British Colonial Policy Research Articles

The Peacebuilding Endeavours of Daniel Oliver and the Palestine Watching Committee in Mandate Palestine, 1930–48

This paper analyses the peacebuilding efforts of the official British Religious Society of Friends representative in Mandate Palestine, Daniel Oliver, and the Palestine Watching Committee (PWC). Previously unexamined documentation stored in the Friends House library and Haverford College archives details the extensive negotiations by Oliver and the PWC, which he co-founded, to influence British, Arab and Jewish senior political and royal officials. Combining individual and collective Quaker values concerning the Peace Testimony with a deep focus on British government colonial policies proved problematic. Internal fractions developed over the conduct of British forces in Palestine and the issue of Jewish immigration. Oliver defended the British government and continued to press for peace, demonstrating how patriotism significantly influenced his own spiritually guided message, while the PWC reduced its activities and became despondent over their lack of success and the decline of the Mandate.

American Race Relations and the Legacy of British Colonialism

British colonial policies have led to stratified societies all over the world and America is no exception. But America is unique in transiting to an equal society and constructing the legal framework to achieve a fair society, even though not completely successful. What distinguishes America from other British colonies is the tradition of rule of law. Perhaps this tradition is also the most priceless heritage that the Britain left for America. Currently, racial discrimination and racial equality protests spread across America. This book provides valuable insights for understanding the divided America.

Understanding the gains to capitalists from colonization: Lessons from Robert E. Lucas, Jr., Karl Marx and Edward Gibbon Wakefield

Britain after the Napoleonic wars saw the rise of colonial reformers, such as Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who had extensive influence on British colonial policy. A version of Wakefield's systematic colonization plan became the basis for legislation establishing the South Australia colony in 1834 and the New Zealand colony in 1840. We use extended versions of Robert Lucas's 1990 model of coordinated colonial investment to show how Wakefield's institutions were designed to work. We also find that the analysis of Wakefield's system by Karl Marx in Das Kapital follows the same line of reasoning as Lucas's analysis of colonial institutions.

Decolonization, Foreign Aid and Post-Independence Nigerian Underdevelopment

Aside meeting Nigerian nationalist needs more than before, the decolonization period was also characterized by the intensification of the economic exploitative use of Nigeria as a colony, particularly during the Second World War. The government pursued the maximum utilization of Nigeria’s economic resources through highly rigid policies such as forced labour and drastic lowering of producer prices in order to boost production of Nigerian product such as rubber, palm oil, tin and groundnuts, which were strategic to Britain’s war effort. The government disrupted the internal marketing systems and introduced state controlled marketing of Nigeria agricultural exports. The colonial educational system was structured to produce clerks but not economically productive skilled personnel who can create wealth. This paper contend that just as colonial Nigerian society was unequal (privileged British colonists and poor Nigeria subjects), Nigeria currently suffers from inequality within the contemporary globalized international economic system mainly due to the British-imposed colonial economic model of primary products exports as the cornerstone of Nigeria’s national economy during the decades preceding independence. Instead of initiating policies that would jump-start Nigerian industrialization, the British colonial policy of dependence on primary products laid the foundation for post-independence Nigeria’s underdevelopment. Nigeria’s current crisis of development is further aggravated by decades of ineffective foreign development aid mainly because such aids are largely not negotiated but dictated, and managed by officials of the international or multilateral aid agencies who do not have adequate understanding of Nigerian development needs and circumstances. Such aids, in most cases, thus result in a worsening economy characterized by increasing unemployment, spiral inflation, hitches in the productive mechanism, and widening income inequality. This paper explores the role of British decolonization process, and foreign aid in post-independence Nigerian underdevelopment. The study concludes that home-grown approaches anchored upon good governance, effective utilization of resources, probity and accountability are crucial to Nigeria’s recovering from its current condition of underdevelopment. It adopts the historical analytical method.

