By: Martha Ross, The Mercury News
In his memoir “Spare,” Prince Harry rhapsodized about his
love for Africa, writing about a life-changing moment when encountering a
leopard outside his tent in Botswana’s Okavango Delta and asserting that
he may be British but his “soul” belongs to the continent.
That may be all well and good for Harry, but some Africans affected by his
charitable endeavors began calling him out in recent years for harboring a
“racist and colonial” approach to environmental conservation with one of
his signature charities, African Parks. That organization has been mired
in allegations that employees at one of the 22 parks it manages across the
continent have perpetrated human rights abuses against Indigenous people.
Now, this week, the Zimbabwe-born chairwoman of Harry’s Lesotho-based AIDS
nonprofit Sentebale has suggested that he and other trustees were
participants in an organization rife with “abuse of power, bullying,
harassment, misogyny (and) misogynoir (prejudice against against Black
women.” The chairwoman, Sophie Chandauka, also said that Sentebale was a
“vanity project” for Harry and the other trustees, after they announced
that they were stepping down over a leadership dispute with her.
The racism and misogyny accusations are sure to sting Harry, who has tried
to present himself as enlightened on racial matters since meeting and
marrying his biracial American wife, Meghan Markle, and decrying the
racism directed at her when she married into the British royal family.
Certainly, the controversies surrounding both of Harry’s African charities
offer “a stark reminder” of the complexities of certain kinds of global
philanthropic work for a public figure like him — especially when the work
“intersects with issues of power and race,” said the Daily Beast’s
European editor Tom Sykes.
It’s not just a matter of Harry promoting certain lofty principles, he
also needs to pay attention and be ready “to act” upon upon shifting
political and cultural forces in countries in which he doesn’t live, Sykes
added.
This week, Harry was experiencing the “heartbreak” of stepping down from
Sentebale’s board of trustees, as he said in a statement. Harry and his
royal friend in Lesotho, Prince Seeiso, co-founded the organization in
honor of their late mothers nearly 20 years ago. Speaking of Harry’s
mother, Princess Diana, he said that his life-changing encounter with the
leopard took place in 1999, two years after her death. As a
then-14-year-old, Harry said he was convinced that the leopard was
bringing a message from his mother that “all will be well.”
Daily Mail royal editor Rebecca English, who accompanied Harry on several
trips to Africa over the years on behalf of Sentebale, tried to analyze
the breakdown of the relationship between the prince and his beloved
organization, which he founded to help children affected by poverty and
the AIDS crisis.
During one of those visits, English said the prince spoke passionately
about helping children and making a difference in their lives — but she
also surmised that he founded Sentebale to make a difference in his own
life.
“You could hear the intensity in his voice, an almost desperate
determination to be taken seriously on this issue, to prove that the
infamous party prince (then age 21) had a more weighty purpose in life,”
English wrote.
English suggested that Harry lost his focus on Sentebale after he married
Meghan and they decided to leave British royal life, move to the United
States and put their energy into becoming media moguls and other shared
philanthropic efforts. Harry visited Lesotho last year for a charity polo
match on behalf of Sentebale. But before that, he had last visited six
years earlier.
“It has long been clear that something wasn’t quite right (with
Sentebale),” wrote English, who said that the organization had been
initially engulfed in a scandal over funding for programs tending to go to
salaries and perks for executives. While the organization righted itself,
talk of behind-the-scenes conflict has “never been far away,” she said.
Now, this week, those conflicts have exploded into a global news story.
The Times UK reported that Harry and other trustees had lost trust and
confidence in Chandauka. The dispute with Chandauka also arose around a
decision to focus fundraising in Africa, according to the Times.
Chandauka said she was trying to raise concerns about problems in the
organization, and she has filed a lawsuit with the High Court in the U.K.,
where the nonprofit is registered. The Charity Commission in the U.K.,
which registers and regulates nonprofits in England and Wales, confirmed
to the Times UK that they are investigating Chandauka’s claims.
Meanwhile, Harry also faces controversy with African Parks, a nonprofit
that manages 22 parks in 12 African countries.
In recent years, Survival International, a leading human rights group, has
slammed both Harry and African Parks for failing to address a litany of
alleged “horrific” abuses committed by African Parks rangers against
Indigenous people in a national park in the Republic of Congo.
After Harry joined the board of directors for African Parks in 2023, an
investigative Daily Mail news report alleged that local Baka people in the
Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Congo basin had been the victims of
rape, torture and countless other “atrocities.”
Following the report, Survival International called on the Duke of Sussex
to resign from African Parks and said it had alerted him to the alleged
abuse.
Harry didn’t resign, and Caroline Pearce, the executive director for
Survival International, said in September that concerns about the alleged
abuses “have not been resolved.” Survival International said that African
Parks has failed to address a likely root cause of the abuse: “A racist
and colonial fortress conservation model.”
The Daily Beast’s Sykes reported that the controversy surrounding African
Parks is part of a broader pattern of human rights concerns associated
with conservation in Africa. Critics say that Indigenous communities are
too often evicted, marginalized, or abused in the name of environmental
protection.
While African Parks announced in January 2024 that it had launched an
investigation in the alleged abuses, it has not yet published the results
of the investigation, Sykes reported. A spokesperson for Harry couldn’t
say whether there were any updates on the investigation, while Survival
International also isn’t aware of any updates either.
Sykes said that Harry’s supporters will argue that he inevitably faces
risk and challenges being involved in charitable work with organizations
like Sentebale and African Parks. But both Sykes and English also
suggested one way Harry has made himself vulnerable. He’s been trying to
operate without the institutional support of the royal family — where
experienced private secretaries and press officers could vet potential
controversies.
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