THE BRITISH MONARCHY 2022 - THE END?

 THE BRITISH MONARCHY 2022 - THE END?

Murphy Browne © September 14-2022

The recent death of the sixth female ruler of the British Empire (Mary I, Elizabeth I, Mary II, Anne, Victoria and Elizabeth II,) has many people mourning. However not everyone is mourning; complicated, conflicted and conflicting feelings have been expressed internationally. While there have been official condolences praising her longevity, there has been anger about the role her government played in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and elsewhere during her tenure on the throne. Some have chosen to take this opportunity to reflect on the brutal legacy of the British Empire and role of the British Royal family during slavery and colonization. Professor Mukoma Wa Ngugi associate professor of literatures in English at Cornell University is one of several people who have been interviewed by various media and have expressed dissatisfaction/unhappiness with the idea that the whole world should be mourning the death of Elizabeth II. She was on safari in Kenya while representatives of the British Empire were brutalizing Kenyans. She was in Kenya in 1952 when her father George VI, died and she became queen. The newly established monarch

Elizabeth II was in Kenya during the height of Kenyan resistance to British rule and the brutal suppression of the Maumau Uprising. Professor Mukoma Wa Ngugi whose ancestors were members of the people who were brutalized by the British government wrote: “My uncle was deaf. He was asked by British soldiers to stop. Of course he did not hear them. They shot him dead. My other uncle was in the Mau Mau. My grandmother hid bullets for him. Colonialism happened to real people. It is absolute madness to expect us to mourn the queen.” During that interview Professor Mukoma Wa Ngugi also said: “It’s one of the ironies, historical ironies that she became queen of Kenya, but at the same time, when the repression against Kenyans was actually becoming not just visible but also vicious, detention camps, murders, wanton shootings. I think it’s a degree of psychosis, that you can go to another people’s land, colonize them, and then expect them to honour you at the same time. The queen became the queen in Kenya at the same time there were murders, assassinations and just good old-fashioned corruption. And then, at the same time, we are expected to mourn the queen.”

Caroline Elkins is a White American historian whose

research and subsequent publishing of the book “Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya” exposed Britain’s brutal suppression of the Mau Mau movement in Kenya in the 1950s. The information in “Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya” was essential in a court case that resulted in reparations being awarded to more than 5,200 elderly Kenyans who survived the systematic torture and abuse to which they were subjected by representatives of the British government. Elkins was called as a witness to support the Kenyan claim. There are only 3 copies of “Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya” in the Toronto Public Library system of 100 library branches, and 10 holds, although is one reference copy at the Reference library at Bloor and Yonge that can be read in the library. Alice Mugo a Kenyan lawyer shared a photograph of a fading document from 1956 online. It was issued four years into the reign of Elizabeth II, and well into her government’s brutal response to the Mau Mau resistance against colonial rule. “Movement permit,” the document reads. While over 100,000 Kenyans were rounded up in concentration camps, others, like Mugo’s grandmother, were forced to request

British permission to travel in their own country. “Most of our grandparents were oppressed,” Mugo tweeted hours after the death was announced on Thursday. “I cannot mourn.”

These sentiments are not limited to Kenya or Kenyans. In an interview, African Jamaican Pan-African dub poet Mutabaruka expressed similar thoughts. Mutabaruka said: “In 1952, that was when she ascended the throne of England. And if you check the history between 1952 and now, you will see that even though slavery was abolished, they redefined slavery and called it colonialism. And colonialism in this part of the world was represented by the throne of England. We’re not really talking about the individual person; we’re talking about a corporation, an institution, which is called the monarchy of England, that has totally devastated a lot of the progress we could have made if it wasn’t for this, colonialism, interpreted to us as slavery still.”

There are 21 copies and 61 holds of Elkins’ most recent book “Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire” with one reference copy available at the Reference library. In “Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire” Elkins quotes Edward Eyre who

was the British governor of Jamaica during the 1865 Morant Bay uprising led by Paul Bogle. Following a brutally vicious suppression of the 1865 Morant Bay uprising of African Jamaicans, Eyre who represented the British crown in Jamaica, boasted that “the retribution has been so prompt and so terrible that it is likely never to be forgotten.” It has not been forgotten and has been immortalized in the song “96 degrees in the shade” by the group “Third World.”

The death of Elizabeth II and the appointment of her son as the next British monarch, Charles III has caused various reactions from other African Caribbean communities. Dorbrene O’Marde, chair of the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Commission, said: “I’m under no obligation, to be mourning her death. And that is simply because of, my understanding of history, my understanding of the relationships of the British monarchy to African people and Asian people, but to African people certainly, on the continent and here in the Caribbean. And so that my response is perhaps to recognize the role that the queen, Queen Elizabeth II, has played, how she has managed to cloak the historical brutality of empire in this veneer of grandeur and pomp

and pageantry, and graciousness.”

