Afrika in Focus Special: Afrika and the British Monarchy - Why we should not mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth II

This edition of Afrika in Focus is a special looking at Afrika and the British Monarchy in the light of the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II.

We examine the dark history of the British Monarchy, its association with the brutal enslavement of Afrikan people through to the mass colonization of indigenous people's lands, culture, history and tradition ALL in the name of empire and the British monarchy.

We also make the truthful and accurate point that the vast wealth that the British royal family in particular and other European so called royal families enjoy today was made possible by the huge role these royal families played in the enslavement of Afrikan people. 

In the case of the British Royal family, Queen Elizabeth I funded a man called John Hawkins in 1555 to go to Afrika to capture Afrikan people --- so much so was John Hawkin's 'trip' to Afrika that he made a huge fortune for Queen Elizabeth I that she made Hawkins a knight of the British realm, so his name became Sir John Hawkins.

Then in 1660 the royal family and City of London merchants founded the Royal Africa Company (RAC) to trade along the West coast of Afrika It was led by the Duke of York, who was the brother of King Charles II and in 1685, York took the throne as James II. 

In the 1680s the company was transporting about 50,000 enslaved people a year to markets primarily in the Caribbean across the Atlantic. Many were branded with the letters "DoY", for its Governor, the Duke of York who succeeded his brother on the throne in 1685, becoming King James II. Other slaves were branded with the company's initials, RAC, on their chests.  Historian William Pettigrew has stated that this company "shipped more enslaved African women, men and children to the Americas than any other single institution during the entire period of the transatlantic slave trade", and that investors in the company were fully aware of its activities and intended to profit from this exploitation

When the enslavement of Afrikan people ended in the British colonies, an Act of Parliament sanctioned by the Crown in 1839, it also paved the way for more than 40,000 White British slave owners including the royal family were paid compensation for 'loss of earnings' as they saw Afrikan people as cargo and not as humans, the tune in today's value of nearly 20 billion pounds sterling. The University College London has a database on all these families that received 'compensation' - In actual fact this payment to slave owners formally ended in 2015!! 

Just for the record Afrika was home to Royal families of prestige, long before European royal families such as the Kings and Queens od Ancient Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia as well as Kings and Queens of the Shona, Ndebele, Zulu, Angola, Mau Mau, Igbo, Yoruba, Asante, Ga, Wolof, Hausa etc etc  - in fact the World's richest man EVER was King Ma