There are two sides to colonialism’s legacy

As an Englishman now living in South Africa I am fascinated by the reaction to Helen Zille’s comments on the balance sheet left by colonialism.

My own country was colonised by the Romans, the Danes and the French, and each in turn left their legacy both for good and ill. The result is that we are a people with a history, and the richer for it.

Without going into the details of Zille’s later tweets, I would point out that it is not necessary to look very far for an example of colonialism’s darker side. It is an inconvenient truth that the Nguni peoples colonised Southern Africa by displacing indigenous people, marginalising them and displacing them ruthlessly to its desert regions. Until recently they did not even have their language recognised officially.

It is surely futile to live in the past. We all have to make the best of what we have now.

■ The recent developments in the Democratic Alliance have sent the party backwards. Helen Zille’s comments on social media and her subsequent justification are an insult to black people who voted for the DA.

It is unfortunate that a leader who fought racial injustices in the past is the one who is entangled in this mess. To say that not all aspects of colonialism were negative is tantamount to saying that not all aspects of apartheid were negative. Only a person who speaks from a point of privilege can postulate such views.

Africa in general is trying to deal with the effects of colonialism that linger on and one cannot argue that not all aspects of colonialism were negative.

Irrespective of all infrastructural development that came as a result of colonialism, any system that degrades human dignity cannot be seen in any way as having certain benefits or positives.

It is unfortunate that Mmusi Maimane legitimises the DA by being a crowd-puller for black votes. His values are compromised and his continued stay in the DA will make him a villain in the eyes of many black South Africans and this will hurt the construction of a DA’s narrative that seeks to build a nonracial South Africa.

The biggest winner in this colonialism issue is the Economic Freedom Fighters.