By Kene Obiezu
Death, man’s ultimate end, has in its power the ability to drag men hither and thither, even to those places they would rather not go.
The reason many people are terrified of death is not just that during those final moments many fears bind themselves together to deliver a sucker-punch at the most vulnerable moment, but that the person dying is filled with uncertainty about the road that lies ahead. Those left to mourn and lament are also racked by crisis about what remains of their lives and how much time they have before the Grim Reaper comes for them.
On Thursday September 8, the British Monarch Queen Elizabeth II who had been on the throne for all of 70 years breathed her last at the ripe old age of 96. Across the world, many people were immediately plunged into grief. Understandably, the grief was raw for some members of the royal family and some citizens of commonwealth countries which were countries colonized by Britain.
However, for all its glitz and glamour and even for its current status as a favourite destination for migrants, it remains a country whose colonial legacy is an especially odious one. Britain’s colonial legacy explains the animosity and ambivalence many feel toward the country and by extension its monarchy which embodies all it is in many ways. It explains the indifferent reaction of many to the Queen‘s death.
Uju Anya, a professor at a university in the United States reached for her verbal rapiers and rustled to the microblogging site Twitter. In tweet after tweet she did not hold back but let loose a cannon of long-held resentment at the queen. She also wove into her tweets memories of the Nigerian Civil War which was by far the darkest moment in Nigeria’s history.
Colonialism was a painful scar on the conscience of humanity. Its odious legacy lingers still. It will linger for as long as its effects abound in those countries, many of them African, who were hopelessly and helplessly forced into its crushing claws.
As a new era begins in Britain, perhaps, the country may elongate the pause which it must now take to ponder on its actions in those countries where it once played the role of colonial master and lingering effects of its actions even till this day.
In many ways, it must reserve special scrutiny for the many atrocities it committed or commissioned in those difficult days.
Twitter: @keneobiezu
