As tributes pour in after Queen Elizabeth II’s death on Thursday, some netizens are voicing their dissenting voices, sometimes even going so far as to celebrate the death of the sovereign, whom they portray as a symbol of Britain’s colonizing past.
“Lizzy is in a box,” say her followers in a stadium in Dublin (Ireland) in a video that went viral within hours on YouTube and Twitter.
On Snapchat, some of his compatriots appear dancing in a nightclub with messages that show “Lizzie has passed away”, or even all smiles and thumbs up at the announcement of the British sovereign’s death announced on television.
Another sequence showing three Irish dancers in front of Buckingham Palace to the tune of “Another one bites the dust” by the group Queen. However, the sequence was filmed in January 2022, but it resurfaced on Twitter on Thursday, where more than 530,000 people liked it in less than 24 hours.
Several hashtags have gone viral
Behind the hashtags #IrishTwitter, #BlackTwitter and #IndianTwitter, since Thursday there have been several videos, photos and messages in English, but also in Spanish or French, often openly mocking and sometimes very political, recalling that Elizabeth II, during his 70-year reign, he was also the sovereign of a country that colonized others.
“The colonizing queen passed away today,” proclaims a netizen in English in a viral video on TikTok. “He has committed too many abuses”, adds another in a message in French that has received 25,000 likes and invites his subscribers to learn about “the Mau Mau revolt”, carried out in the 1950s against British colonial forces in Kenya. in which at least 10,000 people died, according to the lowest estimates.
“Today we mourn all the lives stolen, raped and traumatized, affected and destroyed during the reign of Elizabeth II”, also launches a message broadcast in English on Facebook in various groups dedicated to the Australian aboriginal community.
“His death is a reminder of a tragic moment for the country and the history of Africa”
Uju Anya, a professor at a prestigious American university and born in Nigeria, a former British colony, violently criticized Elizabeth II in tweets, drawing much criticism.
“If anyone expects me to express more than disdain for the sovereign who oversaw a government that fomented genocide that massacred and displaced half my family…they can always dream,” he said, referring to the 1967 civil war. or “Biafran War”), where at least a million people died (mostly from starvation) after a regional secession attempt. The UK was accused of having contributed to the crisis by supporting the central government.
The far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party in South Africa issued a widely retweeted statement proclaiming: “We do not mourn Isabel’s passing, as for us her death is a reminder of a tragic time.” for the country and the history of Africa”. “.
When Elizabeth was born in 1926, the British Empire stretched across six continents. During her reign, which began in 1952, most of the 56 countries that make up the Commonwealth gained independence from her, including many nations on the African continent such as Ghana, Kenya and Gambia.
Source: BFM TV
