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The monarch will talk vaguely about ‘wrongs’ on his first official visit as head of state to a Commonwealth country. This blindness about the violence of empire must stopKing Charles III will travel this week to Kenya, his first visit to a Commonwealth country as Britain’s monarch. There, according to Buckingham Palace, he will “acknowledge the more painful aspects of the UK and Kenya’s shared history, including the Emergency (1952-60) … [taking] time during the visit to deepen his understanding of the wrongs suffered in this period by the people of Kenya”.It appears the British monarch is in need of a history lesson. A little over a decade ago William Hague, who was foreign secretary, delivered a speech to the House of Commons, heralding a rupture in Britain’s narrative of imperial exceptionalism. Continue reading...