The African Queen? Republicanism and Defensive Decolonization in British Tropical Africa, 1958-64.

This article focuses on a neglected aspect of the transfer of power in British tropical Africa from 1958 to 1964. It suggests that, from around 1962, the British government actively encouraged African states to move straight to republican status on independence, rather than retaining the Queen as their head of state. Ministers and officials feared that the subsequent adoption of republican constitutions by states that had initially retained the monarchy might prove an embarrassment to the Queen. This determination to shield the monarch from embarrassment appears to have been the overriding factor in British calculations. In this respect the monarchy was, perhaps, an excessively fragile instrument for the promotion of Britain's relations with its former colonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]