13. Katherine Hann - Engage

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• engage review
Promoting greater understanding and enjoyment of the visual arts
• Globalisation
• Issue 13 – Summer 2003
• 80 pages
• ISSN 1365-9383
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A History of Imperialism in a Global Economy
Katherine Hann
Head of Education and Interpretation, British Empire & Commonwealth
Museum
Word count: 2801 Pages: 7
The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum opened in Bristol in
September 2002. Over 10 years in the making, it defied many of its critics by
neither condoning nor condemning the empire but rather presenting ‘a
balanced view of the impulses behind empire and the legacy of empire’
(BBC 4).
In the political climate of the 90s, empire was considered a dirty word, best
swept away, ignored but not forgotten. The subject’s unpopularity, especially
in government arts and museum circles, meant that funding was withheld,
jeopardising the only permanent public presentation of an important part of
Britain’s history. It was simply deemed politically incorrect to support an
exhibition on the empire. Witness the hostile reception given to the National
Maritime Museum’s Trade and Empire Gallery in 1999 and the British Library’s
exhibition in 2002 on the East India Company. Private supporters of the
British Empire & Commonwealth Museum, most notably Sir Jack Hayward,
chairman of Wolverhampton Wanderers and a millionaire property
developer, and Lord Baker of Dorking, former Conservative Home Secretary,
damaged the project further in the eyes of many in the heritage and
academic world. The assumption was that such men would only support a
jingoistic glorification of empire. Critics were hot off the mark prior to the
opening. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown told readers of The Independent (17th June,
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2002) to beware of its ‘bogus history’; historian Michael Fry branded its
approach towards the Scots as ‘very evil’ (The Sunday Times [Scotland], 23rd
June, 2002).
But 500 years of history cannot be swept away. At its height the British
empire controlled over a quarter of the world. A need to understand empire
and put it firmly in the public arena has been evidenced with recent
television coverage including Channel 4’s extremely well received series
‘Empire’.
Setting up the museum
Museum staff working with a wide range of people - academics, advisers,
researchers, and assisted by a Bristol-based focus group - established a
permanent exhibition in under a year. The focus group comprised
a small number of mainly Black Afro-Caribbean Bristolians. Advice given by
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery after their exhibition, ‘Bristol and
Transatlantic Slave Trade’ highlighted the importance of involving local
people, not just national figures. The group included Eddson Burton from
the Afro-Caribbean organisation Kuumba, the 87 year-old Jamaican historian
Dick Hart, the well-known activist Ben Bousquet, and Kam Kelly, a young
Australian DJ.
The group discussed a range of issues, including the vexed question of
displaying slavery in a static exhibition. One of the strongest feelings to come
from the group was the need to portray the cultures of indigenous
populations prior to colonisation, and then continue to represent their views
of colonisation throughout. As a result of this, our exhibits on slavery start
with the richness and wealth of African cultures before the establishment of
the slave trade recognising that black cultures have their own history and do
not want to be portrayed simply as victims within the world order. Different
voices are represented throughout the exhibitions through the use of
powerful first person oral testimonies and quotation panels. This allows
contradictions and differing perspectives to emerge.
Ongoing consultation involves working with a number of different agencies.
This process has been expanded to take greater account of the views of
young people, particularly those who feel disconnected from their own
personal history, and as a consequence, disaffected from the formal
education system. A comment from one visitor, Nick L, age 12, was: ‘Thanks
for showing me a part of history my school has completely ignored.’
Academically, Professor P.J. Marshall, editor of The Cambridge Illustrated
History of the British Empire, lent his credibility to the project by personally
checking every piece of text. Further funding was secured from a number of
educational trusts and foundations including Linbury, Garfield Weston,
Pilgrim, Calouste Gulbenkian, Rhodes and the Clore Duffield Foundation.
