US content creator praised for video on colonisation of Wales

A US content creator has gone viral after explaining how Wales was “colonised” and its language deliberately suppressed.

The creator, who goes by the screen name Chain Slayer and is based in Atlanta, shared the video with his 112k Instagram followers on Friday 24 April.

Chain Slayer, who describes himself as a tutor/teacher and “Just someone who wants a better world”, also has a YouTube channel where he explains class systems, feudalism, and colonialism for viewers.

In the video, which has received almost 20k likes since it was posted, Chain Slayer says: “If you want to destroy a nation or a people’s cultural identity, you don’t always have to use straight up violence.

“There’s many cards in your proverbial colonising deck. So sometimes you may kill people or sometimes you may kill the way they understand the world.

“Wales is one of the clearest examples of this. The United Kingdom is not only united through conquest and occupation, it has also been united through epistemicide.”

Epistemicide is a concept first developed in 1998 by Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos. It is defined as the deliberate destruction of ‘native’ knowledge systems by colonial and imperial powers to serve colonial efforts.

Chain Slayer goes on to apply this idea to Welsh history, pointing to the conquest of Wales and later restrictions on the Welsh language.

He explains: “Before the British came, Wales had its own laws, language, customs, and rulers… And between 1277 and 1283, King Edward I conquers Wales. He defeated the last Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.

“That’s why there’s all these big, beautiful, massive castles all around Wales. One of the many reasons is because King Edward built this Ring of quote-unquote ‘Iron’ which was a chain of these castles to fortify his command in Wales. Classic colonisation.”

The Ring of Iron comprised ten castles throughout mid and north Wales, including Harlech, Conwy and Hawarden, to control areas of the population that had long been resistant to English invasion and rule.

“Now, over time, England realises that they can’t fully control Wales if they’re still speaking Welsh and thinking in Welsh,” Chain Slayer continues. “So fast forwarding to the 1530s the English passed laws that make English the only legal law.”

The Laws in Wales Acts of 1535 and 1542 added Wales to English territory, and proclaimed that English was the language of the law.

Essentially, Welsh had no legal standing and English was required to be used in courts, administration and public office. This excluded sole-Welsh speakers from legal and political power.

The Acts also established a separate judicial system in Wales in the Court of Great Sessions, later abolished in 1830.

As Chain Slayer puts it: “If you want power you must speak English, if you want justice get to speaking English, if you want to move up in society you’re gonna have to abandon that Welsh shit.

“This is epistemicide, right, because language isn’t just language. It’s words, memory, culture, knowledge, identity, who you are. Killing one’s language can reshape reality itself.”

 

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The creator then discusses the Welsh Not, used in schools in Wales between the late 18th and early 20th century to discourage children from speaking Welsh in educational contexts, a tactic “mirrored here in America during native assimilation”.

Efforts to sideline Welsh in education were reinforced by the 1847 ‘Blue Books’, government reports that criticised the Welsh language and portrayed Welsh-speaking communities as backward.

“It’s cultural hegemony,” says Chain Slayer. “The oppressed think your logic, accept your system, and speak your language until domination feels normal.

“But people are resilient. Welsh never died. People kept it alive in their homes, music and their culture because, even under pressure, you cannot erase a people who refuse to forget.”

Among the thousands of comments on the video, viewers from Wales and around the world voiced support for the creators efforts to highlight Welsh history.

One explained that calling the county Wales rather than Cymru was itself “an act of cultural oppression”, while others thanked the creator, saying: “I knew my goat wouldn’t miss on Cymru, let’s goooo”.

A Welsh viewer also shared their own experience, writing: “Being Welsh I am loving hearing another nation recognising the history of our oppression. I was not afforded the privilege of speaking my own language, but all 3 of my children now speak Welsh as their first language and I am so proud of them and of my country.”

Follow Chain Slayer on Instagram and YouTube here.