While
the establishment rallies around to condemn the removal of the statue of Edward
Colston its protestations mask the ongoing impact of the Britain’s history of oppression,
oppression creating wealth and wealth creating benevolence.
In
such a complex relationship only the wealthy and establishment are participants.
Those
who were the oppressed have no choice but over the years they have been
convinced that, in relation to today’s society, the oppression is negligible outweighed by the
impact of the benevolence on cultural life and social impact.
So
if we rearrange words in BBC articles we could view the story differently/ tell
a different story.
Home
Secretary Priti Patel called the tearing down of the statue "utterly
disgraceful", adding that "it speaks to the acts of public disorder
that have become a distraction from the cause people are protesting
about".
"It's
right the police follow up and make sure that justice is undertaken with those
individuals that are responsible for such disorderly and lawless
behaviour," she said.
Historian
Prof David Olusoga told BBC News that the statue should have been taken down
long before.
He said:
"Statues are about saying 'This was a great man who did great things.'
That is not true, he [Colston] was a slave trader and a murderer.
Colston made
his fortune through human suffering. Between 1672 and 1689, his ships are
believed to have transported about 80,000 men, women and children from Africa
to the Americas.
However, in
the city he called home, his memory has been honoured for centuries. On his
death in 1721, he bequeathed his wealth to charities and his legacy can still
be seen on Bristol's streets, memorials and buildings.
In 1680
Colston became a member of the Royal African Company which at the time had a
monopoly on the slave trade. By 1689 he had risen to become its deputy
governor.
Slaves bought
in West Africa were branded with the company initials RAC, then herded on to
ships and plunged into a nightmarish voyage.
Closely
shackled together, hundreds of enslaved people lay in their own filth; disease,
suicide and murder claimed between 10 and 20 per cent of them during the six to
eight week voyage to the Americas.
Human suffering
on this scale made Colston rich and a grateful Bristol honoured his
benevolence; naming dozens of buildings, institutions, charities, schools,
sports clubs, pubs, societies and roads after him.
The statue of Edward Colston in Bristol "is a constant
reminder of his inhumanity", says Miles Chambers, the City’s Poet Lauriat
His charity
is commemorated during processions and church services. School children have
paid homage to him at services. His statue stands in the city centre, inscribed
as a "memorial of one of the most virtuous and wise sons of the
city".
For hundreds
of years, he has been unquestionably venerated.
"Colston
may have helped more people than he abused but the people he abused, and their
descendants, say this is unacceptable and although they are a minority,
something needs to be done about it," says Mr Chambers.
"Some
people don't get that black people still feel the full impact of slavery today.
"We can
look at the descendants of the slaves and economically they are still worse
off; psychologically they are still worse off; mentally they still feel
collectively as inferior; more African-Caribbean males are disproportionately
in prison and in the judicial system; they do worse at schools; economically
are paid less and are working less.
"The
pattern continues and even though many people say slavery is over, because of
those legacies we still feel enslaved.
"A name
change or statue move is not going to rectify racism or eradicate the slave
mentality that still exists, but it will help to say to black people: 'You are
equal to us, you are British, you are valuable and you mean as much to us as
any other citizen.'"
One statue
down, many more to go.
