Category Archives: Colonialism

‘Your wife wants to see you’: 18th-century Spanish letters seized at sea by British published online

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Correspondence taken from 130 captured ships reveal details of the stories of seafarers and their families in the 1700s

A letter from a reproachful wife to the husband who seemingly abandoned her after travelling to the Americas, which remained unopened for nearly 300 years, is among thousands of papers from 18th-century Spanish ships captured by the British that are now being made available online.

Francisca Muñoz in Seville wrote to her husband, Miguel Atocha, in Mexico on 22 January 1747. The letter was among 100 others from Spanish women to their husbands detailing the emotional and economic challenges faced in their partners’ absences, and found on La Ninfa, a registered ship trading between Cádiz and Veracruz, Mexico that was captured by the notorious British privateer squadron known as the “Royal Family”.

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King Charles’s ‘deep regret’ for colonial atrocities was a ‘miss’, Kenyans say

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Rights groups repeat calls for apology while President William Ruto says ‘much remains to be done to achieve full reparations’

King Charles’s expression of “greatest sorrow and deepest regret” over colonial atrocities committed by British forces in Kenya has been criticised as a “miss” in the east African country.

Reactions to the king’s statement were mixed, with the president, William Ruto, diplomatically welcoming Charles’s “courage and readiness to shed light on uncomfortable truths that reside in the darker regions of our shared experience”, but calling Britain’s colonial suppression of Kenya’s freedom movement “monstrous in its cruelty”.

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King Charles stops short of apology for ‘abhorrent’ colonial violence in Kenya

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Visiting monarch speaks of sorrow and deepest regret for past ‘wrongdoings’ under British rule

King Charles has spoken of Britain’s “abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence” committed against Kenyans during their fight for independence, but stopped short of an apology despite human rights groups demanding one.

The monarch made the comments in a speech, delivered during a banquet in Kenya held in his honour, in which he referred to the “greatest sorrow” and “deepest regret” for the “wrongdoings” of the past.

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French couple take dealer to court for share of African mask’s €4.2m sale price

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Pensioners sold rare object found in attic for €150 – but campaigners say it must be returned to Gabon

A retired French couple who sold an African mask to a secondhand goods dealer for €150 (£130) have gone to court for a share of the proceeds after the mask fetched €4.2m (£3.7m) at auction.

But campaigners insist that the rare artefact instead should be returned to Gabon, in a case that has raised questions over Africa’s cultural heritage looted by colonial France.

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King Charles asked for ‘unequivocal apology’ by Kenya’s rights commission

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King urged to offer apology while in Kenya for UK’s ‘brutal and inhuman treatment’ during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s

The Kenya Human Rights Commission has called on King Charles to offer an “unequivocal public apology” for colonial abuses, during his visit to the country this week.

“We call upon the king, on behalf of the British government, to issue an unconditional and unequivocal public apology (as opposed to the very cautious, self-preserving and protective statements of regrets) for the brutal and inhuman treatment inflicted on Kenyan citizens,” the KHRC said.

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Dutch self-image challenged as country confronts its colonial past

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Exhibition aims to establish common ground amid fractious debate over violence in post-independence Indonesia

Its political centre, The Hague, may call itself “the city of peace and justice”. But in few European countries is the process of confronting the colonial period proving as fractious and divisive as in the Netherlands, where opposing sides have in recent years struggled to agree on who was victim and who was perpetrator.

This month, an exhibition at Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk gallery space and two new books in a major historical series try to establish common ground over the violence that ensued after Indonesia declared independence from Dutch colonial rule in 1945.

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King Charles to acknowledge ‘painful’ colonial past on state visit to Kenya

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Monarch’s recognition will come as country prepares to celebrate 60 years of independence from Britain

King Charles will acknowledge the “painful aspects” of Britain’s past actions in Kenya during a state visit later this month.

The visit follows an invitation from the country’s president, William Ruto, whose country will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its independence from Britain on 12 December. The two countries have enjoyed a close relationship in recent years despite the violent colonial legacy of an uprising in the early 1950s, which led to a period known as “the emergency”, which ran from 1952 until 1960.

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Original letter from Columbus announcing ‘discovery’ of America goes on sale for first time

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The explorer is widely thought of as an exploiter today, and didn’t know east from west. But a version of his boastful missive is expected to fetch up to £1.2m at auction

In 1493, Christopher Columbus wrote a letter that would change the landscape of the modern world. “I sailed to the Indies with the fleet that the illustrious King and Queen, our sovereigns, gave me, where I discovered a great many islands, inhabited by numberless people,” he wrote after his return to Europe to royal treasurer Luis de Santángel. “Of all, I have taken possession for their Highnesses.”

The events relayed in the letter were “the first report of a voyage that really did change the world”, says Columbus biographer Professor Felipe Fernández-Armesto.

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Bharat G20 invitation fuels rumours India may change name

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World leaders attending summit in New Delhi at weekend asked to dinner with ‘president of Bharat’

India was buzzing with speculation over rumoured plans to scrap official use of the country’s English name, after a state-issued invitation to the G20 summit referred to it as Bharat.

The government of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been working to remove lingering symbols of British rule from India’s urban landscape, political institutions and history books, but this could be the biggest move yet.

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Germany matches DNA from skulls stolen from African colony to living relatives

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Remains pillaged in colonial era for ‘scientific’ experiments are DNA matched to Tanzanian descendants

Researchers in Berlin have identified living relatives of people whose remains were stolen from Tanzania and taken to Germany for “scientific” experiments during the colonial era.

