COLONIALISM, APOLOGIES AND CIVILISATION
Dayo Sobowale argues that no apology can make up for historical wrongs
I start today on the premise that there is a current trend, globally, to subvert history with apologies and reparations, that is bound to cause more harm than good to the cultures and forced civilisations that have been the immutable products of such history . Colonialism has decidedly left its immutable mark and signature in the life and times as well as the culture of the colonial subjects of the colonies that it conquered by force of arms and the strategy of religion and gunboat power and diplomacy . There have obviously been irreparable damage to the cultures of the conquered and subjugated colonies in terms of acculturation and assimilation into the cultures of the colonial powers that have no atonement or redress , financially and culturally . So who , what and why the sudden and recent plea for apologies and regret for planned and well- premeditated explorations of plunder that enriched the coffers of past colonial masters , especially from the ancient capitals of the champions of colonialism in recent times? I will illustrate with examples to show that the answer may not be found in the assumed compunction or in the pleaded face saving apologies to history , but in the simple fact that the chicken has come home to roost for colonialism in terms of democracy which is a game of numbers , and in the very heart and capitals of formerly colonial Europe .
Last week the British monarch King Charles 111 read the Speech from the throne in the British House of Commons written constitutionally by the PM Rishi Sunak, son of Indian migrants and products of colonialism . The same King Charles was on a state visit to Kenya where he apologized for the wrongs of colonialism in the place from where the mother , the late Queen Elizabeth 11 was informed of her father’s death and was proclaimed Queen on Kenya’s colonial soil immediately.
Also this same week Elon Musk the owner of X (Twitter) and electric car giant Tesla asked rich Tech billionaires like himself to procreate and have children because humanity would be wiped out very soon if the decline being witnessed globally in human population growth persists. Musk, all on his own, already has 10 children from three women . Yet, in colonial times monogamy was used to wipe out polygamy , the traditional marriage system found on the ground in African societies by gun- toting , bible – carrying colonial evangelists . Musk went on to raise the alarm that global demographic reduction was a more potent and dangerous issue than climate change for human civilization as we know it today .
It is here that I want to draw a comparison between King Charles’ speech from the throne written by the colonial subject Sunak as PM and Elon Musk’s opinion that natalism , which is promotion of human procreation or childbearing , is more important to the future of human civilization and survival than climate change , the progressive ideology driving human civilisation and economic development against the future nowadays . King Charles’ unprecedented long wait for the crown has seen him adopting conservation as his life-long objective to preserve the human environment long before climate change became the powerful environmental fashion and power that it is today . But the speech the King read defied the tenets of Britain’s earlier global commitment to climate change to eliminate fossil fuel and oil production by a given date in the future and replace it with clean, green energy. Britain under Sunak is investing heavily in new oil explorations, in new oil fields to boost its sagging economy . In addition in contradistinction to EU cultural values of gender identity, LGBTQ and same-sex marriages, Sunak, leader of the Conservative Party is on record as saying at a recent Party Convention that a man is different from a woman because a man has penis and a woman does not and it is a man and a woman that make a family . Luckily Britain is a Brexit, EU free Britain nowadays.
Let me make it clear. I know that when Elon Musk talks of civilization he means western civilization and not the civilization of the citizens of the former colonies of colonialism . He is a South African, now an American brought up under apartheid and he really cannot understand anything about colonial civilization which the independent nations of colonialism are products of , in spite of their much cherished independence .
I will use Nigeria and Ghana to illustrate the point I want to make that no reparations or apologies can indemnify the wrongs that King Charles apologized for in Kenya or any former colony for that matter including my own Nigeria . Indeed I make bold to say that it is better to let the sleeping dogs of history lie very dead rather than resurrect painful memories that will reopen old wounds that are socially and culturally untreatable like an unstoppable human cancer .
Look at Kenya’s history which is that it got independence through the Mau Mau Uprising led by Jomo Kenyatta who became president at Independence and his son Uhuru who later became a president of Kenya. Uhuru Kenyatta and his former VP Ruto , who succeeded him speak impeccable English and I have never seen them dressed in anything but sleek European designer suits. Can any historical apology change that? On a personal note many of us writers and journalists and even engineers and doctors earn a living by practicing our trade and professions with the English language . Can we ever do that in vernacular? What reparations or apologies can change that? Some have called such views colonial mentality but can we exist without it ? . There is wisdom in the old observation that history must take its course and that those who fail to learn from the lessons of history must repeat its failures . Historical apologies are cruel fallacies that recreate old wounds and are best left in the dustbin of history where they safely and truly belong.
Sobowale is a news analyst with Arise News
