Due to the fact that HM Queen Elizabeth II was a part of a government that tortured numerous Africans, many Africans are still hesitant to express their grief over her passing on.
Many Kenyans and Africans have vented their rage on social media, stating that she headed a government that tortured thousands of Mau Mau fighters who were defending what was rightfully theirs from the colonial ruler.
Photos: The Royal Family (Instagram)
Kenya has a long history with Queen Elizabeth II. Her father, King George VI, breathed his last on February 6, 1952, while asleep.She was in Kenya when he ascended to the throne in 1952 at the then Government House, the current State House Nairobi, after his father’s death. Colonial Governor Sir Philip Mitchell read the proclamation that the young princess became Queen Elizabeth II. Before the bad news reached her, Princess Elizabeth had enjoyed a wonderful day at Treetops Hotel in Nyeri with her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburg.
Upon taking the throne, Queen Elizabeth II inherited millions of subjects around the world in British colonies. Just two years after her visit, the Mau Mau, Kenyan freedom fighters, opposed British colonial rule. This was the beginning of fights between Kenyans from the Kikuyu tribe and British soldiers.
During her reign, British soldiers harassed and persecuted Kenyans during the Mau Mau uprising between 1952 and 1960. Millions were restricted to detention camps, lost homes, tortured and raped. Crackdowns were executed against families of Mau Mau fighters and those who rebelled against British colonial rule. Many died, and an unconfirmed number of people went missing. This was the case in most British colonies in Africa.
This is the reason why the death of Queen Elizabeth II elicited mixed reactions in Kenya and in the African continent. Many said it is a memory of how their forefathers suffered during the queen’s rule and that they had no reason to mourn her.
“Let’s not act as though Queen Elizabeth II’s passing is something we are lamenting. Personally, I won’t mourn because she witnessed and enjoyed my forefathers suffering numerous horrors,” remarked social media user Davis.
US-Based Professor Uju Anya: “Half of my family were slaughtered with guns, bombs the late Queen Elizabeth sent to Kill us during civil war.”
The late Queen Elizabeth, who assumed the throne on February 6, 1952, was only 25 years old when she travelled to Kenya with her husband Philip and learnt of the passing of her father, King George VI.
Photo: The Royal Family (Instagram)
The Economic Freedom Fighters, a Marxist opposition group in South Africa, declared: “We do not mourn Elizabeth’s death.”
The group listed crimes committed by British forces in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and stated, “Our connection with Britain has been one of misery, death and dispossession, and of the dehumanization of the African people.”
Photos: Ali Hassan Memon (Twitter)
Despite this perception of her, Elizabeth had a close friendship with the first president of South Africa after apartheid, the late Nelson Mandela, and made two trips thereafter white minority rule ended.
Many other countries have expressed their deepest condolences to the family and friends of the late queen, describing her as a servant leader to her people.
