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| In Kenya, King Charles Will ‘Walk a Tightrope’ on Britain’s Past | In Kenya, King Charles Will ‘Walk a Tightrope’ on Britain’s Past |
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| When King Charles III travels to Kenya this week, it will be a journey steeped in family memory for Britain’s new monarch: In 1952, his mother, Elizabeth, had just spent the night at Treetops, a remote Kenyan game-viewing lodge, when she learned of the death of her father, George VI, which thrust her onto the throne. | When King Charles III travels to Kenya this week, it will be a journey steeped in family memory for Britain’s new monarch: In 1952, his mother, Elizabeth, had just spent the night at Treetops, a remote Kenyan game-viewing lodge, when she learned of the death of her father, George VI, which thrust her onto the throne. |
| But Charles has no plans for a sentimental pilgrimage to Treetops. The hotel has fallen into disrepair in recent years, and it is redolent of the kind of white, colonial, safari glamour that the king would do well to avoid on his first visit to a former British colony since he succeeded his mother last year. | But Charles has no plans for a sentimental pilgrimage to Treetops. The hotel has fallen into disrepair in recent years, and it is redolent of the kind of white, colonial, safari glamour that the king would do well to avoid on his first visit to a former British colony since he succeeded his mother last year. |
| History will hang heavily over the king’s visit, in any event. Buckingham Palace said Charles “would acknowledge the more painful aspects of the U.K. and Kenya’s shared history,” specifically Britain’s brutal suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion from 1952 to 1960, which left tens of thousands of people dead. | History will hang heavily over the king’s visit, in any event. Buckingham Palace said Charles “would acknowledge the more painful aspects of the U.K. and Kenya’s shared history,” specifically Britain’s brutal suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion from 1952 to 1960, which left tens of thousands of people dead. |
| Royal visits to former colonies have long been delicate, but in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement, they have become fraught. Protesters and local government officials regularly demand apologies and sometimes reparations for colonial-era abuses, including economic exploitation and Britain’s role in the slave trade. | Royal visits to former colonies have long been delicate, but in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement, they have become fraught. Protesters and local government officials regularly demand apologies and sometimes reparations for colonial-era abuses, including economic exploitation and Britain’s role in the slave trade. |