{"id":36750,"date":"2024-03-15T10:40:59","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T17:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=36750"},"modified":"2024-03-15T10:45:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T17:45:05","slug":"intent-vs-impact-does-one-trump-the-other-in-appraising-colonialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/intent-vs-impact-does-one-trump-the-other-in-appraising-colonialism\/","title":{"rendered":"Intent vs Impact: Does one trump the other in appraising colonialism?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford professor, Dr. Nigel Biggar offers an appraisal of British Colonialism in his 2023 book, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning.[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em> His thesis is that contrary to popular opinion, the British Empire largely had good intentions when it came to expanding their power and influence around the world. He emphasizes that they did not set out to conquer the world in a spirit of domination, oppression, racism and violence. Rather, Biggar posits that the British Empire largely made decisions throughout history to protect their boundaries, people and resources just like all countries do. He states, \u00a0\u201cNo one woke up on sunny morning in London and said, \u2018Let\u2019s go and conquer the world.\u2019 In that sense, the British Empire was not from its inception a coherent project, methodically developed out of some original plan.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Biggar\u2019s defense of British Colonialism (which almost wasn\u2019t even published) comes as a counter narrative to mainstream, modern voices who frequently paint western colonialism as an evil part of history that still has tentacles today in the war on racism, violence and oppression. In an interview with John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Biggar shares how his publisher wanted to indefinitely postpone the book because \u201cpublic feeling is unfavorable.\u201d[3]<\/a> Biggar walked away and subsequently found another publisher who took the project. In terms of public option, this shows that Biggar\u2019s thesis in Colonialism <\/em>is certainly a counter-cultural message.<\/p>\n

The Pros and Cons<\/h1>\n

I am conflicted about Biggar\u2019s take on British Colonialism. On one hand, I have a more comprehensive understanding of the impact that colonialism had on the world and I appreciate Biggar\u2019s perspective that some good things such as democracies, law and order, education, and security were results of colonialism. My own country \u2013the United State of America\u2014is a direct result of British colonialism and for that I am thankful.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I can\u2019t help but reflect on my time in Cape Town South Africa and what I learned from the people there. While Britian was not the first to colonize Cape Town, it\u2019s influence still lives in the wounds and scars of twentieth century apartheid. I recall listening to Desmond Tutu\u2019s collogues as they shared his journey of speaking truth to power and Nelson Mandela\u2019s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom<\/em>. Because of colonialism, Mandela and thousands of others had to chose between education and survival or their heritage, family and tribes. This quote from Mandela is etched upon my soul,<\/p>\n

I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of trust, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments, produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, From henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise.[4]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whether intentional or not, it is clear that colonialization stripped millions of humans of their dignity and their way of life.\u00a0 Author Kanan Malik wrote this in a review of Colonialism<\/em>, which sums up my angst about the book, \u201cHe (Biggars) accepts the claims of colonial administrators that the people over whom they ruled were too \u201cbackward\u201d to govern themselves.” [5]<\/sup><\/a> What would the world look like now if the British empire had not colonized so much of it? We will never know, but I believe there would be mch beauty that is missing today.<\/p>\n

Does Intention Trump Impact?<\/strong><\/h1>\n

This is the question that lies of the heart of Biggar\u2019s book and all human interaction, really. If I offend someone with my words, but that wasn\u2019t my intent<\/em>, does that mean I do not need to apologize or that I am morally justified? I don\u2019t believe that is true. Individuals, organization and countries are accountable for their actions even if the intent was noble and things somehow go wrong. I appreciate Biggar providing another persective on British Colonialism. It was a reminder that actions are rarely all good or all bad and that identity politics simplify history to fit a narrative. The closing statement I can think of for this topic is the quote by Soren Kierkegaard, \u201cLife can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

So let us acknowledge, lament, and mourn the sins of the past, but then move on taking the lessons with us, so the suffering was not in vain, but fuel to propel us to a brighter future.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning<\/em> (London: William Collins, 2023).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Biggar, 388.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning | Nigel Biggar<\/em>, 2023, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EhNonmBA0Lo.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Nelson Mandela, \u201cLong Walk to Freedom\u201d (New York: Flash Point\/Roaring Brook Press, 2009), 95.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Kenan Malik, \u201cColonialism by Nigel Biggar Review \u2013 a Flawed Defence of Empire,\u201d The Guardian<\/em>, February 20, 2023, sec. Books, https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2023\/feb\/20\/colonialism-a-moral-reckoning-by-nigel-biggar-review-a-flawed-defence-of-empire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford professor, Dr. Nigel Biggar offers an appraisal of British Colonialism in his 2023 book, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning.[1] His thesis is that contrary to popular opinion, the British Empire largely had good intentions when it came to expanding their power and influence around the world. He emphasizes that they did not set out to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3125],"class_list":["post-36750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-biggars","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36750"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36753,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36750\/revisions\/36753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}