Jeff Bezos And Prof. Uju Anya -By Rev. Fr. John Oluoma

I think the prof got it all wrong. She needs to apologize to the Royal family and all who feel outraged by her tweet.

Even if the late Queen were her enemy, scripture says “pray for your enemies and bless those who persecute you”. Wishing a dead person ‘excruciating pain’ offends moral sensibilities, even though such wish is a mere bombastic rhetorics.

Her tweet is apparently an expression of her displeasure with colonialism. Let’s talk about this a little. she’s not alone, many Nigerians and Africans feel bitter about the evils of colonialism, and justifiably so. I too feel same way, in fact I get riled and totally dismayed when I read or watch documentaries of the sheer evil unleashed on our people by the colonialists, the evil stands abominable and condemnable till eternity.

Yet, I don’t, I can’t and won’t wish evil to the British or American or Portuguese for the past. It’s both an exercise in futility and weakening of one’s spiritual and moral character.

Also, you don’t look at colonialism from just one perspective. The colonialists came with education, health, alternative system of government, modern technology etc. They helped eradicate evil practices like the killing of twins and the subjugation of the girl child.

Before the colonialists came, Africans were killing themselves too, there were intra and inter tribal wars, villages were raided, women and girls raped and taken.

Most women today who are educated and doing well in the corporate world could have ended as one among many wives of a typical African dude. Imagine also being buried alive with the king of your place and other sickening practices.

So, it wasn’t like Africa was the Garden of Eden without strife and evil until the serpent of White Colonialits crept in. We could do as much bad as possible by ourselves too before the white bad dudes showed up.

So, we must stop this hopeless blame game, colonialism has ended, we must build a future for ourselves, and we can’t do that by whinning all the time.

Finally, Prof Uju Anya is a person of global repute, she can get the British government and other colonial Nations to appease the colonial victims by positive activism or plan, certainly not by wishing pain to a dead monarch. I watched Chimamanda Adichie adressing a German audience on stolen African artefacts and why they should return them. Now, that’s how to positively get people to right wrongs.

Prof Anya could actually toe that line. Do something that appeals to the mind and consciences of the British to do something more that tries to right the wrongs of colonialism. Blames and insults are too atavistic and crude, they are a waste of energy and time.

May the Queen rest in peace. May we all live in peace.