Empire unravelled

David Olusuga's Empire documentary does an excellent job of linking the history of the British Empire to the immigration debate today Historian David Olusuga has produced a fascinating series of three programs linking the often censorious approach to the history of the British Empire to the immigration debate today. Olusuga runs through the history of the empire from its founding mother, Queen Elizabeth I, to the closing acts under Queen Elizabeth II. So the role of the East India Company in the colonisation of India is contrasted with the settlement approach and slave trade of the empire to the west in America.The role of tobacco and sugar as cash crops, accompanied by the brutal slave trade, also feature. The way in which so many English colonialists got rich via involvement in the likes of the East India Company, then repatriating their wealth to Britain, where it helped secure land and influence, is another highlight. One fascinating story is that of John Gladstone, the father of William, who created the Indian indentured Labour system. This came about as a result of the abolition of slavery, resulting in Indian workers being brought into replace the slaves in places like Guyana. The high point of the empire comes post World War I when colonies belonging to the defeated powers cede to Britain. But this is also the start of decline. The independence movements grow. A central theme of this series is the effective airbrushing of history to present a positive image of empire. Nowhere is this better illustrated than with the exposure of Operation Legacy. This has involved removing and destroying many documents associated with British atrocities in the likes of the Kenyan war of independence. Olusuga exposes how weeks before the declaration of Kenyan independence in 1963, planes left Nairobi with loads of documents destined for London. The whitewashing, Operation Legacy, relating to the whole empire, went on well into the 1990s. This process has helped build a view of the Empire being a great British civilising venture. Olisuga nicely pulls things together in the final episode, highlighting how the immigration debate particularly requires that people know the truth about empire. One particularly poignant and relevant vignette is when he examines post war migration. So there are Irish, Black and European people coming to help reconstruct Britain after World War II. But at the same time more people are emigrating out of Britain, with the encouragement of government, to Australia and New Zealand. This is nicely illustrated with details of the passengers on the ship Miloja leaving Tilbury on 10 June 1948 destined for Australia, just 15 days before the Windrush docked. The Miloja carried nurses and other hospital workers, just 25 days before the NHS opened its doors. A service at that time hamstrung with skills shortages. This story nicely juxtaposes with the debate over immigration today, in a country with an ageing population and skills shortages. Olusuga packs a lot of information into these three one hour programs but there is a good momentum about the narrative. A number of talking heads of mainly young people whose histories are tied up with empire help elucidate the story. Olusuga and the BBC got some stick from the right wing press for being anti-British. Both, though, deserve credit for putting the series together - it goes some way to explain, in accessible form, the real history of the British Empire and why that is so relevant today. Empire is available on BBC I-player