Queen’s calm diplomatic stances, the new monarch is well-recognized for having strong opinions on national and international problems.
Charles reportedly labeled a contract between the UK and Rwanda – with a £120 million ($135.3 million) up-front payment – to send refugees there seeking shelter “appalling” before the most recent gathering of Commonwealth heads of state in Kigali in June, where he represented the queen.
Ramaphosa’s visit is anticipated to cover a wide variety of topics, including trade and investment but also perhaps a new course for the Commonwealth under Charles’s leadership.
The visit “will provide an opportunity to commemorate our contemporary connections that deliver prosperity and security for both countries, as well as to outline how we can cooperate bilaterally and globally to enhance those links for the future,” according to a statement from the palace.
Indeed, there has been a long-running discussion about the Commonwealth’s political destiny around the world, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean, where republicanism is becoming more and more popular.
Following the queen’s passing in September, debates regarding the international organization that is regarded as one of her legacies have once again flared up.
Many Africans have since been revisiting the horrifying events that their ancestors and neighbors went through while living under British colonial control.
Evelyn Wanjiru, a native of Nyeri in central Kenya, was given the name in honor of her grandmother, who died in 2009 at the age of 106. The matriarch was one of the millions who endured suffering and loss during the Mau Mau revolt against British land theft in Kenya between 1952 and 1960.
Wanjiru claimed that the loss of her sight as a result of torture in concentration camps destroyed her soul. The 31-year-old pastry chef told Al Jazeera that whenever you asked her what happened, she always had this sad expression on her face and would fall into tears.
Some senior residents in Zimbabwe blame the monarchy for the country’s failed land reforms. Former president Robert Mugabe pushed for a constitutional revision in 2000 to give Black farmers land that had been allocated to white farmers during colonial times, without payment.
Harare held London accountable for breaking a promise to help finance a portion of the former’s intention to buy some of these lands. The Lancaster House Agreement, which was signed in 1979 by nationalist movements vying for independence and the government of what was then Rhodesia but is now Zimbabwe, ratified the agreement.
Early in the new millennium, Zimbabwe’s economic growth was stifled in part by the effects of the land reforms, and as ties with the UK deteriorated,
Zimbabwe’s Commonwealth membership was eventually suspended. In 2003, it left the fold. It submitted a return application in 2018 but has not yet been admitted.
And now there is a discussion regarding the body’s continued existence in the UK with the recent change of guard.
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