Harry and Meghan’s ‘Heart of Darkness’

It was supposed to be a quick trip to London. Prince Harry arrived on Tuesday to attend a worthy cause.Yesterday we celebrated our 10th anniversary. invictus games at St Paul’s Cathedral – an event co-founded by Prince Harry in 2014 to honor wounded soldiers and veterans, with 23 countries currently participating.

He did it alone. His wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, remained in Montecito, as did Charles III’s two young grandchildren.

Harry didn’t make time to see his sick father. diagnosed In February, he was diagnosed with cancer of unknown cause.Harry’s office preemptively issued a statement She disingenuously claimed that it was because of her “diary of my father’s promises and various other priorities.”

But even if you are a king, your son will always be your priority.

The Duke of Sussex remains uncomfortably estranged from his family, including his brother William, Prince of Wales, and sister-in-law Kate, Duchess of Wales. What was supposed to be the start of an emotional journey that ends later this week in Nigeria has now become the start of Joseph Conrad’sheart of darkness”

Meghan’s decision to distance herself from King Charles again is not surprising, as she is essentially declaring herself “persona non grata” in the UK. Effectively, at least from a public perception perspective, it has prevented Meghan from seeing her King and her children, and she has effectively used her children as a weapon against the King. There will be.

But darkness in the family is a small problem compared to inadvertently spreading darkness on the world stage. The geopolitical and national security implications are currently significant in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa.

Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan’s initial decision to host Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Badal’s invitation Visiting Abuja this week was completely beyond reproach. Nigeria looks forward to hosting future Invictus Games soon and is a key ally in the increasingly unstable but strategically important African region.

But Meghan’s intrigue changed everything.

By refusing to travel to London with Prince Harry and not taking her children to meet King Charles and Queen Camilla, Meghan deliberately drew media attention to herself, timed to highlight her visit to Nigeria. I guessed it.

Hollywood’s power games may work in Tinseltown’s favor. But in the real world of foreign policy and national security, Prince Harry and Meghan are innocently strengthening the hands of Moscow and China.

Instead of arriving in Abuja as the beloved daughter-in-law of the current British monarch, who is also head of the 56-nation Commonwealth of Nations, Meghan chose to travel to Nigeria alone, effectively assuming that role. Ta. The story of a tormented royal outcast who bears the self-proclaimed scars of modern British racism.

Indeed, traditional racism persists in Britain, as in other countries, including the United States. However, Britain is not a racist country, nor is it a country defined by racism. Look at the people British voters put into power. Rishi SunakThe British Prime Minister is of Punjabi Indian descent and is the son of Hindu parents born in East Africa. Sadiq KhanThe three-term mayor of London is of Pakistani descent and the son of a Sunni Muslim. Until Tuesday humza yousafHe was also a Muslim and served as Scotland’s first minister.

All three are international figures representing England, which reached its peak during the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II as a result of her advice.

That is the message Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan should send to Nigeria. It is one of the approaches to the Commonwealth of Nations, particularly in Africa, and also has relevance in the Global South in modern-day England, Scotland and Wales.

Instead, we are witnessing a reimagining of “Empire 2.0.” In other words, the Commonwealth is simply a modern-day imperialist enterprise, a notion that Prince Harry and Meghan foolishly allowed to be associated with it for the first time in their eponymous work. Netflix series and their oprah winfrey interview when they raised still-unsubstantiated claims of racism in the royal family.

Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan did not simply “suddenly arrive” in Nigeria, cut off from the regional realities of sub-Saharan Africa. Niger, a poor country north of the western Sahel, witnessed a coup in 2023. U.S. troops were forced out of air bases used for surveillance and interdiction. Boko Haramessentially the “Nigerian Taliban”, and ISIS active in West Africa.

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military began using the 101st Air Base. The Russian government is rapidly expanding militarily and economically into the region, including neighboring Chad, Mali, and Burkina Faso, disrupting previously stable democracies across the Sahel in the process.

One of the key factors in defeating countries that were once friendly to the West is to paint Britain and its NATO allies as modern-day Western imperialists and unrepentant racists. This is President Putin’s propaganda war aimed at. President Putin is doing this in collaboration with Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of a concerted effort to weaken and destroy the African Union.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s most vicious group of fans, often referred to as the “Sussex Squad,” fail to understand how tragically endangering Africans are at the hands of Moscow and China. At a time when Western interests are under attack in the Sahel, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are unwittingly supporting President Putin and Xi Jinping’s regime by continuing to undermine King Charles as Head of State and Commonwealth. .

Millions of African civilians in the Sahel region are currently being actively exploited economically by Russia and China. National resources are being stolen, in hundreds of cases. brutally slaughtered By Russian paramilitary groups. The same goes for the Central African Republic, Sudan, and the entire African continent, with Nigeria high on Putin and Xi’s Africa wish list, courtesy of Boko Haram.

Democracy perishes in darkness, but it also perishes in naivety. Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan have ditched the ‘knives out’ approach to King Charles that was on display in Jamaica and are now very realistic about who Prince Harry’s father is and his role in their decisions and actions. We must recognize that this can lead to serious consequences. He is involved in world affairs.

Unfortunately, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan remain selfishly lost in promoting a dystopian “Heart of Darkness” that ostensibly no longer exists. Western imperialism and old racism are not destroying modern Africa. Rather, Russian and Chinese military and economic imperialism are increasingly conquering sub-Saharan Africa through violence and anti-democratic repression.

mark toth He writes about national security and foreign policy. Colonel (retired) Jonathan Sweet He served as a military intelligence officer for 30 years.