Rethinking Colonialism

In which I consider how to move forward...

This week I had a free day and found myself heading for a day trip to the university city of Oxford. I concluded that it's my sort of place with overheard conversations being especially high-brow what with discussions on molecular physics and a tour guide discussing the connection between Edmund Halley and 'Captain' James Cook (though I did have to restrain myself from correcting the aforementioned guide for his information wasn't very accurate- I should know given my committed impersonation of Cook in a Wiltshire school in 2011). 

The only place in the city I'd been before was the Pitt Rivers Museum, which is unusual as it displays it's huge collection of anthropological artefacts from around the world by type. This means you get display cases full of musical instruments, or looms or anything you can think of. It's a remarkable place that was easily worth a repeat visit given you could probably go a hundred times and still find something new to look at. 

The incredible Pitt Rivers Museum

I reflected on how the museum had changed in the almost ten years since I last visited. For one thing, the display of shrunken heads or tsantsa from South America has now been removed. There are several reasons the museum has chosen to remove them from display. One is that these tsantsa are displayed in Britain for a largely British audience and in isolation add to the perception that the Shuar and Achuar people were and are 'savages'. This extends into the further problem that they were also obtained during a time of unequal rule and used as evidence that Western Societies were superior to indigenous societies, proving to many eyes that we were justified in Colonial Rule. 

Colonial Rule was the time when for a few hundred years, Britain, and indeed other European nations, started to take over bits of Africa, North and South America, Asia and Oceania. The general thinking was that white people were better and more developed than the indigenous people and so we were perfectly justified to go in, take any resources we fancied and use the locals for whatever purposes we could think of. The atrocities committed during this time are difficult to swallow, from huge massacres of indigenous people to the horrors of the slave trade. The peak of the Colonial Era was the 19th Century but it continued well into the 20th Century and even when countries were given independence we still found ways to have control of them, like the partition of India. Many issues that former colonies face today can be traced back to Colonial Rule. 

It seems to me that it's only in the last ten years or so that the UK has even begun to consider the many negative sides to it's history. Many people, including much of our current Conservative Government, still seem to think of this part of our history as something to be proud of, the glorious British Empire. But any decent person should understand that there was nothing glorious about it and we should be utterly ashamed at the actions of our ancestors. 

How to we begin to change our way of thinking? On my trip to Oxford I noticed how the Pitt Rivers Museum and other places like the Ashmolean Museum, were beginning to change the context of their displays. The tradition of British museums is to display a load of stuff stolen from places we controlled by rich Victorians and explain it in these turns. What is starting to happen, though there is still an enormous way to go, is that museums are starting to display the voices of indigenous people. The objects have a very different meaning when you understand their wider context. 

Education with this area is hugely important. Few people in Britain are really taught about Colonialism and even the Slave Trade. This is utterly shameful and fuels misconceptions and modern day racism. These museums have a part to play, rather than celebrating the rogues who nicked this stuff they have the opportunity to explain it's context and seek out the views of indigenous people to do so. We should also consider giving this stuff back to the people are it's rightful owners and this is thankfully starting to happen- just today the Horniman Museum in London has announced it is returning 72 artefacts looted from the Kingdom of Benin. 

During the Black Lives Matters demonstrations there was much discussion about removing statues of slavers. Many of those that defended them said we would be 'erasing history' if we removed them. I don't believe that is the case. You don't see Germany having statues of Adolf Hitler on display but they are still excellent at teaching the dark parts of their history. Indeed, the inspiration for many of these statues probably had views that would very much fit in with Hitler yet we still happily have statues up of them as if we support what they did and believed. Frankly I'm all for removing these statues and moving them to museums as was the case of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol but at the very least these contentious statues should have plaques explaining the controversy- I was pleased to note the Cecil Rhodes statue on Oriel College in Oxford had a prominent sign doing just this.

I suspect that gradually things will change and in fifty years time museums will be very different places. Many items will have returned to their home countries and the context will be far more from the voices of indigenous people. Our wider history will also be reconsidered and people that many think of heroes will no longer seem quite so heroic- one obvious example is Winston Churchill who many value for his role in winning World War II but few seem to consider the fact he three million people died of famine in India on his watch and he avoiding giving aid saying it would do little because of "Indians breeding like rabbits". I think there will a time when people look back at us in horror for celebrating people like Churchill quite so vigorously. 

As a country, it's important we face up to what we have done and reflect on the atrocities that many people's wealth is built upon. 

This was unusually serious for me but it's an issue I think is really important. I've left a couple of links at the bottom if you want to dive deeper into this subject. The usual nonsense will return soon.

Further Reading: 

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