Britain’s story of empire is based on myth. We need to know the truth
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Here’s the irony. While discussions of the British empire invariably generate toxic divides, it is in fact this very history that can provide sought-after “common ground” on which to examine the necessarily complex question of what it means to be British today. All Britons, white and ethnic minority, are touched every day by imperial legacies, from what we eat and drink – coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea – to the multinational corporations and banks we work for or buy from, to our basic assumptions and categories of thought including concepts such as race, development, free trade and globalisation which were forged in the crucible of empire. Colonial history also provides context for many contemporary British concerns from identity, multiculturalism and humanitarianism to foreign aid, hard borders and sovereignty.
Moreover, the history of the empire shows us not only that there is nothing especially “British” about values such as tolerance, freedom, human rights or democracy but that often what we call “British values” were influenced by both empire and resistance to empire. The oft-told story of a benevolent Britain “bestowing” freedom on her colonies when they were deemed ready for it is largely myth. In reality, resistance, often violent resistance alongside famous non-violent movements, was a central part of the story. Colonial subjects often had their own ideas about the meaning of “freedom” – like the Jamaican rebels of 1865, who rejected the notion that they were “free” to sell their labour to plantation owners after being released from bondage, and demanded small plots of land in which they could be truly independent. “Freedom”, it became clear, has many meanings and today we are often presented with a rather narrow version mainly to do with consumer choice.
An honest and informed understanding of the British empire and its afterlife is also vital because it can help us go beyond the questionable model where ethnic and cultural minorities in Britain are required to “integrate” into a static model of “Britishness” owned by white Britons.
The enslaved and the colonised were not merely either victims or beneficiaries of empire but agents who actively contributed to Britain. Their labour, often extracted for nothing or little, underlies the wealth that was created in this country, while their resistance to oppression underscored the universality of values such as equality, human dignity, tolerance, justice and freedom. In many ways, they made Britain.
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