Aba Women’s Riots (November to December, 1929)

This paper offers a narrative and analysis of a central event in the colonial history of Nigeria - the Aba Women's War of 1929, also called the Aba Women's Riots by colonial officials. The paper sourced its materials from extant literature through extensive collection of secondary data from the archives in Nigeria. The Women's War of 1929 addresses the historical debates related to the causes and consequences of the event with assessments of each side's strengths and weaknesses. Focusing mainly on the actions of African participants, the paper explains the cultural, social, and economic issues that led to the Women's War and the reasons why women used specific strategies. It also evaluates the aftermath of the conflict and how the protest practices used by Igbo and Ibibio women influenced British colonial policy.

Specifics of the International Political Position of the Commonwealth of Australia in the first half of the ХХ-th century

The paper focuses on the initial stage of the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia, and the process of its establishing as an independent State. The international political context for the development of the country, from the period of creation of the Federation to the beginning of the Second World War, is primarily viewed. The Commonwealth’s international position, its place and role in the regional and global geopolitical processes of the early XX century, in particular in the context of its relations with Great Britain, are analyzed. The features of the transformation of British colonial policies on the eve of the First World War are examined. The specifics of the UK system of relations with Australia, as well as other dominions, are being examined. The features of status of the dominions in the British Empire system are shown. The role of the dominions and, in particular, the Commonwealth of Australia in the preparatory process for the First World War, as well as the peculiarities of its participation in hostilities, is analyzed. The significance of the actions of the First World War on the domestic political situation in Australia, as well as its impact on dominions relations with the British Empire, is revealed. The history of the foundation of the Australian-New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) and its participation in imperial forces on the frontline of the First World War is analyzed. The success and failure of its fighters, as well as the role of ANZAC, in the process of formation an Australian political nation are analyzed. The economic, humanitarian and international political consequences of the First World War for the Commonwealth of Australia are examined, as well as the influence of these consequences on the structure of relations between the dominions and the British Empire. The socio-economic situation of the Commonwealth of Australia on the eve of World War II, in particular the impact of the Great depression on the development of the country as a whole and its internal political situation in particular, is analyzed. The ideological, military-strategic and international political prerequisites for Australia’s entry into the Second World War are being considered.

Black British Migrants in Cuba: Race, Labor, and Empire in the Twentieth-Century Caribbean, 1898–1948 by Jorge L. Giovannetti-Torres

Reviewed by: Black British Migrants in Cuba: Race, Labor, and Empire in the Twentieth-Century Caribbean, 1898–1948 by Jorge L. Giovannetti-Torres Marc McLeod (bio) Jorge L. Giovannetti-Torres. 2018. Black British Migrants in Cuba: Race, Labor, and Empire in the Twentieth-Century Caribbean, 1898–1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 305 pp. ISBN: 9781108437585. During the first half of the twentieth century, more than 140,000 British Caribbean workers migrated to Cuba. The history of their experiences, once largely neglected by scholars, has received increasing attention in the last couple of decades, including recent books by Robert Whitney and Graciela Chailloux Laffita, and Phillip Howard. Black British Migrants in Cuba, based on a dissertation completed by Jorge L. Giovannetti-Torres at the University of North London in 2001, is a most welcome addition to the topic. Written in clear, cogent prose, characterized by thoughtful analysis, and informed by extensive research in archives and libraries in numerous locations, it is the most comprehensive study of the subject yet. Following an introduction which adroitly situates the work within multiple scholarly frameworks, the book is organized into ten chapters along general chronological lines, with each chapter developing one or more main themes. Chapter One reaches back into the nineteenth century to examine the roots of racial fear in Cuba and histories of intra-Caribbean migration in the century after slave emancipation in the British Caribbean. Chapter Two details the patterns of labor recruitment and migration to Cuba in the early twentieth century, paying particular attention to the practices of the Cuban American Sugar Company and the United Fruit Company on their plantations in eastern Cuba. Chapter Three explores how increased migration during the 1910s contributed to rising levels of racial anxiety among Cuban elites and government authorities, culminating in the massacre of at least fourteen British Caribbean migrants by Cuban troops in the sugar mill town of Jobabo during political unrest in 1917. Chapters Four and Five consider diplomatic relations between the British and Cuban governments during the eight years after the Jobabo massacre. They illustrate the agency of British Caribbean migrants, who persistently penned letters to government officials and newspapers to demand protection of their rights, but also the reluctance of British officials to represent black workers and the overall limitations of diplomatic representation. The second half of the book surveys the three decades after World [End Page 173] War I, during which recurring crises in the island’s sugar economy posed ever greater challenges to migrants who remained in Cuba, including those hoping to return to their home islands. Chapter Six demonstrates how rising unemployment, anti-migrant nationalism, and anti-black discrimination coalesced with the onset of the Great Depression between 1925 and 1931. Giovannetti-Torres uses the experiences of eastern Caribbean migrants on the Chaparra and Delicias plantations to highlight the power and control over migrant labor wielded by large corporations like the Cuban American Sugar Company. Chapter Seven examines changes in British colonial consular policy from 1925 to 1933 while emphasizing the different experiences between Leeward and Windward Islanders versus Jamaicans, who were represented by a Secretary for Immigration based in Santiago de Cuba that administered a repatriation program to Jamaica during this time. Chapter Eight assesses the impact of Cuban labor nationalization efforts during the 1930s (particularly a 1933 law requiring that fifty percent of employees in most places of work be Cuban nationals) on British Caribbean migrants, which led many to return to their home islands. Chapter Nine looks at the experiences of migrants who remained in Cuba after the 1930s, when British officials feared that further repatriation would exacerbate unemployment and fuel additional labor unrest in British colonies, and thus encouraged migrants to assimilate and remain in Cuba. Chapter Ten reconsiders the main themes of the first chapter while stressing that British Caribbean migrants—in their multiple interactions with Cuban and British (not to mention U.S.) officials and employers—confronted a common ideology of white supremacy. The research that undergirds Black British Migrants in Cuba is impressive. Giovannetti-Torres has mined archives across the Atlantic world, including national, provincial, and municipal archives throughout Cuba as well as collections in Dominica, Jamaica, St. Lucia...

