Teach pupils more about Empire, says black Tory minister
CALLS to ‘de-colonialise’ the education curriculum should not be heeded, the new Business Secretary has said.
Kwasi Kwarteng said the British Empire must be seen in its 400-year context and the arguments around it should be fully explored.
The 45-year- old also described much of the debate around the Black Lives Matter movement and colonialism as having ‘a very kind of cartoon-like view’ of the past.
Mr Kwarteng, whose parents moved from Ghana to the UK in the 1960s, criticised demands for decolonising curriculums on the Political Thinking With Nick Robinson podcast.
He said: ‘You’ve got to learn more about colonialism.’
Mr Kwarteng’s comments are likely to infuriate campaigners who believe that history lessons are currently a version written from a colonial point of view.
British institutions are also facing growing calls to take responsibility for their colonial links and the wealth they accrued directly as a result of the British Empire and the Atlantic slave trade.
During anti-racism protests last summer following the murder of George Floyd in the United States, the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was toppled by protesters in Bristol. A number of other monuments have also been removed amid growing controversy over divisive historical figures.
But Mr Kwarteng said that ‘ ripping down’ statues was counter-productive, as well as illegal, and people should learn more about the British Empire in all its various facets.
He said: ‘I’m not someone who is obsessed with trying to correct history. I think you’ve got to understand history and understand that it’s very complex and there are different arguments that are presented and I have a plea to understand the arguments and the context of the British Empire.
‘Even when you say the phrase the British Empire, you’re talking about something that lasted more or less 400 years and covered a huge expanse of territory. So within that time and geography there’s a huge amount of variety, different cultures and different time periods and getting a sensitivity to that is hugely important.
‘I think a lot of the debate around Black Lives Matter and imperialism or colonialism has a very kind of cartoon-like view of what was happening over centuries across a quarter of the world.’
He said he did not understand what those calling for university and school curriculums to be ‘decolonised’ hoped to achieve.
‘Is the implication that it’s a colonial relic and that you’ve got to try to decolonise it? I’m saying the opposite – that you’ve got to learn more about colonialism.’
Mr Kwarteng, who studied classics and history at Trinity College, Cambridge, took up his new post on January 8. He is believed to be the Conservatives’ first black secretary of state. Labour’s Paul Boateng became the first ever black Cabinet minister when he was appointed chief secretary to the Treasury in 2002.
Last week it was revealed that Leicester University is proposing to drop Geoffrey Chaucer in favour of replacement modules focused on race and gender. The university has insisted ‘there is absolutely no truth to the suggestion that certain modules are being eliminated for being ‘too white’’.
Meanwhile, donors have warned Jesus College, Cambridge, they may give their money to other causes if it proceeds with plans to move a memorial to one of its most generous benefactors, the Times reported yesterday.
The college wants to make sure that the plaque, by 17th century sculptor Tobias Rustat, is not ‘explicitly celebrated’ in future, citing Rustat’s links to the slave trade. But 33 former students at the college are objecting.
‘Some debate has been cartoon-like’