@@nicolkatanji1980 Were they Russian trolls singing at those Scottish and Irish football matches? 🤦🏻♂️ Your list of excuses managed to stop just short of blaming the Irish for their own famine - I suppose, with hindsight, they should have had a more broad-based diet? I’m just not sure that “our bunch of colonising racist c**ts were no worse than all the other colonising racist c**ts knocking about” is a terrific defence. Oliver’s point is that a sh*t-load of wrongs were done in the name of the monarch; maybe, a bit more humility and reparation might have fewer British and Irish people not overly upset at the old bat’s passing.
Love how John slyly forced Sky to air the episode, by calling them out on their censorship (which has been happening for years btw - they have been crudely editing out the more brutal attacks on the Royal Family since the beginning of the show). Now they would look monumentally stupid if they refused to air it & major news outlets would 100% picked up on it and amplify their shameful servility. Americans look at the UK, see socialized healthcare, a few welfare programs and assume UK media is more open to leftist rhetoric. But that's DEFINITELY not the case. First, socialized healthcare is more of a 'historic accident' and ever under attack, as the conservatives never surrender their effort to undermine it, gut it and end it. It weirdly coexists with shockingly cruel right-wing policies, which the UK media consistently promotes. John Oliver's show, as it is, would never be given air-time. I suspect it is only reluctantly allowed because of the power of HBO, and because it's technically American. btw, John did the same subtle arm-twisting to Jimmy Fallon - after that numpty silenced his questions about Amazon working conditions & union busting, Oliver put Fallon on the spot in front of his crew & on camera, and challenged him not to edit out what happened
My grandfather was a detainee in one of the detention camps during the Mau Mau emergency in Kenya. For five years he endured harsh interrogations (beatings, hours in stress position, starvation, forced labor) until he was able to convincingly renounce an oath he had never taken in the first place. When he left the camp, he found two of his children had died and my grandmother and the rest of his children on the point of starvation from being forcibly housed in a concentration village (yes concentration as in WW2 concentration camps) with no access to food. Thank you JO for bringing this atrocity to light. Anyone seeking more information read Imperial Reckoning by Caroline Elkins
Love how they were shocked and appalled by the Germans putting people in concentration camps while also putting people in concentration camps barely a decade later. Not to mention what they’d done in South Africa barley a generation before. Smdh
‘Histories of the hanged’ by David Anderson is another recommendation. My paternal grandfather was a MauMau oather who was brutally killed in the ‘50s.
I'm Kenyan and a Kikuyu and a huge fan of John Oliver. He has said what I have wanted the world to hear about the royal family and colonialism. My mum was just telling me that her parents and all their children were forced to live in specific villages/camps where they could be monitored by the white oppressors so what J.O says is completely true thank you
I am from India, and the queen and her institution was responsible for millions of deaths.... all orders were made in the name of queen, and she never apologized
Just know that just because it seems like nobody cares..most people of the world don’t support pain or suffering. Technology just allows us to see the best, and the worst of the world at any moment. Humans tools evolved faster than our brains. I’m happy that you’re happy enjoying John though. I’m from America and it’s the same..not everyone here is rich and crazy.
Just another example of the west picking and choosing how history unfolded. Unless you have had family who've lived through events like this or educate yourself you'll never know. I have family from India and the extent of harm caused there by the military and famines is just another one left out of their pages.
Please inform yourself. The RF had nothing to do with colonialism. And they never supported anything you might consider to be racist. Actually, during QE2 a lot of countries became independent and voluntarily joined the Commonwealth.
But that LONG AGO in history... or, wait, your mom, so not long ago. Thanks for sharing this madness, and hope you aren't poisoned by such recent DYSTOPIAN SOCIAL CONTROL endeavors. We all have our mud to grow out of, seems Aristocracy long to wallow more often than common people - it's so comfortable when surrounded by servants, never worrying about the next meal, the only thought how to Protect and Preserve the Legacy of the Family while not caring at all about EVERYONE ELSE. SOCIOPATHS == ARISTOCRACY It's a TRADITION, you don't know plebeian, you don't know anything about the hard life, PUTTING ON A SHOW ALL THE TIME... sounds just like Insta/TikTok/many TH-camrs/FB conjured fantasies of manufactured identities ONLINE - no it's unique to the Royals, you can't grasp it... really?!?
Can I just say, I will never get tired of how perfectly John Olvier recreates the "50s British newscaster" voice. He's done it in countless episodes by now and it's always a highlight
YES! I KNOW! Whenever John does a British impression, you know it is gonna be funny! It is inception for anglophiles! Also, that newsreel voice never gets old!
He can mock the English accent (that's his own kin) and gets away with making fun of the Australian and Texan twangs....... But God help him if he EVER tried to imitate (even in jest) the accent of a person of colour!! He wouldn't have the guts!!! Pure hypocrisy!!!
@@colincolin13 Man, I can shoot characters and innocent people in a video game, but GOD FORBID I ever shoot an innocent person in real life, suddenly I'm a "murderer" and "threat to society". Fucking libtards /sarcasm Get over yourselves, mate.
We will not blame him for the crimes of his ancestors if he relinquishes the royal rights of his ancestors; but as long as he claims their rights, by virtue of descent, then, by virtue of descent, he must shoulder the responsibility for their crimes.” -James Connolly on George V
The worst thing was the brain washing that left most of kenyans with self hatred and believe that anything good has come from a white person, I hope thier children will wake up 😢
Well change it. The future is in YOUR hands. How many Kenyans move to the UK for better opportunities? Plenty I’d say And I’ve seen pieces in documentaries about rich Nigerians taking 2 private jets to London to shop. One plane for the shoppers and one for their shopping. I’m sure Kenya is no different. Why not have a go at the Portuguese government who were your first colonisers? Because it doesn’t fit with the narrative? If you had a good brain you’d do some research into the advantages of being a Constitutional Monarchy. There are more checks & balances to minimise corruption. CM’s aren’t perfect but they’re definitely the best of the rest imo. And no mention of your countrymen’s ancestors selling their own people into slavery and making huge money. And how’s the corruption in your government? Asking for a friend 😎 The RF is there to unite people and to serve others. Can you imagine how dull it is cutting ribbons and pulling cords for strangers is. Do you know how important the RF’s around the world are for charities? I’ve heard from people who have done plenty of charity work in the UK. Unless there’s a Royal going to be there they have big trouble selling tickets. If there’s a Royal going to be there the tickets sell out within minutes. And not American style charities/tax dodges , REAL charity that helps others. Even Americans are using the idiot Harry to promote their fake charities.
@@michelegraham9044 I could point out 4 fallacies in your argument but I won't cause I don't have the time like you😂😂... I'm busy trying to change the system left behind by the colonists . Anyway,keep educating us people who don't have good brains as you stated(whatever that means).. you're doing the Lord's work my dear😊👌🏾
Thank you for highlighting the maumau story, my grandfather who is still alive and in his nineties was a victim of that horror, he was detained in Kismayu in Somalia and watched his siblings burnt alive, only a sister remained. He usually narrates these stories alot. He says before everything was forcefully taken away his family were actually wealthy landowners.
The British Museum in a nutshell. Not that any others that were created during the colonial era are any better. Also sometimes it looks like museums are more interested in hoarding, pardon conserving, stuff than actually displaying it to teach people.
Not to mention, when it comes to the Monarchy itself, I've never - not once - heard the sentiment "I'd like to have a royal family, like they do in UK".
We executed our short lived european impossed monarchy (The Absburg emperor) here in Mexico. And they weren't even all that bad dudes, they instigated reforms to help the poor and the needy... But we don't take kindly to monarchs. We didn't just banished them or return them to Europe. We fuking shoot them. So no, not all people want the same stupid shit that the britsh, specially ex-colonies.
I'm sorry no meme or no Sci fi can be more out of this world than prince Charles turning turntables in a black neighborhood pretending to be down with the street and saying "I dig that crazy rhythm" 😂😂😂"
You know what’s more awkward than having the “Lizzie’s in a Box” song stuck in your head? Having to explain what it is to people when they catch you singing it to yourself.
My mom is 91 years old. She’s an Irish Catholic born in the north of Ireland. She’s been in Canada since 1957. She doesn’t have her citizenship cause she won’t pledge allegiance to the queen.
"Why they are working so hard not to offend a family who's name was branded into people skin, and who sit atop a pile of stolen wealth, wearing crowns adorned with other countries treasures" well done to whomever wrote that. Power piece of text.
One of the most incredible defenses of the royals is that they "don't actually cost anything" because the land they "share" actually brings in much more money than what they are -paid- given. At which point I guess everyone's just supposed to not ask how it was they came by so much valuable land, and why, after removing them, the people couldn't just take it back.
Irish Times: “Having a monarchy next door is a little like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and has daubed their house with clown murals, displays clown dolls in each window and has an insatiable desire to hear about and discuss clown-related news stories. More specifically, for the Irish, it’s like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and, also, your grandfather was murdered by a clown.”
I am Russian and I imagine being neighbour of the UK from the end of WW2 when empire still existed to the Troubles in the end of 20th century was the same for Irish as being a neighbour of Russia has been for Ukraine since Putin started expressing the desire to restore Russian "sphere of influence"(~2007) up until now
In the 1930s, Bertie had to resign the Monarchy to be with the divorced woman he loved. Now, in the 2020s, we have a Monarch and a Queen, both divorced adulterers. WTF!!! Bye bye Charlie Boy and Camelarse, we don't need you or the pathetic Royal Household that protects you by attacking Harry and Meghan. Looking forward to Australia leaving the "British Commonwealth" and gaining one of us, preferably a First Nation leader (the true sovereigns of Oz) as Head of State.
While we're at it; electing one man to run a country is idiotic for the same reasons. Congress has been" tits on a boar" as well. Turns out there's a perfect size for a smoothly run State; and we should save- in our case Washington-- for interfacing with the rest of the world. The states should run themselves, keep their income tax, set their goals and standards too. Washington gets ten percent of each state's haul, to keep the worthwhile organizations running. The states can compete and share what they learn in Washington instead of the present day Congress blathering away about conspiracies, a waste of oxygen. We're all waiting for Washington to solve the myriad problems about which they have no clue. Leaving the States to deal with them is creating a challenge they will all welcome.
@@MultiMolly21yeah, because that worked out so wonderfully the first time we tried it. As we all know, the Articles of the Confederacy remains to this day the most successful foundation for the US government in history, and isn’t at all notorious for crashing and burning immediately because the states were running around in absolute chaos because there was next to no oversight by any federal authorities or regulations.
We need to be honest: Its DISGUSTING that Oliver LAUGHS OFF literal nazi censorship in 2022!! And the rest of you LAUGHED IT OFF TOO!! Censorship is the OXYGEN Of evil. No action in history was MORE EVIL than laughing off censorship. (There can be NO EVIL on earth, without censorship. Police can't kill daily unless censorship, see?) That's WHY it was the FOUNDATION Of Nazism 100 years ago.
Thank you for this brilliant program. I am a 78 year old, anti royalist and I remember the disgusting situation in Kenya and it was this that started me being politically aware. I hope to see the end of the system of royalty which would also negate the house of lords. These people have stolen from working people for hundreds of years.
It's crazy seeing the historical topic, the Mau Mau uprising, which i've spent like five years studying, is actually on HBO. AND they use THE interview with Terrance Gavaghan, genuinely one of the most insane documentary interviews of all time. Massive props to the interviewer in that clip, John McGhie, the way he held this war criminal's feet to the fire calmly and methodically was absolutely pitch perfect journalism.
@@nicolkatanji1980 Oh boy there is so much wrong with this post, ok firstly I think you missed the part that the oppression in Kenya didn't just affect the Mau Mau but the general people of Kenya. Most of them had nothing to do with the Mau Mau and were just put into the camps arbitrarily many were even kids. If you want a good book that really puts it into perspective I would recommend Dreams in the Time of War by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Second, "Everyone else was doing it therefore it was ok" is a really shit take. If someone as far back as 500 BCE could figure out slavery was bad then the British Monarchy could have done it. Third, people are calling on both France and Spain to apologize for their colonial actions especially France who quite literally has a colonial tax on their former colonies to this day so. Fourth, it is funny how you choose to discuss the Aztecs but failed to mention people like the Haudenosaunee who had essentially a working democracy so there is a variety of other people besides the Aztecs who would have benefited if the Europeans had just fucked off and not colonized. So yeah I think things would have been better for the Indigenous people of South and North America if the Europeans hadn't colonized. Fifth, this entire rant about these other powers doesn't do much to show why we shouldn't call out Britain on its actions. We also call out japan on their actions and its lack of an apology as well. Lastly, "the peace we've all enjoyed the last few decades" what peace? This screams a western perspective. There may have been peace for Western Europe and the US, but what about the rest of the world huh? There have been dozens of wars all over the world because of the actions of the West, some which still rage today.
@@jinmakome2796 Agreed, I hope that man in the interview who ordered soldiers to put their boots on the throats of kenyans rots, don't care if it is in hell, Tartarus, or has a shit reincarnation.
@@nicolkatanji1980 I don't even know where to begin with. Terms like 'ignorant', 'naive', and 'boot-licking' don't seem to do justice to that string of verbal diarrhea. I've never seen so much childish whataboutism in a single post. You've managed to make the UK and the monarchy look even worse with this comment. People reading this will now associate their supporters with your sub-Trumpian level of 'argument'. Bravo.
If I were in the UK, I would buy him eggs and deliver them to his home so that he can have eggs for breakfast, but not break the conditions of bail. Also the idea of having a King Charles III, makes me glad that I live in China. 🇨🇳 The first two were horrible. Oh and if that guy comes here, I would offer to cook him an omelette, with all the fixings.
@humphrey spelling bee: I say we administer silly, humiliating, and above all, highly public punishments to anyone and everyone who violates the dignity of humanity. Supreme Court abolishes abortions? Those that voted for the abolisment must stand in the middle of the busiest intersection of the city, at the busiest time of the day, lift up their robes, and sodomize themselves with balloon animals, and woe betide ANY whose balloon pops, for the further punishment of their failure will be visited on the whole lot of them! Billionaire robot wearing a human skin refuses to crack down on neonazis, bullshit peddlars, and other assorted trash people on his own site? Ten days in the stocks, with rotting fruit provided free for passers-by. Textbook malignant narcissist attempts to stage a coup? Surround him with only the most brutally honest clinical psychiatrists, who will constantly bombard the fast bastard with all of his flaws, his weaknesses, his insecurities, until he's thouroughly broken, then we rebuild him and medicate him into a functional human being. Once they're finished about two hours later, we can all go to lunch.
