…Essay Entry – The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition 2025
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is a biennial meeting of the governmental/state leaders from every Commonwealth nation. Though it may not seem like it, it’s a lot like the animal kingdom: a group of diverse and widespread individuals coming together.
One difference is that animals don’t talk about improving economies, but if they did, it would be a talk for the history books and here is how it would be:
It begins with animals from different Commonwealth countries around the world gathering around the great Kapok tree at the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
Each animal is a leader representing their own respective country. From every direction, you can hear monkeys chattering, birds squawking, and elephants trumpeting. Then, out of the tree, comes forth… the mighty lion, King of the jungle, as the head of the whole animal kingdom, to meet every animal attending this biennial gathering.
He lets out a loud and thunderous roar, stretching farther than 8 kilometres, and suddenly, everywhere goes silent as they all bow down before him. He gives off a soft growl to commence the gathering.
Behind him is the head of the jungle, crawling up to give the guests an opening speech. “It is an honour for the Amazon rainforest to be the host of this year’s animal CHOGM, and we hope you enjoy what our home has to offer as we come together to discuss more world issues impacting all of the animal kingdom and working on ways to prevent them,” she says and crawls back down.
As she leaves, each leader from a Commonwealth country steps forward to introduce themselves and speak about the situations that have been going on in their country and their efforts to reduce the side effects of the problem. After that, they move on to their main objective for this year: inequality among animals – different animals living in the same environment struggle to understand communal living.
All the animals around the Kapok tree go ballistic the moment they hear this. “The leopards walk around like they own Tanzania,” yells the Thompson Gazelle (Kenya’s Commonwealth animal leader) “always taking all the habitats for themselves, even the ones they can’t live in.”
“I second that,” shouts the Streamertail Bird (for Jamaica), “the owls hog every tree for themselves, like other birds aren’t already living there.”
Before things can get out of hand, the jungle head gives a sharp hiss to silence them all. “I understand what you’re all saying, but what do you expect to gain out of violence? We’ll only cause ourselves more trouble unless we take this on from a more peaceful perspective.”
The king says and then steps down; all is quiet for a moment.
Then Zebra (leader for Botswana) comes forward. “I agree with the king,” she says with a snicker, “no one wants to be treated like they’re less than, but we won’t get anywhere with violence. Starting a war or execution isn’t the answer. We need to come up with creative solutions on how to solve the problem so that everyone is treated equally.”
After that, one monkey climbs out of the tree. “I say we institute a new policy: all animals should only take their fair share of food and only get more when necessary.” She suggests. “And every animal should have a home where everything they need can be provided for them.” One toucan says afterwards.
Just like that, every animal is suggesting an action plan on how to tackle the problem.
As they come to the end of the meeting, the lion king steps up to give a closing speech. “I give many thanks to all of you individuals for attending this year’s CHOGM. I am glad that every creature here could come together once again to brainstorm solutions on how we can bring all the animals of the world together as one.”
Munachiso Ken Ugwuh is one of the Gold Medallists from Nigeria for her essay entry into the 2025 Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition. She is a 13-year-old creative with a strong desire to make the world a better, more liveable place.
With a love for imagination, basketball, drawing, writing, reading, singing, and dreaming big, Munachiso is deeply passionate about art, creativity, and adding a touch of magic to the world, while aspiring to make a positive impact through various forms of artistic expression.
