‘I Cannot Mourn’: Former Colonies Conflicted over the Queen

Two lorry loads transporting Kikuyu people arrive at a reception camp outside Nairobi, Kenya, on April 28, 1954, after 5,000 British troops and 1,000 armed police rounded up some 30,000 to 40,000 men for screening. (AP)

Upon taking the throne in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II inherited millions of subjects around the world, many of them 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.