“They might seriously want to think about why. Why they and everyone else are working so hard not to offend a family *whose name was branded into people’s skin and who sit atop a pile of stolen wealth wearing crowns adorned with other countries’ treasures* .” So well and poignantly said.
As a Kenyan, this is a eye opening piece of our history, most of which we are not told about and the watered down version is taught in our schools.- Sadly, the effects of colonization is till felt to this day especially in the issue of land.
The work you do is so important. I'm a Grenadian, and when our new government was sworn in in June, a national conversation started about why we have to swear allegiance to the queen, her heirs, and successors. The monarch is still our head of state, but the first time I visited the UK, immigration treated me like a criminal. Caricom (our regional institution meaning Caribbean Community) has outlined 10 reasonable ways for reparations to be given back to us for the legacy of colonialism, but we still haven't gotten an acknowledgement or an apology.
Britain, age of imperialism: "You people are now subjects of our king, whether you want it or not. Obey and you get... well, not much, but at least we probably won't kill you (on purpose). Resist and we will kill you all." Britain, few years ago: "Where did all these foreigners come from? And they want to come here? To our country? I don't like that. I feel like the EU has stolen our independence!"
I'm Irish, and we've never gotten an apology either. I hope that Grenada and every other nation that suffered from British colonisation gets the reparations and apologies that Britain owes.
The monarchy will never apologize because that would mean accepting responsibility. Its the same reason no colonized nations will ever be given reparations.
This. As a South African of Indian origin, it grates so much when I have to pay exorbitant visa fees to visit the UK and really high international student rates to study there. From a heritage standpoint, I’ve been colonised twice!
The best part that he didn’t even mention is that years before this aired, he turned down an honorary order from the queen because he didn’t want to be associated with the empire.
@@martijnspruit I understand that, I was just phrasing it that way because I was going to say “an order from the queen” and I didn’t think that captured exactly what was happening, and I couldn’t conjure up whether or not it was an OBE, MBE, et cetera
Devastatingly, the last residential school in Canada was Gordon Residential School in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, and it didn't close until 1996. The first one opened in 1831. It's disgusting how long it was allowed to go on, and England had a large part in that. Canada did not become its own country until 1867. Thank you for showing what they, and the white Canadian government, did to the indigenous people of our land.
Canada became its own country in 1867....just like you said....yet it took you 130 yrs to close them...and STILL you blame the UK....get real, stop looking to others for your mistakes.
Tbf the new world resents having to share the land they colonise, with the natives, and still have extreme cognitive dissonance that they're the colonisers in the 21st century. America has openly engaged in modern day slave labour, to make products for pennies on the dollar in South Asia, that would have cost them 100-200 times more in the states.
@catlee8064 dude we couldn't even change our laws or amend our constitution without Royal consent until the 80s. And, when Canada became a country, most of the current country was a crown territory.
There were actual concentration camps set up in Kenya during the colonialist era where locals were detained, tortured and killed. The British government attempted to erase this from history, but we remember. Thank you John Oliver for never hesitating to bring forward the hidden truths and uncomfortable conversations
@@genericyoutubeaccount579 Don't project our modern understanding of race backwards. It was not how they thought of it, and, given *every* prior use of them was explicitly racial, and every one after... why was that one different?
I find it hilarious that there's a man who's legally not allowed to purchase eggs. I'm just picturing him buying a dozen eggs at his local grocery store and an entire swat team just busts in and tackles him to the ground
@@gorillaguerillaDK yeah I know lol but that's why I'm picturing him just remembering his wife asking him to buy some eggs for the cake she's going to make later and he decides to grab them on his way home from work probably not thinking about the situation and boom! Police raid
Exactly! Notice how western colonial ALWAYS call anyone who fights against their colonialism like Mau Mau uprising in Kenya as a “terrorist” organization. Funny how that term is used against 2 billion Muslims worldwide.
❤ this description of what Royals do: “Think of the royals as Mickey and Minnie at Disneyland, they don’t run the rides, they’re mascots of the whole operation.” This is a fantastic well-written segment! Thankyou! ❤ 🇨🇦
If you're interested, Jacobin Magazine recently did an article about the Mau Mau rebels and interviewed several of the surviving fighters. It's available for free online.
@@polemius01 I live here and while Kenya IS a 80% christian Nation (gee I wonder where they got that from) and Homosexuality is frowned upon, NOBODY has the time or inclination to persecute members of the LGBT+ community, you are thinking Uganda or Ghana (entirely different countries, please try to keep up).
It is surprising how much is not taught in schools, is it? I have some friends among the Native Americans in Canada. These horrible things use to happen as recently as 1990s. Indigenous children were taken from families for years, many never returned. They were raised to submission to white people, punished of any expression of their culure and origine (speaking their language, singing songs, praying to the spirits, talking with siblings) and they were heavily abused (punished by hunger, beated, detained in dark cold cellar), children were also sexualy abused there and many died from misstreatmen and abuse. I met a person who saw a priest to beat a child to death when he was detained in a residential school. It was just horrible to hear all the storries and when I got to know this I felt guilty as a a white European with Christian background, even so my country does not have any colonial history. An apology from all heads of all institutions involved in this horror should be a minimum. If the role of the royal family is to symbolically represent the monarchy and the church, so they are the best people to apology in the name of the monarchy and the church, because it is what representing mean and an apology is a symbolic act.
@@samuela-aegisdottir In the United States, Indigenous Ceremonies were outlawed until 1978. In addition, I have seen grown men cry over the trauma they experienced in the schools they were forced to attend. 💔
Im canadian, As you can tell by the fact that I’m two weeks late in commenting. I just wanted to say thank you for using your show to talk about the residential schools. The sheer number of unmarked mass graves of indigenous children found in the last two years is absolutely devastating and it is so important that people don’t forget it
It's pretty shitty that he didn't acknowledge that the last ones closed in the 90s rather than the 60s though. While the CoE may not have specifically run any after that, but there were still government run schools until the 90s and we didn't break off constitutionally from the UK until '82 so the UK government (and the Queen as a figure head) could have put a stop to it and didn't. She had a nice chunk of time to do so.
@@mishyhnyduik6725 and the residential schools may have closed, but they've been replaced by family and children's services... A few years back they did a test. They took the same case files, and randomized the ethnicity of the family. People recommended removing children from the homes of cases that had indigenous names at three times the rate of any other ethnic group. In other words, the racism that has been instilled in us had lead to the foster care system replacing the residential schools.
@@paulfoley9370 Evidence? Ah, I see you’re either an apologist or a racist. Why would First Nations peoples run residential schools? Schools where their children were beaten, SA, starved, emotionally and psychologically abused? Why would FN peoples even support schools that had the sole purpose to “kill the Indian in the child”?
My great grandmother was born as a colonial subject of King George V, she saw the reigns of Edward VIII, George VI, Elizabeth II and is still alive in the reign of Charles III. Her opinion of the royal family is overwhelmingly negative as she saw with her own eyes the devastation of the subcontinent following British withdrawal, her own father was a prisoner of war in WWI; however she had great respect and affection for Elizabeth to the point that she cried at the news of her death, yet refuses to even speak of Charles (Primarily because he mistreated Diana).
As an Australian who is largely left out of this shows discussions, it was both gratifying and extremely hard to hear about the things I know my country did- thank you for covering it.
@@epis8613 Yeah, that film is hard as hell to watch----I wish the director hadn't made it that way, but I get why she made it, even if I couldn't agree with it.
@@alondathomas293 it's one of the most effective uses of actual horror I've ever seen in a film. It was in no way fun to watch, but it it important to understand that there was no exaggeration involved in the movie, only other accounts in media have been sanitized. Very effective and motivating to oppose the evil that existed then and now.
@@BuruIgeru John's relationship with FIFA is like the US and the McRib... It's disgusting, how it's made is an affront to mankind, and it should be made illegal. And yet we buy it and devour it whenever it comes out only for me to hate myself afterwards as I wipe the bbq sauce from my face...
How dare you insult a vital British institution? We would not be British without mushy peas. Abolish the monarchy by all means, but never, never take away our mushy peas.
Sadly with all the various crimes against humanity that were committed by the British Crown over the centuries they were in power, it's difficult to not miss a bunch of these instances in the large quantity of other offenses.
Being half Kenyan and half British myself, I believe that there needs to reparations. How can my British family members live on social welfare and comfortability, by virtue of the riches stolen from my Kenyan relatives, whilst the latter work their behinds off in order to provide the basic essentials and still struggle to make ends meet? Not right!
Respectfully to Americans (and Canadians) reading this: Russia just attacked Poland with a missile strike, and things could get VERY serious. Now is not a good time for the "West" to fragment. I've watched as shtposters called the Queen a c&&t and a b&&&h during the UK's mourning period, and I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and assume a lot of this was deliberate provocation from St Petersburg troll factories, or else actual Americans who don't have a comprehensive grasp on history. Yes, the Mau Mau were oppressed (after attacking other indigenous African groups), yes the UK was involved in slavery (as was everyone, frankly. Portugal transported more slaves across the Atlantic than anyone), but I honestly believe the world would have been a much worse place without Britain. You think France or Spain treated technologically-lagging peoples any better? Where is that flourishing Aztec civilization? You think Japan would have treated India respectfully (as unlikely as this seems, Japan did have designs on India during WW2. It was actually one of the complex reasons for the Bengal famine. Also #Rape of Nanjing). Alright, I'll shut up now. All I'm saying is that history is more complicated than the current discussion, and all this shtposting could have serious consequences to the peace we've all enjoyed the last few decades.
@@nicolkatanji1980 sure, if the UK collapses it will be shitposters who caused it. This empire has been declining for centuries and the Windsors and Tories are responsible for most of that.
@@nicolkatanji1980I get what you are saying, but as an American, we just feel so discouraged and tired. It seems like every day there’s another conflict on the news and everyone’s saying that America has to get involved. Do we even help anything by getting involved? It feels like we are in an endless cycle of conflict and it just makes America look like war mongers. Russia has even said that they attacked Ukraine because they felt threatened by the U.S. presence. Maybe if America just shut up and kept to ourselves the world would be a better place. Every time we try to help we only make things worse it seems. The world doesn’t actually need us.
"I think a lot of people would like what we have" 65 countries across the globe who gained their independence from the British Empire: "No, we would not like to have what you have."
I know an indigenous Canadian, my age, who, while we played disc golf, told me how whenever the Government boat came into the village's inlet he had to hide. He did this successfully, so he fully learned his people's language and did not disappear into an unmarked grave at a boarding school due to abuse. Now I hated school, but my god, there's plenty of stories about similar mistreatment of native children in the US, and we think we're good guys.
I wholeheartedly agree with you!! The Indian children were forced to enter these schools, leaving their families and their culture to learn English and the Catholic faith!! They were used as slaves, tortured, punished if they could not remember their lessons! These schools were a nightmare for all these children!!! This country is responsible for many atrocities against our American Indian brothers and sisters!!! And, today they are still being persecuted for being who they are!!!!! They were here first! This is their country!! We, the US, should begin paying them for our sins against a beautiful people!!
The latest iteration of the Taylor Sheridan Cinematic Universe, "1923", depicts this part of American history in all its gory brutality. Several of Sheridan's other works also delve into how modern day American Indians continue to be ignored and repressed.
Fun fact John The name 'Mau Mau' is not actually in the kikuyu language but actually just a phrase conjured up by the colonialist at the time from what they used to hear kikuyu people chant to them. The phrase/word that they would chant repeatedly was 'Uma' which translates to 'Get out' as a way of telling the British to go away from their lands. The word being said over and over, 'uma uma' was heard by the British as Mau Mau and thus the name was born.
I always thought it was the swahili acronym for "Muzungu Aende Ulaya Mwafrika Apate Uhuru" (White Man Gi back to Europe for The African Person to Get Independence)
I had never heard about this topoc before, but there is a card game I used to play here in Brazil that was kinda like uno, but with traditional cards and you had to say "mau mau" when you had only one card left. It means "bad bad" or "mean mean" in Portuguese, but now I'm wondering if it doesn't have anything to do with this revolution.
@@informedpanda254 that was also something we grew up being taught (but as a Swahili acronym). The Maumau though were from the kikuyu ethnic community( one of the tribes in Kenya) and a bigger percentage at that time only spoke kikuyu amongst each other and not Swahili (the national language). In that case, it must have most definitely come from the ‘uma uma’ and not the ‘mzungu atoke Afrika, …….’ I think that must have come later.
@@informedpanda254 This was adopted later after the name Mau Mau was brought to light. A way of roping in politics and the revolutionists as fighting for the same cause
Thank you for covering the way the Kikuyu were treated by the British in retaliation to the Mau Mau rebellion. My husband's family suffered. Some were imprisoned, some were tortured. One was tortured so badly she could never have children.
I'm very sorry that this had been done to your family. And even more so that the understanding of what colonialism was (and still is) is basically nonexistent among white people.
As a Kenyan this piece brings to light major issues British people need to question their government and the Monarch on. My grandparents were Mau Mau and it is extremely disheartening that the proportion of the atrocities committed against them is immensely misrepresented or undervalued in Western Media. The description by John Oliver is but a tip of an iceberg.
I think the Mau Mau fighters are only mentioned in our history text books. For the vast majority of the western media it's like a myth or rarely mentioned.
Sorry for what happened to you and your country and family. I hope more westerners will start rethinking about what happened instead of justifying or avoiding the topic.
Kenya isn't even part of the monarchy anymore. Kenya didn't even keep the parliamentary system, instead bringing in the far more corruptible and dictatorship-prone presidential system as used in the US, Syria, and Argentina. And you're free to leave the commonwealth, just convince a majority of your representatives. It's become more of a sports club anyway. 😋
@@juminrhee4255 Yeah, that's the point you missed I guess; I hope the politicians in Kenya manage this in my lifetime. And I know what challenges my country faces thank you, don't need a refresher from you
as someone called lizzie, hearing a bunch of people sing "lizzie's in a box" with such glee honestly put a big open-mouthed smile on my face. sing that shit at my funeral, please
@@nicolkatanji1980 define peace. I am intrigued. Better place? Explain how the Brits were good to the people they oppressed and robbed. I think you need to watch this segment again and many more like it. the entrenching is deep with you. Going to take a long time to dig into you to find common sense.
