The past is present: Whites must face history

Author LP Hartley’s famous line, “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there” is fairly apt when the discussion of colonialism – and its offshoot, apartheid – arises.

People like Helen Zille believe this quote is one which should be applied in the here and now – because colonialism is behind us. Indeed, she argues, there were aspects to colonialism which were positive.

Presumably she is referring to the construction of infrastructure, rather than the division of the country along racial lines.

This latter part of history was not solely foisted on the country by the National Party, remember. The British colonial authorities had divided all their colonies into whites and “others” for 200 years before the Nats came to power in 1948.

The colonialism debate is not one which is content to remain in the past, as King Charles and the British government have discovered, because their former colonial subjects are pushing for monetary reparations for their suffering under the Union Jack.

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The English were the world’s apex colonisers as their pursuit of the natural resources needed to build their wealth and expand the Empire saw large swathes of many continents, including Africa, painted Royal red.

Paying out significant financial reparations would further hurt the UK, which is near-bankrupt, so the chances of real recompense being paid seem slim.

However, much as right-wing Britons may dismiss the claims as belonging in the dustbin of history, the discussion itself is a necessary process.

If the white people in the UK, whose ancestors benefitted from colonialism, do not acknowledge the suffering and anger it caused, no amount of money will ever make things right.

South Africa’s whites need to also look deep within and recognise the evils of the past, foreign as though that may be to them.

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