News — Colonialism

George Town, located on the island of Grand Cayman, is the capital city of the Cayman Islands, British West Indies. There has been no archaeological evidence of an indigenous presence in the Cayman Islands before the arrival of the Europeans. The first European sighting of the Cayman Islands was by Christopher Columbus on his fourth and final voyage in 1503. He named the three islands, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, “Las Tortugas” after the many tortoises he and his men found there. Subsequent Spanish explorers renamed them the Caymanas, after a species of crocodile inhabiting the island.

The Spanish Crown made no efforts to settle the region, and the islands were not thoroughly explored until 1585, when English sea captain Sir Francis Drake arrived. In 1670, the Treaty of Madrid officially transferred possession of the Cayman Islands to Great Britain, and for nearly three centuries the Islands were administered as a dependency of Jamaica, the largest British colony in the West Indies.

Around 1700, George Town became the first permanent settlement on Grand Cayman. Slavery was introduced in 1734 but enslaved Africans were limited in number comparison to other West Indian colonies that had developed extensive rice and sugar plantations. Today people of African ancestry comprise 20% of the islands’ population. In 1831, the Legislative Assembly that now governs Cayman was established in George Town and granted authority over local issues.

For the next century, the Cayman Islands remained a small, mostly self-sufficient outpost of the British Empire. Most of the local economy depended on sailing and fishing. When Jamaica gained independence in 1962, the Cayman Islands chose to remain a colony of the British Crown, a status they hold today. Also, today, George Town’s economy is dependent on finance and tourism with 600 banking companies located within the small city of 40,200 which holds 61% of the Islands’ 65,542 inhabitants.

The finance sector has made George Town and the Cayman Islands internationally famous. The islands rank six internationally in terms of banking assets and George Town has branches of 40 of the world’s 50 largest banks. The town is also a center for worldwide insurance, accounting, and law firms. Financial services represent 55% of the Cayman Islands’ total economy, 40% of all government revenue, and 36% of all employment. Over 100,000 overseas firms have offices in the Cayman Islands.

Grand Cayman is the largest of the three islands, at approximately 22 miles long and up to eight miles at its widest point. It comprises 76% of the entire territory’s land mass and holds 97% of the islands’ population. There are six districts in the territory, and five districts, Georgetown, Bodden Town, West Bay, East End and North Side located on Grand Cayman.

The population of George Town is one of the most diverse in the world with more than one hundred different nationalities 67% of the population calling the community home. Besides Caymanians, Jamaicans 28% and Filipinos, 14% are the largest groups. George Town is a popular port of call for cruise ships bringing tourists to the beaches as well as to the Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville franchise and the Guy Harvey Art Studio, among other sights.

All Caymanian children are entitled to free primary and secondary education but there are also various churches and private institutions that offer educational services from kindergarten to college level. A fleet of share taxis are the major mode of public transportation in George Town.

One of West Africa’s premier research institutions, the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN), was first created by the French Government in 1938. Established in Dakar, Senegal, the organization was originally called the Institut Français d’Afrique Noire. Designed on behalf of French colonial administrators, the IFAN was to be a cultural and scientific institute that focused on the expansion of knowledge pertaining to the historical, linguistic, and sociological aspects of French colonial populations in West Africa.

Support for the venture originally arose in France during the early 1930s, at a time when the French Government was experiencing a revitalized curiosity in the nation’s colonial possessions and peoples. Additionally, the creation of the institution was viewed as a movement away from viewing French colonial territories in purely material or economic terms. IFAN followed the Dakar School of Medicine, founded in 1918, as the major institution of research and higher education in West Africa.

French naturalist Théodore André Monod (1902-2000) was the institution’s founding director. From the time of his appointment until his retirement in 1965, Monod worked to promote the inclusion of Africans to some of the institute’s higher positions of employment. However, during the IFAN’s early years, positions throughout the organization were granted mainly to white French citizens. One exception was the post of ethnologist, held by Amadou Hampâté Bâ, whom Monod hired in the organization’s formative years. World War II slowed IFAN’s growth and development, greatly reducing the number of available staff members.

After the end of World War II, the IFAN experienced a period of dramatic expansion, which resulted in various organizational branches appearing in other French possessions such as Mali and Guinea. Throughout much of the 1950s the IFAN witnessed waves of staff turnover as Africans began to occupy a larger percentage of the organization’s staff. This was partly due to the changing political climate that resulted in Senegal receiving independence in 1960, soon followed by other colonies. At around the same time control of the IFAN in Senegal was transferred to the University of Dakar (founded in 1957), which had been modeled on other French universities.