@@MassiveMawEnglish That's how the world works. The powerful used to oppress by force, now they do it financially. It's how the world has always worked. I don't like it either, but denying the reality of it doesn't help.
@@nicolkatanji1980 we know hun. And us poking fun at a dead monarch that everyone expected to die bc she was so old is not going to stop a western coalition. Stop weaponizing world tragedies to try to scurry away from real criticisms
I looked it up and was happy to see that this episode did indeed air on the Sky network in Great Britain. Congratulations John. You got one past their censors.
My Dad (still very much alive) was forced to live in those "Mau Mau" camps. The colonialists arrested my grandfather my dad and his brothers helpless. He had to move from camp to camp so that he could get back home while grandpa was in prison. In each camp, he spent ~1month while the colonizers sorted his paperwork of movement! The atrocities conducted by that empire is still very much being felt today!
This was a reasonably fun video to watch despite the horrible content. Which seems wrong... but it's the only way to get attention. Glad I went down to the comments to see this human connection to the past. Thank you for commenting, I hope the trauma in your family will be healed.. This reaction should be at the top. I gave it a "thumbs up", even if "thumbs up" really isn't the right symbol. There should be a "sincerely important" emoji. I am from the Netherlands, our history is even worse and our denial possibly even greater, because we still think we are OK as is. The age of slavery is to this day referred to as "the golden age". It left us poised well for the industrial revolution, which has blinded us for the cost.
Very true!¡ I watched this clip with my mum and that's how I found out she was born in the camps and they lived there for a while she actually remembers stuff about it. It's quite strange seeing people debate about how long ago it was while there are people alive who remember it vividly
Twitter was quite the gathering place after the demise of the late Queen. Reactions ranged from “Oh, it’s so sad.” to “Has everyone already made a plan to party in Ireland?”
I loved how John Oliver summed it up in the episode after her death "As you might know. The world is going through a bit of a frenzy right now because an elderly Woman in her 90s died of natural causes" 😂😂😂😂 Facts. I mean I heard people compare this to JFK or Princess Diana and I'm like "..... NO"
@@brandonayong5823 Yeah, at least JFK and Diana dedicated their lives to hopefully improve people's lives, meanwhile Liz 2 was a cultural institution waiting to be dismantled
We had a party and it was awesome. That bih should've brought back our diamond just as a start. May she rest in eternal h€ll. She deserved no dignity from anyone she happily kept oppressed and didn't give back wealth.
There's still so much that (for obvious reasons) wasn't even mentioned here, including, for example, the dismissal of Gough Whitlam in 1975, collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World War, the 1943 Bengal famine, and the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
This segment is a good reminder that colonial atrocities aren't a relic of the distant past, but are living memory for many people. Even those that happened long ago are still echoing down to this day. We can't fix it, we can't change it, but we should apologize and make sure it is never forgotten. That would be the bare minimum of decency.
I have some friends among the Native Americans in Canada. These horrible things use to happen as recently as 1990s. Indigenous children were taken from families for years, many never returned. They were raised to submission to white people, punished of any expression of their culure and origine (speaking their language, singing songs, praying to the spirits, talking with siblings) and they were heavily abused (punished by hunger, beated, detained in dark cold cellar), children were also sexualy abused there and many died from misstreatmen and abuse. I met a person who saw a priest to beat a child to death when he was detained in a residential school. It was just horrible to hear all the storries and when I got to know this I felt guilty as a a white European with Christian background, even so my country does not have any colonial history. An apology from all heads of all institutions involved in this horror should be a minimum. If the role of the royal family is to symbolically represent the monarchy and the church, so they are the best people to apology in the name of the monarchy and the church, because it is what representing mean and an apology is a symbolic act.
@@samuela-aegisdottir For the last thirty odd years, all during Elizabeth's reign, the schools were under the direct control of the Canadian government. Liz was Canadian Head of State....
As a Jamaican that poll about is hella accurate,we grew up learning the atrocities they did to our people from whippings to shitting in slave's mouths. Majority hate what they did and hate them
@@MrBoliao98 calm down,I never said they were evil or anything just that the data shows majority dislike them and the way they treated our ancestors. That's pure fact,you gonna argue against the survey?
Thank you for this. Brits royals have gotten free pass for so long when they looted our Indian continent, partitioned the country and millions of families died. It is convenient to forget the past if it has not impacted your culture, your country or your families.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah favoured partition, not the British. Unless you happen to agree with Jinnah that there should be an unpartitioned India which in all likelihood would have a marginalised Muslim population.
"The axe forgets, the tree remembers." African proverb. "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." Also an African proverb.
@Nicol Katanji oh I get it! The British were mostly killing non-white people, so we should all overlook it now that Russia is attacking poor innocent white people. Thanks, Nicol. I'm glad you're happy with atrocities as long as "everyone" was doing it and it wasn't against white people. Please, go sit down somewhere and never speak.
Just as evil as the Japanese and Germans in WW2. I am appalled they sidestepped calling the camps in 1950-58 Kenya as CONCENTRATION CAMPS. Like the one Britain used in South Africa in 1899 for the 2nd Angloe-Boer War.
Why would he regret it , hes part of master race , people still believe that in England , have you not been reading how EU dictatorship oppressed English people and now when England is independent , there is glorious future of stealing stuff from other countries , like in good old days .
Thanks a lot John for covering this. Monarchs are responsible for sh*t going back many generations. I am a Kenyan and I can sympathise with the elderly lady. (We call anyone her age shosho in Kikuyu, which means a grandmother). Odd enough the symbolic grandmother of the UK was responsible, directly or indirectly, for the misfortunes that befell this shosho and countless others. I think your edited out some of the attrocities committed by the colonial government to make the program worthy of airing. The attrocities committed in Ireland, Scotland, and the rest of Anglophone Africa can fit a series with at least 3 seasons.
It's an easy one to flog - name a single institution in human history of any relatively decent size and power they did not commit atrocious crimes? You cannot name one. But to Oliver's point about what the Monarchy does - he omits a hell of a lot. After the British empire's largely peaceful dismantling, the British Monarchy helped establish The Commonwealth, a collection of what is now 56 nations, whose membership is voluntary. Many have no historical ties to British Colonialism yet opted to join to gain it's benefits. Rwanda was the most recent to join in 2009 and these countries gain stronger economic ties and connections to a network of nations as long as they uphold expectations of equality and democratic freedom. If they fail to fulfil these, they can be removed, such as Pakistan and Zimbabwe - where gender and ethnic discrimination was occurring. The Commonwealth also invests huge sums to fund education, environmental initiatives and empower local trade and stimulate the economy. The Queen was and the King is now head of this important network that is doing extremely significant work uplifting many emerging economies and integrating them with larger former british colonies. This was entirely left out in Oliver's piece.
@@AZ2PM The Monarch does basically nothing for the Commonwealth. You could just keep the show running without them and it would be better for it. "Every institution did bad things therefore the british monarchy is not that bad." What an insufferable take. Everybody used to do racism so why talk about racism? Every country did a genocide so why talk about genocide? Also institution is such a broad term that yes I can name you some that are clean like the US postal service. John Oliver is talking about the atrocities that were committed under the Monarchy in the past 100 years and all he asks is that they acknowledge them, say sorry, give their victims compensation and maybe just maybe return all the stuff they stole from colonised countries. What about that is too much to ask?
I would like to say I (once again) find myself absolutely understanding John's attitude. That's how I see all the nationalism; If you find pride in achievements of people you find a common denominator with, have the decency and honesty to share the guilt and responsibility too. Also I could listen to John's exaggerated British accent all day long and it never gets old.
And that's what people who opposes critical race theory fail to understand, they want all of the credit for the accomplishments and none of the responsibility for the attrocities commited by our ancestors.
@@Maya_Pinion What an amazing amount of fanboys and cucks on this thread. You fragile wimps need to get outside and get some exercise and visit the real world outside of your leftist bubble.
For anyone who is appalled by residential schools, here's a not so fun fact: the last one in Canada closed in June of 1996. So if your are 26+ you were around during residential schools.
It's more complicated then that. The horrific practices in residential schools stopped long before 1996, but at the end of the day it was a school, thus it continued to be used as a school. So, technically, the last residential school didn't close until 1996.
When I was in Elementary, we moved around a bunch … One year I went to school on a reservation. Guess what *that* school used to be? 😮 At the time I was there, they’d upgraded the property with a museum, telling the local history. Which we got to visit on class trips! I think the property had been reclaimed about 10 yrs before I was there. Wierd to do basically normal schooling, at a place that used to be a child-sized concentration camp. 🤯 Some years after I was there, they finished the job. Built nice new school buildings, and demolished the original building. 😊🎉 Place actually looks really nice! 💜
@@christopherherbert7062 would love an explanation... Seeing as I'm someone from suburban Toronto and didn't even know about residential schools until 1994, when I was 16 and had a Metis teacher.
Never thought I would see the Mau Mau Revolution mentioned--much less in detail--by any modern, relatively mainstream entertainment source. Thank you, John & Co., as always, for your thoughtful & insightful work.
@@humanbeing5918 I'm glad that it was discussed, of course. But colonial Kenya isn't high on the priorities of most news sources anywhere--hence the surprise.
I love that it appears that there’s a small child jumping up and down while flipping the bird with each hand while the crowd is chanting “Lizzie’s in a box.”
I have some friends among the Native People of Canada. These horrible things use to happen as recently as 1990s. Indigenous children were taken from families for years, many never returned. They were raised to submission to white people, punished of any expression of their culure and origine (speaking their language, singing songs, praying to the spirits, talking with siblings) and they were heavily abused (punished by hunger, beated, detained in dark cold cellar), children were also sexualy abused there and many died from misstreatmen and abuse. I met a person who saw a priest to beat a child to death when he was detained in a residential school. It was just horrible to hear all the storries and when I got to know this I felt guilty as a a white European with Christian background, even so my country does not have any colonial history. An apology from all heads of all institutions involved in this horror should be a minimum. If the role of the royal family is to symbolically represent the monarchy and the church, so they are the best people to apology in the name of the monarchy and the church, because it is what representing mean and an apology is a symbolic act.
as someone in the 33% of brits that want the Royals gone, thank you, John for this. So many Brits (including myself) have no idea what level of atrocities the royals have been involved in, so thank you for educating the world on this
I think British nobles had an rather questionable impact on their country’s role during the European scramble for Africa (which mostly focused on much of Southern and East Africa, and parts of Northern and West Africa as well). The British scramble for much of the Indian subcontinent (except Bhutan and Nepal) and Myanmar+Brunei+Malaysia+Singapore seems to be just as infamous if not more so. Fortunately, four out of five south East Asian nations colonised by Britain are hopeful success stories, while Myanmar was still deeply screwed before it even became independent.
The American Revolution was only led by about 20% of our population at that time. You have the numbers. Just saying. But really no, the better way is not war and the democratic process. Just need to have more conversations like the one above.
@@electroskates2434 when thugs break into your home, assault you, rob you of everything, I will say, "ah! That's status quo! This cry baby needs to realize there will always be crooks, so get used to it! That's how it's always been, and how it should be!"
As someone from England who hates the monarchy, I love whenever John Oliver verbally destroys the Royal Family, making this one of my favourite LWT segments (closely followed by the museums and the Edward Snowden segments, for very different reasons). The only shame was that after talking about the effects of colonialism associated with the monarchy, he went on to use a clip of Winston Churchill as comic relief, without acknowledging the huge negative role that man had on different colonies of the British Empire during the 1st half of the 20th century. There are many within the former British Empire who would have far more contempt for him than they would for the monarchy.
This is so triggering for us Kenyans and esp from the mt Kenya region because to date my grandfather shares such horrific stories of what they went through.
I live in Scotland and found out the Queen died through my flatmate telling me "Lizzies done something that's not very girlboss", it was genuinely surprising to talk to people who were actually sad
Have to raise an eyebrow or two with that Australian guy moaning about how inappropriate it was to not have a minute's silence at Elizabeth's passing. SHE'S DEAD. Why the hell would she care??
As a Kikuyu, i'm grateful that even an utterance of the words "Mau Mau" is said. They died for our independence! They literally never stopped fighting until we got our freedom! This world is a cruel place!
@boogy The Mau Mau were not fighting for independence, they fighting to get back their ancestral lands, which is indeed a very noble cause, however, it's not only the Kikuyu who were Mau Mau, there were people from other ethnic groups who were based in Nairobi who supported the Mau Mau with medicine, arms and intelligence. Also, there were other pressure groups (political parties) from other ethnic groups which campaigned for independence. Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu was a sellout, an Afro Victorian; he lived in the UK for 17 years (1929-1946) , married a white woman, came back and threw the Mau Mau under the bus, and perpetuated neo-colonialist for his masters.
I like those two girls' reactions, not rude, just honest. Still obviously saying it's a sad time because a person died, someone who their country all knew, and deaths are in general a sad thing. But why care or worry about it when that person did absolutely nothing for you your entire life? It's reasonable, people have their own problems to care about.
it isn't "rude" to call out on a criminal's crimes. I would vote for that one lady (was it Canadian?) that corrected the oath of office she was to take. though sadly she was forced to hide the truth later by stereotypical slaves of the colonizers.
It is customary not to speak ill of the recently dead. But... this seems to be more vehemently adhered to, when the deceased has something substantial to speak of and people don't really want to hear. So the volume of calls to "be polite" can be a good indicator of how different perception and reality are..
@@Ludifant it is necessity not to act atrociously with people alive, not to steal, torture and murder people while alive in a civilized world. So comments like yours are a sickening indicator of how vanity follows greed - even after death
@@Ludifant yea if a good person that everyone loved died there'd be no calls for "being polite" because everyone would already be doing that. if you didnt deserve respect in life than you dont really deserve it in death either
You actually have to ask for a card on your 100th birthday - it used to be just sent to you ( could have even been a bit of a note written in the card), but now its just a signed card that is mailed if requested because there are more and more people reaching 100.
It was amazing to see people after the Queen died saying things like “stop talking about colonialism, we are mourning and i felt like i was her grandson” while also taking every occasion to harass Meghan Markle who is… actually married to her grandson
"when the white men arrived they had the bible and we had the land. they asked us to close our eyes and pray. when we opened them they had the land and we had the bible" - desmond tutu
My grandfather was among those imprisoned in Kenya. There's a 6 year gap between his 1st and 2nd born children.The reason, he was in one of those concentration camps for 6 years. It's not a different age.
