Cruelties of the Queen’s Reign

Victims of British imperialism explain why they are far from mourning the death of the U.K. monarch.   

Troops of the King’s African Rifles, a British colonial regiment, carry supplies while on watch for Mau Mau fighters, between 1952 and 1956. (Imperial War Museums, Wikimedia Commons)

By Brett Wilkins
Common Dreams

As millions of Britons and admirers the world over mourned Queen Elizabeth II’s death Thursday, others — especially in nations formerly colonized by the British Empire — voiced reminders of the “horrendous cruelties” perpetrated against them during the monarch’s reign.

“We do not mourn the death of Elizabeth, because to us her death is a reminder of a very tragic period in this country and Africa’s history,” declared Julius Malema, head of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters party in South Africa.

“Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1952, reigning for 70 years as a head of an institution built up, sustained, and living off a brutal legacy of dehumanization of millions of people across the world,” he continued.

“During her 70-year reign as queen, she never once acknowledged the atrocities that her family inflicted on native people that Britain invaded across the world,” Malema noted. “She willingly benefited from the wealth that was attained from the exploitation and murder of millions of people across the world.”

“The British royal family stands on the shoulders of millions of slaves who were shipped away from the continent to serve the interests of racist white capital accumulation, at the center of which lies the British royal family,” Malema added.

Larry Madowo, a CNN International correspondent from Kenya, said during a Thursday broadcast that “the fairytale is that Queen Elizabeth went up the treetops here in Kenya a princess and came down a queen because it’s when she was here in Kenya that she learned that her dad had died and she was to be the queen.”

“But that also was the start of the eight years after that, that the … British colonial government cracked down brutally on the Mau Mau rebellion against the colonial administration,” he continued. “They herded more than a million people into concentration camps, where they were tortured and dehumanized.”

In addition to rampant torture — including the systemic castration of suspected rebels and sympathizers, often with pliers — British forces and their local allies massacred unarmed civilians, disappeared their children, sadistically raped women and clubbed prisoners to death.

“And so,” added Madowo, “across the African continent, there have been people who are saying, ‘I will not mourn for Queen Elizabeth, because my ancestors suffered great atrocities under her people that she never fully acknowledged that.”

Indeed, instead of apologizing for its crimes and compensating its victims, the British government launched Operation Legacy, a massive effort to erase evidence of colonial crimes during the period of rapid decolonization in the 1950s-’70s.

 

“If the queen had apologized for slavery, colonialism, and neocolonialism and urged the Crown to offer reparations for the millions of lives taken in her/their names, then perhaps I would do the human thing and feel bad,” tweeted Cornell University professor Mukoma wa Ngugi. “As a Kenyan, I feel nothing. This theater is absurd.”

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Aldani Marki, an activist with the Organization of Solidarity with the Yemeni Struggle, asserted that “Queen Elizabeth is a colonizer and has blood on her hands.”

“In 1963 the Yemeni people rebelled against British colonialism. In turn the Queen ordered her troops to violently suppress any and all dissent as fiercely as possible,” he tweeted. “The main punitive measure of Queen Elizabeth’s Aden colony was forced deportations of native Yemenis into Yemen’s desert heartland.”

“This is Queen Elizabeth’s legacy,” Marki continued. “A legacy of colonial violence and plunder. A legacy of racial segregation and institutionalized racism.”

“The queen’s England is today waging another war against Yemen together with the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.,” he added.

Melissa Murray, a Jamaican-American professor at New York University School of Law, said that the queen’s death “will accelerate debates about colonialism, reparations, and the future of the Commonwealth” as “the residue of colonialism shadows day-to-day life in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean.”

Numerous observers noted how the British Empire plundered around $45 trillion from India over two centuries of colonialism that resulted in millions of deaths, and how the Kohinoor — one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, with an estimated value of $200 million — was stolen from India to be set in the queen mother’s crown. 

