Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne in 1952, many of whom didn't like her. Today, the erstwhile colonies of the British Empire are left with conflicted emotions.
New Delhi: Queen Elizabeth II inherited millions of subjects around the world when she ascended to the throne in 1952, many of whom didn’t like her. Today, the erstwhile colonies of the British Empire are left with conflicted emotions.
In addition to the official condolences praising the queen’s longevity and devotion, there is some animosity over the past in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and elsewhere.
In Kenya, where decades ago a young Elizabeth learnt of her father’s passing and her massive new duty as queen, a lawyer named Alice Mugo shared online an image of a faded document from 1956. It was issued four years into the reign of the queen, and well into Britain’s stern response to the Mau Mau uprising against colonial rule.
The document says “Movement permit.” While more than 100,000 Kenyans were detained in deplorable camps under grim conditions, others, like Mugo’s grandmother, asked the British government for permission to go from place to place.
“Most of our grandparents were oppressed,” Mugo tweeted in the hours after the queen’s death on Thursday. “I cannot mourn.”
However, like the other African heads of state, Kenya’s outgoing president, Uhuru Kenyatta, whose father, Jomo Kenyatta, was imprisoned during the queen’s rule before becoming the country’s first president in 1964, chose to ignore the past.
During Elizabeth’s reign, several Caribbean islands and countries on the fringe of the Arabian peninsula gained their hard-won independence. Among them are some notable names, such as Ghana and Zimbabwe, along with a string of Caribbean islands.
On Saturday, Gaza’s Hamas rulers called on King Charles III to “correct” British mandate decisions that they said oppressed Palestinians.
Mixed reactions were also coming from the Caribbean, where some countries are able to remove the British monarch as their head of state.