Just as evil as the Japanese and Germans in WW2. I am appalled they sidestepped calling the camps in 1950-58 Kenya as CONCENTRATION CAMPS, just called it "detention." Like the one Britain used in South Africa in 1899 for the 2nd Anglo-Boer War.
19:46 Ironically and surprisingly, I found it quite refreshing that politicians used to prefer to stay silent when caught redhanded instead of spewing off lies through their teeth disregarding people simple intelligence.
You can easily make a miniseries, a continent per episode and still have plenty of atrocities to spare and the monarchy would always be right at the center. Anyone defending the monarchical institution is alike to holocaust deniers in my book.
So agree we need that list of atrocities from the subcontinent. Did you know they passed laws banning Indian women from inheriting property? And soon after forcefully drafted Indian men to fight their wars in Europe. When men died IMMEDIATELY they went and stole the wealth of the female family they left behind. This wealth is some of the jewelry this family wears, calling it gifts. During WWII my great grandmother’s two brothers (her only brothers) realized the atrocities being committed in Burma. They were doctors and left. And soon were murdered by the Japanese. Burma, a British territory, was meant to repatriate my great uncles. Instead the Brits found their bodies and gave these two hindu men a Christian funeral, burying them. My great uncles had sons but instead of inheriting the family wealth a coup of British men stormed my great grandma’s family estate and robbed every single woman of her jewelry, of the money in the home. They were near destitute. And yet they had kept some of the money hidden, a preparation they needed to do because they saw what happened to every person in their village. When my great grandma passed in 2020 I lost my family’s direct link to this story. But my grandma doesn’t let the story die. She says it often. After my great grandma’s mother death that property was stolen by the Brit’s instead used as a British drinking house (a house of those who didn’t drink or smoke). A house Indians were banned from. Until 1947 when we attained independence. My great grandma held the family property until the 80’s, when the place became difficult to maintain. But her stories of the Brit’s have no respect. And about those jewels. From what I know, Elizabeth has worn some of my family’s stolen jewels. And family that has visited Britain has confirmed some of our property is on display at the British museum. Falsely attributed as being gifts from the Maharaja. It’s funny. Because we, and our family name from Palakkad in Kerala is being erased. Like many more Indian family names. The monarchal system and the Brit’s are responsible for the erasure of the rest of the world’s history and dynasty. And it’s lead to the DIRECT europhillia felt in the colonized world. That none of our people were notable or worthy. Because they stole that from all of us.
Just like theres a comprehensive series titled “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”, we need one elaborating the extent of British Colonization from start to present
My favorite thing is that football match where they didn't do a minute's silence because they were afraid the Scotland fans would fill the silence with heckling and instead did a "minute of applause", to which the Scotland fans responded by singing "if you hate the Queen of England, clap your hands" over it. Edit: I went and looked it up and I have to correct that it was Celtic fans and the song was "if you hate the royal family clap your hands".
I know the gripes(understatement) the Irish have with the royal family, but not being from the UK/Britain where is the Scottish people's hate for the queen coming from. Genuine inquiry btw, I've got nothing good to say about that family nor of it's Dutch counterpart.
@@RikSolstice England and Scotland has had many wars and Scotland was - like Ireland - not exactly jumping from joy when they 'joined' England. There's a lot of bad blood there. I think John covered some of their tense relationship in his video on Scotlands independence vote a few years ago.
@@RikSolstice I'm American so don't know a ton of the history, but I do know that the British menaced Scotland in the 18th century and effectively crushed the Scottish clan structure and harshly suppressed their culture after a failed rebellion.
They bannished their language (Scottish Gaelic), they bannished their music and musical instruments, culture etc. They destroyed their houses for more sheep/farming and forced them to immigrate ("clearing"). They cut down almost all forests for ships/navy. Still 80%of the land belongs to a handful of people.
@@creedbel8328 lay off the negativity. the original commenter probably meant that either they learned about it while living there, or that the horrors of it could still be felt decades later. I’m guessing it’s the latter. And that the weight of that horrible recent history stayed in their memory for 4 decades (2022). Other comments mention their grandparents’ sufferings in the mau mau conflict, so clearly the memories live on whether you were there or not. And the memories live on whether you live there or not and whether you’re Kenyan or not. Hopefully the original commenter was paying attention to the community they lived in, as I hope we all do.
Why is it that the people who think they should not be held responsible for what their ancestors did still seem to think they deserve to inherit what their ancestors stole?
I don't think they should be punished for what great great great grate gran or gramp did thats kinda fucking stupid but maybe not abel to hold land bc of the fact they are already geting a place to live food security and travel paid by the British people.
@@CaveaD eh, I argue that was true until the 90s. The British ruled music in the 60s and 70s, deeply declined in the 80s and I really can't think of anything decent past the 90s.
For those of you who are curious, Sky did in fact air this segment.
Thank you, was scrolling the comments in the hope to find the answer.
@@andreaszweili8593 I was, too.
@@nicolkatanji1980 Were they Russian trolls singing at those Scottish and Irish football matches? 🤦🏻♂️
Your list of excuses managed to stop just short of blaming the Irish for their own famine - I suppose, with hindsight, they should have had a more broad-based diet?
I’m just not sure that “our bunch of colonising racist c**ts were no worse than all the other colonising racist c**ts knocking about” is a terrific defence. Oliver’s point is that a sh*t-load of wrongs were done in the name of the monarch; maybe, a bit more humility and reparation might have fewer British and Irish people not overly upset at the old bat’s passing.
@@nicolkatanji1980 yes, shut up now. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Love how John slyly forced Sky to air the episode, by calling them out on their censorship (which has been happening for years btw - they have been crudely editing out the more brutal attacks on the Royal Family since the beginning of the show). Now they would look monumentally stupid if they refused to air it & major news outlets would 100% picked up on it and amplify their shameful servility.
Americans look at the UK, see socialized healthcare, a few welfare programs and assume UK media is more open to leftist rhetoric. But that's DEFINITELY not the case. First, socialized healthcare is more of a 'historic accident' and ever under attack, as the conservatives never surrender their effort to undermine it, gut it and end it. It weirdly coexists with shockingly cruel right-wing policies, which the UK media consistently promotes. John Oliver's show, as it is, would never be given air-time. I suspect it is only reluctantly allowed because of the power of HBO, and because it's technically American.
btw, John did the same subtle arm-twisting to Jimmy Fallon - after that numpty silenced his questions about Amazon working conditions & union busting, Oliver put Fallon on the spot in front of his crew & on camera, and challenged him not to edit out what happened
My grandfather was a detainee in one of the detention camps during the Mau Mau emergency in Kenya. For five years he endured harsh interrogations (beatings, hours in stress position, starvation, forced labor) until he was able to convincingly renounce an oath he had never taken in the first place. When he left the camp, he found two of his children had died and my grandmother and the rest of his children on the point of starvation from being forcibly housed in a concentration village (yes concentration as in WW2 concentration camps) with no access to food. Thank you JO for bringing this atrocity to light. Anyone seeking more information read Imperial Reckoning by Caroline Elkins
That's heartbreaking. 😪
Thank you for the book recommendation will read
Love how they were shocked and appalled by the Germans putting people in concentration camps while also putting people in concentration camps barely a decade later. Not to mention what they’d done in South Africa barley a generation before. Smdh
‘Histories of the hanged’ by David Anderson is another recommendation. My paternal grandfather was a MauMau oather who was brutally killed in the ‘50s.
If this is true, it'd be good if John's team saw this
I'm Kenyan and a Kikuyu and a huge fan of John Oliver. He has said what I have wanted the world to hear about the royal family and colonialism. My mum was just telling me that her parents and all their children were forced to live in specific villages/camps where they could be monitored by the white oppressors so what J.O says is completely true thank you
I am from India, and the queen and her institution was responsible for millions of deaths.... all orders were made in the name of queen, and she never apologized
Just know that just because it seems like nobody cares..most people of the world don’t support pain or suffering.
Technology just allows us to see the best, and the worst of the world at any moment.
Humans tools evolved faster than our brains.
I’m happy that you’re happy enjoying John though. I’m from America and it’s the same..not everyone here is rich and crazy.
Just another example of the west picking and choosing how history unfolded. Unless you have had family who've lived through events like this or educate yourself you'll never know. I have family from India and the extent of harm caused there by the military and famines is just another one left out of their pages.
Please inform yourself. The RF had nothing to do with colonialism. And they never supported anything you might consider to be racist.
Actually, during QE2 a lot of countries became independent and voluntarily joined the Commonwealth.
But that LONG AGO in history... or, wait, your mom, so not long ago.
Thanks for sharing this madness, and hope you aren't poisoned by such recent DYSTOPIAN SOCIAL CONTROL endeavors.
We all have our mud to grow out of, seems Aristocracy long to wallow more often than common people - it's so comfortable when surrounded by servants, never worrying about the next meal, the only thought how to Protect and Preserve the Legacy of the Family while not caring at all about EVERYONE ELSE.
SOCIOPATHS == ARISTOCRACY
It's a TRADITION, you don't know plebeian, you don't know anything about the hard life, PUTTING ON A SHOW ALL THE TIME... sounds just like Insta/TikTok/many TH-camrs/FB conjured fantasies of manufactured identities ONLINE - no it's unique to the Royals, you can't grasp it... really?!?
The level of sarcasm and derision in Lidia Thorpe's delivery of the oath. Absolutely legendary.
Lidia Thorpe is a rag with absolutely zero support in Australia
badass
Totally brilliant!
Most Aussies think Thrope is an Angry Wacko
@@TOTN17 And let me guess: these "most" are ... not aboriginal?
Can I just say, I will never get tired of how perfectly John Olvier recreates the "50s British newscaster" voice. He's done it in countless episodes by now and it's always a highlight
YES! I KNOW! Whenever John does a British impression, you know it is gonna be funny! It is inception for anglophiles! Also, that newsreel voice never gets old!
I think this is his best one yet. He maintained it over a stretch. He usually laughs at himself while doing it but this one was perfect
I love anything using that voice. That’s why quagmire in family guys sounds so goofy l
He can mock the English accent (that's his own kin) and gets away with making fun of the Australian and Texan twangs....... But God help him if he EVER tried to imitate (even in jest) the accent of a person of colour!! He wouldn't have the guts!!! Pure hypocrisy!!!
@@colincolin13 Man, I can shoot characters and innocent people in a video game, but GOD FORBID I ever shoot an innocent person in real life, suddenly I'm a "murderer" and "threat to society". Fucking libtards
/sarcasm
Get over yourselves, mate.
We will not blame him for the crimes of his ancestors if he relinquishes the royal rights of his ancestors; but as long as he claims their rights, by virtue of descent, then, by virtue of descent, he must shoulder the responsibility for their crimes.” -James Connolly on George V
Already wrote that on another comment but: *slaps table* Exactly! EXACTLY!!!
@@wilhelm.i people can't be held accountable for that long, but regimes can, and he is the regime
I didn't want to hear this when the Queen died, but boy do I stand corrected about the monarchy.
I adore this entire thread.
Beautiful
This episode did in fact air in full on the Sky network. Way to go, Mr. Oliver.
This is the comment I was looking to find
Sweet!
way to sky tbh
Great!
I was curious. Thanks
As a Kenyan I thank you for highlighting the colonialism in our country..The effects are still being felt even Up to today
I'm sorry for this. I had no idea until I watched this segment.
The worst thing was the brain washing that left most of kenyans with self hatred and believe that anything good has come from a white person, I hope thier children will wake up 😢
Well change it. The future is in YOUR hands. How many Kenyans move to the UK for better opportunities? Plenty I’d say
And I’ve seen pieces in documentaries about rich Nigerians taking 2 private jets to London to shop. One plane for the shoppers and one for their shopping.
I’m sure Kenya is no different.
Why not have a go at the Portuguese government who were your first colonisers? Because it doesn’t fit with the narrative?
If you had a good brain you’d do some research into the advantages of being a Constitutional Monarchy. There are more checks & balances to minimise corruption.
CM’s aren’t perfect but they’re definitely the best of the rest imo.
And no mention of your countrymen’s ancestors selling their own people into slavery and making huge money.
And how’s the corruption in your government? Asking for a friend 😎
The RF is there to unite people and to serve others. Can you imagine how dull it is cutting ribbons and pulling cords for strangers is.
Do you know how important the RF’s around the world are for charities?
I’ve heard from people who have done plenty of charity work in the UK. Unless there’s a Royal going to be there they have big trouble selling tickets. If there’s a Royal going to be there the tickets sell out within minutes.
And not American style charities/tax dodges , REAL charity that helps others.
Even Americans are using the idiot Harry to promote their fake charities.
@@michelegraham9044 I could point out 4 fallacies in your argument but I won't cause I don't have the time like you😂😂... I'm busy trying to change the system left behind by the colonists . Anyway,keep educating us people who don't have good brains as you stated(whatever that means).. you're doing the Lord's work my dear😊👌🏾
As an Australian, we still see some of the horrific affects of indigenous child kidnapping, such as insane crime rates ect.
Thank you for highlighting the maumau story, my grandfather who is still alive and in his nineties was a victim of that horror, he was detained in Kismayu in Somalia and watched his siblings burnt alive, only a sister remained. He usually narrates these stories alot. He says before everything was forcefully taken away his family were actually wealthy landowners.
I wept when I read this. You are still living with that generational trauma. I'm so very sorry.
I’m so sorry your family experienced such atrocities 😔
Thank you for keeping his story alive. That is incredibly important.
jirri. that is some fucked up stuff. miss kimani, i never knew about that. i feel ill about it
In Barcelona there is the Mau Mau cultural centre which is where I learned about this. Devastating and deserves reparation
When that British woman said "I think people would like what we have" all I could think was "Because you took it from them."
The British Museum in a nutshell. Not that any others that were created during the colonial era are any better.
Also sometimes it looks like museums are more interested in hoarding, pardon conserving, stuff than actually displaying it to teach people.
Not to mention, when it comes to the Monarchy itself, I've never - not once - heard the sentiment "I'd like to have a royal family, like they do in UK".
@@ThaEzzy our (s) elected folks already cost us plenty. They feel like royalty I'm sure!
