Carnegie Mellon professor speaks out after controversial tweet about Queen Elizabeth II

In her first recorded interview since sending a controversial tweet wishing pain on Queen Elizabeth II that was removed by Twitter, Carnegie Mellon University professor Uju Anya explained her family’s history in Africa and the British role in a war there that her family fled.

Last week, shortly before it was announced that Queen Elizabeth II had died, Anya tweeted that the British monarchy a “thieving raping genocidal empire” and said of the queen, “may her pain be excruciating.” Twitter removed the post and a firestorm followed, with both criticism and support directed at Anya.

In an interview with Pittsburgh-based media company 1Hood, Anya said the tweet was spontaneous. She defended posting it, and said it was “very real.”

“I had an emotional reaction and had an emotional outburst. I was triggered by this news,” said Anya during the interview on Wednesday. “It went in deep places of pain and trauma for me due to my family’s experience with the rule of this monarch.”

She explained her family’s background, and how her parents and some siblings lived in a part of Nigeria that was trying to gain independence during the Nigerian Civil War of the late 1960s. Nigeria had earlier in the decade gained independence from Britain, but the U.K. still had a role in the war and financed the Nigerian government as it wanted to maintain large access to oil reserves in the part of Nigeria where Anya’s family was from, she said.

Anya said conservative estimates say the war resulted in the death of 3 million civilians, and that her family was lucky to escape unharmed.

“They were running from village to village running to escape the bombs,” she said.

Thank you @UjuAnya for teaching us why Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t just some figurehead and how she benefited directly from British colonialism and genocide. For the full interview go to https://t.co/RVt2f9k7AH pic.twitter.com/KQNYgagna4

— 1Hood (@1hood) September 15, 2022

She also addressed notions that Queen Elizabeth II, who was monarch during the Nigerian Civil War, wasn’t responsible because she was a figurehead and not in charge of the British government. Anya said that Queen Elizabeth II directly benefited from the British government activity as monarch of the nation.

Additionally, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari said in a recent interview that Queen Elizabeth supported the Nigerian government during the civil war.

Anya also addressed a tweet from Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos, who criticized her. Last week Bezos quote tweeted Anya and wrote “This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow.”

She said she used to getting criticized on Twitter, but was surprised that someone of Bezos’ stature attacked her.

“Why me? There were white people saying much more violent things,” said Anya. “I never wished her death. She was already on that path. I never said anyone should kill her.”

Anya said Bezos, who has 5 million followers on Twitter, put a target on her back. She hypothesized that he weighed in because, a few weeks earlier at a progressive political conference in Downtown Pittsburgh, she posted a photo with and offered praise to Chris Smalls, a union organizer who led a successful drive to unionize workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York.

She said in the aftermath of the tweet she received 500 emails within five minutes and had to disable the contact page on her website. Anya said many people called her racial slurs and other sexist vulgarities.

“He literally put a target on my back,” said Anya of Bezos. “He didn’t criticize my words, he criticized me.”

Carnegie Mellon University issued a statement in response to Anya’s tweet saying her words were “offensive and objectionable,” but ultimately did not punish Anya, citing her right to free expression.

In response to the controversy, thousands of people signed letters in support of Anya, including faculty and students at CMU.

Anya said the support “felt so good,” at which point in the interview she got emotional.

“Just seeing the outpouring of support, from people who may or may not have agreed with how I expressed my pain, but certainly believed that I had a right to do it, in however I did it,” she said. “And that was so important to me.”

The full interview can be viewed at 1Hood’s Facebook page.