Dear Editor,
THE letter published in today’s Kaieteur News written by Yvonne Sam, titled ‘Let’s forget about race and welcome the newest royal into his place’ is powerfully crafted, and I hope it will be read and re-read by citizens in Guyana and across the hemisphere.

I compliment Ms. Sam for her scholarship, courage and wisdom, and share our hope that the new baby to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will grow up unaffected by this nasty, debilitating four-letter word called RACE.

I wish to make one comment, if not correction, to the well written letter by Ms. Sam. Ms Sam noted that the birth is the first mixed-race one in the Royal Family. He is not the first.
She can refer to my book written on Georgetown, ‘An Anthology of Georgetown – Guyana and a piece of the world’. On page 32, I secured a painting/picture of Queen Charlotte Sophie, the wife of King George III of England.

Interestingly, we celebrated her birth anniversary yesterday, May 19. Queen Charlotte Sophie of Mecklenburg, from all accounts, was half-black as her painting/picture shows; that is before some were re-touched by some European historians.

My research led me to a description which is recorded in the book, as being a mulatto.
The official records describe her as England’s 18th Century black Queen. Sophie Charlotte was born on May 19, 1744. Charlotte was the eighth child of Prince Mirow of Germany, Charles Louis Frederick, and his wife Elizabeth Albertina of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

Sophia Charlotte was the wife of King George III. She served as Queen of Great Britain and Queen of Ireland from her wedding in 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms in 1801, after which she was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until her death in 1818. She was also the Electress of Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire until the promotion of her husband to King of Hanover on October 12, 1814, after which she was also queen consort of Hanover.

Charlotte was a patron of the arts and an amateur botanist who helped expand Kew Gardens. She was distressed by her husband’s bouts of physical and mental illness, which became permanent in later life, and resulted in their eldest son’s appointment as Prince Regent in 1811. George III and Charlotte had 15 children in total, 13 of whom survived to adulthood. She was the mother of two future British monarchs, George IV and William IV. Her other children included Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover; and Charlotte, Queen of Wurttemberg.

King George III and Queen Charlotte were music connoisseurs with German tastes, who gave special honour to German artists and composers. They were passionate admirers of the music of George Frederic Handel.

Queen Charlotte Sophie was a brilliant woman, but in spite of her subjects; concernd about her obvious African black features, she was respected and highly regarded for her contributions to the arts and the upliftment of culture generally.

So here we have sections of the British media trying to belittle Princess Meghan. Maybe many of those who seek to embarrass Meghan may themselves have the ‘tar-brush’ somewhere. For us in Guyana, let us work assiduously to put an end to identifying people by race, religion, by the colour of the skin or the texture of the hair, but rather regard each other by the content of our character and our willingness and ability to make Guyana and the world a safer and nicer place.

May I add this caveat: My darkest daughter has two sons with a ‘lily-white’ father. The family describes those delightful boys as neither black nor white, but good, genuine hyperactive Greens, loved by all family members, relatives and friends.
Regards,
Hamilton Green