euro|topics - Something to remember

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Something to remember

by Susanne Grindel, Winfried Speitkamp

Since the 1990s the European states have increasingly busied themselves with confronting their colonial past: through legislation in France, controversies in the UK, a museum in Belgium and a day of remembrance in Germany.

Right up to the 1990s there was no serious public debate in Europe about its colonial past. Demands for apologies and compensation for the brutalities and slave trading of colonialism such as that initiated by a committee set up by the "Organisation for African Unity" were hardly given genuine consideration. But nowadays there is a growing awareness that the colonial past has not been relegated to the past but continues to have an impact on today's Europe.

Unveiling of a monument to the French soldiers who died fighting in the Algerian war (Paris, 2002).

Photo: AP

Until as recently as the turn of the millennium France looked back with almost unremitting pride on its own colonial past. It was not until 1999 that it finally officially acknowledged by law that the Algerian War was a war, and only since 2001 has slavery not only been explicitly classified as a crime against humanity but also been given due consideration in history lessons at schools and through the establishment of a day of remembrance (since 2006; May 10). Nevertheless, under another law passed in 2005 schools were bound to honour the positive role France had played overseas. This provoked bitter confrontations over whether it was at all legitimate for the state to prescribe history policy. The conflict shook the French national identity, particularly after comparisons were drawn between the slave trade and colonial violence on the one hand and the Holocaust on the other. The founding of two museums with an overseas emphasis in 2006 and 2007 did little to improve the situation. To this day the country still lacks a central museum dedicated to colonialism, and France is further than ever from an interpretation of its colonial past that could lead to a consensus.

The Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya

The British were astonishingly stoical about the loss of their empire; for a long time it seemed the memories of the colonial age had been pushed to one side. It was only after the start of the new millennium that efforts to confront the colonial past began in earnest. In 2005 two publications dealing with the British reaction to the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya sparked controversy. Caroline Elkins and David Anderson compared the British policy of the 1950s with the concentration camp policy of Hitler and Stalin, while at the same time calls for compensation gained force in Kenya. The 200th anniversary of the abolishment of slavery in 2007 reignited the debate. While the Anglican Church publicly expressed shame, representatives of the state avoided adopting a clear stance. Nonetheless, numerous books and exhibitions testify to widespread interest and in Liverpool the International Slavery Museum opened its doors to the public. The topic remains controversial and the debate is remarkably open.

Commemorating genocide

In Belgium old wounds having to do with the Congo have been reopened in the past few years. Until very recently Belgium steadfastly rejected any criticism and stressed its civilising impact in the Congo. Opened in 1910, the Royal Museum for Central Africa in the Belgian municipality of Tervuren preserved this image virtually unchanged for almost a century. In 1998 the American journalist Adam Hochschild called it into question, attracting a good deal of media attention. He attacked the Belgian king's policy in the Congo describing it as genocide and drawing comparisons with totalitarian regimes and mass murder. This provoked angry protest in Belgium. But now that the discussion has broken out in Europe there's no turning back for Belgium, either. The most recent conference debates indicate a gradual shift in thinking.

In Germany the 100th anniversary of the uprisings of 1904/05 in Southwest and East Africa ignited an even greater controversy in academic circles. This took place against a backdrop of demands for compensation from the Herero people of Namibia. A large number of them had fallen victim to Germany's policies of expulsion and extermination. It was not only a matter of whether this should be defined as genocide, but also whether a line of continuity could be established between German policy in Africa and the Nazi extermination policy in Eastern Europe.

The burden of Europe's past

These examples serve to illustrate the constellation in Europe: the fading memories, the rise of a new generation, the growing self-confidence of the former colonies and the question of whether slavery and the colonial age should not occupy a similar place in Europe's memory to that reserved for the two world wars and the Holocaust all challenge Europe to reflect once more on its encumbered past. Although the debates are currently being carried on in the context of national remembrance cultures, a trend toward colonialism becoming part of Europe's collective memory is emerging. This process will shatter decades of certainties and be accompanied by painful insights and new controversies.