Serendipity! I think that word refers to a happy coincidence, but I’m using it for a useful coincidence…
If you were in my world history class when Queen Elizabeth II died, you’d know what I’m getting at—“British imperialism” just happened to be the scheduled topic for that very week. How serendipitous!
(‘A dangerous and intriguing woman’ 30″ x 30″ x 1.5 Inspired by Queen Lozikeyi who led an anti-colonial war in Zimbabwe against the British.)
And if you were in my history class the following week, you’d have learned about colonial soldiers who fought in WWI. Historian Dr. Santanu Das (2014) asks us to consider what happens to our understanding of World War I if we shift the usual Eurocentric focus of the war to the experiences of non-Europeans:
“In spite of important work being done and the recent ‘global turn’ in First World War studies, the social and cultural history of the war still continues to maintain a neat symmetry to the war itself: the non-European aspects, like the non-European sites of battle, remain ‘sideshows’. The contours of the ‘Great War and modern memory’ start to look different if, instead of the writings of an ordinary European solider, let alone a poet like Wilfred Owen or a novelist like Erich Maria Remarque, we consider the memories of an Indian sepoy, a Chinese worker or an African askari.”
(Das 2014)
(‘The centre of the universe’ (SOLD) Inspired by Westerm ethnocentrism, a legacy of imperialism.)
To practice what Dr. Das suggests, my students get to explore ‘A Street Near You,’ an amazing interactive map project that documents where soldiers who fought for the British were born and where they’re buried.
POP QUIZ: According to the map project, where was Labourer Abdul Halim (Son of Ali Raza, of Biga, Ramganj, Noakhali, Bengal) buried?
ANSWER: D, at the Basra Memorial Cemetery, Iraq.
Almost 40,000 Indian soldiers from WWI are buried in Iraq. They died fighting for the British and Allied forces against the Central Powers (largely Ottoman troops). This was referred to as the Middle Eastern theatre, also known as the ‘Mesopotamian Campaign.’
I can’t help but wonder if Labourer Halim experienced any religious friction serving in the Campaign. He was, after all, from Bengal where folks were Sunni Muslim. In service of the British, however, he fought for a Christian empire and against a Sunni Muslim empire—just one of the many complexities of empire.
(‘What can replace a mother’s love?’ 30″ x 40″ x 1.5″ Inspired by the words of a child born of a war rooted in the history of British colonialism in Uganda.)
POP QUIZ: According to the map project, where was Private James Hall (son of James and Eliza Thompson Hall, of Hazelymph, Cambridge, St. James, Jamaica) buried?
ANSWER: B, at the Dar es Salaam War Cemetery, Tanzania.
Private Hall was from Jamaica and was part of the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR). His regiment likely worked to guard the railway line in Tanzania that had been captured from the Germans.
(‘Hypocrisy’ 11″ x 14″ x 1.5″ Inspired by the impassioned words of moral indignation by an African man who had been enslaved in the British Empire in the 18th century—Olaudah Equiano)
The men of the BWIR volunteered to serve the empire. Some colonial troops, however, were forced to serve through conscription. Notably, however, even those who volunteered in good faith and returned home were left with grievances about the racist discrimination they experienced.
“Many of the West Indian men who returned from fighting in the ‘Great War’ came home with a sense of grievance. They had answered Britain’s call. They had fought in a war that was not of their own making, yet played their part in the eventual defeat of Germany and its allies. But they had still faced discrimination for their colour.”
(Imperial War Museum n.d.)
Yes, these are the kinds of things I think about as I paint. Be sure to read the inspirations behind the above paintings. When painting, I’ll often jump up from my painting stool to research something that comes to mind. Like I did when I wondered how many Indian soldiers were buried in Iraq.
Such tragedies of empire are a necessary part of the dialogue that has been triggered by the Queen’s passing. What a week for history teachers everywhere!