If anyone wanted to abolish my traditional monarchy, I'd spit in their.
We executed our short lived european impossed monarchy (The Absburg emperor) here in Mexico. And they weren't even all that bad dudes, they instigated reforms to help the poor and the needy... But we don't take kindly to monarchs. We didn't just banished them or return them to Europe. We fuking shoot them. So no, not all people want the same stupid shit that the britsh, specially ex-colonies.
Nearly 30 minutes of John roasting the monarchy? We are truly blessed to receive this juicy episode.
It's older episode around 1 month ago
It's nice after last week's. More lighthearted.
I'm sorry no meme or no Sci fi can be more out of this world than prince Charles turning turntables in a black neighborhood pretending to be down with the street and saying "I dig that crazy rhythm"
😂😂😂"
You should respect the monarchy!
@@sarcastaball Sure.
Why?
You know what’s more awkward than having the “Lizzie’s in a Box” song stuck in your head? Having to explain what it is to people when they catch you singing it to yourself.
Just say a football chant
@@freneticness6927 WHAT
@@freneticness6927 ??????????
@@freneticness6927Lizzie's in a box, in a box
Omfg- thats dark 😭
My mom is 91 years old. She’s an Irish Catholic born in the north of Ireland. She’s been in Canada since 1957. She doesn’t have her citizenship cause she won’t pledge allegiance to the queen.
Éireannach go Brách
Hooray for Ireland!
well done
Wow
so shes stateless?
"Why they are working so hard not to offend a family who's name was branded into people skin, and who sit atop a pile of stolen wealth, wearing crowns adorned with other countries treasures" well done to whomever wrote that. Power piece of text.
Agree!
Conquering other narions is cool and great.
Very powerful moment indeed! I got CHILLS.
Just for the record, in this case you would use "whoever"
One of the most incredible defenses of the royals is that they "don't actually cost anything" because the land they "share" actually brings in much more money than what they are -paid- given. At which point I guess everyone's just supposed to not ask how it was they came by so much valuable land, and why, after removing them, the people couldn't just take it back.
@@cindica1106 ... and "whose" .
Irish Times: “Having a monarchy next door is a little like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and has daubed their house with clown murals, displays clown dolls in each window and has an insatiable desire to hear about and discuss clown-related news stories. More specifically, for the Irish, it’s like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and, also, your grandfather was murdered by a clown.”
I almost gave up on reading this, and am glad I made to the end. 😮😂😂😂
Honestly I don't see any kind of reason why _ANYONE_ would have a good opinion of the british
Omg I loled at this
I am Russian and I imagine being neighbour of the UK from the end of WW2 when empire still existed to the Troubles in the end of 20th century was the same for Irish as being a neighbour of Russia has been for Ukraine since Putin started expressing the desire to restore Russian "sphere of influence"(~2007) up until now
I still can't believe they actually published this!
As an Australian, I am 10000% behind you John ! I can't wait to get rid of that ridiculous family that has nothing to do with this Country.
In the 1930s, Bertie had to resign the Monarchy to be with the divorced woman he loved. Now, in the 2020s, we have a Monarch and a Queen, both divorced adulterers. WTF!!! Bye bye Charlie Boy and Camelarse, we don't need you or the pathetic Royal Household that protects you by attacking Harry and Meghan. Looking forward to Australia leaving the "British Commonwealth" and gaining one of us, preferably a First Nation leader (the true sovereigns of Oz) as Head of State.
While we're at it; electing one man to run a country is idiotic for the same reasons. Congress has been" tits on a boar" as well. Turns out there's a perfect size for a smoothly run State; and we should save- in our case Washington-- for interfacing with the rest of the world. The states should run themselves, keep their income tax, set their goals and standards too. Washington gets ten percent of each state's haul, to keep the worthwhile organizations running. The states can compete and share what they learn in Washington instead of the present day Congress blathering away about conspiracies, a waste of oxygen. We're all waiting for Washington to solve the myriad problems about which they have no clue. Leaving the States to deal with them is creating a challenge they will all welcome.
❤
totally agree
@@MultiMolly21yeah, because that worked out so wonderfully the first time we tried it. As we all know, the Articles of the Confederacy remains to this day the most successful foundation for the US government in history, and isn’t at all notorious for crashing and burning immediately because the states were running around in absolute chaos because there was next to no oversight by any federal authorities or regulations.
UK viewers, please, please let the rest of us know how long of a segment of Churchill on a waterslide did you see?!!!
I'm glad he at least let us see a couple times through, I'm sure somebody will throw together the entire segment if it doesn't air.
This video is outright banned for me in the UK, had to use a vpn lmao
@@MIddleJaman yes, but that's been the case for all LWT videos for me. They seem to become available in the UK one month after their release
We need to be honest: Its DISGUSTING that Oliver LAUGHS OFF literal nazi censorship in 2022!!
And the rest of you LAUGHED IT OFF TOO!!
Censorship is the OXYGEN Of evil. No action in history was MORE EVIL than laughing off censorship. (There can be NO EVIL on earth, without censorship. Police can't kill daily unless censorship, see?) That's WHY it was the FOUNDATION Of Nazism 100 years ago.
What about HBO max in UK? I live in the Czech Republic, so I either see this on TH-cam right away or about a week later it’s available on HBO max.
As an Irish person, this segment is giving me life.
If only they'd talked about Frank Kitson
Ireland has carried a burden and paid a high price as next door neighbors.
Lizzy's in a box much love Irish brother from 🇲🇽
@@maximusmcmahon1301 Every idiot needs a scapegoat
❤
20:00 - _"If I just wait long enough, maybe either the journalist forgets his question or I die of old age."_ energy right there.
GWB didn't even pause that long
🤣🤣🤣
"Maybe there's still a way left i can feel good about myself.. lemme think"
@@intorainbowzOG Because he was interrupted.
Worse, I think violence was on his mind.
Thank you for this brilliant program. I am a 78 year old, anti royalist and I remember the disgusting situation in Kenya and it was this that started me being politically aware. I hope to see the end of the system of royalty which would also negate the house of lords. These people have stolen from working people for hundreds of years.
royalist dont cause what happen in Kenya.
How house of lords stolen from working people for hundreds of years?
It's crazy seeing the historical topic, the Mau Mau uprising, which i've spent like five years studying, is actually on HBO. AND they use THE interview with Terrance Gavaghan, genuinely one of the most insane documentary interviews of all time. Massive props to the interviewer in that clip, John McGhie, the way he held this war criminal's feet to the fire calmly and methodically was absolutely pitch perfect journalism.
@@nicolkatanji1980 Oh boy there is so much wrong with this post, ok firstly I think you missed the part that the oppression in Kenya didn't just affect the Mau Mau but the general people of Kenya. Most of them had nothing to do with the Mau Mau and were just put into the camps arbitrarily many were even kids. If you want a good book that really puts it into perspective I would recommend Dreams in the Time of War by Ngugi wa Thiong'o.
Second, "Everyone else was doing it therefore it was ok" is a really shit take. If someone as far back as 500 BCE could figure out slavery was bad then the British Monarchy could have done it.
Third, people are calling on both France and Spain to apologize for their colonial actions especially France who quite literally has a colonial tax on their former colonies to this day so.
Fourth, it is funny how you choose to discuss the Aztecs but failed to mention people like the Haudenosaunee who had essentially a working democracy so there is a variety of other people besides the Aztecs who would have benefited if the Europeans had just fucked off and not colonized. So yeah I think things would have been better for the Indigenous people of South and North America if the Europeans hadn't colonized.
Fifth, this entire rant about these other powers doesn't do much to show why we shouldn't call out Britain on its actions. We also call out japan on their actions and its lack of an apology as well.
Lastly, "the peace we've all enjoyed the last few decades" what peace? This screams a western perspective. There may have been peace for Western Europe and the US, but what about the rest of the world huh? There have been dozens of wars all over the world because of the actions of the West, some which still rage today.
Every British soldier involved should spend the rest of their lives rotten in prison facing execution for their crimes.
@@jinmakome2796 Agreed, I hope that man in the interview who ordered soldiers to put their boots on the throats of kenyans rots, don't care if it is in hell, Tartarus, or has a shit reincarnation.
There’s a great radiolab episode about it, and about the site where the British have all their documents on the events hidden.
@@nicolkatanji1980 I don't even know where to begin with. Terms like 'ignorant', 'naive', and 'boot-licking' don't seem to do justice to that string of verbal diarrhea. I've never seen so much childish whataboutism in a single post. You've managed to make the UK and the monarchy look even worse with this comment. People reading this will now associate their supporters with your sub-Trumpian level of 'argument'. Bravo.
As someone who strongly believes that people who commit funny crimes deserve equally funny punishments, the case of egg man brought a tear to my eye
If I were in the UK, I would buy him eggs and deliver them to his home so that he can have eggs for breakfast, but not break the conditions of bail.
Also the idea of having a King Charles III, makes me glad that I live in China. 🇨🇳 The first two were horrible.
Oh and if that guy comes here, I would offer to cook him an omelette, with all the fixings.
@humphrey spelling bee: I say we administer silly, humiliating, and above all, highly public punishments to anyone and everyone who violates the dignity of humanity.
Supreme Court abolishes abortions? Those that voted for the abolisment must stand in the middle of the busiest intersection of the city, at the busiest time of the day, lift up their robes, and sodomize themselves with balloon animals, and woe betide ANY whose balloon pops, for the further punishment of their failure will be visited on the whole lot of them!
Billionaire robot wearing a human skin refuses to crack down on neonazis, bullshit peddlars, and other assorted trash people on his own site? Ten days in the stocks, with rotting fruit provided free for passers-by.
Textbook malignant narcissist attempts to stage a coup? Surround him with only the most brutally honest clinical psychiatrists, who will constantly bombard the fast bastard with all of his flaws, his weaknesses, his insecurities, until he's thouroughly broken, then we rebuild him and medicate him into a functional human being. Once they're finished about two hours later, we can all go to lunch.
@@Mr.Patrick_Hung China's not exactly a model society...
@@HOTD108_ they are also breaking the law by being on youtube as well, since its banned in china since 2012.
@@Mr.Patrick_Hung Glad to live in China under modern God-Emperor Xi, are we?
“They might seriously want to think about why. Why they and everyone else are working so hard not to offend a family *whose name was branded into people’s skin and who sit atop a pile of stolen wealth wearing crowns adorned with other countries’ treasures* .” So well and poignantly said.
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Goosebumps.
He said that and I thought : "There's that Cambridge education shining through the humour..."
The last time the British abolished the monarchy it didn't go so well.
To be fair king Charles II and James II were cousins not ancestors. He mistakenly said they were direct ancestors.
As a Kenyan, this is a eye opening piece of our history, most of which we are not told about and the watered down version is taught in our schools.- Sadly, the effects of colonization is till felt to this day especially in the issue of land.
😢
The work you do is so important. I'm a Grenadian, and when our new government was sworn in in June, a national conversation started about why we have to swear allegiance to the queen, her heirs, and successors. The monarch is still our head of state, but the first time I visited the UK, immigration treated me like a criminal. Caricom (our regional institution meaning Caribbean Community) has outlined 10 reasonable ways for reparations to be given back to us for the legacy of colonialism, but we still haven't gotten an acknowledgement or an apology.
thank you for raising the point that people from colonised countries are actually not welcomed in to the country that colonized them.
Britain, age of imperialism: "You people are now subjects of our king, whether you want it or not. Obey and you get... well, not much, but at least we probably won't kill you (on purpose). Resist and we will kill you all."
Britain, few years ago: "Where did all these foreigners come from? And they want to come here? To our country? I don't like that. I feel like the EU has stolen our independence!"
I'm Irish, and we've never gotten an apology either. I hope that Grenada and every other nation that suffered from British colonisation gets the reparations and apologies that Britain owes.
The monarchy will never apologize because that would mean accepting responsibility. Its the same reason no colonized nations will ever be given reparations.
This. As a South African of Indian origin, it grates so much when I have to pay exorbitant visa fees to visit the UK and really high international student rates to study there. From a heritage standpoint, I’ve been colonised twice!
As an Irish person, I thought this was pure poetry. Thanks John.
lizzie’s in a box !
@@arjungutta7762 IN A BOX!
As an Indian, I feel the same.
I like rusty spoon
Still she'll be remembered more than an Oscar Wilde or U2 or Robbie Keane
The best part that he didn’t even mention is that years before this aired, he turned down an honorary order from the queen because he didn’t want to be associated with the empire.
I think I remember him telling the story on Seth Meyers' show a bit ago
Not any 'honorary order'. A knighthood, namely Order of the Britsh Empire. And it's especcially the 'Empire'-bit why he rejected it.
@@martijnspruit An OBE isn't a knighthood. They are entirely different.
@@martijnspruit I understand that, I was just phrasing it that way because I was going to say “an order from the queen” and I didn’t think that captured exactly what was happening, and I couldn’t conjure up whether or not it was an OBE, MBE, et cetera
This needs to be the first comment.
Devastatingly, the last residential school in Canada was Gordon Residential School in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, and it didn't close until 1996. The first one opened in 1831. It's disgusting how long it was allowed to go on, and England had a large part in that. Canada did not become its own country until 1867. Thank you for showing what they, and the white Canadian government, did to the indigenous people of our land.
Canada became its own country in 1867....just like you said....yet it took you 130 yrs to close them...and STILL you blame the UK....get real, stop looking to others for your mistakes.
Tbf the new world resents having to share the land they colonise, with the natives, and still have extreme cognitive dissonance that they're the colonisers in the 21st century. America has openly engaged in modern day slave labour, to make products for pennies on the dollar in South Asia, that would have cost them 100-200 times more in the states.
@catlee8064 dude we couldn't even change our laws or amend our constitution without Royal consent until the 80s. And, when Canada became a country, most of the current country was a crown territory.
@OneVoiceOneTruth Royal assent was however never withheld. It is but a formality
@@OneVoiceOneTruthYou do realise royal assent was just a historical tradition? It had no effect on the passing of Canadian laws.
There were actual concentration camps set up in Kenya during the colonialist era where locals were detained, tortured and killed. The British government attempted to erase this from history, but we remember. Thank you John Oliver for never hesitating to bring forward the hidden truths and uncomfortable conversations
The British also put white people in Concentration camps during the Boer war. It wasn't racist, it was just a British thing to do.