Since the death of Elizabeth II there have been growing calls to dismantle the Commonwealth of Nations which was established as the British Empire began to crumble and shrink. There are 56 countries across the world that maintain ties to the royal family as members of the Commonwealth of Nations, an international organization composed mainly of former British colonies. The Commonwealth of Nations was born out of the slow disintegration of the British Empire, which covered a fifth of the world’s surface at its peak in the late 19th century. Its holdings spanned from Hong Kong to the Caribbean to a wide swath of southern and East Africa. Queen Victoria, whose reign was critical to consolidating the empire, became Empress of India in 1877. The empire shrank as British colonies declared their independence. The slow dissolution of the British Empire began in the late 19th century as predominantly white colonies such as Canada and Australia were granted dominion status—meaning they could pass their own laws, which would be subject to royal approval. In 1926, Britain and the dominions formed the British Commonwealth of Nations, agreeing they

would all be "united by a common allegiance to the Crown." When India declared its independence in 1947, it chose not to swear fealty to the crown—opening the floodgate for other countries to join the Commonwealth under the same conditions. The organization officially became the Commonwealth of Nations. Now with the wind of change blowing through much of the populations of the Commonwealth of Nations, that organization is at risk. The legacy of the once “glorious” British Empire which once “ruled the waves” seems to be coming to an end with the death of the longest reigning British monarch.

Murphy Browne © September 14-2022

DELOS ROGEST DAVIS AUGUST 4-1846

 DELOS ROGEST DAVIS AUGUST 4-1846

Murphy Browne © August 1-2022

Delos Rogest Davis was born on August 4-1846 and was the first person of African ancestry appointed as King’s Counsel in the British Empire. A King’s Counsel was a lawyer who was selected to serve as counsel to the British crown and that was considered a great honour bestowed on any lawyer of the time. During this period of history, George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, (which included Canada) and Emperor of India. He was the grandson of Victoria and grandfather of the present British monarch Elizabeth II. The British royal family has an interesting history that every child living in a British colony was forced to learn. On July 17, 1917, George V issued a royal proclamation that changed the name of the British royal house from their German name “House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha” to the more British “House of Windsor.” This was at the height of the first European tribal conflict (first world war) when the British and their German kin were slaughtering each other and doing their best to destroy each other’s countries. George V and all his British relatives relinquished their German titles and adopted British surnames.

The history of Delos Rogest Davis and African Canadians is not as well known and that is a sad fact which needs to be addressed and corrected. Delos Rogest Davis was born in Maryland, to an enslaved African couple, Anne Davis and James Davis. In 1849, James Davis escaped enslavement and lived in Fort Erie for a short time.

In 1850, James Davis bravely made the terrifying journey back to the area of his enslavement and rescued his family from the plantation where they were enslaved. The Davis family arrived at Malden (Amherstburg) on October 15, 1850, when Delos Rogest Davis was 4 years old. During the spring of 1851, the Davis family moved from Amherstburg when James Davis purchased the west half of lot 14 on the south side of Malden Road, in the African Canadian settlement of New Canaan in northern Colchester Township.

Education for enslaved Africans in the US and British North America/Canada was forbidden so neither Anne Davis nor James Davis were literate. However, they were determined that their three children, living in freedom in Upper Canada as refugees from US slavery, would have the opportunity to be educated. James Davis, along with other residents of Colchester North, hired a “private lady teacher” to educate the children of the community. A school was later established in the area, and James Davis was elected as one of its trustees, a position he held for several years.

The African Canadian children of Colchester North benefited from the education James Davis and others initiated for their community. In 1871, James Davis’ son, Delos Rogest Davis began studies to become a lawyer. To further his education, Delos Rogest Davis had worked at a paper mill in Michigan, as a deckhand on the steamer “Forest City” and as a fireman on the tug “Castle.”

Delos Rogest Davis obtained a teaching certificate, and taught school for four years. Becoming a lawyer was a bit of a struggle for Delos because of the white supremacist culture of British North America/Canada where people of African descent were viewed as inferior. Fortunately, in 1871, county judge Gordon Watts Leggatt and attorney Charles Robert Horne, agreed to tutor/instruct Delos. In December 1871, Delos Rogest Davis was appointed a commissioner of affidavits, affirmations, and recognizances. On June 19, 1873, he became a notary public.

Davis was prevented from becoming a lawyer because the Law Society of Upper Canada required that individuals studying law must article for a period of time with a lawyer before taking the entrance exams for admission to the bar of Ontario. For eleven years, Delos Davis studied and practiced law at the level of legal clerk — he was prohibited from handling most legal matters because he had not been admitted to membership in the Ontario bar as no lawyer would hire him to article under them. Davis eventually applied to the Ontario Legislature to pass a private member’s bill to authorize him to practice as a lawyer. The bill was introduced by W.D. Balfour, M.P.P. for Amherstburg. On May 25, 1884, "an act to authorize the Supreme Court of Judicature for Ontario to admit Delos Rogest Davis to practice as a solicitor" received Royal Assent. This act “provided that Davis be permitted to take his final law examination in order to obtain admission to the Law Society of Upper Canada, notwithstanding the fact that he had not complied with the articling requirements of the Law Society.”

