One of my most important missions in British politics is to work toward's a New Britannia. A new British identity that is not dependent on the traditional nation state demands of blood and soil. To imagine a new nation that transcends the limitations of "race" and seeks for an all-inclusive post-race nation where values and citizenship define who we are rather than "race".
Some may question whether this is even possible, to them I say that if Christianity and Islam were able to create cultural movements that transcend racial categorisation and put a wide array of hues under one set of values then it is more than possible for us to build a New Britannia and become a beacon of light to the world. In order to begin to work towards a New Britannia I believe that we need to begin the history of Britain with the birth of the British Empire and its fallout and how the British Empire transformed Britain from a mono-racial and mono-cultural society into the multi-racial and multi-cultural society that it is today.
Britain was once a small island with minimal power in the world. With the coming of the industrial revolution Britain was transformed from a small powerless island into the largest Empire that the world has ever seen covering 1/3 of the peoples on the planet. The Empire stretched across 5 continents and there were not many parts of the world that were left untouched by it. Because of it's colossal size the Empire was referred to as "the Empire where the sun never sets" because there was always a time when there was daylight in one of the colonial outposts of the Empire.
The British Empire like other Empire's made all colonies under it's servitude and made all colonials subjects of the British Crown. The Empire was not discriminating with who became part of it and colonised black, brown, yellow and white (Irish) people without partiality, making them all subjects under the Crown. The birth of the British Empire transformed how Britain looked and gathered many cultures into one body politic in a way not seen since the days of the Roman Empire.
The process of colonialism aimed to make British subjects into British persons and accepting of British values as their own; modifying or doing away completely with their traditional values and way of life or sometimes reducing traditional ways of life to a type of "Orientalism" for the entertainment of the British Aristocracy. In the process of colonialism the many colonial subjects across the world accepted the British Aristocracy and the Crown as their own; the Head of State of Britain became the Head of State of all the colonial outposts across the world creating a New World Order.
In becoming part of the British Empire the colonial subjects became something new; some but not all as in the case of India adopted British names and ways of dress. Some were sent to be educated in the "mother country" and were given jobs in the colonial administration. Though there was some obvious coercion many adopted the British values and way of life because they believed that it was superior to their own cultural tradition or offered improved material and intellectual development. The British Empire was hegemonic; it dominated the other cultures but the concept of hegemony holds at its heart the idea of unspoken consent on the part of those who are dominated.
The British Empire existed at differing degrees from the 16th to the 20th Century but was at it's height during the "Imperial Century" from 1815 to 1914 when it comprised more than 400 million people; all of whom were British citizens. When WW1 broke out citizens from across the Empire were enlisted to fight in a multi-racial, multi-cultural army that included African's, Indians, Pakistani's, Caribbean's and others. The same thing happened in 1939 at the outbreak of WW2. After the war Britain recruited amongst its colonial citizens for workers to rebuild Britain.
When the first set of British colonials arrived in Britain from Jamaica in the 1940's they were British Citizens. They technically had the same rights as all other British Citizens wherever they were in the Empire. Reports by Pathe News covering the arrival stated that though there was anger amongst the British working classes there was nothing that they could do about it. It was a situation not dissimilar to the experience of EU migrants today whose membership of the EU allows them legally to live and work in the UK.
In the mid-20th Century the winds of change began to blow and colonial subjects began to seek independence; with India, Pakistan and others gaining independence in the 1940's followed by the independence of the first African nation Ghana in the 1950's. Others such as Nigeria would follow and the Caribbean in the 1960's and the British Empire arguably ended in the 90's with the independence of Hong Kong.
I believe that we can tell a new inclusive story of Britain that begins with Empire and includes all of those that were once British Citizens but engaged in decolonisation struggles and dismantled the British Empire giving birth the Commonwealth. I believe that if we shape the modern British identity around the British Empire and its fall out then we can tell a different story about Britain that includes the descendants of those more than 400 million British colonials that many British citizens descend from today. By beginning the history of modern Britain with Empire and it's fall out, our heroes become many of the heroes that struggled for human rights and anti-racism across the world.
The heroic stories of British-English subjects such as Wilber Wilberforce would now be accompanied by the heroic stories of Gandhi; Nkrumah; Azikiwe; Garvey; Marley and others who were citizens of the British Empire. By beginning Britain's history with Empire we start to build towards a new way of thinking about British identity and the issues of race, ethnicity and identity that occupy the media at present. Britain becomes then not the story of "white" people but the story of the world's biggest multi-racial and multi-cultural Empire.
The Britain today that speaks of "two wars and a world cup" will now be replaced with a different tale that recognises the heroics of those that fought for decolonisation as part of our own story of change and transformation; that recognises that we could never tell the story of modern Britain without understanding the struggles of those mentioned above in a British context and how they shaped modern Britain with their overseas activities and their activities on British soil. The struggles of those heroic figures should become a part of British public life just as in the US the struggles of Martin Luther King Jnr and the Civil Rights movement or the story of the Underground Railroad are recognised in US public life.
I believe that viewing Britain through the lens of my argument will give recognition to those that made Britain better by rejecting the politics of domination; that by putting the stories of these individuals into our schools, universities and public life we will recognise that the values that they stood for - liberty, fraternity and equality - are the values that we as British citizens should hold dear today regardless of our hue. So I say without apology that Gandhi; Nkrumah; Azikiwe; Garvey and Marley are part of the British story a story that connects us to the heritage of 1/3 of the planet; that's a big deal!
So let us think of a different Britain; not the Britain of UKIP or the Conservative Party but a new Liberal Britain that welcomes the diversity of our past; that accepts the heroic defence of British values by those mentioned above; that recognises that there is no way modern "white" British citizens can go back 400 years to the mono-racial and mono-cultural society (that never really was...) that existed before the birth of the Empire and there is no way that people of colour can avoid the impact that the British Empire has had on their heritage, culture and family history and return to a pre-colonial Africa.
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