All overseen by PM Winston Churchill!
Also the camps are violating a bunch of human rights rules by themselves, you can't white wash real history😮
Hip hop hooray.
@@genericyoutubeaccount579 Don't project our modern understanding of race backwards. It was not how they thought of it, and, given *every* prior use of them was explicitly racial, and every one after... why was that one different?
John Oliver. The only Oliver who hates the monarchy more than Cromwell.
I understood that reference. Thanks, Monty Python!
As an Irish man, fuck Cromwell!
Brilliant!🤣
Armies assemble in the name of Lord protector
Now that was good!
I find it hilarious that there's a man who's legally not allowed to purchase eggs. I'm just picturing him buying a dozen eggs at his local grocery store and an entire swat team just busts in and tackles him to the ground
He’s allowed to buy them, just not allowed to transport them.
So he either have to use delivery service, or have someone carry his eggs for him… 😂
@@gorillaguerillaDK yeah I know lol but that's why I'm picturing him just remembering his wife asking him to buy some eggs for the cake she's going to make later and he decides to grab them on his way home from work probably not thinking about the situation and boom! Police raid
thank god, eggs are they only things he could possibly throw. who would think of throwing - lets say - tomatos or cakes...
Exactly! Notice how western colonial ALWAYS call anyone who fights against their colonialism like Mau Mau uprising in Kenya as a “terrorist” organization. Funny how that term is used against 2 billion Muslims worldwide.
@@MrNukedawhales "people cant affort to eat and heat their homes? Bah! let them throw cake." ~ Marie-Antoinette (probably)
❤ this description of what Royals do: “Think of the royals as Mickey and Minnie at Disneyland, they don’t run the rides, they’re mascots of the whole operation.” This is a fantastic well-written segment! Thankyou! ❤ 🇨🇦
Thank you for highlighting the atrocities that the British government carried out in "her majesty's name" in my home country of Kenya 🇰🇪
I had no idea any of that happened. Beyond horrible.
@@mollyrose1596 yeah you know that’s why history is important
Now, Kenya is committing its own atrocities against LGBTQ+ people, so, get back to me when that ends.
If you're interested, Jacobin Magazine recently did an article about the Mau Mau rebels and interviewed several of the surviving fighters. It's available for free online.
@@polemius01 I live here and while Kenya IS a 80% christian Nation (gee I wonder where they got that from) and Homosexuality is frowned upon, NOBODY has the time or inclination to persecute members of the LGBT+ community, you are thinking Uganda or Ghana (entirely different countries, please try to keep up).
I learn more about history from John Oliver than all of my history classes in high school.
Horrible high school.
Schools are only going to teach you what they only want you to learn.
Pity most of it is highly selective.
It is surprising how much is not taught in schools, is it? I have some friends among the Native Americans in Canada. These horrible things use to happen as recently as 1990s. Indigenous children were taken from families for years, many never returned. They were raised to submission to white people, punished of any expression of their culure and origine (speaking their language, singing songs, praying to the spirits, talking with siblings) and they were heavily abused (punished by hunger, beated, detained in dark cold cellar), children were also sexualy abused there and many died from misstreatmen and abuse. I met a person who saw a priest to beat a child to death when he was detained in a residential school. It was just horrible to hear all the storries and when I got to know this I felt guilty as a a white European with Christian background, even so my country does not have any colonial history. An apology from all heads of all institutions involved in this horror should be a minimum. If the role of the royal family is to symbolically represent the monarchy and the church, so they are the best people to apology in the name of the monarchy and the church, because it is what representing mean and an apology is a symbolic act.
@@samuela-aegisdottir In the United States, Indigenous Ceremonies were outlawed until 1978.
In addition, I have seen grown men cry over the trauma they experienced in the schools they were forced to attend. 💔
Im canadian, As you can tell by the fact that I’m two weeks late in commenting. I just wanted to say thank you for using your show to talk about the residential schools. The sheer number of unmarked mass graves of indigenous children found in the last two years is absolutely devastating and it is so important that people don’t forget it
It's pretty shitty that he didn't acknowledge that the last ones closed in the 90s rather than the 60s though. While the CoE may not have specifically run any after that, but there were still government run schools until the 90s and we didn't break off constitutionally from the UK until '82 so the UK government (and the Queen as a figure head) could have put a stop to it and didn't. She had a nice chunk of time to do so.
@@mishyhnyduik6725 The schools running after the 60's were run by the First Nations themselves.
@@mishyhnyduik6725 and the residential schools may have closed, but they've been replaced by family and children's services...
A few years back they did a test. They took the same case files, and randomized the ethnicity of the family. People recommended removing children from the homes of cases that had indigenous names at three times the rate of any other ethnic group.
In other words, the racism that has been instilled in us had lead to the foster care system replacing the residential schools.
@@andrewtorrens7790 Of course it has. Are you really surprised? Im not
@@paulfoley9370 Evidence? Ah, I see you’re either an apologist or a racist.
Why would First Nations peoples run residential schools? Schools where their children were beaten, SA, starved, emotionally and psychologically abused? Why would FN peoples even support schools that had the sole purpose to “kill the Indian in the child”?
My great grandmother was born as a colonial subject of King George V, she saw the reigns of Edward VIII, George VI, Elizabeth II and is still alive in the reign of Charles III. Her opinion of the royal family is overwhelmingly negative as she saw with her own eyes the devastation of the subcontinent following British withdrawal, her own father was a prisoner of war in WWI; however she had great respect and affection for Elizabeth to the point that she cried at the news of her death, yet refuses to even speak of Charles (Primarily because he mistreated Diana).
Have she ever watched a single documentary of Diana? The queen is equally if not more responsible for her tragedy.
@@minniewannie Nope, she’s 91, legally blind and can’t really understand English that well.
@@minniewannieShe had a huge role in it but the majority cause we Charles' mistreatment of her.
Is your great grandmother 200yrs old?
@@DaylanTheAngrySauerkraut she’s 89
As a Kenyan, am amazed by John Oliver's knowledge of Kenyan colonial past.
Very unbritish of him, but what a human being.
He probably has a team of researchers and writers. But still kudos to him for bringing it to people around the world
He has a killer research and writing team 🤘
its not that hard to research facts
@@DR-cr3zo yes it is, not everything is on Wikipedia
As an Australian who is largely left out of this shows discussions, it was both gratifying and extremely hard to hear about the things I know my country did- thank you for covering it.
The Nightingale is probably the best movie about colonialism.
@@epis8613 Yeah, that film is hard as hell to watch----I wish the director hadn't made it that way, but I get why she made it, even if I couldn't agree with it.
@@alondathomas293 it's one of the most effective uses of actual horror I've ever seen in a film. It was in no way fun to watch, but it it important to understand that there was no exaggeration involved in the movie, only other accounts in media have been sanitized. Very effective and motivating to oppose the evil that existed then and now.
Yeah it was informative for us too.
I love how John is not a hypocrite. He's actually got offer from The Empire to get OBE but he refused. He doesn't want to owe them anything
You down with OBE? No, that's not me!
It would be a very bad move for someone in John’s position to accept a title from the monarchy.
*from the Empire to get
TBF to him, the one time he becomes lower case h hypocritical (i.e. when it comes to football and FIFA) he directly takes the piss outta himself
@@BuruIgeru John's relationship with FIFA is like the US and the McRib...
It's disgusting, how it's made is an affront to mankind, and it should be made illegal. And yet we buy it and devour it whenever it comes out only for me to hate myself afterwards as I wipe the bbq sauce from my face...
How dare you insult a vital British institution? We would not be British without mushy peas. Abolish the monarchy by all means, but never, never take away our mushy peas.
Got me in the first half
I hate peas in general.
Mushy peas are an acquired taste to starving people
@@ATLmodKpoor Americans split pea soup 🫠🤮
Mushy peas suck fight me
As a Kenyan, that newsreel is infuriating and depressing. Then, they ask why we can't mourn the queen or "celebrate" the royal family.
Mau Mau Forever
Sadly with all the various crimes against humanity that were committed by the British Crown over the centuries they were in power, it's difficult to not miss a bunch of these instances in the large quantity of other offenses.
so sorry for all the suffering you have endured til this day
Being half Kenyan and half British myself, I believe that there needs to reparations. How can my British family members live on social welfare and comfortability, by virtue of the riches stolen from my Kenyan relatives, whilst the latter work their behinds off in order to provide the basic essentials and still struggle to make ends meet? Not right!
Same here. Hurt to watch. I def celebrated her death tho
As an American, hearing a British person mock an Australian accent was the highlight of my week
Oh, man! I completely agree! 💯 👍🏽
@@nicolkatanji1980 You shouldv'e shut up before saying all that bullshit
Did you see John Oliver talking about Eminem and Australians? th-cam.com/video/I9oD0XLWEmU/w-d-xo.html
As an Australian, mine too
Truly excellent segment. So well done. As an Aboriginal woman and a Canadian, I was impressed with this.
The last couple min he really murdered them
Respectfully to Americans (and Canadians) reading this: Russia just attacked Poland with a missile strike, and things could get VERY serious. Now is not a good time for the "West" to fragment. I've watched as shtposters called the Queen a c&&t and a b&&&h during the UK's mourning period, and I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and assume a lot of this was deliberate provocation from St Petersburg troll factories, or else actual Americans who don't have a comprehensive grasp on history. Yes, the Mau Mau were oppressed (after attacking other indigenous African groups), yes the UK was involved in slavery (as was everyone, frankly. Portugal transported more slaves across the Atlantic than anyone), but I honestly believe the world would have been a much worse place without Britain. You think France or Spain treated technologically-lagging peoples any better? Where is that flourishing Aztec civilization? You think Japan would have treated India respectfully (as unlikely as this seems, Japan did have designs on India during WW2. It was actually one of the complex reasons for the Bengal famine. Also #Rape of Nanjing). Alright, I'll shut up now. All I'm saying is that history is more complicated than the current discussion, and all this shtposting could have serious consequences to the peace we've all enjoyed the last few decades.
@@nicolkatanji1980 sure, if the UK collapses it will be shitposters who caused it. This empire has been declining for centuries and the Windsors and Tories are responsible for most of that.
@@nicolkatanji1980I get what you are saying, but as an American, we just feel so discouraged and tired. It seems like every day there’s another conflict on the news and everyone’s saying that America has to get involved. Do we even help anything by getting involved? It feels like we are in an endless cycle of conflict and it just makes America look like war mongers. Russia has even said that they attacked Ukraine because they felt threatened by the U.S. presence. Maybe if America just shut up and kept to ourselves the world would be a better place. Every time we try to help we only make things worse it seems. The world doesn’t actually need us.
"I think a lot of people would like what we have"
65 countries across the globe who gained their independence from the British Empire: "No, we would not like to have what you have."
It is also absolutely wild to believe that having a monarchy is a uniquely British thing
@@justacellist3989 FACTS BRO! THANK YOU!
I mean, they would like their stuff back. Technically that is "wanting what the British have"
"Actually, we'd like out shit back that you stole!!!"
I know an indigenous Canadian, my age, who, while we played disc golf, told me how whenever the Government boat came into the village's inlet he had to hide. He did this successfully, so he fully learned his people's language and did not disappear into an unmarked grave at a boarding school due to abuse. Now I hated school, but my god, there's plenty of stories about similar mistreatment of native children in the US, and we think we're good guys.
I wholeheartedly agree with you!! The Indian children were forced to enter these schools, leaving their families and their culture to learn English and the Catholic faith!! They were used as slaves, tortured, punished if they could not remember their lessons! These schools were a nightmare for all these children!!! This country is responsible for many atrocities against our American Indian brothers and sisters!!! And, today they are still being persecuted for being who they are!!!!! They were here first! This is their country!! We, the US, should begin paying them for our sins against a beautiful people!!
We are **most definitely** not "the good guys". We are, in fact, guilty of the same crimes we're currently accusing of China _ten times over_
The latest iteration of the Taylor Sheridan Cinematic Universe, "1923", depicts this part of American history in all its gory brutality. Several of Sheridan's other works also delve into how modern day American Indians continue to be ignored and repressed.
At least Canada has ended the schools. The USA still has anywhere from 4 to 72 of them still up and running (depending on the source)
@@TravelswithanArchaeologistwhat
Fun fact John
The name 'Mau Mau' is not actually in the kikuyu language but actually just a phrase conjured up by the colonialist at the time from what they used to hear kikuyu people chant to them. The phrase/word that they would chant repeatedly was 'Uma' which translates to 'Get out' as a way of telling the British to go away from their lands. The word being said over and over, 'uma uma' was heard by the British as Mau Mau and thus the name was born.
That's awesome
I always thought it was the swahili acronym for "Muzungu Aende Ulaya Mwafrika Apate Uhuru" (White Man Gi back to Europe for The African Person to Get Independence)
I had never heard about this topoc before, but there is a card game I used to play here in Brazil that was kinda like uno, but with traditional cards and you had to say "mau mau" when you had only one card left. It means "bad bad" or "mean mean" in Portuguese, but now I'm wondering if it doesn't have anything to do with this revolution.
@@informedpanda254 that was also something we grew up being taught (but as a Swahili acronym). The Maumau though were from the kikuyu ethnic community( one of the tribes in Kenya) and a bigger percentage at that time only spoke kikuyu amongst each other and not Swahili (the national language). In that case, it must have most definitely come from the ‘uma uma’ and not the ‘mzungu atoke Afrika, …….’ I think that must have come later.
@@informedpanda254 This was adopted later after the name Mau Mau was brought to light. A way of roping in politics and the revolutionists as fighting for the same cause
Thank you for covering the way the Kikuyu were treated by the British in retaliation to the Mau Mau rebellion. My husband's family suffered. Some were imprisoned, some were tortured. One was tortured so badly she could never have children.
That segment was hard to watch. It was mind blowing how many people they abused just because those people wanted their freedom. 😢
I'm very sorry that this had been done to your family. And even more so that the understanding of what colonialism was (and still is) is basically nonexistent among white people.
@@miroslavhoudek7085 Not their problem, the white people of today had nothing to do with colonialism, so stop ramming it down their throats.
Gz899😅0i9😊00🎉 btsteo
I am so sorry that this happened to your family. They need to be abolished and made responsible for what they did.
Thank you John.❤ I learn so much when I watch your shows. Your sense of humour is right on the mark. We all missed you!