“Why are Indians mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II?” asked Indian economist Manisha Kadyan on Twitter. “Her legacy is colonialism, slavery, racism, loot, and plundering. Despite having chances, she never apologized for [the] bloody history of her family. She reduced everything to a ‘difficult past episode’ on her visit to India. Evil.”

An Indian historian tweeted, “there are only 22 countries that Britain never invaded throughout history.”

“British ships transported a total of three million Africans to the New World as slaves,” he wrote. “An empire that brought misery and famine to Asia and Africa. No tears for the queen. No tears for the British monarchy.”

Negative reaction to the queen’s passing was not limited to the Global South. Despite the historic reconciliation between Ireland and Britain this century, there were celebrations in Dublin — as a crowd singing “Lizzie’s in a Box” at a Celtic FC football match attests — and among the Irish diaspora.

“I’m Irish,” tweeted MSNBC contributor Katelyn Burns, “hating the queen is a family matter.”

Welsh leftists got in on the action too. The Welsh Underground Network tweeted a litany of reasons why “we will not mourn.”

“We will not mourn for royals who oversaw the protection of known child molesters in the family,” the group said.

“We will not mourn for royals who oversaw the active destruction of the Welsh language, and the Welsh culture,” the separatists added.

Summing up the sentiments of many denizens of the Global South and decolonization defenders worldwide, Assal Rad, research director at the National Iranian American Council, tweeted, “If you have more sympathy for colonizers and oppressors than the people they oppress, you may need to evaluate your priorities.”

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

This article is from  Common Dreams.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

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31 comments for “Cruelties of the Queen’s Reign

  1. Robespierre
    September 11, 2022 at 21:37

    Did not America once have a long, violent Revolution to establish the principle that we do not need to give a hoot about the health of the Royal Family?

    Maybe I’m wrong, but I believe that Once Upon a Time in America, the news of the death of a British Monarch would have been news for celebration and a round on the house. One would probably be sick of ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ by the time on staggered home.

    America has certainly fallen from its ambition to be a classless society to one that worships every scrap of Royal News. Now America once again acts like just another colony.

    • joey_n
      September 12, 2022 at 04:04

      I dunno about you, but if this example is as good as any, I find it contradictory that this republic, being the first English-speaking nation to adopt decimal currency, ties its ‘Exceptionalism’ to non-decimal measurements based on the body parts of dead English kings and queens. Thomas Jefferson was this close to resolving the conflict, only to be thwarted by British pirates.

      Question – is putting (dead presidents’) heads on coins also related?

    • Bobok
      September 12, 2022 at 10:50

      Agree with you. The only difference is that the USA is a colony of Israel, and not of the UK.

    • kiers
      September 12, 2022 at 14:29

      you misunderstand the depravity of what’s going on: the money in politics is now SO large, it has far outstripped it’s constituents. The money must-needs GROW. It is constrained by an outer potemkin “Democracy” which says ‘you must get votes of the sheeple’. Consequently the money is searching for any dead body it can hold up that draws public affection….think of it as a modern day version of “Weekend at Bernie’s” movie. The dead corpse is the outer functionary that the sheeple can rally round. be it trump, be it the queen’s corpse. be it king charlie. The money NEEDS some figurehead to unite around to GROW. and money GROWTH only means more trouble more pollution more exploitation of the sheeple. Western democracy with capitalism is eating itself, and it doesn’t care. The money decides.

  2. Lily
    September 11, 2022 at 03:42

    If he would understand British history the least King Charles III could do is to set Julian Assange free.

