Amid the mutual backslapping taking place between leaders of African countries attending the Mandela funeral, the Prince of Wales cut, at times, a lonely figure. The heir to the throne was relegated to a seat a number of rows back from the front position that a senior member of the Royal Family would expect to occupy on such an occasion.
The fact that the Prince was representing the former colonial power may have had something to do with his near invisibility during the event – it had been suggested he would deliver an address to the more than 4,000 guests at the funeral but in the end no speech was made.
Instead, Britain’s future monarch was treated to speeches decrying the evils of colonialism in Africa, of which this country was a leading exponent. The positive role played by the modern Commonwealth was mentioned not once during the funeral service, despite South Africa being one of its key members.
The temperature of the occasion could be gauged by the fact that when the name of Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, was read out as one of those attending it provoked applause from the audience.
The prince’s name was greeted with indifference when it cropped up, and that was only late in the day, after batches of other names had been read out between speeches and hymns. The future King had to content himself with a trailing position behind the prime minister of St Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean microstate. The protocol people at Buckingham Palace, to whom orders of precedence are bedtime reading, were no doubt appalled by this lax approach to international status, but there may have been more to it than simply a mistake.
David Cameron received similar low billing when he attended the main memorial event celebrating President Mandela’s life in Johannesburg’s World Cup stadium on Tuesday.