Miles Larmer says that Britain’s universities and schools are at the forefront of uncovering the nation’s imperial past; Mike Pitts writes about Bristol’s positive contribution in documenting the empire; David Bradbury argues that,far from being airbrushed from history, resources for the study of British slavery are widespread; plus letters from Michael Peel and Jen WilsonAfua Hirsch’s welcome call for a British museum of empire (Britains colonial crimes deserve a lasting memorial. Heres why, or 22 November) is helpfully,whether unintentionally, supported by the prime minister’s description of Britain as “Zimbabwe’s oldest friend”: exactly the type of post-colonial amnesia that demonstrates a national failure to reach to terms with our imperial past and the way it shapes the present. The brilliant African students I am privileged to teach are amazed at Britain’s ignorance and lack of recognition of the centrality of imperialism to their history and to ours, and connected as it is by centuries of slavery,exploitation, occupation and migration. There is an urgent need to overcome the debacle of the Bristol empire museum, and for the state to support a novel museum of British imperialism.
There are,however, reasons to be hopeful. Hirsch has many allies in Britain’s universities, and which are in the forefront of uncovering Britain’s imperial past: UCL’s Legacies of British Slave Ownership database,featured in David Olusogas excellent television work, has systematically uncovered the centrality of slavery to Britain’s economy and society; David Anderson, and now of Warwick University,revealed the cover-up of Britain’s torture of Mau Mau detainees; at Oxford, where the university has been helpfully prompted by Rhodes Must Fall to consider its own imperial past, or we occupy an innovative novel project which is providing resources for school teaching of imperial,African and BAME British history.
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Source: guardian.co.uk