Colonialism and multiculturalism.

I was having lunch with a friend the other day when the subject of Colonialism and then Apartheid came up.
Always difficult subjects, there has been a tendency over the last ten or more years to decry Colonialism as somewhat despotic and the cause of much of the inability of a continent like Africa to function properly. Simmering below the surface lies the issue of racism and therefore the underplaying assumption that the people who took up service in the name of Colonial conquest were both racist and oppressors. 

From early times tribes have undertaken marauding expeditions into surrounding territory and in the case of the Mongul sweeping out of Asia and across Europe. Their goal seemed little more than a, conquest,  "because we can" philosophy, although I doubt one should call it a philosophy since the bloody triumph they obtained seemed to be for little more than than treasure and blood lust. Alternatively the Ottomans built their empire by convincing the tribes they defeated that being under the umbrella of the Muslim faith they were better off, more secure and had a stake in remaining part of the collective whole.

The British were never ideologically wedded to conquest, there's was a pragmatic need to expand their trade. It was driven by the need to supply the market in Europe through the acquisition of raw materials and, secondly to have a foothold in various countries to expand that market. 
They brought with them a piece of their own culture and much as we decry certain culturally strong practices in this country and the exclusivity these cultural practices bring, then we must acknowledge that in the far flung corners of the Empire, the cultural exclusivity, the architectural exclusivity, the formality of the administrative structure, the legal structure, the roads and the hierarchical structure of the British were all imported to a foreign land. 
The very fact that this led to a two tear structure in the society at large also led to the eventual downfall of the relationship between her majesty employees and the indigenous population.

If there had been a extending, welcoming hand given to the local population much as in the Ottoman Empire then the fall of Colonialism would not have been so sudden. 

It is often overlooked how quickly the British withdrew from the position of holding the reigns of power, to packing their bags and leaving on the next boat. 
If in hindsight, the hand-over had taken at least a generation, then the result would have enhanced the security of so much that had been done but the insistence of creating a 'nation state' with their own rulers was paramount. The was no administrative middle class to hold the structure together and the power, without the con-straining counter of a strong legal system backed up by an enforcement system, based of the law, was missing and the chaos that ensued in many countries was blamed on colonialism. 

The modern concern for human rights which to some, means freedom, irrespective of the consequences, placed the blame on the power and the subjugation of the people. The ideological format that all people are born free and therefore any controlling force, irrespective of its intentions, or the good it bestows, are inherently wrong.

Apartheid was, in one sense an internal form of colonisation in that it insisted on identifying its boundaries of culture and lifestyle by proclaiming that other cultures could not be assimilated. There are obvious links to the class infiltrated culture in this country, where barriers are imposed between people based on perceived class hierarchy which jealously excludes a large section of the indigenous society.

Anti-Apartheid became a clarion call to all those people who, as we have mentioned above, have, as their ideological foundation the basic right of equality for all men and women as their aim.
The fact that in the modern world, separation based on a whole raft of concerns is pandemic throughout the world, be it the Caste system in India or the religious mania practised by many religious groups, each seeks to differentiate by classification.
Apartheid and the creators of the "word" (but not, I hasten to add, the practice), the Afrikaner, were guilty.  We are all guilty, guilty of defining people within the tribe or outside the tribe, excluding those who were not of the ilk. The Afrikaners  belief that what he stood for and what his history had taught him, needed protecting and  must exclude all others.
From Jew to Muslim, from Chinese to Japanese, the exclusivity of the nation or sect has been upheld and lauded but in the Afrikaner, it went too far. It evoked a sense of shame in the white man and his prejudicial dealings towards the non-white races throughout the world. 

The Americans today as I write, are engaging in another bout of self incrimination in the town of Ferguson, the history of slavery bubbles below the surface and the inherited prejudice corrals people into their different pens.

Apartheid tried to do the same . 
Writ large it defined people, in law, as belonging to this tribe or that culture largely based on colour and tried to pen the differences into a political ideology that had, at its base the survival of what they, the Afrikaner cherished. 


In our Multi Cultural Britain we are trying another experiment. Based on the same ideology that all people are born equal ( a difficult proposition ). We have to ignore our specific individual histories our traits our culture and meld ourselves into the human melting pot from which will emerge a new enlightened human being, better able to cope with this Global (economic) World. 

Orwell couldn't have scripted it better. 

I would like to bet that other than the propagators of the scheme, who themselves have safely drawn back into their estates or the people who,  having arrived to take part in this experiment from overseas are the least likely to want to give up their identity, let alone their religious beliefs which seem to be the very thing producing 'another' barrier to integration. 
Only the indigenous natives will have to find succour in the knowledge that "what went around, comes around" !
Unlike the Afrikaner, we have been taught to have little value in our culture or in our history since the 'manufactures' of this malleable society have spent time and money disassembling the values of our past and our history and severely demonise those who would question their experiment !!!