🇰🇪 🇰🇪 That's a moment of truth. Voice for the "Voiceless" common Kenyan. Well done John Oliver.
As a Kenyan this piece brings to light major issues British people need to question their government and the Monarch on. My grandparents were Mau Mau and it is extremely disheartening that the proportion of the atrocities committed against them is immensely misrepresented or undervalued in Western Media. The description by John Oliver is but a tip of an iceberg.
I think the Mau Mau fighters are only mentioned in our history text books. For the vast majority of the western media it's like a myth or rarely mentioned.
Well where do we want to start? Racism? Colonialism? Jeffery epiestein? Manipulation of their people
Sorry for what happened to you and your country and family. I hope more westerners will start rethinking about what happened instead of justifying or avoiding the topic.
@@patrickstar1164 same thing..
Also as a Kenyan, I hope to see Kenya (and ALL East African countries) EXITING THE COMMON WEALTH in my life time!
Kenya isn't even part of the monarchy anymore. Kenya didn't even keep the parliamentary system, instead bringing in the far more corruptible and dictatorship-prone presidential system as used in the US, Syria, and Argentina.
And you're free to leave the commonwealth, just convince a majority of your representatives. It's become more of a sports club anyway. 😋
Just be aware that China is ready to replace it, which is another whole chapter to come.
@@mlr4524 I'd rather Asians than the English
@@juminrhee4255 Yeah, that's the point you missed I guess; I hope the politicians in Kenya manage this in my lifetime. And I know what challenges my country faces thank you, don't need a refresher from you
@@mlr4524 oh no, not China! How terrible!
Bravo for saying what needed to be said.
Those two young women made my day! Appropriately respectful of an old person of note passing and completely honest about their true feelings.
People need to stop being nice to oppressors
John Oliver is an international treasure. Thank you for your amazing reporting on so many topics that would not be covered by mainstream media!
as someone called lizzie, hearing a bunch of people sing "lizzie's in a box" with such glee honestly put a big open-mouthed smile on my face. sing that shit at my funeral, please
@@nicolkatanji1980 define peace. I am intrigued. Better place? Explain how the Brits were good to the people they oppressed and robbed. I think you need to watch this segment again and many more like it. the entrenching is deep with you. Going to take a long time to dig into you to find common sense.
Hehehe... nice one. They should have added "... box, Drop it like its hot"
@@MassiveMawEnglish That's how the world works. The powerful used to oppress by force, now they do it financially. It's how the world has always worked. I don't like it either, but denying the reality of it doesn't help.
@@nicolkatanji1980 we know hun. And us poking fun at a dead monarch that everyone expected to die bc she was so old is not going to stop a western coalition. Stop weaponizing world tragedies to try to scurry away from real criticisms
@@nicolkatanji1980 so bc others did worse we shouldn’t talk about the terrible things your country did? That’s not how this works babes
I can‘t watch this often enough. Thank you, John Oliver.
I looked it up and was happy to see that this episode did indeed air on the Sky network in Great Britain. Congratulations John. You got one past their censors.
That was the reason why I scrolled through the comments. Thanks for sharing 👍
There was no way I was going to leave one of the greatest mysteries of life unsolved. You're welcome.
Arigato🙏
That is great to hear!
I wonder if it sparked any news/conversations after the airing. :)
They wouldn’t stop it tho, it’s free speech over here it could praise the queens death and they wouldn’t do anything
My Dad (still very much alive) was forced to live in those "Mau Mau" camps. The colonialists arrested my grandfather my dad and his brothers helpless. He had to move from camp to camp so that he could get back home while grandpa was in prison. In each camp, he spent ~1month while the colonizers sorted his paperwork of movement!
The atrocities conducted by that empire is still very much being felt today!
This was a reasonably fun video to watch despite the horrible content. Which seems wrong... but it's the only way to get attention. Glad I went down to the comments to see this human connection to the past. Thank you for commenting, I hope the trauma in your family will be healed.. This reaction should be at the top. I gave it a "thumbs up", even if "thumbs up" really isn't the right symbol. There should be a "sincerely important" emoji.
I am from the Netherlands, our history is even worse and our denial possibly even greater, because we still think we are OK as is. The age of slavery is to this day referred to as "the golden age". It left us poised well for the industrial revolution, which has blinded us for the cost.
Very true!¡ I watched this clip with my mum and that's how I found out she was born in the camps and they lived there for a while she actually remembers stuff about it. It's quite strange seeing people debate about how long ago it was while there are people alive who remember it vividly
Uga Mundu Wa Nyumba?
Same in all areas that were under colonial rule. The consequences are very much alive today.
Thank you for sharing, & blessings to your Dad!!💗✌🏼
Twitter was quite the gathering place after the demise of the late Queen. Reactions ranged from “Oh, it’s so sad.” to “Has everyone already made a plan to party in Ireland?”
I loved how John Oliver summed it up in the episode after her death
"As you might know. The world is going through a bit of a frenzy right now because an elderly Woman in her 90s died of natural causes"
😂😂😂😂 Facts. I mean I heard people compare this to JFK or Princess Diana and I'm like "..... NO"
@@brandonayong5823 Yeah, at least JFK and Diana dedicated their lives to hopefully improve people's lives, meanwhile Liz 2 was a cultural institution waiting to be dismantled
She's in a box, in a box, LIZZIES IN A BOX 🇮🇪
We had a party and it was awesome. That bih should've brought back our diamond just as a start. May she rest in eternal h€ll. She deserved no dignity from anyone she happily kept oppressed and didn't give back wealth.
@@ArcturusOTE any good jfk might have done is outweighed greatly by joining the vietnam war and the cuban embargo
There's still so much that (for obvious reasons) wasn't even mentioned here, including, for example, the dismissal of Gough Whitlam in 1975, collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World War, the 1943 Bengal famine, and the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
This segment is a good reminder that colonial atrocities aren't a relic of the distant past, but are living memory for many people.
Even those that happened long ago are still echoing down to this day.
We can't fix it, we can't change it, but we should apologize and make sure it is never forgotten. That would be the bare minimum of decency.
Reparations can also be paid AND Stolen Treasures returned.
I have some friends among the Native Americans in Canada. These horrible things use to happen as recently as 1990s. Indigenous children were taken from families for years, many never returned. They were raised to submission to white people, punished of any expression of their culure and origine (speaking their language, singing songs, praying to the spirits, talking with siblings) and they were heavily abused (punished by hunger, beated, detained in dark cold cellar), children were also sexualy abused there and many died from misstreatmen and abuse. I met a person who saw a priest to beat a child to death when he was detained in a residential school. It was just horrible to hear all the storries and when I got to know this I felt guilty as a a white European with Christian background, even so my country does not have any colonial history. An apology from all heads of all institutions involved in this horror should be a minimum. If the role of the royal family is to symbolically represent the monarchy and the church, so they are the best people to apology in the name of the monarchy and the church, because it is what representing mean and an apology is a symbolic act.
@@samuela-aegisdottir For the last thirty odd years, all during Elizabeth's reign, the schools were under the direct control of the Canadian government.
Liz was Canadian Head of State....
@@michaelodonnell824 Agreed.
“I spent 3 or 4 days studying this shit”
My man has transcended
As a Jamaican that poll about is hella accurate,we grew up learning the atrocities they did to our people from whippings to shitting in slave's mouths. Majority hate what they did and hate them
nope, that is your narrative, they had an empire, you're but one colony.
@@MrBoliao98 calm down,I never said they were evil or anything just that the data shows majority dislike them and the way they treated our ancestors. That's pure fact,you gonna argue against the survey?
@@MrBoliao98 And yet, if you asked the other colonies you'd get similar responses.
Jamaica isn’t better off without the UK today.
@@MrBoliao98 "your narrative" It's not a narrative if it happened , you ass
Thank you for this. Brits royals have gotten free pass for so long when they looted our Indian continent, partitioned the country and millions of families died. It is convenient to forget the past if it has not impacted your culture, your country or your families.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah favoured partition, not the British. Unless you happen to agree with Jinnah that there should be an unpartitioned India which in all likelihood would have a marginalised Muslim population.
"The axe forgets, the tree remembers." African proverb.
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." Also an African proverb.
I’ll do my best not to remember them
That's the dumbest proverb ever! The paper and firewood remember? Axe wins. How about...tree forgets but the car remembers? See? Just as dumb.
That colonial officer's response is chilling, not just because it says 'yes.'
But because it further says that he doesn't regret it.
@@nicolkatanji1980 She's not gonna fuck you, bro.
@Nicol Katanji oh I get it! The British were mostly killing non-white people, so we should all overlook it now that Russia is attacking poor innocent white people. Thanks, Nicol. I'm glad you're happy with atrocities as long as "everyone" was doing it and it wasn't against white people. Please, go sit down somewhere and never speak.
I don't wish bad things to others but I fcking hope he suffer the same pain he inflicted to others.
Just as evil as the Japanese and Germans in WW2.
I am appalled they sidestepped calling the camps in 1950-58 Kenya as CONCENTRATION CAMPS.
Like the one Britain used in South Africa in 1899 for the 2nd Angloe-Boer War.
Why would he regret it , hes part of master race , people still believe that in England , have you not been reading how EU dictatorship oppressed English people and now when England is independent , there is glorious future of stealing stuff from other countries , like in good old days .
John Oliver recreating that British Pathé Narrator Voice will never stop being iconic.
When a guy with a British accent has to put another British accent on top of his British accent lol
"iconic" is an overstatement, but I'll allow it.
@@Tcrror allow it? Thank you, your grace 😂
@@Tcrror "iconic" is the most recent English word being publicly abused into a shadow of its former meaning. "Aesthetic" is also on the ropes. [Sigh]
@@anahata2009 you sound like someone who hasn't come to terms with the fundamental transience of language, friend.
This piece shows why Oliver wins Emmys again and again and again.
Thanks a lot John for covering this. Monarchs are responsible for sh*t going back many generations. I am a Kenyan and I can sympathise with the elderly lady. (We call anyone her age shosho in Kikuyu, which means a grandmother). Odd enough the symbolic grandmother of the UK was responsible, directly or indirectly, for the misfortunes that befell this shosho and countless others. I think your edited out some of the attrocities committed by the colonial government to make the program worthy of airing. The attrocities committed in Ireland, Scotland, and the rest of Anglophone Africa can fit a series with at least 3 seasons.
It's an easy one to flog - name a single institution in human history of any relatively decent size and power they did not commit atrocious crimes? You cannot name one.
But to Oliver's point about what the Monarchy does - he omits a hell of a lot.
After the British empire's largely peaceful dismantling, the British Monarchy helped establish The Commonwealth, a collection of what is now 56 nations, whose membership is voluntary. Many have no historical ties to British Colonialism yet opted to join to gain it's benefits. Rwanda was the most recent to join in 2009 and these countries gain stronger economic ties and connections to a network of nations as long as they uphold expectations of equality and democratic freedom. If they fail to fulfil these, they can be removed, such as Pakistan and Zimbabwe - where gender and ethnic discrimination was occurring. The Commonwealth also invests huge sums to fund education, environmental initiatives and empower local trade and stimulate the economy.
The Queen was and the King is now head of this important network that is doing extremely significant work uplifting many emerging economies and integrating them with larger former british colonies. This was entirely left out in Oliver's piece.
@@AZ2PM
The Monarch does basically nothing for the Commonwealth. You could just keep the show running without them and it would be better for it.
"Every institution did bad things therefore the british monarchy is not that bad." What an insufferable take. Everybody used to do racism so why talk about racism? Every country did a genocide so why talk about genocide? Also institution is such a broad term that yes I can name you some that are clean like the US postal service.
John Oliver is talking about the atrocities that were committed under the Monarchy in the past 100 years and all he asks is that they acknowledge them, say sorry, give their victims compensation and maybe just maybe return all the stuff they stole from colonised countries. What about that is too much to ask?
@@AZ2PM Monarchy doesn't do anything useful, it just puts its name on stuff like this. That's taxpayers that did all that stuff, bozo.
@@AZ2PM How do they help the Commonwealth? Do they invest in it?
*anglophone Caribbean, the americas, Australia, Middle East, various parts of Asia and the Indian subcontinent stares in confusion*
Finally, the most British man reacts to the most British institution.
Zazu has spoken!
@@datafoxy Mr. Bean has spoken!!
😂😂😂Just perfect
@Emotional Damage
Absolutely! I'm so satisfied by someone finally admitting that mushy peas are fucking disgusting!
I would like to say I (once again) find myself absolutely understanding John's attitude. That's how I see all the nationalism; If you find pride in achievements of people you find a common denominator with, have the decency and honesty to share the guilt and responsibility too.
Also I could listen to John's exaggerated British accent all day long and it never gets old.
And that's what people who opposes critical race theory fail to understand, they want all of the credit for the accomplishments and none of the responsibility for the attrocities commited by our ancestors.
I was at a Rastafarian indigenous village in Jamaica playing drums when the queen died.
I can just imagine what that was like!
Oliver needs to be protected at all costs. An illuminating voice in a dark time.
Protected from what? You think the new king is going to send commandos to America to assassinate an American citizen?
Agreed
Don't u luv when he visits Stephen Colbert on Steve's show ....a joyous riot between buds...
@@Maya_Pinion What an amazing amount of fanboys and cucks on this thread. You fragile wimps need to get outside and get some exercise and visit the real world outside of your leftist bubble.
For anyone who is appalled by residential schools, here's a not so fun fact: the last one in Canada closed in June of 1996. So if your are 26+ you were around during residential schools.
Are you saying that I was a month old when they stopped doing that? Thats turbo fucked and I'm at the lower end of the age who unironically uses turbo
It's more complicated then that. The horrific practices in residential schools stopped long before 1996, but at the end of the day it was a school, thus it continued to be used as a school. So, technically, the last residential school didn't close until 1996.
Not exactly true.
When I was in Elementary, we moved around a bunch … One year I went to school on a reservation. Guess what *that* school used to be? 😮 At the time I was there, they’d upgraded the property with a museum, telling the local history. Which we got to visit on class trips!
I think the property had been reclaimed about 10 yrs before I was there. Wierd to do basically normal schooling, at a place that used to be a child-sized concentration camp. 🤯
Some years after I was there, they finished the job. Built nice new school buildings, and demolished the original building. 😊🎉 Place actually looks really nice! 💜
@@christopherherbert7062 would love an explanation... Seeing as I'm someone from suburban Toronto and didn't even know about residential schools until 1994, when I was 16 and had a Metis teacher.
