As the UK celebrates King Charles III’s coronation on Saturday, the spotlight will be on the crown perched on the head of Camilla, Queen Consort. Following Buckingham Palace's decision not to use the controversially-sourced Kohinoor diamond for the coronation, the onus fell on the Cullinan III, IV, and V diamonds from Queen Elizabeth’s jewellery collection to adorn Camilla's crown.
Interestingly, Cullinan's role in the coronation too comes with its set of controversies. The Cullinan III, IV and V have been cut from the 3,100-carat Cullinan mined near the South African capital city of Pretoria in 1905.
Roughly the size of a human heart and a blue-white colour, the stone was purchased by the colonial government in South Africa in 1907. The colonial government presented the diamond to Edward VII as a token of loyalty on the king's birthday in 1911 to repair the ties between local colonial rulers and the British Empire following the Second Boer War, which ended in 1902.
Despite being 'gifted', many see it as a symbol of colonial exploitation.
The uncut diamond was then taken to England and divided into nine large pieces, each assigned a number from I to IX.
Cullinan I was set into the Sovereign's Sceptre with the Cross and the II was fixed in the Imperial State Crown. The III and IV were originally part of Queen Mary's coronation crown, before being refashioned into brooches and other jewellery.
It is the reappearance of Cullinan III, IV and V that triggered a controversy in South Africa with a campaign calling for the jewel’s repatriation. After Queen Elizabeth II's death, over 8,000 people signed a petition calling for the return of the Cullinan diamonds.
African Transformation Movement MP Vuyo Zungula tweeted that South Africa must demand the return of "all the gold, diamonds stolen by Britain". "The minerals of our country and other countries continue to benefit Britain at the expense of our people," former African National Congress party member Thanduxolo Sabelo told South African media Times Live.
This brings to the fore the story of India's Kohinoor, a 105-carat oval jewel which was forcefully sourced from India by the British from the 11-year-old emperor of the Sikhs Maharaja Duleep Singh in the 19th century.
Amid India's strong protest seeking repatriation of the diamonds, Buckingham Palace announced in February that Camilla would not be crowned with the Kohinoor diamond. The decision was seen as a diplomatic gesture.
