チャールズ国王に早くも試練　国内の黒人社会と旧植民地

【ロンドンＡＦＰ＝時事】先月死去した英国のエリザベス女王をたたえる言葉があふれる中、国内の黒人社会からは「女王は私たちのために何をしてくれたのか」と問う声が多く上がった。（写真は英国王チャールズ３世）
　英国の植民地時代の負の遺産に対する批判はいまだにあり、この問いは、国王チャールズ３世にとって早くも試練となった。
　チャールズ国王は、本国以外に英連邦１４か国の君主にもなった。その中には遠くカリブ海で英国の奴隷貿易によって搾取された国々も含まれる。
　女王死去の翌日、英バーミンガム大学のケヒンデ・アンドリュース教授（黒人研究）はニュースサイト「ポリティコ」への投稿で、国を挙げての喪失感を自分は共有できないと主張。「大英帝国の子どもたち、ここで生まれた人たち、英連邦１５か国に生まれた人たち」にとって、女王は白人至上主義の象徴の頂点だと評した。
　「女王は制度の一つと見なされてきたのかもしれないが、私たちにとっては日々遭遇することを避けられない制度的人種差別（レイシズム）を体現した存在だった」
　人種差別の問題は「Ｂｌａｃｋ Ｌｉｖｅｓ Ｍａｔｔｅｒ（黒人の命は大切）」運動で活発化し、奴隷制度に関わった歴史的人物の像の取り壊しを求める声も各地で上がった。
　英王室もやり玉に挙げられた。２０２０年に王室を離脱したヘンリー王子とアフリカ系米国人の母を持つ妻メーガン妃から、人種差別を受けたとして非難された時だ。
　女王は調査を約束したが、兄のウィリアム皇太子は会見で「私たちは人種差別をするような家族では決してない」と真っ向から否定した。

■旧植民地の目覚め
　人種差別と植民地主義に関する未解決の問題は、チャールズ国王が英連邦５６か国の長を引き継ぐに当たり、いっそう重要な意味を持つ。
　５６か国の多くは英国の旧植民地で、総人口２６億人の大半は非白人で３０歳未満だ。
　英国の黒人史を研究した「Ｂｌａｃｋ ａｎｄ Ｂｒｉｔｉｓｈ： Ａ Ｆｏｒｇｏｔｔｅｎ Ｈｉｓｔｏｒｙ（黒人と英連邦民：忘れられた歴史の意）」の著者デービッド・オルソガ氏は、英紙ガーディアンに寄稿。英連邦では「民衆が帝国主義と奴隷制の現実と遺産に目覚めた」にもかかわらず、王室は「意識の変化」を認識・理解することができなかったと指摘した。
　ウィリアム皇太子夫妻が今春行ったカリブ海諸国歴訪は、植民地主義の表れだと各方面から批判され、奴隷制について謝罪を求められた他、英王室は償うべきだと抗議を受けた。
　オルソガ氏は「歴史家は後世に、あの歴訪をポストエリザベス女王時代の始まりを示す最初の前兆として振り返るかもしれない」と述べる。
　その一方で、チャールズ国王は、あまり公にならない形で差別対策に取り組んできたと言われている。
　英国の人種的不平等と取り組むＮＰＯ「オペレーション・ブラック・ボート」の副代表アショク・ビスワナサン氏は、チャールズ国王が自身の慈善団体「プリンス・トラスト」を通じて、恵まれない若者や黒人コミュニティーと一緒に活動してきた実績が「それを物語っている」と述べる。
　ただし、黒人の英国人、特に若者を納得させるためには国王という「新しい役割の中でそうした関係を育んでいく必要がある」とくぎを刺した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/10/03-14:54）

Queen Elizabeth II's death earlier this month prompted a flood of tributes -- but not from everyone. In Britain's black community, many asked: what had she ever done for us?
The question gave her eldest son and successor, Charles III, an early taste of what he will have to confront as king, with feelings still running high about the toxic legacy of Britain's colonial past.
At her death, the queen was head of state of 14 countries outside Britain, including nations in the Caribbean exploited by the slave trade.
Charles immediately succeeded his mother as their distant head of state but the question of for how long is increasingly being discussed as republican movements gather pace.
Kehinde Andrews, professor of black studies at the University of Birmingham, wrote the day after the queen's death on September 8 that he did not share the country's loss.
For the children of the British empire, those of us who were born here and those of us who were born in the 15 nations of the 'commonwealth', the Queen is the number one symbol of white supremacy.
She may have been seen as an institution but for us, she was the manifestation of the institutional racism that we have to encounter on a daily basis, he wrote on the Politico website.
- Royals accused -
Many black Britons no longer want to stay silent about the racism that they see as rooted at the heart of many British institutions.
The subject came to fore in Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests, which saw calls for statues of historical figures linked to slavery to be torn down.
During the national mourning period which ended with the queen's funeral on September 19, protests were held about the death of Chris Kaba, an unarmed black man who was shot dead by police in London.
The monarchy itself had previously been drawn into the debate when Charles's youngest son, Prince Harry, and his mixed-race wife, Meghan, accused the royal family of racism.
That claim saw the queen promise to investigate but prompted an outright rejection from Harry's brother William. We are very much not a racist family, he told reporters.
Harry and Meghan quit royal life in early 2020 and moved to California, winning many fans among younger people and in the black community for taking on the British establishment.
- 'Mass awakening' -
Unresolved questions about race and colonialism are all the more significant as Charles stands to succeed his mother as head of the 56-nation Commonwealth group of nations.
Many members are former British colonies, while most of the body's 2.6 billion people are not white and most are aged under 30.
David Olusoga, author of Black and British: A Forgotten History, said there had been a mass awakening to the realities and legacies of imperialism and slavery in the Commonwealth.
But the British historian wrote in The Guardian that Buckingham Palace had failed to recognise or understand the shift of consciousness.
He highlighted William and his wife Catherine's Caribbean tour earlier this year, which was widely criticised as smacking of colonialism.
William also faced calls to apologise for slavery and for the monarchy to pay reparations.
Historians might well look back at that tour as the first portent of the age in which we now find ourselves: the post-Elizabethan age, Olusoga said.
Since then, William has praised the immense contribution of the Windrush generation of Caribbean migrants, who came to Britain after World War II to help the country rebuild.
Despite arriving legally, many found themselves later wrongly detained and even deported under the government's hardline immigration policies.
- Race equality -
Ashok Viswanathan, deputy director of Operation Black Vote, said Charles's record, via his Prince's Trust charity, of working with disadvantaged young people and the black community speaks for itself.
But he said that to convince black Britons and especially the young, he will have to foster that relationship in his new role.
Charles is said to have been working behind the scenes to counter discrimination.
In early September, before he became king, he was invited to guest-edit The Voice, a newspaper for the African-Caribbean community.
But not all readers were happy, given the continued lack of apology for slavery, including from the royal family, the monthly's editor, Lester Holloway, said.
He told the BBC: We agreed to collaborate with the Prince of Wales after looking at the work he had done on race equality over 40 years and the parallels with our campaigning over the same period.