Johannesburg - Great Britain’s dehumanising history of colonialism has been too cruel, and its scars – physical and emotional – linger on to this day.
However, like the rest of the global north, the less attention is given to their collective history of imperialism, the lesser the guilt they feel about their heinous past in Africa, Asia and Latin America and virtually everywhere on the planet.
Continents and countries have been destabilised by self-serving foreign policy objectives of imperialist colonial masters such as the UK. Languages, traditions and cultures of subjugated smaller and weaker nations across the global south had been all but obliterated and replaced by the philosophy of life of the conquerors.
This heinous history hurts too deeply in the soul and mind. Men, women and children died at the hands of the colonial rulers who destabilised peace among the vanquished nations. The languages of the racist colonialists – English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and German, among others, replaced indigenous languages everywhere they ruled their subjugated and colonised subjects.
The Western nations’ penchant to colonise weaker nations that shamelessly dehumanised their citizens is well-documented. The Scramble for Africa is one such heinous chapter that bears testimony to the cruel nature of the global north.
I was reminded of this history when I read the news that in the UK, the government of Rishi Sunak is determined to disqualify asylum seekers who enter British land through the small boats that ferry migrants through the English Channel.
First and foremost, the UK has no moral standing to turn away vulnerable and desperate asylum seekers running from persecution and economic hardships from their countries of origin. The Syrian refugees come to mind. Their country has been gripped by a nearly 12-year-old civil war that is sponsored by the West, Britain included, in their desperate bid to unseat President Bashar al-Assad.
The West is all too happy to keep Syria destabilised and run down. However, as the UK shows, it will not tolerate any Syrian asylum seeker from succeeding in their quest to settle in mighty Great Britain. I contend that the African and Asian migrants in the UK should be treated like kings and queens.
Their erstwhile colonial masters looted their wealth, particularly the minerals in all their nature, shape and form. Gold, diamond, platinum, you name them. Asia’s and Africa’s stolen wealth has built today’s glittering London and many parts of the UK.
If our former colonial masters had just a little bit of heart, they’d show remorse by being much kinder and sympathetic to the plight of asylum seekers whose countries of origin are embroiled in economic hardships and political instability in which the West has a hand. But then again, they lack empathy in every way they relate to their former colonies and their citizens.
The UK’s Immigration Minister, Robert Jenrick, is proud to have had his government strike a deal with the east African state, Rwanda, to accommodate hordes of nauseating asylum seekers who enter the UK uninvited. A new bill will be voted soon to turn away migrants who enter Britain on small boats through the Channel.
Jenrick said they would be detained and deported “within weeks” to their country of origin or Rwanda or any willing “third country”. Last year alone, 4,500 Syrian refugees arrived by boat in the UK. But because the UK has suspended cordial relations with the Assad administration, Jenrick will not make any contact with Damascus to work out some agreement on what to do with the detained Syrians running from a war Britain is co-sponsoring alongside the US.
A jubilant Jenrick told Sky News: “The scheme with Rwanda is uncapped, so the Rwandan government and we have spoken again this week. Rishi Sunak spoke to Paul Kagame, his opposite number. They are willing to take as many people as is required.”
Jenrick added: “If it requires thousands of people to be sent to Rwanda, then we will send thousands of people to Rwanda.” Jenrick sounded like he was talking about a refuse removal programme for which the UK government has finally found a dumping site.
The strange cooperation between Rwanda and the UK about this weird development is mind-boggling. The financial rewards to Rwanda for President Kagame’s signature to this evil arrangement remain a heavily guarded secret. Rwanda was once a colony of France, and Kagame should know better about the dehumanisation of the soul of a people.
He ought to be aware of the physical and emotional humiliation vulnerable people suffer under circumstances of subjugation. The truth is Rwanda is a sovereign state that pursues a foreign policy that is based on the country’s national interest.
It is quite difficult to fathom any reasonable grounds as to why a country with the experience of human rights violations, such as Rwanda, could sign up for such balderdash. There has been a strong legal challenge in the UK to stop the new inhuman immigration laws and practise.
However, Prime Minister Sunak is not deterred. He said: “I am up for the fight,” when asked about the looming legal challenge. He went on to disparagingly describe the leader of the official opposition Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, and other critics as “leftie lawyers”.
This week, Sunak undertook a state visit to France, where he met his counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in a bid to strengthen their bilateral relations. The two leaders were scheduled to discuss their “small boats saga in the Channel” and how Britain could perhaps boost payments to Paris to stop the irritating small boat journeys that are a lifesaver for hundreds of migrants.
In 2003, then-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair signed up behind US President George W Bush’s infamous invasion of Iraq. The two powerful leaders blatantly lied to the international community, alleging that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction. They bombed Iraq using a barrage of missiles in quick succession, bragging about their strategy of “shock and awe”, and destroyed infrastructure.
Typically, they stoked the fires of rebellion against President Saddam by sponsoring the rebellion, calling the stage-managed drama a “popular uprising” in which the Iraqi people were demanding regime change.
After killing President Saddam, and taking total control of his oil-rich country, both Bush and Blair could find no evidence of their claims of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
The two men left their respective public offices without any iota of regret and never tendered an apology for their lies to the international community and the UN Security Council. Instead, Blair would later continue to argue that at least the “world had been rid of Saddam Hussein”.
The “strong-man syndrome” continues to pose too many challenges to global peace and stability. The bullies are incapable of mustering the courage to admit getting their facts wrong and apologise. When it comes to lecturing Africa and the rest of the global south about “the rules-based world order” and “democracy”, they excel, these hypocrites.
For the chaos and destruction that the UK, in particular, has caused the world through colonialism and theft of wealth and mineral resources, the least they could do would be to welcome the needy and vulnerable asylum seekers instead of ensuring they would deport them to Rwanda as soon as they are detained off their small boats.
The UK needs to treat all asylum seekers in the same humane manner that they treat the Ukrainian refugees for whom they’ve created a special dispensation. People are people regardless of class, race or gender. The hurt and pain that Great Britain has caused across the world, colonising one country after another and stripping former colonies of dignity and identity, should be enough to trigger some empathy in the UK government.
The family of Prime Minister Sunak himself came to the UK as asylum seekers. Of all the people, Prime Minister Sunak should demonstrate a greater appreciation of the vicissitudes of life many migrants have to face in search of a better life. One hopes that as the judicial system of the UK is independent, they would ultimately rule that throwing failed asylum seekers into a plane to Rwanda and washing their hands like Pontius Pilate would be illegal.
Many critics of this controversial piece of proposed legislation described it as “unworkable”, “nonsense”, “risky”, and unsafe”. Hopefully, the zealots in the Whitehall and Number 10 will be stopped in their tracks. He who lives in a glass house ought not to throw stones.