Britain needs a Truth-Telling Commission on Colonialism
Asha Herten-Crabb
The recent acquittal of the Colston Four provides a small window into British attitudes towards the acknowledgement of colonial harms. While the collective action of the people of Bristol, and specifically the Afro-Caribbean community, went ignored for 30 years, the acquittal by jury of the white Colston Four suggests that, albeit slowly, increasing numbers of white people in the UK (86% of the population in 2011) support anti-racism efforts. Indeed, this may be cause for optimism in challenging the mythology of the benefits of colonialism, including its civilizing mission, which justified the destruction, exploitation and extraction of people and planet by Britain across the world.
Yet, as the reactions of Conversative MPs highlight, Britain has a long way to go in truly acknowledging and redressing the harms of British imperialism. In 2014, 67% of British people surveyed were either proud or apathetic about colonialism. The English history curriculum does not prioritize colonialism: the teaching of colonialism is a ‘suggestion’ rather than a statutory requirement. The need to acknowledge and redress colonial harms is not a meaningful part of government or opposition policy. And yet the British imperial undertaking that was state policy from the mid-1500s to the mid-1900s caused devastating and undeniable harm to those subjected to it. As such, a Truth-Telling Commission, as first proposed by Dr Kojo Koram, could play a vital role in foregrounding these harms and lay the groundwork for redressing them.
Britain’s imperial past and present
The role of Britain in contributing to the establishment of heteropatriarchy and white supremacy as part of its capitalist imperial project is well documented. Indeed, these power hierarchies remain today, as, per bell hooks, the global ‘imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’. The world’s richest states per capita are predominantly European colonizers or settler-colonial states; the poorest are largely those subjected to European colonialism. The world’s most privileged people are predominantly white capitalist men; the least privileged are predominantly Black and Indigenous peasant and working-class women and non-binary people. Denying the effects of colonialism helps to maintain these unequal structural arrangements; arrangements that continue to shape Britain itself. A ‘reflexive, critical reckoning with empire’ and Britain’s moral exceptionalism is therefore crucial.
Transitional justice
What, then, can be done to overcome the wilful ignorance of both the public and politicians? The field of transitional justice (TJ) is relevant here. TJ is the dominant framework through which states address systematic and large-scale human rights abuses where national justice systems are considered unsuitable. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) are one of the more prominent TJ mechanisms. TRCs typically involve an independent or governmental panel ‘to investigate and record violations … Although documenting every single violation may not be possible, establishing patterns, practices, and chains of command is crucial to identifying the purposeful and systematic nature of [human rights] abuses’. Broader than western conceptions of justice which focus on individual accountability and punishment, TRCs offer a more holistic means to understand structural injustices, including political, economic, social and cultural injustice. TRCs give voice to those who have suffered violence and persecution, and space for those in privileged positions to learn about, reflect on, and, in solidarity, participate in dismantling systems of oppression.
Thus far, TRCs have largely focused on post-conflict states, such as the Rwandan TRC to address the 1994 genocide and the South African TRC following the end of apartheid. However, Canada and the Australian state of Victoria have also deployed TRCs to uncover the truths of settler domination over Indigenous peoples. The 2015 Canadian TRC’s report on Indian Reservation Schools facilitated the recently prescribed USD$44-billion-dollar compensation award to Canada’s stolen generation. Similarly, in Victoria, home of Naarm/Melbourne, the Tyerri Yoo-Rrook (Seed of Truth) Commission seeks truth and justice, the opportunity for Indigenous people to tell their story in their own words, and a more just path to Treaty and structural reform.
A British Truth-Telling Commission on Colonialism
A British Truth-Telling Commission on Colonialism that seeks and promotes the sharing of our collective history would facilitate a national conversation about the truth of imperialism and its ongoing legacy. The benefits of such a Truth-Telling Commission could be three fold. First, it would bring to light that which has been hidden through open discussion of our connected histories. Second, it could deepen collective understandings of how our current economic, political, social and cultural systems evolved. Finally, by denaturalizing the past and the present, it could create space to dream of alternative and just ways of organizing our politics, economies and social relations. In these ways a British Truth-Telling Commission could allow us to overcome the imperial myths that underpin contemporary British politics and challenge the ongoing white supremacism, capitalist exploitation and patriarchy they legitimize.
A Commission would be neither the first nor the only step towards reckoning with Britain’s imperial past — this work began centuries ago through the ongoing resistance of Indigenous peoples throughout the world and people of colour in settler-colonies and Britain itself. Nonetheless, it could be a vital part of efforts to recognise the impacts of British imperialism, support movements for reparations that redistribute wealth and land from capitalist elites and imperial nation-states, and transform our global but highly unequal society for the better. Such a commission could facilitate a ‘politics of accountability’ rather than one of blame which can prevent members of the oppressor group from actively seeing and engaging with the privileges from which they benefit. Accountability can also help those who straddle groups of oppressor and oppressed (e.g. working-class white Britons; white women) understand the intersecting nature of these oppressions and our role in advocating for change beyond empty rhetoric or perpetuating white saviourism.
To know where we’re going, we need to know where we’ve come from. The acquittal of the Colston Four suggests that, at least in some parts of the country, white Britons are ready to actively engage in understanding and redressing colonial harms in solidarity with generations of Britons of colour and those subjected to colonialism and its legacies the world over. In this context, a British Truth-Telling Commission on Colonialism could provide the mechanism needed to galvanise these efforts and move beyond wilful ignorance.
‘In order to know where you’re going you must know where you’ve come from. Even if it’s in your face or hard to swallow, people need to know the true history in order to move forward.’
– Alice Pepper (Yorta Yorta, Mutti Mutti, Arrernte, Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung, and First Peoples Assembly of Victoria Member, Australia)
Asha Herten-Crabb is a white Australian PhD student at the London School of Economics and Political Science. A roundtable on this topic will be held at the British International Studies Association 2022 Conference in Newcastle, June 15–17.
This blog is part of the Next Gen IR series which aims to provide a platform for early career researchers working in the discipline. If you are interested in contributing to the series please email our digital content editor at: jhills@chathamhouse.org
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