Never thought I would see the Mau Mau Revolution mentioned--much less in detail--by any modern, relatively mainstream entertainment source. Thank you, John & Co., as always, for your thoughtful & insightful work.
why not? it brings views.
@@humanbeing5918 I'm glad that it was discussed, of course. But colonial Kenya isn't high on the priorities of most news sources anywhere--hence the surprise.
OMG, out of all these eps of this show I’ve been watching so far, this one’s been really informative.
I love that it appears that there’s a small child jumping up and down while flipping the bird with each hand while the crowd is chanting “Lizzie’s in a box.”
Yet, sports teams are fined and sanctioned if they were to say the same about another person.
I have some friends among the Native People of Canada. These horrible things use to happen as recently as 1990s. Indigenous children were taken from families for years, many never returned. They were raised to submission to white people, punished of any expression of their culure and origine (speaking their language, singing songs, praying to the spirits, talking with siblings) and they were heavily abused (punished by hunger, beated, detained in dark cold cellar), children were also sexualy abused there and many died from misstreatmen and abuse. I met a person who saw a priest to beat a child to death when he was detained in a residential school. It was just horrible to hear all the storries and when I got to know this I felt guilty as a a white European with Christian background, even so my country does not have any colonial history. An apology from all heads of all institutions involved in this horror should be a minimum. If the role of the royal family is to symbolically represent the monarchy and the church, so they are the best people to apology in the name of the monarchy and the church, because it is what representing mean and an apology is a symbolic act.
You made a good point there, with the apology being a symbolic act from a family that claims they are only symbolic.
Until recently, I thought my country wasn't involved in colonialism, but I was wrong. Almost all European countries were somehow involved or profited.
as someone in the 33% of brits that want the Royals gone, thank you, John for this. So many Brits (including myself) have no idea what level of atrocities the royals have been involved in, so thank you for educating the world on this
I think British nobles had an rather questionable impact on their country’s role during the European scramble for Africa (which mostly focused on much of Southern and East Africa, and parts of Northern and West Africa as well).
The British scramble for much of the Indian subcontinent (except Bhutan and Nepal) and Myanmar+Brunei+Malaysia+Singapore seems to be just as infamous if not more so. Fortunately, four out of five south East Asian nations colonised by Britain are hopeful success stories, while Myanmar was still deeply screwed before it even became independent.
The royals are here to stay so get used to it
The American Revolution was only led by about 20% of our population at that time. You have the numbers. Just saying. But really no, the better way is not war and the democratic process. Just need to have more conversations like the one above.
@@electroskates2434 like the video said, it's not unreasonable to expect them to do much better while they're here.
@@electroskates2434 when thugs break into your home, assault you, rob you of everything, I will say, "ah! That's status quo! This cry baby needs to realize there will always be crooks, so get used to it! That's how it's always been, and how it should be!"
As someone from England who hates the monarchy, I love whenever John Oliver verbally destroys the Royal Family, making this one of my favourite LWT segments (closely followed by the museums and the Edward Snowden segments, for very different reasons).
The only shame was that after talking about the effects of colonialism associated with the monarchy, he went on to use a clip of Winston Churchill as comic relief, without acknowledging the huge negative role that man had on different colonies of the British Empire during the 1st half of the 20th century. There are many within the former British Empire who would have far more contempt for him than they would for the monarchy.
This had me crying. They detained my grandfather when he was just 14 years old to prevent him from joining the MauMau😒.
I'm sorry to hear that, guess this explains why they didn't only go after the MauMau - they used it as an excuse to inflict even more damage.
This is so triggering for us Kenyans and esp from the mt Kenya region because to date my grandfather shares such horrific stories of what they went through.
Good
Triggered is an understatement
@Waka Waka If the British just left and not done centuries of colonialism, he wouldn’t have had anything to join
That graphic with the shadow cast over Africa is truly a magnificent work of design and art!
Didn't see it until I read your comment. Nice catch!
Absolutely
Glad someone else saw that, had a feeling it was intentional
Ireland to. My Indian friends will probably think it should have covered India to.
Further evidence that New Zealand doesn’t exist
I'm Indian, I've got a few Irish and Scottish friends. And when the funeral was happening, you can bet that we were drinking and singing
Amen to that. 🎉
Did you celebrate when Rishi became the PM? 🙌🍾🥂🎈🥳💃🎉🎆
@@nHans no. He's still a Tory.
AND!!!
Hahaha cheers mate.
Absolutely excellent piece John! As always, spot-on catalyzing the most interesting discussions to be had in modern society.
I live in Scotland and found out the Queen died through my flatmate telling me "Lizzies done something that's not very girlboss", it was genuinely surprising to talk to people who were actually sad
Thats a great way to find out the Queen died
mexican american here and my friend told me by sending me a voice note of her singing "london bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down"
Have to raise an eyebrow or two with that Australian guy moaning about how inappropriate it was to not have a minute's silence at Elizabeth's passing.
SHE'S DEAD. Why the hell would she care??
@@adsart4990 I got a "Se murió la vieja culiá"
That'll be the unionist traitors to Scotland, I hate the British state and everything they stand for, SOAR ALBA
As a Kikuyu, i'm grateful that even an utterance of the words "Mau Mau" is said. They died for our independence! They literally never stopped fighting until we got our freedom!
This world is a cruel place!
@boogy The Mau Mau were not fighting for independence, they fighting to get back their ancestral lands, which is indeed a very noble cause, however, it's not only the Kikuyu who were Mau Mau, there were people from other ethnic groups who were based in Nairobi who supported the Mau Mau with medicine, arms and intelligence. Also, there were other pressure groups (political parties) from other ethnic groups which campaigned for independence. Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu was a sellout, an Afro Victorian; he lived in the UK for 17 years (1929-1946) , married a white woman, came back and threw the Mau Mau under the bus, and perpetuated neo-colonialist for his masters.
I like those two girls' reactions, not rude, just honest. Still obviously saying it's a sad time because a person died, someone who their country all knew, and deaths are in general a sad thing. But why care or worry about it when that person did absolutely nothing for you your entire life? It's reasonable, people have their own problems to care about.
it isn't "rude" to call out on a criminal's crimes. I would vote for that one lady (was it Canadian?) that corrected the oath of office she was to take. though sadly she was forced to hide the truth later by stereotypical slaves of the colonizers.
Yeah
It is customary not to speak ill of the recently dead. But... this seems to be more vehemently adhered to, when the deceased has something substantial to speak of and people don't really want to hear. So the volume of calls to "be polite" can be a good indicator of how different perception and reality are..
@@Ludifant it is necessity not to act atrociously with people alive, not to steal, torture and murder people while alive in a civilized world. So comments like yours are a sickening indicator of how vanity follows greed - even after death
@@Ludifant yea if a good person that everyone loved died there'd be no calls for "being polite" because everyone would already be doing that. if you didnt deserve respect in life than you dont really deserve it in death either
You actually have to ask for a card on your 100th birthday - it used to be just sent to you ( could have even been a bit of a note written in the card), but now its just a signed card that is mailed if requested because there are more and more people reaching 100.
She was very proud of it, but I did feel very conflicted taking the photo with my grandma at her hundredth birthday party.
It was amazing to see people after the Queen died saying things like “stop talking about colonialism, we are mourning and i felt like i was her grandson” while also taking every occasion to harass Meghan Markle who is… actually married to her grandson
The recent equivalent here in the U.S. would be Kobe Bryant
"The Sun never set on the British Empire, because even the God couldn't trust the British in dark."
- Dr. Shashi Tharoor
That’s fire
*set
"when the white men arrived they had the bible and we had the land. they asked us to close our eyes and pray. when we opened them they had the land and we had the bible" - desmond tutu
lol
@@lm_b5080 I'm never forgetting this quote now
My grandfather was among those imprisoned in Kenya. There's a 6 year gap between his 1st and 2nd born children.The reason, he was in one of those concentration camps for 6 years. It's not a different age.
cw how do we stop and survive in the future? your blood is your knowledge.
Just as evil as the Japanese and Germans in WW2.
I am appalled they sidestepped calling the camps in 1950-58 Kenya as CONCENTRATION CAMPS, just called it "detention."
Like the one Britain used in South Africa in 1899 for the 2nd Anglo-Boer War.
19:46 Ironically and surprisingly, I found it quite refreshing that politicians used to prefer to stay silent when caught redhanded instead of spewing off lies through their teeth disregarding people simple intelligence.
We need a part two. Plenty more atrocities to speak about, especially from the Indian subcontinent.
You can easily make a miniseries, a continent per episode and still have plenty of atrocities to spare and the monarchy would always be right at the center.
Anyone defending the monarchical institution is alike to holocaust deniers in my book.
This needs to be pinned or somehow be shown as the top comment
So agree we need that list of atrocities from the subcontinent. Did you know they passed laws banning Indian women from inheriting property? And soon after forcefully drafted Indian men to fight their wars in Europe. When men died IMMEDIATELY they went and stole the wealth of the female family they left behind. This wealth is some of the jewelry this family wears, calling it gifts.
During WWII my great grandmother’s two brothers (her only brothers) realized the atrocities being committed in Burma. They were doctors and left. And soon were murdered by the Japanese. Burma, a British territory, was meant to repatriate my great uncles. Instead the Brits found their bodies and gave these two hindu men a Christian funeral, burying them. My great uncles had sons but instead of inheriting the family wealth a coup of British men stormed my great grandma’s family estate and robbed every single woman of her jewelry, of the money in the home. They were near destitute. And yet they had kept some of the money hidden, a preparation they needed to do because they saw what happened to every person in their village.
When my great grandma passed in 2020 I lost my family’s direct link to this story. But my grandma doesn’t let the story die. She says it often. After my great grandma’s mother death that property was stolen by the Brit’s instead used as a British drinking house (a house of those who didn’t drink or smoke). A house Indians were banned from. Until 1947 when we attained independence. My great grandma held the family property until the 80’s, when the place became difficult to maintain. But her stories of the Brit’s have no respect.
And about those jewels. From what I know, Elizabeth has worn some of my family’s stolen jewels. And family that has visited Britain has confirmed some of our property is on display at the British museum. Falsely attributed as being gifts from the Maharaja. It’s funny. Because we, and our family name from Palakkad in Kerala is being erased. Like many more Indian family names.
The monarchal system and the Brit’s are responsible for the erasure of the rest of the world’s history and dynasty. And it’s lead to the DIRECT europhillia felt in the colonized world. That none of our people were notable or worthy. Because they stole that from all of us.
Just like theres a comprehensive series titled “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”, we need one elaborating the extent of British Colonization from start to present
The last thing we need is a British crow yapping about how "incompetent" Indian govt is when in Britain lettuce lasts longer than Liz Truss
My favorite thing is that football match where they didn't do a minute's silence because they were afraid the Scotland fans would fill the silence with heckling and instead did a "minute of applause", to which the Scotland fans responded by singing "if you hate the Queen of England, clap your hands" over it.
Edit: I went and looked it up and I have to correct that it was Celtic fans and the song was "if you hate the royal family clap your hands".
@Peter Wood~UNBELIEVABLE 🎯🤣🤣🤣
I know the gripes(understatement) the Irish have with the royal family, but not being from the UK/Britain where is the Scottish people's hate for the queen coming from. Genuine inquiry btw, I've got nothing good to say about that family nor of it's Dutch counterpart.
@@RikSolstice England and Scotland has had many wars and Scotland was - like Ireland - not exactly jumping from joy when they 'joined' England. There's a lot of bad blood there. I think John covered some of their tense relationship in his video on Scotlands independence vote a few years ago.
@@RikSolstice I'm American so don't know a ton of the history, but I do know that the British menaced Scotland in the 18th century and effectively crushed the Scottish clan structure and harshly suppressed their culture after a failed rebellion.
They bannished their language (Scottish Gaelic), they bannished their music and musical instruments, culture etc. They destroyed their houses for more sheep/farming and forced them to immigrate ("clearing"). They cut down almost all forests for ships/navy. Still 80%of the land belongs to a handful of people.
I love that I pay for HBO and always watch this show on TH-cam
Is the part before "moving on" not worth it?
@@tubensalat1453 I think it's worth it. I end up watching it on YT because it's more convenient and there are comments.
HBO Max: $14.99
Comments section: Priceless
Oh wait, I pay for HBO too. Never thought about it hahaha
Me three...
John Oliver is a treasure, calls em straight, to hell with flashback. Good Man!
Well done, team. I lived in Kenya for two years, in the early 80s. It still brings tears to my eyes, what they did there.
So Kenya would be better off if the monarchy had no part in any of its history.
You knew all about our country by living for two years in the eighties? Give me a break?
@@creedbel8328 lay off the negativity. the original commenter probably meant that either they learned about it while living there, or that the horrors of it could still be felt decades later. I’m guessing it’s the latter. And that the weight of that horrible recent history stayed in their memory for 4 decades (2022). Other comments mention their grandparents’ sufferings in the mau mau conflict, so clearly the memories live on whether you were there or not. And the memories live on whether you live there or not and whether you’re Kenyan or not. Hopefully the original commenter was paying attention to the community they lived in, as I hope we all do.
Kenya should hack Billionaires and steal their wealth
@@christerry1773 They were doing fine before, so yeah.
Why is it that the people who think they should not be held responsible for what their ancestors did still seem to think they deserve to inherit what their ancestors stole?
?
I don't think they should be punished for what great great great grate gran or gramp did thats kinda fucking stupid but maybe not abel to hold land bc of the fact they are already geting a place to live food security and travel paid by the British people.
@@benozzy003 they need to be punished for it they still punishing everyone else for uprising against them
That's a fallacy
Which you probably learned from this show for the majority of your arguments
Yeah, sure. Let's include those who sold their own people to slavery.
The elephant in the room.
I normally am not a big fan of music from England but that Lizzie's in a box track was a 10/10
Literally the best music comes from the UK
@@CaveaD and literally, the biggest colonizers and slave-traders came from Britain too. 😊
@@CaveaD eh, I argue that was true until the 90s. The British ruled music in the 60s and 70s, deeply declined in the 80s and I really can't think of anything decent past the 90s.
Dig that crazy rhythm
Lol I'm a black man from southern USA. England has nothing for me except this track about Lizzie
Brilliant John. Please do not stop son. One Love.