It is not a museum dedicated to the story of the role of the British in the
empire in the same way as Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and
Singapore have national museums addressing their colonial experience. The
museum represents different perspectives and opinions and does not speak
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for white Britons only. English, Welsh, Irish and Scots appear alongside the
Africans, Asians, and indigenous peoples who comprised the bulk of the
empire’s population. The objects, images, and quotations on display
represent the experiences and judgements of people who lived under and
rebelled against British rule, as well as those who extended and enforced it.
African cowrie shell headdresses, Asante gold ornaments and carved ivory
are displayed alongside handcuffs, leg irons and slave whips. The use of first
person quotations throughout the exhibition is a particularly powerful way
of communicating different points of view:
‘It is not true that we are against civilization, that our aims are to take our
people back to ancient times. Our fighting is for the return of our stolen
land and freedom...The Europeans have occupied our best land and have
also reduced us to slavery...Imagine the thousands of Africans who lost their
lives during the two World Wars. What did they die for, and did we benefit
from these Wars? Our reward was slavery.’ Dedan Kimathi, Kenyan freedom
fighter, 1954
The duality of sentiment so often expressed about the relationship of
different countries to the Commonwealth is boldly stated by Amitav Ghosh
with reference to the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2001,
‘As a grouping of nations collected from the remains of the British Empire,
the Commonwealth serves as an umbrella forum in global politics. As a
literary or cultural grouping however, it seems to me that “the
Commonwealth” can only be a misnomer so long as it excludes the many
languages that sustain the cultural and literary lives of these countries.’
As the aim of the museum is to present neither a celebratory nor a
condemning picture of the empire, the overwhelmingly positive press
reviews since it opened suggest some measure of success. It has been
described in The Guardian as ‘a valuable and accessible narrative,
imaginatively and carefully told’ (2 November, 2002) and on Radio 4 as ‘a
brilliant new museum’. Linda Colley suggests in The Sunday Telegraph (27th
October, 2002) that there are valuable lessons to be learnt from exploring
such a history:
‘We may be in a post-colonial world but we are not yet in a post-imperial
world. This museum could illuminate how empires work: how a small polity
like Britain was able through its economy, navy and advanced
communications to sprawl over vast stretches of the globe. America is doing
the same thing today.’
The museum is situated in Brunel’s original Great Western Railway Station at
Temple Meads in Bristol. It is a felicitous choice; from Cabot and slavery to
West African trade and Afro-Caribbean immigration, Bristol had many ties to
the empire. Moreover, what building could better symbolise Britain’s
territorial expansion in the industrial age than the world’s first purpose-built
railway terminus?
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Content and interpretation
Inevitably, with 500 years to cover, even well-known episodes in the history
of empire have had to be omitted or skimmed over. The museum does not
overload visitors with dates and names, opting instead for thematic galleries
arranged in chronological order. The galleries begin with Bristol’s maritime
endeavours in the late fifteenth century and continue through to the present
day. Three main phases are identified: the building of an empire (1480 -
1800); the empire at its height in the Victorian period (1800 - 1900); and the
end of empire and the move from colonialism to Commonwealth (1900 to
today). Gallery themes include monopoly trading companies, enslaved
labour, humanitarian ideals, and post-colonial immigration
to Britain.
The museum avoids duplicating existing displays. There is no point in
retelling the history of the Second World War, for instance, when the
Imperial War Museum and the National Army Museum already do it very
well. Instead the museum attempts to show how the war affected
perceptions of the empire and speeded up its demise. Similarly, it could not
hope to represent the glories of the Benin empire in the way that the British
Museum or the Pitt Rivers Museum do, but it can explain the controversial
way in which Benin’s treasures came to Britain. The legacy of empire in terms
of cultural exchange - food, music, dance and festivals - and its impact on our
lives today is given greater prominence than in many other exhibitions.
The museum uses a number of interpretative devices to make the subject
come alive for non-specialists. There is an unusual audio-visual introduction
that, because of its style, can afford to be controversial. Shot as a series of
short takes direct to camera it shows differing views of empire from people
of varying ages and backgrounds. An elderly black male states that the
British empire was ‘imperialism at its worst. It was about greed power and
white supremacy.’ This is immediately followed by younger Asian voice
seemingly contradicting the previous statement by suggesting
‘It was simple economics. People just wanted to make money. Who doesn’t?’