In 1986, however, when the University of Dakar was renamed Cheikh Anta Diop University (after the noted Senegalese anthropologist who worked at IFAN for decades), the institution itself became the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire Cheikh Anta Diop. The IFAN continues to publish two major academic journals: the Mémoire de l’IFAN, and the Bulletin de l’IFAN.

In the early 16th century, around 1511, Spain colonized Cuba. Cuba produced almost a third of the world’s sugar supply by 1860 through the work of enslaved Africans and other island natives stolen from their land. By the year 1895, Cubans revolted against the Spanish colonial rule on their land, beginning the Cuban War of Independence, fought between 1895 to 1898. At first, the United States stayed neutral, but that changed on February 15, 1898.

The American Battleship USS Maine, docked off the coast of Cuba, exploded and sank, killing over 250 American sailors and soldiers. Spain was blamed for the incident, and the US government declared war against that nation, creating the Spanish-American War, in April 1898.

The U.S. military objective was to defeat Spanish colonial forces and take control of its major colonies, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Major General William Shaftner, the former Commander of the 25th Infantry Regiment, one of the four Buffalo Soldier units in the U.S. Army, was now in charge of U.S. forces in Cuba. He led an expeditionary force of approximately 17,000 men, including nearly 3,000 black soldiers to the island from Tampa, Florida. The expeditionary force also included white soldiers from the 14th Infantry Regiment and a battalion of the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment all of whom arrived in Cuba between June 7 and June 14, 1898.

On July 1, Buffalo Soldiers would engage in their first major conflict in Cuba, the Battle of El Caney. The battle was fought for the control of the Cuban town of El Caney. U.S. forces were advancing toward the Cuban city of Santiago, and a group of Spanish soldiers decided to take defensive positions at a blockhouse near El Caney to stop them. The 25th Infantry received orders to support forces advancing on Santiago by attacking El Caney. In all 6,653 American soldiers faced approximately 3,000 Spanish colonial troops and their Cuban allies.

The Battle of El Caney had begun before the Buffalo Soldiers arrived. When they did arrive, they found the 2nd Massachusetts were retreating. Someone gave a yell, and the members of the 25th and all-white 12th Infantry Regiments began heading up the hill to capture the blockhouse Spanish forces were defending. The Spanish successfully resisted the American advance for hours before their officers ordered some of them to surrender and others to retreat. Finally, Private Thomas C. Butler, Company H, 25th Infantry was first to enter the blockhouse and immediately took possession of the Spanish flag for his regiment. He was ordered by a white officer of the 12th Infantry to give it to him. Butler tore off a piece of the flag to show his superiors that he had in fact captured the flag. The soldiers of the 25th Infantry quickly regrouped to support the Battle of San Juan Hill which was going on almost simultaneously.

Chattel slavery was practiced in the Danish West Indies from around 1650 until July 3, 1848, when Colonial Governor Peter von Scholten issued an emancipation proclamation. The Danish government, however, then enacted rules that kept people enslaved by contracts for another two years. Moreover, in 1847, a year before the Governor’s decree, the government instituted a gradual emancipation plan that freed the children born to enslaved laborers from that point would be free. It further stated that all slavery would cease entirely in 1859.

Given the confusion and uncertainty around emancipation, sugar plantation owners made sure that the lives of former slaves changed little after emancipation. Many ex-slaves were hired at the plantations where they were previously enslaved and offered one-year working contracts that included a small hut, a plot of land, and a little money. Unlike during slavery, these free workers did not receive food or any care from their employers prompting some of them to declare that the new conditions were worse that enslavement.

Each October 1 (Contract Day) workers were allowed to leave their plantations and enter into contracts with new plantation owners. On October 1, 1878, workers gathered on the island of St. Croix to protest wages and the harsh living conditions they were forced to live in. This gathering turned into a riot. Participants threw stones at Danish soldiers, who soon barricaded themselves in the town Fort on the island. The riots were said to be organized and led by three women: Mary Thomas, Axeline Elizabeth Salomon, and Mathilda McBean.

On October 4, 1878, British, French, and American warships arrived at St. Croix help stop the riots but were turned away by local Danish authorities. The next day Governor von Scholten issued a declaration that all laborers should return to their plantations or be declared “rebels.” The uprising continued but after two weeks many workers had returned to their plantations and the revolt ended. During the unrest nearly 100 people were killed and 50 houses were burned. Almost 900 acres of sugar were destroyed.

