The author urges us to explore our dark and complex history with Empire.
‘People are nostalgic for a time when Britain was undoubtedly the most powerful nation in the world. But what was the basis for that power?’
At its peak, the British Empire covered 25% of the globe, but the implications of that power – and how it still affects us today – are rarely spoken about.The author and former barrister is pulling together some of Britain’s brightest stars to help unpick this country’s complicated and problematic relationship with Empire – including the real legacies of British colonialism that inform how we understand the world around us.‘There is this narrative that Empire is ancient history,’ she adds.
‘When you think about what was left out in the interim, it was that 300-year period of Empire building. It was the transatlantic trade of Africans that made Britain the industrialised country that could become such a dominant world power.‘It took me a long time to understand how much I had not learned about. If you don’t know about something, it’s easy to dismiss it as not important.’
Afua says it’s hard to understate just how much the legacies of Empire are informing our opinions and perspectives – in ways that we are still trying to understand. As a result, she says we are entering a new century ill-equipped to understand our current reality. ‘How can you be nostalgic for something that was based on the idea of oppressing people of other races on the basis that they were not civilized?She says this concept has spilled over into the conversation about Brexit.
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