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Queen Elizabeth II: Her gift to the world
Emilly Comfort Maractho
What you need to know:
- ...there is so much to learn from leaders that live beyond our reach.
It is hard to say anything about Queen Elizabeth II for some of us. It may seem there is no possibility to relate with the Queen. Some have joked that the Queen was like a mother to them. Well, she may have just been.
Even as children in remote parts of our country, we knew about Queen Elizabeth, not just because there is a national park in Uganda named after her, but that she was much more to the world.
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The death of Queen Elizabeth has reminded me that life could last a long time. At 96, spending much of her time active in public service and leadership, she leaves a legacy that is enviable and clearly unmatched. When you are young, there is so much hurry to get everything done, forgetting that life could last a really long time. In the process, many mistakes are made.
I love reading about great leaders. I learnt more about the Queen reading biographies. Reading Charles Moore’s two volumes on Margaret Thatcher in 2016 is a must for female political leaders of our time. It also provides incredible lessons on what it means to work hard, to succeed and stumble, and still maintain dignity.
As many of these incredible leaders exit the scene, there is a sense of loss, not so much for their lives, because they had the best of life, but that the world they leave behind needs their kind much more than many of us realise. Leaders who influenced leaders far and wide. Their values and work ethic, their love for their country and service with integrity, much of it in short supply today, is what they leave us longing for.
There is more to be learnt from these women. Reading Moore’s biographies, you sort of understand what many of these women stood for. Their leadership was outstanding and inspiring. Not for Turning, provides incredible insight into the life of Thatcher while the Queen of Our Times: The life of Elizabeth II by Robert Hardman says more in its title about the Queen, than the text itself. Who would dispute that Elizabeth II is the Queen of our times?
Europe has given us some very remarkable examples of women in public service. They have done a lot to transform their countries. From Catherine the Great of Russia to Queen Elizabeth II whom we now mourn, there is a lot to celebrate about them.
You learn more about remarkable leadership and understand why so much has gone wrong in many parts of the world today, because that breed of leadership, is sadly dying too. They are being replaced by people for whom power is everything, and there is no cost to getting it.
The Queen has affected many lives no doubt. She reminds me of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem, Success. Queen Elizabeth embodies everything in the poem, ‘To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the beauty in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that one life has breathed easier because you lived here. This is to have succeeded’.
Queen Elizabeth, in her elegance, led with grace and dignity. She was inspiring and her life will continue to inspire generations of women, not by force or demanding for respect. She was easy to love and respect.
I was recently offered the gift of The Queen and Ms Thatcher: an Inconvenient relationship by Dean Palmer.
Despite their antagonising relationship, there is more to learn from the two women, about their personal and political lives, arguably Britain’s best gifts to the world in different ways. Their contribution cannot be understated. Hopefully, there will be more comprehensive biographies about the Queen in the way that Moore managed with Margaret Thatcher, in ways that will teach our children.
There are many times, when young women tell me, that they simply do not see too many role models that inspire their best aspirations. Maybe they need to look to the lives of those we have lost, who live with us in books and other forms of content.
We maybe have fallen short of leaders that can inspire positive change in young people, but there is also so much to learn from the kinds that live beyond our reach, like Queen Elizabeth. They have left a lot in their footprints that will not go away in our life time.
Ms Emilly Maractho (PhD) is the director of Africa Policy Centre and senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University. [email protected]