‘Othering’ Adivasi Identities

Focusing on the indigenous Bhil community in central India, this paper examines the role of British colonial policies in paving the way for ‘tribal identity’ formation and, how postcoloniality, or the postcolonial condition, is continuing to shape this identity. I interrogate the power of the colonial and contemporary government to categorize, and how such categories persist in the consciousness of the Indian government, mainstream communities, and more significantly, among indigenous communities themselves. Modernizing and developing the Bhil (among other indigenous communities) has been a national goal for the nation-state since independence. According to Indian development policies, building an agrarian community that is self-sufficient and empowered is in the best interest of the nation and its economic growth. I argue that far from portraying a unified national identity to demonstrate modernity and progress to the world, Indian policies have instead created politicized identities, which serve to perpetuate stereotypes and contain their subjects in exploitative cycles of debt, dependency, and development.

From empowerment to disempowerment? The changing role of women in the colonial agricultural economy of Okunland, Kogi State, Nigeria

This study examines the changing role of women in the agricultural economy of Okunland occasioned by the transition from the pre-colonial arrangement to colonisation. Opinions are divided in the literature on the gendered processes in relation to colonial agricultural economy in most of Africa. The first thinking is that women lost power and economic autonomy as a result of discriminatory colonial policies. The second thinking suggests that the residual role of women in the agricultural economy was a product of choice rather than a deliberate colonial policy. The third maintains that women were economically active and productive but were unable to claim the proceeds of their labour. In Okunland, while women were prominently involved in the agricultural economy in the pre-colonial period, they appeared to be relegated to playing a residual role during the colonial period, leading to disempowerment. The data for this study were generated using the primary and secondary sources. While the primary sources involved the use of interviews, the secondary method involved the use of archival and documented materials. The data were analysed using thematic descriptive analysis. The study finds that the residual role played by women in the agricultural economy of colonial Okunland could be attributed to British colonial economic policies which generally favoured the men.

