South Africa asks UK to return diamond after Elizabeth II’s death

Calls are growing in South Africa for the British royal family to return the world’s largest known cut diamond after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Known as the Great Star of Africa or Cullinan I, the diamond is cut from a larger gemstone that was mined in South Africa in 1905 and given to the British royal family by the country’s colonial authorities. Currently, the stone is mounted on a royal scepter belonging to the queen.

Demands for the return of the Great Star of Africa and other diamonds – along with requests for repatriation – have intensified since the Queen’s death. Many South Africans see Britain’s acquisition of the jewelry as illegitimate.

national discussion

The queen’s death opened up a discussion about colonialism and how it relates to her legacy. South African media have been debating ownership of the gem, along with demands for payment of reparations.

“The Cullinan Diamond must be returned to South Africa with immediate effect,” activist Thanduxolo Sabelo told local media, adding that: “Our country’s and other countries’ minerals continue to benefit Britain at the expense of our people. ”.

More than 6,000 people signed a petition asking that the Great Star of Africa be returned and displayed in a South African museum.

A member of the South African parliament, Vuyolwethu Zungula, urged his country to “demand reparations for all the damage caused by Britain” and also “demand the return of all gold and diamonds stolen by Britain”.

South Africa must:
1. Leave the Commonwealth.
2. Demand reparations for all the harm done by Britain.
3. Draft a new Constitution based on the will of the People of South Africa not the British Magna Carta.
4. Demand the return of all the gold, diamonds stolen by Britain.

— Vuyo Zungula MP 🇿🇦 (@ZungulaVuyo) September 8, 2022

When the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, posted a tweet praising the queensome South Africans hijacked the post to claim the return of the Great Star diamond.

One user wrote: “Did you ask her when she would bring back the South African diamond?” while another posted reacting to the rise of King Charles III that his “action should be to return the diamond from South Africa!”.

Royal gift or a “stolen” diamond

According to the Royal Collection Trust, which oversees the royal collection of the British royal family, the Cullinan diamond was presented to King Edward VII (the British monarch at the time) in 1907, two years after its discovery in a private mine in South Africa. , former Transvaal province.

“It was sent to Asscher from Amsterdam to be split in 1908,” he adds.

Weighing in at around 3,106 carats in its natural form, the original diamond was “the size of a human heart,” says the Royal Asscher.

Supporting the British monarchy’s claim to the gemstone, the Royal Asscher explains that the gem was purchased by the Transvaal government of South Africa (run by British rule) and presented to King Edward VII as a birthday present.

Everisto Benyera, professor of African politics at the University of South Africa, rejects this narrative. he told the CNN that “colonial transactions are illegitimate and immoral”.

“Our narrative is that the entire Transvaal and Union governments of South Africa and the concomitant mining syndicates were illegal,” Benyera said, arguing that: “Receiving a stolen diamond does not exonerate the recipient. The Great Star is a blood diamond […] The private (mining) company, the Transvaal government and the British Empire were part of a larger network of coloniality.”

According to the Royal Asscher, the Cullinan diamond was cut into nine large stones and 96 smaller pieces. The largest of the stones was named the Great Star of Africa by King Edward VII, who also named the second-largest cut stone the Smaller Star of Africa.

The larger diamond was placed on the Sovereign’s Scepter with Cross and the second was mounted on the Imperial Crown. Queen Elizabeth II has been seen in many portraits wearing these diamonds.

“The late Queen of England bears these [diamantes] for more than half a century,” Leigh-Ann Mathys, national spokesperson for Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a South African opposition political party, told CNN .

Mathys accused British colonial powers of stealing land and appropriating mines that belonged to native peoples.

“Our call is for repatriations for all colonial robberies, of which the theft of the Great Star of Africa is a part,” she said.

“We do not demand its return as this implies that there was a valid agreement in terms of which the British royal family received the diamond on loan. It is in their possession purely as a result of the colonial tenacity that has suffocated the natives of this country and elsewhere,” Mathys told CNN .

African countries persistently struggled to recover cultural artifacts looted by colonial troops. Last month, a London museum agreed to return 72 objects from the Kingdom of Benin in southern Nigeria that were looted during a British military operation in 1897.