The Danes arrested approximately 400 people. Twelve were sentenced to death and immediately executed. Another 39 were sentenced, but 34 had their sentences commuted to shorter terms. Among the last group were Mary, Axeline, and Mathilda who were sent to the Women’s Prison, Christianshavn, in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1882. They then returned to Christiansted, St. Croix in 1887, to serve out the remainder of their sentences. These three women became known as “The Three Queens.”

In 2004, historian Wayne James discovered historical documents that suggested the role of a fourth Queen, Susanna Abramsen, also known as Bottom Belly. St. Croix has a Queen Mary Highway in her honor, and The Three Queens fountain was commissioned by the St. Thomas Historical Trust and unveiled in 2005 on St. Thomas. Each statue holds a tool in their hands used in the revolt; a flaming torch, a sugarcane knife, and a lantern. In 2018, artist Jeanette Ehlers and La Vaughn Belle created the I Am Queen Mary monument in the port of Copenhagen. The statue is twenty-three feet tall and is Denmark’s first public monument to a black woman.

The Solomon Islands are believed to have been settled by Austronesian peoples around 2000BC. For centuries many self-governing communities speaking separate languages lived on the six big volcanic islands and scores of atolls in this central Melanesian archipelago.

Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana de Neira sighted the islands in 1568 and named them The Islands of Solomon, in the mistaken hope of mineral riches matching those of the biblical King. In 1767 English explorer Philip Carteret 'rediscovered' the Solomon Islands. They continued largely unbothered by foreigners until the 1800s when traders, planters, whalers and missionaries from Europe, America and Australasia arrived to barter food, labour and goods, evangelise and settle.

Early colonial interest

European powers were competing for influence in the Pacific and in 1886 a German protectorate was established over the northern Solomon Islands following the Anglo-German Treaty. In 1893 the southern Solomon Islands were brought under a British protectorate. Under the 1899 Samoa Tripartite Convention the northern Solomon Islands was transferred to British control in exchange for Western Samoa. British interests lay in the supply of workers to sugar estates in Queensland and Fiji and less in the protection of Solomon Islanders.

Officials and missionaries quelled squabbles and attracted planters and entrepreneurs. Justifying policies favouring foreigners ahead of Solomon Islanders, Resident Commissioner Woodford wrote

"My opinion is that nothing …can prevent the eventual extinction of the Melanesian race."

Commercial Exploitation

Disease and tribal wars had de-populated many areas and large so-called 'waste lands' were leased to foreign companies to produce rubber, copra and vegetable oil. European planters and traders bought freehold land from their Melanesian neighbours then sold it at huge profit to big companies such as Levers. In 1912, the British Government decreed that it alone could buy and lease land, thereby cutting traders' profits and increasing official revenue.

And Brutal Blackbirding

Solomon Islanders had only their land and labour to sell. For years, young fit men had gone – or been forcefully taken by 'blackbirders' – to  Queensland and Fiji, and many now enlisted on Solomons plantations. Often brutally treated, their poor housing and inadequate food led to outbreaks of dysentery and similar diseases. By the 1920s conditions were better, but wages remained low and men's absences at work weakened village and family life.  Living together on plantations gave men the chance to learn about each other in a common language - pijin English.

By the mid-twentieth century, many Chinese had come to settle, sometimes displacing European traders and plantation owners.

Impact Of World War

There were few opportunities for Solomon Islanders to advance and in 1939 village headmen asked Government and missions to build schools and dispensaries, increase wages and copra payments and move towards "a native parliament". These requests were dismissed by officials and missionaries, whose authority diminished from 1941 to 1945 as Commonwealth and US forces fought the Japanese in central Solomon Islands.

Political Tensions And, Ultimately, Independence

Impressed by American generosity and equality, many Islanders resented the post-war return of planters and officials. The 'Maasina Rule' – a brotherhood movement seeking local control – spread from Malaita to other islands. After several arrests, but without bloodshed, Maasina Rule and similar groups lost impetus when Island Councils were introduced in 1953.

Historian Judith Bennett has commented that in the mid 1960s Britain's  amble towards self-government rapidly escalated into a breakneck gallop towards independence.