Assam as a New Economic Space: Colonial Annexation in the Region and its Implications

The current social and political processes of Assam in terms of demographic aspect and frontier area policies cannot be seen to be a development in isolation from British colonial policies. The entire system is linked to a historical process of ownership and inheritance. The British entry into the North-Eastern region of India, at the end of the Anglo-Burmese war, marked the beginning of colonial penetration with the consequence of unanticipated transformation of socio-economic and demographic profile in the region. The profound commercial significance of Assam explored by British colonialism led to the development of the Brahmaputra valley into a new economic space. Accordingly, the colonialists consolidated political interventions through the construction of frontier policies that created a divide between ‘Hills’ and ‘Plains’. The policies of social and cultural subjugation, followed by the colonialists, brought the neighbouring hill tribes under colonial control, and the entire region was being turned into a politico-economic jurisdiction of colonial subjects. Such policies envisaged by the British with a commercial motive, however, anguished the ethnic strife- the existing social landscape, the economic space and the political set-up of the region. The current problem of foreigners’ issue and the frontier issue is, in fact, the continuation of the colonial traditions. An understanding of the colonial pattern of exploitation of resources through social and political control would provide an apprehension of the past causes and present effect relationship. Hence, this study attempts to understand the implications of the colonial era political developments in Assam considering its economic potentiality that has given a whole new dimension to the entire regional set-up.

Schools with invisible fences in the British Southern Cameroons, 1916–1961: colonial curriculum and the ‘other’ side of modernist thinking

In this paper, I revisit the popular position in British colonial education literature which suggests there is no evidence that Britain had any predetermined wish to dominate, subvert or control the minds of Africans with an official education policy emanating from Whitehall, the seat of the colonial office. I have used archival data and some critical testimonies from Cameroon to show that British colonial education was experienced and understood differently. Cameroon is relatively unrepresented in the colonial legacy discourse, especially in the context of education. I argue that the curriculum contents and the overall school culture at both the senior elementary and secondary school levels were essentially Eurocentric and therefore served purposes of cultural imperialism. This was not an unintended fallout of curriculum implementation, but a major goal of British colonial education policy initiated at the colonial office and sustained by various colonial administrations. I conclude that a discussion of British colonial education based on policy documents which advocated adaptation, without an emic perspective of their experience with implementation, is likely an unfinished appraisal of Britain’s goal in educating her colonial territories.

Национально-освободительное движение в Египте в период британского колониального господства в конце XIX – первой четверти XX в.

The study deals with the history of the national liberation struggle in Egypt which has not only scientific but also political and practical importance. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Egypt was the most developed part of the Ottoman Empire and served as a link between the Arab countries of Asia and Africa. Egypt faced a full range of social and economic, political, and ideological contradictions between the Arab countries and European powers. The study of the national liberation movement reveals British colonial policies in the late 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. The novelty of the research is to introduce the particular historical material on the content, trends, contradictions, and issues of the national liberation movement in Egypt and new historical sources unavailable to most researchers. The methodological basis involves the principles of historicism and scientific objectivity which imply a critical attitude to the sources. Besides, the events of the national liberation movement are considered from a perspective of the cause-and-effect relationship and interaction between each other. The findings may be useful in delivering lectures and seminars on the history of Asian and African countries.

Space and Colonial Alterity: Interrogating British Residential Segregation in Nigeria, 1899-1919

The policy of segregation is undoubtedly a resented feature of colonial rule in Africa. However, discussions of the residential racial segregation policy of the British colonial administration in Africa invariably focus on “settler colonies” of South, Central, and East Africa. British colonial West Africa hardly features in such discussions since it is widely believed that these areas, which had no large-scale European settler populations, had no experience relevant to any meaningful discussion of multi-racial colonial relationships. Some studies even deny the existence of racially segregated areas in places other than the settler colonies. Despite evidence that residential racial segregation formed one of the principles that facilitated the implementation of British colonial policy in Nigeria, the Nigerian experience has not been given a fully coherent treatment. This paper examines Nigeria’s experience of officially directed residential segregation. It argues that while residential segregation policies were justified along policies related to health, sanitation, and disease prevention, the motive also derived from the demonstration of racial supremacy and civilization, which was the ideological justification for empires in Africa. It also argues that Lugard may have been impacted by the execution of this policy in India, where he left to become Governor of Nigeria in 1913. While the settler colonies had important dimensions in this inter-racial relationship, colonial Nigeria was not spared the experience of such racially motivated segregation, as the indigenes took to petitions and other means to protest this racial policy. Although Nigeria cannot claim the same intensity of deprivation as was associated with this policy in many British colonies, the pattern that emerged endured throughout the colonial and postcolonial periods.

