I'm not a monarchist, so why am I grieving?

I have been a bundle of very difficult and unexpected emotions the last few days. First of all, just to get things straight. I am not a monarchist. Nor am I even a ‘Queenist’ -?a word that suddenly entered the English lexicon last Thursday. I am fully aware of the crimes against entire populations that have been committed under the gaze – and with the complicity – of the Crown (here are just a few).

A decolonial approach - which I advocate in my book - necessarily implies ending all regimes and institutions whose power diminishes and usurps the sovereignty and agency of others.So why has the death of Queen Elizabeth II brought on so much grief within me?

As one writer on Linked In eloquently reflected, death is complex. And so is life, and our experience of it. My own complexity resides in the fact that as a white, middle-class British woman it has been easy for me to watch the Queen's Christmas speech and observe her multiple national and international tours with little more than a mixture of disdain and reluctant acceptance, that she was indeed 'woven into the cloths of our lives'.

My complexity also resides in the fact that most of my life I have always wished to fight for the underdog; to ensure everyone has space to speak and to be heard; to give equal validity to everyone’s lived experience. Indeed, it wasn’t long after the announcement of the Queen’s death that I started listening and reading to the voices that we are not hearing in mainstream news: those whose association with the Queen are of oppression, and loss of dignity and humanity.