  3. Thomas Bergbusch
    September 10, 2022 at 21:27

    The British Monarchy, in many countries, has served as a brake on settler violence and colonialism. In Canada, this phenomenon is evidenced by the Quebec Act of 1774 – which settlers in the US called an “intolerable act” as it sought to constrain colonial expansion into Indigenous lands west of the Appalachians. It limited American oligarchs’ capacity for land speculation into lands in the Ohio valley (i.e. in Indigenous territory, or territory still controlled by Indigenous peoples). And this salutary restraining influence of the Monarchy has been a relative constant in Canadian history. On the whole, in Canada the Monarchy has typically treated Indigenous people better than settler politicians. (This does not apply, however, in every case — e.g. not as regards the Crown’s treatment of Micmac and Maliseet people in the late 18th Century, nor of course to Acadians, another colonized people.) Overall, calls to extinguish the Monarchy are in fact republican/neo-liberal efforts to extend/complete the goal of colonization: complete control over the land by the settlers. Consider Nathan Tidridge’s article in the Toronto Star, or Doug Cuthand’s piece in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix:

    hxxps://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/columnists/cuthand-first-nations-will-never-back-abandoning-the-queen-monarchy

  4. Ed Williams
    September 10, 2022 at 20:15

    The final embers of the British Empire have just had a stir with the passing of their Monarch.
    The British establishment have never let go of their belief of Empire & that they are born to rule.How they will repackaged “The Firm” will be fascinating.
    She did a remarkable job of providing a “soft landing” for the British Establishment, thereby preserving their view of History,Empire & themselves.Historians will no doubt have a different view, particularly in regard to the subjugation of many across the Globe and the legacy it has left.

  5. Ian Stevenson
    September 10, 2022 at 15:36

    There is some history which is very difficult for British people like me to read but we have accept that it is part of our history . I tell American friends that the BLM protests were not just about Mr Floyd but about 400 years of racism and repression. Until they accept it , things will not improve. We must do the same.
    I am supportive of the people in Bristol -35 miles away -who tore down a statue of a 17th century slaver. They were acquitted by a jury of criminal damage using hate crime as a defence. The Attorney General . herself a child of Indian immigrants took the case to the Court of Appeal. But the decision was upheld.
    However, the Queen had no part in the decisions involving colonial actions. Some Kenyans took hired an English lawyer to take their case to the High Court. In 2013 it granted £20 million in compensation to about 5,000 Kenyans and the Foreign Secretary , Hague, apologised in the House of Commons. It was probably too little too late – 50 years in fact.
    The Queen made an apology to the Maoris of New Zealand in 1995
    hxxps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/the-queen-says-sorry-to-wronged-maoris-1536901.html
    So there is some movement . The UK has taken in 113,000 from Hong Kong in the last few years due to repression by the Chinese Government. My Ugandan Asian colleague remembered his mother’s rings being stolen when they were expelled by Uganda under Idi Amin some 50 years ago. No compensation there. He admired the Queen. The history is not as straight forward as this account argues.

    • Consortiumnews.com
      September 11, 2022 at 23:05

      This account is a straight news story, quoting a mainstream source such as CNN, about reaction to the Queen’s death in some former colonies. It is not meant as a comprehensive or complex analysis of this queen nor the monarchy.

  6. Lois Gagnon
    September 10, 2022 at 15:03

    Let us hope for and work toward the end of monarchy and colonialism in all its forms. They have no place in the 21st century. It’s time for full acknowledgment and reparations.

    • Jim
      September 10, 2022 at 17:52

      There is no doubt about the savagery of the British Empire. But the Queen did not “order her troops” or decide on government policies. She was a figurehead without political power.

    • September 11, 2022 at 07:59

      I agree,I have seen what the British did all over a Africa,and have seen the British RAF in Saudi Arabia flying planes for Saudi Arabia and there engineers keeping them in the air .and what they did to the Scots.Scottish people forget what they did.it is time for independence and a republic .

    • Izatso
      September 11, 2022 at 14:04

      Let’s do better than that. Let’s eliminate all tribalism, which is at the root of colonization. Tribalism is at the root of religious wars, the wars between the classes, the races, etc. Tribalism is as basic as the us/them instinct, which had survival value in the primitive environment but has no place now, in the human-made environment we call civilization. Until we eliminate this vestige from the past, we cannot be truly civilized, as we only purport to be.

