A Patriotic Argument for the Teaching of British Colonialism
In the UK, a stubborn resolution to avoid teaching the realities of the Empire is depriving pupils of learning about their past—and their present.
History wasn’t my subject at secondary school. But, in my defence, I could not see the relevance of learning about the different ways in which Henry VIII abused and murdered his wives. Studying Guy Fawkes and his Gunpowder Plot was fun, and I’m sure it would make a great movie, but there is not much that can be learned from it.
When I left school, I was still unable to answer questions like:
- Why is English spoken all over the world?
- What was ‘America’ before it was America?
- Why do I have classmates descending from India, Pakistan, and countries in the West Indies?
- What did Gandhi actually do?
Instead, I was just grateful that, to my memory, none of the recent Royals had had their heads chopped off.
The Failings of the Current Curriculum
Unfortunately, not much has changed since 2008. Despite its leading role in the historical development of the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries, former colonies, and the rest of the world, less than one in ten secondary school students learn about the British Empire. A fraction more study modules that refer to black people’s contributions in Britain.
I’ll let that sit for a moment.
Simply put: that is a disgrace. Lavinya Stennett, the founder of the Black Curriculum, highlights the consequences of failing to teach black history:
“The whole basis of the Windrush scandal was that ‘these people don’t belong here’, that their citizenship could be revoked. It makes me feel like we don’t belong, like we’ve never made any contribution … That is not the truth.”
So, while I believe that advances are being made in society, it is hardly surprising that some Brits still respond with that horrible defensiveness when they are asked about, say, slavery in the British Empire (a defensiveness, not defiance, as we generally know, in the back of our minds, that arguments to the contrary are undefendable).
It seems that the current tactic employed by the occupants of our Department for Education is to neither ban the teaching of British colonialism nor actively promote it. In this way, they are, to a certain extent, able to taper the backlash of historians, NGOs, and anyone that wants our young people to confront the realities of what was, in large parts, an oppressive rule. At the same time, those that idealise Britain’s era of dominance are content enough with the status quo.
So what are we afraid of?
The Root of the Problem
I think it is, in part, a fear of vilification and self-loathing. That being taught about colonial rule would cause people to ‘be ashamed of their own country’. But these fears are misguided, and they hold us back. If we are to understand what we have done well as a nation, we also need to see where we have failed. Not picking and choosing which parts of our history we want to remember.
Take the deadly suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion in 1950s colonial Kenya. Here, Britain subjected those in any way connected to the anticolonial uprising (including women and children) to systematic violence. This involved the use of detention camps, torture, malnutrition, and forced labour—all tactics designed to ‘break’ the Mau Mau. Shockingly, events were sanitised by British authorities until pressure was applied, in large parts thanks to the work of American academic Caroline Elkins. The re-writing of history is something that most like-minded British citizens would not expect of their own country, but Elkins’ work renders this theory sadly mistaken.
But it is not about simply knowing that Britain did bad things and thinking that this will generate a sense of humility. It is about addressing the causes of past actions: from perceived cultural, ethnic, or intellectual superiority, to the paranoia of challenges to power (see this article on ‘divide and rule’), and the simple purpose of picking the pockets of a poorer country through natural resource extraction (with political and/or infrastructural support offered in return). It is not only about widening people’s eyes to what we are all capable of as human beings. It is about teaching how and why such things could ever take place, and how they could be allowed to happen.
If our pupils are led to believe that we always come out on the ‘right side of history’, it sets a dangerous precedent of invincibility. It presents British exceptionalism as the hegemonic discourse, rather than a narrow ideological belief system. The truth is that almost everyone outside of the UK (and a growing number within it) views this as snobbish. The spread of the British influence across the world, not least our language, makes us no more morally or culturally superior than anyone else, and this needs to be understood.
How It Can be Solved
Thus, balanced and unfiltered teaching of the British Empire is needed. It can be studied in the context of growing industry and trade links, and compared and contrasted with other Empires at the time. This shouldn’t even be in doubt, as a failure to do so deprives people of learning about their heritage. Without this, it is impossible to appreciate the roots of Britain’s diversity, a requisite condition for anyone that seeks to appreciate the structural inequalities that continue to persist in many facets of society today.
Here is an interesting and rather hopeful video of a group of pupils talking about their heritage, and why they want to learn more about the British Empire.
Of course—for good or ill—students are in no way responsible for the actions of their predecessors. That is the same for everyone around the world today. But they are responsible for their own lives and how they interact with others. And as this clip shows, the current curriculum fails to provide teachers with the necessary tools to educate our young people on what is a challenging but crucial topic in their development.
An Argument for Empowerment, an Argument for Change
My argument is that if our young people learned about the realities of British colonial rule, then it would empower a sense of patriotism. In my view, being able to critically reflect on Britain’s role in the making of the modern world would engage our younger citizens with skills of objectivity and reflection while, at the same time, develop the vital skill of seeing things from the perspectives of others, instead of jumping to unhelpful conclusions. These skills will allow a far greater understanding of the country that they live in and, hopefully, contribute to their development into compassionate, open-minded citizens going into adulthood. As educator Deana Heath puts it:
“As my own students have told me, being able to interrogate difficult histories such as the history of empire, to explore the myriad connections between people in different parts of the planet, or to study the writings of Indian thinkers and actors has given them a much better understanding of themselves and their place in the world. Or, as one student put it, it has enabled them to “grow as a person”. And that, surely, is what education is supposed to do.”
Everybody is well aware of Britain’s successes, and they should be celebrated. But a healthy curriculum should not be selective. It should teach Britain’s rise as a world power, who contributed to it, how it stayed there and what this means for life in Britain today, as well as the rest of the world. Our country will be far better for it.
