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JOHANNESBURG - Great Britain’s dehumanising history of colonialism has been too cruel, and its scars physical and emotional - linger on to this day.

However, like the rest of the global north, the less attention is given to their collective history of imperialism, the lesser the guilt they feel about their heinous past in Africa, Asia and Latin America and virtually everywhere on the planet. Continents and countries have been destabilised by self-serving foreign policy objectives of imperialist colonial masters such as the UK. Languages, traditions and cultures of subjugated smaller and weaker nations across the global south had been all but obliterated and replaced by the philosophy of life of the conquerors.

This heinous history hurts too deeply in the soul and mind. Men, women and children died at the hands of the colonial rulers who destabilised peace among the vanquished nations. The languages of the racist colonialists – English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and German, among others, replaced indigenous languages everywhere they ruled their subjugated and colonised subjects.

The Western nations’ penchant to colonise weaker nations that shamelessly dehumanised their citizens is well-documented. The Scramble for Africa is one such heinous chapter that bears testimony to the cruel nature of the global north. I was reminded of this history when I read the news that in the UK, the government of Rishi Sunak is determined to disqualify asylum seekers who enter British land through the small boats that ferry migrants through the English Channel.