During a soccer match at Tallaght Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, on Thursday night — just hours after the death of Queen Elizabeth II — the crowd broke into song.
“Lizzy’s in a box, in a box, Lizzy’s in a box!” they sang.
According to Yahoo news, the death of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch at age 96 was met with an outpouring of tributes from people around the world mourning her passing.
But critics of the crown were quick to point out the royal family’s role in the subjugation of people in countries formerly controlled by Britain, including Ireland, India, and Nigeria — sparking an online debate over the monarchy itself.
“I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating," Uju Anya, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, wrote in a tweet after Buckingham Palace announced that the queen’s doctors were concerned about her health.
The tweet was removed by Twitter for violating the platform’s rules, and the school released a statement saying Anya’s views “absolutely do not represent the values of the institution, nor the standards of discourse we seek to foster.”
There are plenty of people, however, who share similar views.
“The matriarch of a royal family legacy of slave-trading, imperialism, colonialism, theft, symbol of opulence and mascot for the ruling class is dead,” the rapper and film director Boots Riley tweeted.
The matriarch of a royal family legacy of slave-trading, imperialism, colonialism, theft, symbol of opulence, and mascot for the ruling class is dead
the media will now parade the queen's zombie ass in front of u while telling u that overthrowing capitalism is not what we need
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) September 8, 2022
On Thursday afternoon, CNN international correspondent Larry Madowo delivered a live report from Kenya, calling attention to the reality that the queen was not universally loved.
“Across the African continent, there have been people who are saying, ‘We will not mourn for Queen Elizabeth because my ancestors suffered great atrocities under her people,’” Madowo said. “And she never fully acknowledged that.”
Queen Elizabeth was not universally loved in Africa.
Queen Elizabeth was not universally loved in Africa.
My CNN live report on colonialism, fairytales, and the Africans who refuse to mourn her death pic.twitter.com/1PyK2l6vqZ
— Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) September 9, 2022
The Economic Freedom Fighters, an activist group in South Africa, posted a lengthy statement on Twitter explaining why it would not be mourning the queen.
“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,” the statement said. “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.
"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," it added.
"If there is really life and justice after death, may Elizabeth and her
ancestors get what they deserve."
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