Significant Events Since Independence

1980 Sir Peter Kenilorea re-elected Prime Minister.

1981 Solomon Mamaloni elected Prime Minister.

1984 Kenilorea elected Prime Minister.

1986 Ezekiel Alebua elected prime Minister.

1989 Mamaloni elected Prime Minister.

1993 Francis Billy Hilly elected Prime Minister.

1994 Mamaloni elected Prime Minister.

1997 Bartholomew Ulufa'alo elected Prime Minister.

1999 Ethnic strife breaks out on Guadalcanal island.

2000 Malaita militia detains PM Ulufa'alo; replaced by Manasseh Sogavare.

2001 Sir Allan Kemakeza elected Prime Minister.  Negotiations to end violence unsuccessful.

2003 Solomon Islands Government asks Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission (RAMSI) to restore order.

2006 After Snyder Rini elected Prime Minister, violent protests are directed mainly against Honiara's Chinese residents. Rini resigns; replaced by Manasseh Sogavare.

2007 Major destruction in Western Solomons after earthquake and tsunami.  Vote of no confidence in Sogavare government after Julian Moti, facing criminal charges in Australia, appointed  Attorney-General. Derek Siku elected Prime Minister.

2010 Danny Philip elected Prime Minister.

Opposition MPs in the UK are not happy with Boris Johnson over comments supporting Britain’s colonial activities in Africa. While a Tory MP, Johnson wrote in a 2002 article that colonialism in Africa should never have ended, arguing that Africans would not have grown the right crops for export if Britain had not directed them.

“The continent may be a blot, but it is not a blot upon our conscience,” he wrote while editor of The Spectator magazine. “The problem is not that we were once in charge, but that we are not in charge anymore.”

In the wake of global anti-racism protests that have targeted monuments connected to slavery and colonialism, the British prime minister argued this week that such colonial-era figures should not be toppled because they “teach us about our past with all its faults”.

However, his 2002 article shows that Johnson has held the belief that British colonialism wasn’t a disaster while dismissing Britain’s role in slavery.

“Consider Uganda, pearl of Africa, as an example of the British record. Are we guilty of slavery? Pshaw. It was one of the first duties of Frederick Lugard, who colonised Buganda in the 1890s, to take on and defeat the Arab slavers,” the former journalist and columnist says in the article cited by the Independent.

“And don’t swallow any of that nonsense about how we planted the ‘wrong crops’. Uganda teems, sprouts, bursts with vegetation. You will find fruits rare and strange, like the jackfruit, hanging bigger than your head and covered with green tetrahedral nodules. Though delicately perfumed, it is, alas, more or less disgusting, and not even Waitrose is pretentious enough to stock it.”

“So the British planted coffee and cotton and tobacco, and they were broadly right. It is true that coffee prices are currently low; but that is the fault of the Vietnamese, who are shamelessly undercutting the market, and not of the planters of 100 years ago.

“If left to their own devices, the natives would rely on nothing but the instant carbohydrate gratification of the plantain … the colonists correctly saw that the export market was limited.”

The loud and controversial former London Mayor and UK foreign secretary further writes: “The best fate for Africa would be if the old colonial powers, or their citizens, scrambled once again in her direction; on the understanding that this time they will not be asked to feel guilty.”

Johnson is yet to state whether he still stands by the comments he made in the piece as pressure mounts on him to come clear on his views.

“Boris Johnson is the prime minister of the United Kingdom. The history of the UK, Windrush, empire, colonialism should be told with sobering accuracy,” Labour MP Dawn Butler told The Independent.

“In order to make sustainable progress we need the current PM who has power and privilege to reflect on what he has said and written.

“I urge the PM to review his previous articles, books and statements and to re-examine them through the brutal lynching that he watched of George Floyd and say whether he regrets anything of what he has said, done or written in the past.”

In July 2019 when Johnson emerged as the new prime minister of the United Kingdom after a leadership contest, there was controversy surrounding his premiership due to some racist, homophobic and sexist statements he has made in the past.

Touted by some as ‘the British Trump’, Johnson has many times made infamous comments about Africa that denigrated the continent.

In 2002, before the then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair visited the Democratic Republic of Congo, Johnson wrote in the Daily Telegraph: “No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird.”

His comments were condemned as racist and Johnson was compelled to apologize when he ran for mayor of London six years later.

Writing on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s visits around the world, Johnson used the term “piccaninnies,” a racist term used to describe black children.

He wrote in the Daily Telegraph in 2002: “What a relief it must be for Blair to get out of England. It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies; and one can imagine that Blair, twice victor abroad but enmired at home, is similarly seduced by foreign politeness.”