• The passing of Queen sparks a flood of internet reflection and response.
• Africans are now sharing pictures and memories of their ancestors.
• They lived through a difficult time in British colonial history.

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II has sparked a flood of internet reflection and response. However, not all of it was sorrow; some young Africans are now sharing pictures and memories of their ancestors who lived through a difficult time in British colonial history during the Queen’s prolonged rule.

One person said on Twitter, “I cannot mourn,” and posted a photo of what she claimed was her grandmother’s “movement pass”—a colonial document that restricted Kenyans’ freedom of movement while the country was ruled by the British.

Another person said that, during colonial times, her grandmother “used to tell to us how they were beaten & how their husbands were taken away from them & left to care after their kids.” “May we always remember them. Our heroes, she continued.

The Queen, despite her worldwide popularity, was also viewed as a symbol of oppression in regions of the world where the British Empire formerly ruled. Their failure to mourn underlines the complexities of her legacy.

Kenya, a British colony since 1895, was designated as such in 1920 and remained so until achieving independence in 1963. The Mau Mau revolt, which started in 1952, the year Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne, saw some of the worst atrocities committed when the country was governed by the British.

In detention centers where up to 150,000 Kenyans were housed, the colonial authorities at the period engaged in severe acts of torture, including as castration and sexual assault.

A British court ultimately granted £19.9 million to over 5,000 elderly Kenyans who had filed a claim for compensation in 2011.

At the time, Kenyans were subjected to torture and other forms of cruel treatment at the hands of the colonial government, the British Government acknowledged at the time, according to William Hague, the country’s foreign secretary. The atrocities that occurred and the way they interfered with Kenya’s efforts to become independent are deeply regrettable to the British government.

According to Kennesaw State University professor of communication Farooq Kperogi, the Queen’s legacy in Africa cannot be divorced from that colonial past.

“The colonialism that began The Queen’s legacy is still present today. The British empire was often considered to have a perpetual sun. No amount of sympathy or compassion that her passing has inspired can erase that, he said CNN.

I believe I have seen more of Africa than nearly anyone, the Queen once said.

As a young princess, she made her first official trip abroad to South Africa in 1947. Over the course of her reign, she visited more than 120 nations, many of them on the continent.