The Cullinan I, the world’s largest cut diamond weighing in at 510 carats was placed in the British royal families scepter due to the stone being discovered when South Africa was colonized under the british. South Africans are now calling for the stone to be returned from the royal jewel following a recent social movement calling for the return of items the British colonizers took from their colonies. An online petition fighting for the stone to be returned has received 8000 signatures, however, some people within the country are impartial and believe that the fight to have the stone returned is simply hanging on to the past and refusing to move on.
This story is again showing how British colonization can lead to tense relations between countries as well as within countries. While this story highlights some South African citizens demanding that Britain return the diamonds in the royal jewels, it more so speaks on how some people within countries still haven’t gotten over British rule, not surprisingly I might add due to the nature of being a British colony. That being said, I think it’s a little ridiculous to demand that a precious stone, which is already set in Royal Family Jewels, and is not owned by the country demanding their diamonds back, and also were mined and given to the royal family at the time of discovery, be given back to the country it came from. The main argument for returning the stone is the cultural importance of the stone to South African citizens. While that may be important to some, I believe that it was within the British rights to donate the stone to the King at the time considering they were in rule over the colony.
To connect back to class, South Africa was a British colony for a long time and thus, a lot of its cultural foundation can be traced back to how the British ruled the colony back then. South Africa is probably one of the most famous British colonies in Africa, especially now that South Africa is its own state and forming its own image.