  7. Michael Quilligan
    September 10, 2022 at 13:50

    There were no celebrations in Dublin. Celtic FC is a Glasgow-based football team. Their supporters are Scottish, not Irish

    • Geoffrey
      September 12, 2022 at 00:29

      Thanks for getting that right.

  8. VallejoD
    September 10, 2022 at 13:16

    Well, the plain fact is that all “royalty “ means is that your ancestors were the most violent, brutal psychopathic war lords in the neighborhood, taking from the working peasants because they could. Now this class is called “capitalist.” Same difference.

  9. Em
    September 10, 2022 at 13:10

    As one coffin closes, the lid of Pandora’s box is courageously lifted, and the cruelties perpetrated against humanity, by inhumanity, during the course of an horrendous, ignominious span of history, are finally revealed.
    If truth be told, why not by those who were directly impacted; suffering the slavery, rape and pillage, and perishing by the brutal genocidal acts inflicted upon them, without conscience.
    If not now, when?

  10. Michael Quilligan
    September 10, 2022 at 11:57

    There were no celebrations in Dublin. Celtic FC is a football club based in Glasgow. The supporters of Glasgow Celtic (the team’s correct name) are Scottish. They may support the Irish Republican cause, and rightly so, but they are not Irish.

  11. vinnieoh
    September 10, 2022 at 11:36

    “This theater is absurd.”

    You got that right brother. Had I known I could get a respite from the fawning adoration on display on US media, I would have read this sooner.

    A daughter of privilege and indolence, her great saving attribute was her ability to NOT rock the boat – the great stinking garbage scow of the UK.

  12. Thomas Bergbusch
    September 10, 2022 at 11:29

    A very one-sided article, which fails to acknowledge that the Crown, in many countries, has served as a brake on settler violence and colonialism. In Canada, this phenomenon is evidenced by the Quebec Act of 1774 – which settlers in the US called an “intolerable act” as it sought to constrain colonial expansion into Indigenous lands west of the Appalachians. It limited American oligarchs’ capacity for land speculation into lands in the Ohio valley (i.e. in Indigenous territory, or territory still controlled by Indigenous peoples). And this salutary restraining influence of the Monarchy has been a relative constant in Canadian history. On the whole, perhaps until very recently, the Monarchy has treated Indigenous people better than settler politicians. (This does not apply, however, in every case — e.g. not as regards the Crown’s treatment of Micmac and Maliseet people in the late 18th Century, nor of course to Acadians, another colonized people.) Overall, calls to extinguish the Monarchy are in fact republican/neo-liberal efforts to extend/complete the goal of colonization: complete control over the land’s foundational relationships by the settlers. Consider Nathan Tidridge’s article in the Toronto Star, or Doug Cuthand’s piece in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix:

    hxxps://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/columnists/cuthand-first-nations-will-never-back-abandoning-the-queen-monarchy

  13. Vera Gottlieb
    September 10, 2022 at 11:16

    And the Royal ‘enterprise’ will continue reaping all the benefits at the expense of others. Shameless…

  14. Georges Olivier Daudelin
    September 10, 2022 at 09:56

    Les politiciens chinois se soumettent à une règle de l’étiquette de la diplomatie: la politesse.

    Je ne suis pas un professionnel engagé dans la diplomatie, je peux me permettre d’énoncer une réalité:

    Les Québécois n’aiment pas la monarchie canadian.

    Fuck the Queen! Fuck the King!
    Fuck the canadian Balrog!