From ‘community’ to ‘nation’: indian muslims in the concepts of british orientalists

Indian Muslims were initially viewed by British Orientalists as a foreign and alien element in the Indian society, as cruel invaders who came to spread their religion “at the tip of their swords”. According to these concepts, the Indian population was divided into two homogeneous and hostile “communities”, that is Hindus (including Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, etc.) and Muslims. Such perception ignored two aspects of crucial importance: first, it did not take into consideration various regional, social, ethno-cultural, linguistic and other differences within each of the imagined “communities”; second, the majority of the Indian Muslims were not descendants of the invaders, but local people converted to Islam. Through preservation of many elements of their pre-Islamic past, they were, and still are, closer to the Hindus of their respective regions concerning language, culture and lifestyle, than to their co-believers in other areas of India, or foreign countries. These orientalist concepts served as the basis of British colonial policy; through education system and press they were communicated to the local elites, who not only began to think in terms of homogeneous religious “communities”, but, quite logically, transformed them into the “nations”, thus laying ground for communalist trends in Indian nationalism. In this way, the “two nations theory” was born. Its implementation was the idea of Pakistan and the bloody partition of British India in 1947.

‘Belmopan. A New Capital for a New Nation’ State, Nation and Ethnicity at the Time of Independence

In Belize, a project for building a new capital emerged in the early 1960s, just after the ravages of Hurricane Hattie, which had destroyed much of the colonial capital, Belize City. According to the common narrative, Belmopan was the answer to a natural threat. But this article will show that it was also a political strategy, intended to give the country a new, modern face, the symbol of a young nation on the road to independence (1981). One of the issues of this post‐colonial state is the definition of a national ‘us’ and the place of ethnic groups inherited from the British colonial administration's policy of ‘divide and rule’. The article shows that the politicisation of ethnicity entails neither its integration in the state nor its institutionalisation by the parties, but rather the emergence of ‘citizenship from below’.

Emergence of Abagusii Diaspora in Kenya’s South Rift, 1895- 2007: Opportunities and Challenges

Migration is a spatial phenomenon involving movement of people between distinct places, locations imbued with meaning and power and it has been there since time immemorial. It specifically refers to people changing their places of residence, where they live on a habitual basis, embracing not only their actual physical structures, but also in some sense the wider community in which they live. This study focused on the Abagusii migration patterns specifically to the South Rift (SR), Kericho County. It acknowledges the fact that their emergence in the diaspora just like any other ethnic group in Kenya, came to existence in the pre-colonial, colonial and post-independence period. The main aim of the study was to establish their movement, settlement, challenges, and opportunities they encountered in SR between 1895 and 2007. This research addressed the emergence of Abagusii before colonialism. The study focused on the period from 1895 because it was the genesis of the British colonial policies, which witnessed forceful movement of not only the Abagusii, but also other Kenyan communities. The study adopted qualitative research design where non-probability sampling techniques (such as opportunity sampling, snowball sampling, and purposive sampling) were used. Content analysis was done from documents in the Kenya National Archives (KNA) that were corroborated with information from field observations and interview schedules. Keywords: Migrations, Abagusii, Diaspora, South Rift DOI : 10.7176/HRL/50-03 Publication date: November 30 th 2019

Race relations, nationalism and the humanitarian Rohingya crisis in contemporary Myanmar

ABSTRACTThe recent ethnic tensions in Myanmar especially in the Rakhine state has once again placed the country onto the centre stage of global media attention. The aim of this paper is to look at race relations in contemporary Myanmar with a special focus on the Rohingya community. The paper argues that problematic race relations in the country today should be analysed within a certain historical context and should be seen as part of a historical continuum. This paper places a lot of importance on this historical continuum. In this connection, the British colonial policies of divide and conquer, politicians and their obsession with Buddhism and trying to make it the state religion shortly after independence in 1948, and the xenophobic policies followed by the military junta after 1962 deserve special mention. The paper further argues that the current state of affairs and escalation in violence has happened recently because of the convergence of the activities and ideologies of certain political groups like the military junta, the National League for Democracy, the Arakan League for Democracy, and the role played by certain Buddhist extremist groups like the MaBaTha in Burmese politics. To ease the existing tension in the Rakhine, the central government would need to take a more federally minded approach and introduce meaningful democracy and development in the frontier parts of the country where there is a strong ethnic minority presence.

