By Ben Kerrigan-
British charity leader, Ngozi Fulani,(picture) has said she felt she was being forced to denounce her citizenship when she was “interrogated” by the late queen’s lady-in-waiting about where she “really came from”.
Fulani’s assumption is without any factual basis,but is the result of her perception of the negative encounter she had with Lady Hussey who went too far in her confrontation of the woman.
Ngozi Fulani, the founder of the domestic abuse charity Sistah Space, was questioned repeatedly about her background by the royal aide Susan Hussey at a Buckingham Palace reception.
She also said that despite Buckingham Palace saying it had “reached out” to her and was inviting her to “discuss all elements of her experience”, she had not heard from royal officials.
Lady Hussey, 83, apologised and resigned from her honorary position as a lady of the royal household after the incident on Tuesday at a violence against women and girls reception hosted by Camilla, the Queen Consort.
Hussey questioned Fulani continuously until communication broke down between the two of them at an event meant to be for special guests.
Fulani, who felt offended at the question took the long route in answering it, having clearly had a preconception of Lady Hussey as being racist. The question as well as the fact it was coming from a highly placed official in the palace appears to have got Fulani more on the defensive, until Lady Hussey in frustration fell for the bait. The confrontation in itself with a guest who is black was always going to be a negative reflection against Lady Hussey, but the question, taken in good faith, was one of curiosity.
Fulan’s negative reaction to a normal well intended question exposed Ms Hussey’s lack of awareness about racially tense issues, but had no bearing on her British citizenship.
Fulani said that at first she wondered if Hussey had not been able to hear her answer when she continued to ask the same question. “But it soon dawned on me very quickly that this was nothing to do with her capacity to understand, but this is her trying to make me really denounce my British citizenship.”
She added: “This is like a Windrush thing to me. You can’t make me unwelcome in my own space.”
“I was not giving the answer that she wanted me to give. And so we could not move on,” Ms Fulani told Sky News.
“And it was when she said ‘I knew you’d get there in the end’ – that proved to me, you were determined to prove that I had no right to British citizenship.
Fulani has disputed the idea the misjudgement could be attributed to Hussey’s age. “I’ve heard so many suggestions it’s about her age and stuff like that and I think that’s a kind of a disrespect about ageism,” she said. “Are we saying that because of your age you can’t be racist or you can’t be inappropriate?”
She added: “If you invite people to an event, as I said, against domestic abuse, and there are people there from different demographics, I don’t see the relevance of whether I’m British or not British. You’re trying to make me unwelcome in my own space.”
Fulani later told ITV’s Good Morning Britain (GMB) programme that no one from the palace had approached her over the incident. “People keep saying the palace has reached out to me. Nobody has reached out to me,” she said.
Asked whether the palace had perhaps reached out via her charity, Sistah Space, Fulani said: “No. I don’t know where this has come from, but I’m telling you categorically, we have not heard from the palace.”
She said if she did receive an invitation from the Prince of Wales to attend the palace and discuss her experience, she would accept it, telling GMB: “See, what we’re about is positive results, so absolutely, I think a discussion should be held.
“We’re very happy to have that discussion, because we just want to bring it back to 16 days of activism. This is about violence against women and girls, and although I didn’t experience physical violence, what I feel I experienced was a form of abuse.”
Sources have indicated that the palace has tried to reach out through one of the organisations through which Fulani is aligned.
Abuse
Fulani described Hussey’s questions as an abuse. “I have to really question how this can happen in a space that’s supposed to protect women against all kinds of violence,” she said. “And although it’s not physical violence, it is an abuse.”
A spokesperson for the Prince of Wales, who is Lady Hussey’s godson, said the comments were unacceptable and that “racism has no place in our society”. Buckingham Palace described the remarks as “unacceptable and deeply regrettable”.
Responding to a question on how she felt about Hussey’s resignation, Fulani said: “I want the focus to remain where it should be, which is on the women and girls who are affected by domestic abuse. Having said that, she’s influenced by Buckingham Palace, and it’s their decision and her decision to make, one that I had no part in.”
Asked if she would have preferred to accept Hussey’s apology instead of seeing her resign, Fulani said: “I would have preferred it did not happen. I would have preferred that I could go to a space where I’m invited and be treated as every other guest was treated. I would prefer that we kept the focus on the abuse against women and girls.”
The former chief prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service said on Twitter: “I was at the Buckingham Palace reception at which Lady Hussey questioned the heritage of a brilliant DV expert Ngozi Fulani.
“She only asked me my heritage once & seemed to accept my answer – Manchester currently!
“Racism is never far away tho.”
Some analysts say the fact the nature of the question and the constant questioning was inappropriate and racist. it had no bearing with any desire to for Fulani to denounce her British passport.
Life Coach Sheila Mckenzie said ”it could have just been a question which anyone can ask out of interest. Where Lady Hussey went wrong was in trying to insist the question was answered in a way that suited her, but it had nothing to do with her not wanting Fulani to retain her British citizenship. Lady Hussey wanted to know where Fulani was from and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Lady Hussey dealt with the situation with a lot of attitude, but that was her error, which does not necessarily make her racist unless she actually is”
Hussey’s fiercest critics say she should have been conscious of the background history of racist allegations in the palace, and not risked such a confrontation with a black guest, without expecting the stain of being labelled racist.
If this was a clash of attitudes, Hussey has paid a high price for it in a world where curiosity is an instinctive part of nature, but whose expression is not always wanted.
It confirms the saying ‘curiosity kills the cat’, but curiosity is not a bad thing at all.