The world will witness the greatest display of pomp and ceremony in modern history on Monday.
We haven’t seen the funeral of a prominent monarch in our lifetime, until Monday, when Queen Elizabeth II is finally laid to rest.
It will be the biggest gathering of the world’s royals, as well as past and present political and social leaders, all wanting to be seen to be paying their last respects.
It will be quite the gedoente, infused with carefully-choreographed, sombre rituals meant to reflect the queen’s status on the world’s stag.
Everyone involved will take extra care to not put a foot wrong, so as to not offend British sensibilities and royal protocol.
And if the British royal family is nothing if not ruled by protocol, then their subjects are tied to the absolute properness of those protocols.
But since the queen’s passing 11 days ago, there have been a few interesting cracks in the steely armour of her successor, who is turning out to be the king of protocol.
He was filmed angrily gesturing and irritatingly shooting one of his dozens of staffers. All just because his desk was a little more cluttered than he would like.
There was also an incident with a wayward fountain pen that ended up messing ink all over the place.
Again, instead of seeing the comedy in the moment, the new king chose visible annoyance, berating those close to him and making his displeasure known.
So, now there are questions around what kind of king Charles will be. Is he a super-spoiled and entitled blue blood, or is he simply just cranky in his old age?
Either way, his may end up being a very different legacy from the one his dear mommy left behind.
I imagine he is going to work hard to move along swiftly to draw public sentiment away from the memory of his mommy.
After all, he has been waiting his entire life for his time in the glowing adoration of the royal limelight.
At one stage there was a genuine fear that his mother would outlive him, or that he would be too old and that the crown would pass straight to his eldest son, Prince William.
So I can imagine that he would want to make the throne his own as quickly as possible, so that he can enjoy monarching while he still can.
But I reckon his biggest diplomatic headache is going to start almost immediately – the growing chorus for looted gems and cultural artefacts to be returned to former colonies.
I’ve been noticing more and more social media posts demanding that the royals return the priceless crown jewels taken out of South Africa.
The time seems to be ripe as this is firstly not a new call, but some European countries are now making the right moral decision by returning some of their colonial loot to places like Nigeria, Benin and Ethiopia.
These include valuable artefacts and gemstones that were on display in American and European museums.
The Netherlands is seemingly leading the principled way by making a proper and long-overdue apology for the substantial role it played in slavery and the subjugation of indigenous peoples.
The Dutch also plan to inject their contrition with actual reparations in the form of a R3.5-billion fund to raise awareness about the slave trade.
Britain would do well to learn such humbling remorse from their fellow colonialists.
The Dutch are so sorry that they are willingly giving away some of their own money.
We are not even asking for that from Britain, just for our own stuff back.
dailyvoice@inl.co.a