There are first person accounts of both living in, and emigrating from,
countries of the Commonwealth.
There are displays of archive film footage, oral history stations, original and
facsimile documents, hands-on interactives, computer games, a series of
humorous questions and answers, personal quotations and narratives,
dressing up areas, and of course the objects themselves. The early history of
the empire is rich in objects, such as Chinese porcelain, Indian fabrics, and
ethnographic items from the Americas and Pacific. As the Museum’s
collections were not strong in these areas it was fortunate that loans were
secured from a number of institutions, including: Anti-Slavery International,
the British Museum, Dundee City Council, the Horniman Museum, Hull
Maritime Museum, the National Army Museum, the National Maritime
Museum, and the Science Museum.
The complexity of the subject matter and the fact that some information is
simply too abstract to display means that the intention behind the displays is
to spark the visitor’s interest in a topic and then point the way towards more
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detailed resources. All visitors can consult the Museum’s printed book,
manuscript, and oral history collections in a library and archive visible from
the exhibition through a glass wall.
Contributing to the global debate
Can an organisation such as this contribute to a global debate? Unlike many
museums with a particular local or a national focus, the British Empire &
Commonwealth Museum has a genuine international angle. It covers, from a
historical perspective, many of the issues that are current today. Few Britons,
for example, realise that Palestine is a former British colony gained after the
First World War.
The museum also explores some of the factors that have speeded up the
process of globalisation, particularly communications. The world seems to be
continually getting smaller, and a large part of what makes living in
a global culture and economy possible is improvements in communication
systems. Computer and internet systems make for almost instantaneous
communications. Improved transport means you can reach virtually anywhere
on the planet within not much more than a day. The rate of change may be
faster now than ever before, but the process has been underway for
centuries. In 1770, it took seven months to get a message from London to
Calcutta. In 1840, with the change from sailing ships to steam and the
opening of the Suez Canal, this journey time was reduced to 1 month. With
the introduction of the telegraph by 1870, it was cut further to 6 hours, and
satellite communications today mean it is can take less than minute. In fact,
the exponential growth in the service industry and the new ‘call centre
culture’ means that it pays some companies to staff centres not just in
Scotland but also in India for sales in the UK.
Culturally, the downside of globalisation is that no part of the world remains
isolated from Western influences - witness the McDonald golden arches
springing up everywhere from Moscow to Taiwan. The heritage sector’s
business is premised on celebrating difference, as regular museum visitors
recognise. Does globalisation mean increasing sameness? For the first year
ever, McDonalds has had a financial downturn - a striking turnaround for a
company that has long been synonymous with Pax Americana. Perhaps this is
beginning to signal more general public disaffection with a new world order.
Visitor surveys
At the end of the museum, a section looks at the make-up of the current
Commonwealth, and visitors have the option of completing a computerised
survey. Although obviously a self-selected group, the results make fascinating
reading and help to paint a picture of present day perceptions on issues
related to empire and the Commonwealth. Public awareness of the role of
the Commonwealth is woefully lacking. It exists as a significant non-political
system for sharing education and technology, promoting international
understanding and world peace across 54 independent states. It consists of
1.7 billion people - that is 30% of the world’s population - and over a
quarter of its land surface. In response to the question ‘Where does Britain’s
future lie?’, 55% of respondents said with Europe, only 19% said with the
Commonwealth and 13% said with America. (n = 1500)
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Cultural tourism
A curator at the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum at a lighter
moment during the opening of the permanent galleries dismissed a large
part of the collection as ‘tourist tat’. Much of the material culture in
museums is, of course, the result of adventurous souvenir hunters - some of
which has a significance on the scale of the Elgin marbles but is accompanied
by significant ethical questions.