Berlin’s Museum of Prehistory and Early History has been carrying out research since 2017 on about 1,100 skulls taken from what was then known as German East Africa.

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Blistering barnacles! Tintin mystery in Brussels after bust of Hergé vanishes

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The disappearance of a statue of the comic book artist in his Belgian birthplace was thought to be an act of decolonisation

It would have been a suitable assignment for Tintin, the intrepid Belgian boy reporter and his multi-talented, intuitive dog, Snowy.

Across Brussels, where Hergé, the creator of the eponymous comic books, was born, there are constant reminders of one of its most famous exports. A giant image of the character clinging to the back of a steam train from the book Tintin in America adorns one of the exits from the city’s Eurostar station, while a mural of Tintin, his seafaring friend Captain Haddock and Snowy covers the gable end of a house just over a mile away, surviving graffiti and vandalism.

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Industrial Revolution iron method ‘was taken from Jamaica by Briton’

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Wrought iron process that drove UK success was appropriated from black metallurgists, records suggest

An innovation that propelled Britain to become the world’s leading iron exporter during the Industrial Revolution was appropriated from an 18th-century Jamaican foundry, historical records suggest.

The Cort process, which allowed wrought iron to be mass-produced from scrap iron for the first time, has long been attributed to the British financier turned ironmaster Henry Cort. It helped launch Britain as an economic superpower and transformed the face of the country with “iron palaces”, including Crystal Palace, Kew Gardens’ Temperate House and the arches at St Pancras train station.

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Germany’s return of sacred Kogi masks to Colombia may have health risks

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Wooden artefacts dating from 15th century and bought from indigenous people were treated with pesticides while in museum

Germany has returned two wooden masks of the indigenous Kogi community to Colombia but conceded that wearing the sacred artefacts in ceremonies may come with a health risk because they were treated with toxic pesticides during their time in German museums.

The masks, which date back to the mid-15th century and have been held in ethnological collections in Berlin for over a century, were handed over to Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, by his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier at a ceremony in Berlin on Friday.

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Renovation of Brussels park ignites debate on decolonisation

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Triumphal arch in Cinquantenaire park ‘linked to exploitation of Congo’, says cultural group in Belgian capital

For many Belgians, the Cinquantenaire park in Brussels evokes memories of childhood visits to see the stuffed horses of the military history museum, or vintage cars at Autoworld, two institutions on the edge of the park.

The much-loved green space’s cheerful flowers and whimsical follies contrast with the steel canyons and beeping traffic of the adjacent EU quarter, but above all it is an expression of national pride, with a giant Belgian tricolour often suspended underneath a massive triumphal arch. Built in 1880 to mark 50 years of the Belgian state, Belgium’s federal government last month launched a redevelopment plan for the 200th anniversary in 2030.

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Commonwealth Indigenous leaders demand apology from the king for effects of colonisation

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Exclusive: Aboriginal Olympian Nova Peris says ‘change begins with listening’ as campaigners from 12 countries ask for ‘process of reparatory justice to commence’

Australians have joined Indigenous leaders and politicians across the Commonwealth to demand King Charles III make a formal apology for the effects of British colonisation, make reparations by redistributing the wealth of the British crown, and return artefacts and human remains.

Days out from Charles’s coronation in London, campaigners for republic and reparations movements in 12 countries have written a letter asking the new monarch to start a process towards “a formal apology and for a process of reparatory justice to commence”.

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UN representatives criticise Germany over reparations for colonial crimes in Namibia

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Rapporteurs also chastise the German and Namibian governments for excluding Herero and Nama minorities from talks dealing with the mass murder of their ancestors

UN special rapporteurs have criticised the German and Namibian governments for violating the rights of Herero and Nama ethnic minorities by excluding them from talks over reparations for colonial crimes against their ancestors.

Publishing their communication with both governments, the seven UN representatives urged Germany to take responsibility for all its colonial crimes in Namibia – including mass murder – and said it was wrong for the Herero and Nama to have been involved indirectly in talks via an advisory committee. They called on Germany to pay reparations directly to the Herero and Nama and not to the Namibian government.

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Trinity College Dublin to ‘dename’ George Berkeley library over slavery links

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University said 18th-century philosopher and bishop bought enslaved people to work on his Rhode Island estate

Trinity College Dublin is to remove George Berkeley’s name from its biggest library because of the Irish philosopher’s links with slavery in the 18th century.

The university said on Wednesday it would “dename” the Berkeley library and review an academic award that carries his name, as well as portraits of the scholar.

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Chagos islanders must get full reparations for forced exile, says NGO

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Human Rights Watch also demands trial for ‘appalling colonial crime’ of expulsion – and continuing ill treatment – of Chagossians

The UK should pay full and unconditional reparations to generations affected by its forcible displacement of Chagos Islands inhabitants in the 1960s and 70s, an action that constituted a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch has said.

The NGO said that individuals should be put on trial for the expulsion of Chagossians when the UK retained possession of what it refers to as British Indian Ocean Territory, or BIOT, after Mauritius gained independence in 1968.

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Descendants of Namibia’s genocide victims call on Germany to ‘stop hiding’

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Herero and Nama people demand direct talks and take Namibian government to court for accepting reparations on their behalf for 1904-1908 killings

Descendants of victims of genocide in Namibia have called on Germany to “stop hiding” and discuss reparations with them directly, as they take their own government to court for making a deal without their approval.

The Herero and Nama people have gone to Namibia’s high court, rejecting an apology made in 2021 after years of talks between Namibia and Germany, which they say falls short of atoning for the 1904 to 1908 genocide, the first of the 20th century.

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