Balfour’s bill stated in part “in consequence of prejudices against his colour, and because of his being of African descent he had not been articled to any attorney or solicitor.” Davis placed first in the class of thirteen candidates and was admitted to the Ontario bar on November 15, 1886.

In 1887 Davis established a law practice in Amherstburg focusing on criminal and municipal law. He was counsel in six important murder cases but specialised in drainage litigation. Delos Rogest Davis, born on August 4-1846 as a child of enslaved Africans in the US, transitioned to the ancestral realm on April 13, 1915, after achieving his ambition, against many odds, becoming one of the first African Canadian lawyers and first African Canadian called to the bar of Upper Canada.

Murphy Browne © August 1-2022

JAMAICAN MAROONS IN NOVA SCOTIA JULY 21-1796

 JAMAICAN MAROONS IN NOVA SCOTIA 1796

Two hundred and twenty-six years ago, on July 21-1796, the first group of African Jamaicans arrived in British North America/Canada.

Murphy Browne © July 21-2019

On July 21 and 22-1796, three ships docked at the Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia carrying between 550 and 600 African Jamaican men, women and children. The three ships, the Ann, the Dover and the Mary had sailed from Port Royal Harbour, Jamaica on June 26-1796, and arrived in Canada almost one month later in July 1796.

The passengers on the three ships had been forced to leave their homes in Jamaica, by the colonizing British. The group known as “Maroons” were the descendants of enslaved Africans who had seized their freedom when the British ousted the Spanish from Jamaica in 1655. This group of freedom fighters whose ancestors had fled slavery when the Spanish were forced to flee Jamaica had been fighting to remain free of enslavement attempts by the British, for more than 100 years.

The group repeatedly defeated the British attempts to capture and re-enslave them. The group of Africans who arrived in Nova Scotia in July 1796 were also known as the Jamaican Maroons. They were Africans whose ancestors had been enslaved by the Spanish before the British colonized the island. On May 10-1655, during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604,)

the British invaded the Spanish colonized island and the Spaniards fled leaving behind the Africans they had enslaved, who seized the opportunity to head for the mountains and freedom. The Africans who escaped from slavery on the island of Jamaica established free communities in the mountainous interior and waged battles with the British who tried to re-enslave them.

The British, who invaded the island in 1655, also enslaved Africans to support their extensive development of sugar-cane plantations. The enslaved Africans in Jamaica continually resisted and some of them escaped from the British to join the Maroon communities established in the mountains.

The armed conflicts between the British and the Africans led to the “First Maroon War” between the warring groups in 1728. The British were unsuccessful in defeating the Maroons because the Africans were fearless, fighting for their freedom and led by military tacticians who knew the lay of the land. The Africans, using guerrilla warfare in the densely forested area of the Cockpit Country were at a distinct advantage against the heavily armed and unsuitably dressed British.

The war ended with signing of treaties between the British and the Maroons which not surprisingly benefitted the British, even though they did not win the war. The language of the signed treaties was written in English which gave the British colonizers a distinct advantage.

In 1795 tensions between the Maroons of Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) and the British erupted into the Second

Maroon War. This second “Maroon War” which began in July 1795, lasted 8 months until March, 1796. Although the British with 5,000 troops and militia outnumbered the Maroons ten to one, the mountainous and forested area where the war was waged proved ideal for guerilla warfare. The British, however, with more fighting men than the Maroons, also had 100 bloodhounds and their handlers imported from Cuba. This gave the British a distinct advantage in many ways. The Cudjoe's Town/Trelawny Town) Maroons who were not supported by other Maroon communities in this war, decided to surrender rather than suffer a defeat.

In March, 1796 the Maroons agreed to accept open discussions with the British. The British colonial governor in Jamaica had promised leniency if the Maroons surrendered. He reneged and instead, captured and deported (to Nova Scotia) the entire Cudjoe's Town/Trelawny Town Maroon community. These proud African Jamaican freedom fighters who had managed to evade enslavement were forced to board three ships which sailed from Port Royal Harbour, Jamaica on June 26-1796, and arrived in Canada almost one month later, on July 21 and 22-1796.

The deported Maroons were unhappy with conditions in Canada, and in 1800, the majority left to travel to the British colony of Sierra Leone in West Africa. In 1800 they were back on the continent from where their ancestors had been kidnapped even though Sierra Leone was at that time (1800) a British colony. Some descendants of the Jamaican Maroon community remained in Nova Scotia. Some who were taken to Sierra

Leone, returned to Jamaica.

There were “Maroon” communities in every country where Africans were enslaved by Europeans including Brazil, Suriname and Mexico. In the English-speaking Caribbean, the Jamaican Maroons are the most well known as we were taught about these freedom fighters at home and in school.

Murphy Browne © July 21-2019