King Charles III’s coronation: Reflections on his last visit to Ghana

Today will mark a historic day in the history of England, the Commonwealth and, indeed, the world.

It is going to be a significant weekend and a unique moment, especially for Britain, as the nation celebrates the King’s coronation to be crowned to formally succeed his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died at age 96 last September.

King Charles III and his wife, Queen Camilla, will be formally crowned at the London Westminster Abbey in the presence of about 2,000 guests, including foreign monarchs from across the globe as well as the monarch of the Asantes in Ghana, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and his wife, Lady Julia.  

It is going to be a special moment for England because the last of such coronations was 70 years ago, surpassing two generations. The immediate past monarch’s (Queen Elizabeth II’s), coronation was in 1953, having served as one of the longest-reigning monarchs in that country. It is alleged that Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation was attended by 8,000 guests.

With the great interest the history of the British monarchy has attracted over the years, the coronation, no doubt, will attract viewing from millions of people around the world, including some of us.

In 2018, the then heir apparent, Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, and his wife, Duchess Camilla, visited us in Ghana.
I take readers down memory lane with excerpts from an article I wrote for this column during that memorable visit as reproduced below:

Prince of Wales’s visit, any significance?

“It might not have been a holiday destination for the British royal couple, His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.  

From all indications, however, they had a jolly time, combining leisure at British James Town, sampling and dancing to authentic highlife tunes at a state banquet and enjoying rich culture in Kumasi and even visiting a cocoa farm in Ashanti.  

But behind the scenes, the serious business of finding solutions to threats of youth unemployment and the sustainability of our ecosystem were clearly on Prince Charles’ mind.

Retinue of issues

The media reports on the four-day royal visit show significant direction for the better as we look for closer collaboration rather than dependency.  

And so, at the Young Entrepreneurs Forum which took place on day three of the visit, one followed, with keen interest, on issues highlighted by His Royal Highness at the forum. He raised quite pertinent issues on productive youth engagement, unemployment, environmental pollution and the threat they pose to countries within the Commonwealth of Nations, Ghana not excepted.    

Plastic pollution

Challenging, however, is the Prince of Wales’ call for closer collaboration among Commonwealth countries to help address some of the challenges and minimise their impact. Coming from the seat of the Head of the Commonwealth, Prince Charles was dead on point, especially on the issue of plastic pollution.

This is not only a concern for Commonwealth countries but a global canker posing a greater threat to aquatic life.  

Using statistics to prove his point, he said a whopping eight million tonnes of plastic waste enter the oceans every year.  This is a big threat to the blue economy, including employment generation.

In Ghana, the danger of plastic pollution has stared in our faces for far too long, with no end in sight. Related environmental and health threats multiply daily for as long as we continue to produce and import non-degradable plastic materials for food and other packaging.  

Youth engagement

His Royal Highness highlighted another threat that the Commonwealth of Nations should turn serious attention to and work together as governments to minimise it. He pointed out that the Commonwealth has a combined population of two billion under the age of 30 years.  

Though this could be good news, looking into a sustainable youthful future, it is also a threat to unemployment among the youth and the ramifications that go with it if governments do not put a deliberate focus on job generation, including entrepreneurship.

Youth unemployment is a security risk for countries. It is, for example, fuelling mass migration for seemingly greener pastures. Those who engage in it risk many perils including death. If we work together to fix our economies, our youth would have a better future by staying at home and contributing to development.  

The Prince of Wales definitely left us with challenges to be attended to. From where he sits, he has given us clues as to how we could coexist to create common wealth for all people within our Commonwealth of Nations. The world now is more of collaboration and partnerships. No one country can do it alone.  

Prince Charles’s visit should mean a lot to us. He and his wife came; they enjoyed and danced to our highlife; worshipped God on our soil, by courtesy of Accra Ridge Church, witnessed our rich traditional culture and shared fun with acrobatic young talented youth displaying their X-Factor.  

In all that, he left us with the advice to collaborate.”

Today, as he ascends the throne of England as its King, we in Ghana wish His Majesty, King Charles III, and his wife Queen Camilla, the best.

We pray the long bond that has existed between his country and ours will continue to thrive. We wish them well.