The path to colonial reckoning is through archives, not museums
Returning colonial archives would allow Africans to begin constructing more accurate narratives of colonial experience.
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The colonial archive, the thousands of official records and documents that trace the history of subjugation, oppression and looting of the continent by the European powers is largely resident in Europe. And it is not a history that the Europeans have been eager to reveal, preferring to think of their time as overlords of the continent as something of a benevolent occupation.
Yet, as Howard French noted in the New York Times two decades ago, "In the closing years of this century, though, historians, political scientists and other students of African affairs have begun a searching re-examination of the continent's recent past. Increasingly, they have concluded that many of its most persistent curses - from the plague of ethnic hatred widely known as tribalism to endemic official corruption - have powerful roots that are at least partly traceable to European subjugation and rule.”
Yet, a more comprehensive re-examination of this history, especially by the Africans who daily endure its worst legacies, is made difficult by the fact that the documents on which it is inscribed are retained by the architects of the oppression. France, for example, has refused to return Algerian colonial records.
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In the case of the British Empire, the re-evaluation of the impact of its policies has been made unnecessarily difficult by the UK government's illegal, widespread and systematic destruction, theft and concealment of colonial-era documents in an effort to cover up its crimes. In the last decade or so, however, some of these hidden archives have come to light, showing the scale of the second attempt at "appropriation and alienation" of African history. A 2015 article in Vice by Katie Engelhart details how in 2011, after repeated denials, the UK government owned up to possessing 20,000 files from 37 colonies in "Migrated Archives" hidden in a secret facility at Hanslope Park in Buckinghamshire. Three years later, an audit discovered yet another 170,000 Colonial Office documents, some of them stamped "Top Secret". In fact, as late as the 1980s, the British were still destroying records on colonial Kenya.
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Telling the truth about Australia's past will be painful – but it will be liberating
Rather than engendering guilt, the focus should be on healing historical wounds threatening the nation’s future
Guns kill faster, but Concealing The Truth IS as much dangerous.
Framing the big picture would require to TELL the TRUTH, to teach the truth in schools, about occupation, colonialism, countless holocausts, directly and indirectly perpetuated by the Europeans, the natives against each other. Just for the sake of fairness. After that, there will be NO need for the illusion of superiority.
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