London continues to be all pageantry this week, after Saturday’s pomp and ceremony of the coronation of King Charles III. That is quite the adjustment for the older generation.
I am still so used to his old title, that I often still end up calling him Prince Charles. But he is finally king, after a display of majesty that few, if any other country can match.
With 2 000 VVIPs in attendance, the crowning was quite the gedoente – carefully-choreographed rituals meant that nobody put a foot wrong, so as to not offend British sensibilities and soil royal protocol.
And the new king appeared to be basking in the glowing adoration of the royal limelight, which he had been waiting his entire life for.
But there was some bitterness permeating the veneer of perfection. For example, some still felt that it should’ve been Diana by his side, instead of Queen Camilla, the woman he cheated on Diana with.
For South Africans, the display of British elegance and chivalry was infused with a different kind of bitterness, at the climax of the entire thing.
You see, our presence was very prominent on Saturday. The most obvious examples were former swimming champ Charlene, the Princess of Monaco, and opera singer Pretty Yende. The soprano made history by becoming the first African solo artist to perform at the coronation of a British monarch.
But it’s a different sort of history that interested others.
The sceptre that Charles III held during the ceremony contains part of the largest diamond ever mined – the First Star of Africa.
It is beyond precious – a 530-carat gem that was unearthed in Cullinan in 1905 and given to King Edward VII.
In the weeks building up to the coronation, calls for the diamond to be handed back to South Africa grew louder, with an online petition garnering close to 10 000 signatures, wanting the diamond to be returned and housed in a South African museum.
In fact, returning artefacts taken from British colonies over the centuries is a delicate diplomatic nightmare that the new king will not be able to avoid.
It’s especially tricky since some other European countries are now making the right moral decision, by returning some of their colonial loot to places like Nigeria, Benin and Ethiopia.
King Charles has an opportunity to correct the moral misstep of his beloved mother, by returning the priceless crown jewels.
At 74 – an age at which most people are well into retirement – there was a genuine fear that his mother would outlive him, or that he would be too old and that the crown would pass straight to his eldest son, Prince William.
So this is an opportunity for Charles to secure his legacy in what little time he has on the throne, so that he can rule with a clear conscience, and the unbridled adoration of a new, young generation worldwide; and all South Africans in particular.
He is only 20 years younger than his mother was when she died last year.
That means we are going from the world’s longest reigning monarch, to what will in all likelihood be one of the world’s shortest reigns.
But if in that time he does the right thing, then long live the king, right?