Tables began to turn in the tourism stakes as early as the 1700s with Cook’s
journeys to the Pacific. Cook and his crew were fascinated by the cultures
they encountered there. The indigenous populations quickly picked up on
this and began purposefully creating souvenirs adapted to Western taste,
such as weapons, tools and the ever-popular cannibal forks.
But of course questions of global tourism have a very serious side and the
museum has a section dedicated to the question of ‘Development dilemmas’.
As poorer colonies struggled to develop, and were particularly hard-hit in
the great depression of the 1930s, Britain introduced a system of ‘imperial
preference’ making countries in the empire trade with each other. This
generated heavy dependency on single crop cultures, such as bananas in the
case of Jamaica, that was only loosened when Britain entered the European
Common Market in 1973. But was this worse than the supposed
diversification that followed? In 1965, the Caribbean island of St Lucia
depended on banana exports. By 2000, tourism was its biggest industry,
earning over US$ 250 million. But tourism comes at a cost - damaging the
environment, for example, in spite of moves towards eco-tourism.
International tour companies profit more than local traders, particularly from
all-inclusive packages. The American or European tourists can seem like a
new wave of colonisers, and particularly in the Caribbean there is a feeling
that rich white people are still running black people’s lives.
Cultural diversity
With such a vast story to tell there is little space for celebrating the richness
of multi-racial Britain today - over 300 languages and at least 14 faiths exist
among a population of 60 million. This is being redressed through the events
programmes on offer. Commonwealth FM 87.7 is a community radio station
that broadcast live in October 2002 in Chinese, Somali, Arabic, Punjabi,
Bengali and English. It had project funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund
and was highly commended in the education category of the inaugural
Museums & Heritage Show Awards for Excellence 2003. Commonwealth FM
will broadcast live again in 2003.
A significant project is currently being considered by the Regional Arts Board
for a series of artists-in-residence to work cross-culturally with communities
looking at similarities and differences in festivals as part of this year’s
‘Decibel’ programme to promote cultural diversity and raise the profile of
Black and Asian artists.
The museum confronts controversial issues such as racism, economic
exploitation, and cultural imperialism. It canvasses a wide range of
experiences of imperial rule and divergent opinions about it. The
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perseverance of supporters and staff means future generations no longer risk
finding big gaps in the historical record. Britons of all races have to know
this history if they are to make sense of their society and move confidently
into the future. The heritage sector has gained a museum with designated
national status which is testimony to the significance of its collections and its
contribution to such an important part of the historical record. The recent
acquisition of the material culture and literature collection of the
Commonwealth Institute has further cemented this pivotal role. The British
Empire & Commonwealth Museum is in a position to encourage reflection on
the past and thus to contribute to ongoing contemporary debates in a global
economy.
The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum,
Station Approach, Temple Meads, Bristol, BS1 6QH
Telephone 0117 925 4980
staff@empiremuseum.co.uk
www.empiremuseum.co.uk
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Katherine Hann works part-time as Head of Education & Interpretation at the
British Empire & Commonwealth Museum, Bristol. She also acts as a consultant
with 16 years of education experience behind her, 10 of which is in museums
and science centres. She has taught at both Primary and Higher Education level
with a specialism in science education. She was Education Manager at the
Science Museum, set up the innovative Making Place in North London, and
most recently was Director, Explore@Bristol.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
engage is a registered not-for-profit educational association which promotes
access to and understanding of the visual arts through gallery education and
cultural mediation nationally and internationally.
engage has a membership of over 1000 worldwide, including galleries, arts
centres, museums, artists studios, artists, curators, teachers, students as well
as gallery education and cultural mediation staff and freelancers. engage
works in three key areas: action-research (including the Collect & Share
lifelong learning network in Europe – see www.collectandshare.eu.com),
professional development, advocacy (see www.engage.org).
engage is building an international online case study database, and a resource
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engage is grateful to the Arts Councils of England, Scotland and Wales, to
the Depts of Culture and Education in England, to the British Council and the
European Commission, and to the Esmee Fairbairn and Baring Foundations
for ongoing support.
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