Should Britain Be Ashamed Of Its Colonial Past?
This week, Owen Bennett Jones and guests are at the Oxford Literary Festival
This week, Owen Bennett Jones and guests are at the Oxford Literary Festival.
Across the world student bodies have been have been asking universities to distance themselves from historical symbols of oppression. In Oxford, the protests took the form of the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign which began in South Africa and targeted statues of Cecil Rhodes - a committed champion of the British Empire. How representative are these protests of current sentiments in Britain and its former colonies? So how Britain should acknowledge this part of its identity? Should it apologise and pay reparations, or embrace its history with pride?
Photo Credit: Getty Images
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This week's contributors
Elnathan John, Nigerian novelist
Kwasi Kwarteng MP, author of Ghosts of Empire
Lawrence James, historian, author of Rise and Fall of the British Empire
Priyamvada Gopal, English lecturer at the University of Cambridge, specialising in colonial and postcolonial literature
Broadcasts
- Fri 8 Apr 2016 08:06GMT´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service except News Internet
- Fri 8 Apr 2016 23:06GMT´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service except News Internet
- Sat 9 Apr 2016 03:06GMT´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service except Australasia & News Internet
- Sat 9 Apr 2016 10:06GMT´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service except Australasia & News Internet
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