Policing labour in empire: the modern origins of the Kafala sponsorship system in the Gulf Arab States

ABSTRACT This study traces the modern origins of the Kafala migrant labour sponsorship system in the Gulf Arab States. The sponsorship system was a product of the British colonial era, particularly the period from the 1920s until independence in the 1970s. Colonial administrators introduced sponsorship requirements in order to control labour migration in the pearl industry shortly before the discovery of oil in the region, and its use was further regularized and widely applied with the increasing migrant labour working in the oil companies. British officials viewed migrant labour as both a necessity and a problem that needed to be regulated and controlled, both from the viewpoint of economic growth and security. As jurisdiction over foreigners was retroceded back to the newly created states in the independence era, sponsorship of foreign labour was ultimately restricted and delegated to citizens or companies owned by citizens. As a particular example, the case of the ‘bachelor’ worker is detailed as a legal-bureaucratic complex of sponsorship practices. Such practices are placed within a wider ensemble of British colonial policies for controlling labour and policing empire across the Indian Ocean in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

British Colonial Policy “Divide and Rule”: Fanning Arab Rivalry in Palestine

The 2nd November 2017 is the centenary of the Balfour Declaration which is Britain’s public acknowledgement and support of the Zionist movement and the commitment to a Jewish National Home. The Declaration is identified by the Palestinian narrative as the source of their tragedy whilst the British side its motive was the consideration of who would be most useful to the British interest under the given circumstances. The main characteristics of the Palestinian politics and society after the Balfour Declaration and during the Mandate period was the pervasiveness of factionalism. These divisions were based on family, kinship, and clan. As for their politics, they were mainly shaped by the notable families who helped to intensify this fragmentation in the Palestinian society. The notable families pervaded local politics during the Ottoman period and continued to do so in the early part of the British administration. The mandate administration, although denied the effective Palestinian self-government, it toughened the notability stratification by giving it recognition and legitimacy in social and religious affairs. The British administration refused to accept or recognize the Palestinian Arabs as a national entity, because of the lack of a central authority, Palestinians did not have the social resources to organize and unite themselves. Although the British did not recognize the Palestinians as a national entity they accepted its notables as the leaders and representatives of the Palestinians. The British policy of alliance with the notables helped those notable families achieve decisive pre-eminence in the Palestinian politics. The notability was at the forefront of the nationalist sentiment. They suppressed the existence of independent nationalist parties and groups. The same traditional elite helped intensify fragmentation in the society, especially as the external challenges became more severe. They became an impediment to the wider national integration. Following the historical background of the area until the establishment of the Mandate, this paper will focus on the analysis of the British policies feeding the inter-Arab rivalries and animosity between the notable families and conclude with the study of the valuation of the Palestinian Arab leadership until 1936-1939 Arab revolt.

The Ethnic Minority Question and Rohingya Crisis in Contemporary Myanmar

The recent humanitarian Rohingya crisis has once again put Myanmar onto the centre stage of global media attention. The aim of this paper is to look into the ethnic minority question in contemporary Myanmar. The paper has a special focus on the Muslim Rohingya community. The paper argues that problematic race relations in Myanmar today should not be viewed in isolation but should be seen as a part of a historical continuum. The British colonial policies of divide and rule, political leaders and their obsession with Buddhism in the post-independence period and xenophobic tendencies during the long years of the military junta have all collectively contributed to the very complex situation in which the country finds itself today when it comes to race relations. Meaningful democracy and economic development have been advocated as the way forward especially for the more peripheral parts of the country where there is a strong ethnic minority presence.