    Il y a des êtres encore plus anciens et plus répugnants que les Nazguls, les Uru Kaïs, les Orques et les Trolls, dans les profondeurs infernales du monde occidental, ce sont les Balrogs

  15. Henry Smith
    September 10, 2022 at 09:43

    IMO.
    I am not a royalist and yes these atrocities did happen during the Queen’s reign but some of the statements made in this article are simply not correct.
    The Queen/Royalty are figureheads, they have very little influence in government policy and its enactments.
    They do have a theoretical role in policy that directly affects them – but their power to change policy is limited in reality.
    The Queen/Royalty has no power to order troops to do anything that is totally incorrect.
    The real villain of this piece is the UK Government. They made the policies, they directed the military and security services to carry out their policies and they directed the MSM to keep it quiet. It is naive and mischievous to infer that the Queen was directly ‘in the loop’.
    Obviously with hindsight there was more she could have done to raise issues but in reality she was just another pawn in the big game.
    Currently, it’s very popular to jump on the bandwagon of blaming ‘whitey’ for all the evils in the world but look at the reality of corrupt government, not just in the west, but in Africa and elsewhere. Governments happy to trade their people and their rights for their twenty pieces of silver from the white man.
    The Queen is dead. RIP.
    The injustices and inequalities remain because the real perpetrators remain in power.
    What about Assange, Palestine, Yemen, Libya ? These complainers place more importance on the past which cannot be changed rather than raise the real issues of today that can actually be addressed.
    Dead Queens are low hanging fruit, you don’t have to celebrate the Queens life, you don’t have to like her, but please don’t lie about her to further your cause.

    • Consortiumnews.com
      September 10, 2022 at 15:19

      The monarch is the commander-in-chief of the British armed forces. The monarch can veto bills in Parliament by withholding royal assent. Buckingham Palace conspired with the C.I.A. to overthrow an Australian prime minister in 1975. The palace can dissolve Parliament. The monarchy has much more political power than is let on. This article is based on the voices of the victims of British imperialism while Queen Elizabeth ruled.

      • AlanP
        September 10, 2022 at 16:53

        The monarch can technically do these things but in practice there is an unwritten rule that they don’t – it would cause a massively huge crisis if the monarch went against the ‘elected’ government. The queen just signed off on things by convention whether she agreed with them or not. She could not ‘order’ British troops to do anything, though obviously there are conversations behind the scenes that we know nothing about.
        Having pointed this out I’ll just say how nice it is to get away from the fawning boot-licking self-flagellating garbage that’s been spewed out us in the UK mainstream media non stop for three days now as if the world’s stopped turning or something.

        • Consortiumnews.com
          September 11, 2022 at 19:16

          “…though obviously there are conversations behind the scenes that we know nothing about.”

    • susan mullen
      September 10, 2022 at 19:33

      In more than 1,000 instances the Queen and her lawyers have via “Queen’s Consent” been able to shape draft legislation to suit her private wishes…“You might think the Freedom of Information Act would help establish the facts…but that also required Queen’s consent.” in UK, they’re “still officially subjects, not citizens.”…Feb. 10, 2021, “Queen’s consent is a constitutional outrage – parliament must abolish it,” UK Guardian…

      hxxps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/10/queens-consent-constitutional-outrage-parliament-mp-peer-draft-bill-criminal-charge…

      And, Feb. 7, 2021, “How Queen’s consent raises questions over UK democracy,” UK Guardian….And in 2016 the Queen conferred honorary Knighthood on jihadist White Helmets founder James Le Mesurier

    • Wobbly
      September 11, 2022 at 09:16

      Lots of Aussies have very republican leanings Are they blaming Whitey?

  16. Great BooHoo
    September 10, 2022 at 09:02

    Best eulogy I’ve read.

  17. Ian Rutherford
    September 10, 2022 at 02:33

    This a very good article which allows us to face reality “as it is,” not as we wish it to be.

    It has to be said that meeting and praising Nelson Mandella was a significant highlight of Her Majesty’s reign.

    • Carl Zaisser
      September 10, 2022 at 13:41

      It took England and the US a long, long time to acknowledge the worldwide movement against the apartheid regime in South Africa. Reminds of how long it took the Barack Obama administration to come out and side with the Egyptian people over Hosni Mubarak, especially given the pressure on Washington from Tel Aviv.

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