I am a white man, born in the UK. That is a statement of fact. I am not ‘proud’ of it.
But, that fact gives me enormous privilege. The comforts and conveniences of our country are huge. Too easily we can find ourselves blind to this reality. We can be wilfully ignorant of the huge imbalance in access to resources in today’s world. In 2020, the UK instigated several schemes to help provide for workers unable to work due to the coronavirus-lockdown. Whilst there are gaps, the contrast to Ghana and Malawi, for example, is enormous. A friend in Kenya commented that, in the rural areas, the main problem is not covid-19 nor locusts, but starvation.
(I know a little about Africa, so will comment on it. I know less about other parts of the world.)
We have well-equipped hospitals; staffed by well-trained doctors and nurses. We even clapped them weekly to express our gratitude. African nations, for the most part, have very basic health provision. It is God’s mercy that most African nations have not seen huge numbers of infections.
The wealth of the UK has been built upon the enforced labour of millions of black Africans. That is not the whole story, but it is a large part of it. Events in Bristol, with the removal of the statue of Edward Colston, highlighted the issue.
One of my heroes is David Livingstone. He was one of the first British travellers to highlight the scourge of slavery, the running sore on the face of Africa. He witnessed the slave trade in eastern Africa, which supplied Arabia and India. We are more familiar with the equally appalling west African slave trade, which more directly benefitted the UK.
British history was massively changed by the industrial revolution. Whilst there is debate about exactly where it started and by whom, the UK and Europe were certainly at the heart of the raft of technological developments. And the UK and Europe enjoyed huge increases in living standards. But that new-found wealth was not shared with poorer nations. Indeed, alongside foreign and trade policies, this actually exacerbated the inequalities.
Colonisation from the UK and several other European states is often referred to as the ‘scramble’ for Africa. We claimed territory and raised our flags over Africa. Borders were drawn on maps of Africa by politicians in London and Paris and Berlin. No reference was made to the interests of local people; no counsel was sought from local tribal leaders.
Some respond by arguing that, since all are made in the image of God, all lives matter. That is strictly true. But such sentimentalism merely perpetuates the injustice.
Time to start to put things right. Black Lives Matter.