Read on Twitter
A CULTURE WAR IS NOT INEVITABLE… (thread)
Or, what I learnt first-hand about “rewriting” Britain’s #history, and why it can bring people together, not tear them apart. (1/15)
Or, what I learnt first-hand about “rewriting” Britain’s #history, and why it can bring people together, not tear them apart. (1/15)
In 2013, I set out to make a film exploring the impact of British #colonialism in #Burma. For three years I filmed with the former royal family who had been booted off their throne by Imperial Britain. (2/15)
As a Brit, it was a deeply uncomfortable experience to listen to the stories of a family whose world was obliterated by a British act of war, driven by an ideology that Brits should rule over Burmese because they were racially superior. (3/15)
It was even more uncomfortable to a) see the effects of that act still echoing all around me in #Myanmar today - racial division, militarised dictatorship and a kleptocratic economy - and b) that few in Britain had any idea it had happened. (4/15)
Despite what my country had done to theirs, the royals treated me like family. After one very emotional day I offered an apology. They told me take it back – after all, it wasn’t me that invaded, was it? (5/15)
BUT that didn’t absolve me of any responsibility, they said. My responsibility was to work with them to tell their story, and make sure fewer Brits turned up in Burma not having the first clue about what Britain had done. (6/15)
) (7/15)
What I learnt is that facing up to a dark past brought people from different backgrounds together on a journey through shared history. I didn’t invade their country, nor were they alive when Britain did. But we’re both products of that same past, carrying its baggage. (8/15)
Many people, including @BorisJohnson, warn we shouldn’t ‘edit’ the past. Piffle, to use his favourite word. Of course we should – history is a story that we tell ourselves, and when the facts change (or are pointed out sitting in plain sight), we need to change the story. (9/15)
In its most benevolent reading I think it’s driven by a fear that discussing the Empire honestly will drive wedges between people with very different ancestries in today’s multicultural Britain. From my experience, the exact opposite will happen. (10/15)
Like him, I was incensed to see Churchill defaced. But I wasn’t incensed by the jibe that he was a racist. He almost certainly was. I was angered by the reduction of a complex, flawed man, who played a pivotal, heroic role in preserving Britain's democracy, to one word. (11/15)
It’s crap history. It’s as crap as those who will tolerate NO criticism of Churchill whatsoever (and Nazi salute while defending him 
) We need MORE, GOOD HISTORY, more facts, more analysis, more discussion. And the more we have, the more we WILL need to edit the story. (12/15)
) We need MORE, GOOD HISTORY, more facts, more analysis, more discussion. And the more we have, the more we WILL need to edit the story. (12/15)
Britain - we need to talk about Empire, warts & all. We need to do it together, young & old. The fact that one Brit’s ancestor enslaved another Brit’s ancestor is something that we need to front up to, while recognising that she is not the slaver, and he is not the slave. (13/15)
Movements to 'decolonise' history teaching are essential, but perhaps first we need to put the Empire back into our history so we can take a cold, hard look at it! (14/15)
All Brits today are either products of Empire, or are living in a country that was made by one - like it or not. A culture war is not inevitable. In fact, shining a light on even the darkest past can often bring us together, not push us apart. Thanks for reading. 
(15/15)
(15/15)
(P.S. If you'd like steers on good writers who fill in the blanks our traditional history teaching leaves, I'd highly recommend @OxfordYasmin, @thantmyintu, @afuahirsch and @OlivetteOtele. For fiction - Orwell's 'Burmese Days' is a stunning critique of empire as mindset.)
