Queen Elizabeth II inherited millions of subjects around the world upon taking the throne in 1952. Many of them were unwilling. Today, in the British Empire's former colonies, her death brings complicated feelings, including anger.
Beyond official condolences praising the queen's longevity and service, there is some bitterness about the past in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and elsewhere. Talk has turned to the legacies of colonialism, from slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artifacts held in British institutions. For many, the queen came to represent all of that during her seven decades on the throne.
"Most of our grandparents were oppressed," Mugo tweeted hours after the queen's death Thursday. "I cannot mourn."But 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, overlooked past troubles, as did other African heads of state. "The most iconic figure of the 20th and 21st centuries," Uhuru Kenyatta called her.
Elizabeth's reign saw the hard-won independence of African countries from Ghana to Zimbabwe, along with a string of Caribbean islands and nations along the edge of the Arabian Peninsula. Yiannis Spanos, president of the Association of National Organization of Cypriot Fighters, said the queen was "held by many as bearing responsibility" for the island's tragedies.India is renewing its efforts under Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove colonial names and symbols. The country has long moved on, even overtaking the British economy in size.
"We cannot blame the queen for all the sufferings that we had at that particular time," Kahindi said. Mixed views were also found in the Caribbean, where some countries are removing the British monarch as their head of state."You have contradictory consciousness," said Maziki Thame, a senior lecturer in development studies at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, whose prime minister announced during this year's visit of Prince William, who is now heir to the throne, and Kate that the island intended to become fully independent.
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