Hours before the death of Queen Elizabeth was announced, a Carnegie Mellon professor blasted the United Kingdom as a “genocidal empire” and wished the 96-year-old monarch “excruciating” pain.
Professor Uju Anya, who teaches linguistics and critical race studies at Carnegie Mellon University,” according to the website, sent out her maleficent remark via Twitter. At the time, the beloved queen’s death had not yet been announced.
“I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating,” she tweeted.
Pretty sure she deleted this disgusting tweet. But the internet is forever. pic.twitter.com/YsuZUWqjDG
— Nina Infinity (@Nina7Infinity) September 8, 2022
After the news broke of the queen’s death, Anya, who hails from Nigeria, doubled down with another nasty social media missive.
“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,” she wrote.
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
Anya was apparently referring to the massacre of between 8,000 to 30,000 Igbo people in 1966 in Nigeria, when a reported one million Igbos fled to the eastern part of Nigeria, where Igbos dominated. On May 30, 1967, the head of the Eastern Region, Odumegwu Ojukwu, declared the state of Biafra.
Great Britain supported the Nigerian forces at war with Biafra, which shrank to one-tenth of its size during the war. An estimated 1 million Biafra children starved to death in a human rights crisis that horrified the world.
When an apparent Nigerian on social media slammed her, writing, “Why don’t you come back to Nigeria and live under ‘your people’s’ leadership?”, Anya tartly replied, “Come here and carry me,” prompting the Nigerian to answer, “We already have enough hypocrites here.”
Anya answered, “I didn’t ask about your mama.”
I didn’t ask about your mama.
— Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) September 8, 2022
That prompted one social media user to slam Anya, saying of the queen, “She’ll always be a better person than you could ever hope to be.”
She'll always be a better person than you could ever hope to be. @UjuAnya
— ISMV Star Fortress – Back in the Bubble. (@StarFortress) September 8, 2022
Anya served as assistant professor of clinical education at the University of Southern California from 2012-2016, then as assistant professor of second language learning at Penn State University before working at Carnegie Mellon.
“I come from a multilingual, multicultural, multinational background,” she stated in an interview on the CMU website. “I was born in Nigeria to a Nigerian dad and mom from Trinidad and Tobago. I came to the U.S. when I was 10 years old.”
The day before her incendiary tweet targeting Queen Elizabeth, Anya offered more insight into her personal life.
“Someone DM’d me the most hilarious thread of Nigerian homophobes discussing their obsession with my life as a lesbian once married to a man,” she tweeted. “I save so much money living rent free in people’s heads.”
Someone DM’d me the most hilarious thread of Nigerian homophobes discussing their obsession with my life as a lesbian once married to a man. I save so much money living rent free in people’s heads 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/TEE3JHZSOJ
— Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) September 7, 2022
“Haters are my most loyal fans, I swear. Spending obscene amounts of their precious life watching and envying mine,” she added.
Haters are my most loyal fans, I swear. Spending obscene amounts of their precious life watching and envying mine 😂😂
— Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) September 7, 2022
Nigeria in 1960 gained its independence from Great Britain, which had controlled it since 1861 and made it a colony in 1914. In 1963, the African nation became a republic.
Bloodshed has continued in the troubled nation in recent years. In May, 20 Nigerian Christians were murdered by the Islamic group ISIS; in June, 40 Christians were murdered by terrorists in a church in Owo; as far back as 2014, 59 Christian school boys were burned alive or shot and 276 Christian school girls were kidnapped.
According to Breakpoint, “13 Christians per day were killed in Nigeria last year. … In the last 12 years, 43,000 Christians have been killed by Islamic radicals in Nigeria.”