Prof. Anya on hearing the news of the deteriorating health of the Queen on Thursday before her eventual death made an antagonistic tweet which the management of the microblogging app later deleted, saying it violated its rules.
There has been heated debate on social media over a tweet against the late British Queen, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, by a US-based Nigerian professor, Uju Anya.
Prof. Anya on hearing the news of the deteriorating health of the Queen on Thursday before her eventual death made an antagonistic tweet which the management of the microblogging app later deleted, saying it violated its rules.
“I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating,” Anya had tweeted.
However, despite the deletion of the tweet by Twitter, it has continued to generate heated debate with many tweeps condemning her outburst while many others have defended her.
Reacting to Anya's tweet, the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos wrote, “This is someone supposedly working to make the world better?”
“I don’t think so. Wow."
But the Carnegie Mellon University professor who quickly defended her tweet responded to Bezos, writing, "Otoro gba gbue gi (Dysentery kill you). May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonizers."
Also, Anya's employer, Carnegie Mellon University in a statement on its Twitter page on Thursday condemned and distanced itself from her tweet.
The university where Anya teaches Linguistics wrote, “We do not condone the offensive and objectionable messages posted by Uju Anya today on her personal social media account.
"Freedom of expression is core to the mission of higher education, however, the views she shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution, nor the standards of discourse we seek to foster.”
The debate over Anya's tweet has continued hours after it was deleted by Twitter.
@TOAAnjorin wrote, "Wow! I said it before not only in our home Country that we behave and talk abnormal it's also affecting us Overseas where we take as our 2nd home base. Very sad to hear this kind of expression from a Professor to our World QUEEN. Even when Bezos is given an opinion she went on attack."
Also knocking Anya over the tweet, @nkolikaebele wrote, "A disgrace to Igbo nation, I saw the war, she may not have seen the war, yet she carries a bitterness that is compressing her soul. Real shame. Igbo by tradition don't speak ill of the dead."
Another Twitter user, @Davideleye argued that "People who blame the west solely for the slave trade and colonization fail to realize that blacks were complicit in the accomplishment of both....it was blacks who kidnapped blacks and sold to the white man, so stop this one sided hypocrisy."
@SeerVoice wrote, "By their name you shall know them. No fear of God, no empathy, full bitterness, haters of good thing. Always at verge of revenge who has never wronged them."
@Seeramene said, "Her statement is disgusting. If she is truly grieved about what the colonisers did to not just Nigerians but Africa as a whole, what then is she doing with the same colonisers outside the shores of her birth country and continent?"
Meanwhile, many others defended Anya, saying she has the right to express herself and that those condemning her tweet may not understand her point of view.
But defending Anya, @Ebonyteach wrote, "Telling the colonized how they should feel about their colonizer's health and wellness is like telling my people that we ought to worship the Confederacy.
"Respect the dead" when we're all writing these Tweets *in English.* How'd that happen, hm? We just chose this language?"
Similarly, @YaaAsantewaaBa wrote, "Reminder that Queen Elizabeth is not a remnant of colonial times. She was an active participant in colonialism. She actively tried to stop independence movements & she tried to keep newly independent colonies from leaving the commonwealth. The evil she did was enough."
@Punnet64 said, "Some people have no idea what this lady must have passed through that gave her the courage to be tweeting things like this.
"Racism in the UK is too much.... You won't know such feeling unless you are a victim.
"She's not defending just tribe mind you..... She's speaks for all nation, tribe, people that have been abused one way or the other by UK government. Her tweet is beyond pre Nigerian civil war and post Nigerian civil war…"
@iamchiisomm said, "You don't get the point. The British helped the fulani and military develop and institute a system that makes it possible for corruption to drive unchecked for decades in Nigeria. Have you seen the board of the New NNPC?"
@twumpat said, "I can express my condolences to her ppl. But I can say that Britain exploited Jamaica for years until our independence. By then all our natural resources were plundered & brought to Britain leaving us hungry/desperate till today. They’ve done this all over the world."
However, Anya in one of her tweets refused to back down on her stand, saying, "If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star."
If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star.
— Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) September 8, 2022