Category: Colonialism and ‘Decolonisation’
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There is no moral case for Britain paying slavery reparations
14 May 2023. Nigel Biggar for The Sunday Telegraph. The UK did not play a unique role in the trade in human bondage, but it did in ending it. The clamour for reparations is growing louder. Last month, Laura Trevelyan announced that she is doing penance fro the sins of her slave-owning ancestors by giving…
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Reckoning with Colonialism
8 May 2023. By Samuel Gregg for Public Discourse. As a moral framework for assessing regimes in an imperfect world, Nigel Biggar’s Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning has much to recommend it. A common feature of many cultural revolutions is the effort to distort or even erase historical truth in the service of ideological goals. Past events, customs,…
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Nigel Biggar On Colonialism
5 May 2023. A qualified defense of the British empire, which unwound itself and ended slavery. ‘Nigel Biggar is an Anglican priest, academic and writer. Formerly the Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Oxford, he now directs the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics & Public Life and chairs the board of the UK’s Free…
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Peter Shawn Taylor: Colonialism contained ‘good things as well as bad.’ Why can’t we just accept that?
3 May 2023. By Peter Shawn Taylor for the National Post. Nigel Biggar’s new moral report card on the British Empire argues it’s wrong to dwell on its failures without recognizing its successes. Shortly before he died in 2013, Chinua Achebe — often considered Africa’s greatest novelist — was asked if his view of colonialism…
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National Post: Colonialism isn’t as bad as everyone thinks
1 May 2023. ‘Canada isn’t the only place where left-wing activists are blackening the names of colonial-era figures like John A. Macdonald and Henry Dundas for not living up to modern, ultra-progressive ideals. When British ethicist Nigel Biggar found himself defending 19th-century mining magnate Cecil Rhodes against exaggerated claims of racism from Oxford University students,…
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Afternoon Drive with John Maytham
24 April 2023. Nigel joins John Maytham of the Afternoon Drive podcast to discuss Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning. Listen in the player below or at the Afternoon Drive website. Afternoon Drive with John Maytham (15min) From the Afternoon Drive website: ‘John Maytham is a trained actor who made the switch to radio over 20 years…
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‘Britain’s prosperity is not based on colonial misdoings’: Nigel Biggar on the Economics of Empire
23 April 2023. By Harry Clynch of Disruption Banking. ‘It’s clear that across culture, politics, and the media, an orthodox view of British colonialism has been established. The British Empire was a racist project which exploited its colonies for economic gain. Britain’s former colonies have never recovered from these crimes. Britain owes reparations to them as a result but can never…
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A review reckoning: reflections on the British empire
17 April 2023. The Irish Times. Sir – In his review (March 31st), Marc Mulholland caricatures my book, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, when he reports that I “tell those aggrieved by imperial land-grabbing, discrimination and repression to stiffen the lip, look on the bright side, stop feeling sorry for themselves, and realise that was all for the…
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Distorting our imperial history is dangerous
14 April 2023. By Nigel Biggar for The Times. As brutal regimes flex their muscles, nationalists’ caricatures of the Empire burden Britain with an imaginary guilt What moves voters is often not the analysis of policies. When the think tank These Islands conducted a focus-group survey of the Scottish electorate in 2021, it discovered that…
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Reckoning with Canada’s Colonial Past: In Conversation with Nigel Biggar
6 April 2023. By Peter Shawn Taylor, C2C Journal. ‘Late in life, Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe was asked if his view of colonialism had changed in the half-century since he wrote Things Fall Apart, his famous first novel critical of British rule. “The legacy of colonialism is not a simple one,” he replied, “but one of…