Mau Mau Uprising: Colonialism’s Ransom

As a Singaporean and having inadvertently grown up in a postcolonial world, colonialism is

a distant memory. Unknowingly and undoubtedly in ignorance, I’ve grown up romanticising
colonialism. Yet even now as I’ve grown more worldly and much more knowledgeable about its
tainted past, I can’t seem to shake the rosy fog surrounding colonialism in my mind’s eye.

My personal relationship with colonialism is however not unexpected. My grandfather had

worked as a butcher for the British Army, often bringing the fruits of Western prosperity home for
my mum and her siblings. Naturally she too cherishes fond memories of those times and
practically raised me on those many stories of tinned fruit, pastries, sausages and other wondrous
British foods. Being ‘Kampung’ or village kids, their proximity to Western foods was all but
unheard of in the 60s and 70s. Then when Queen Elizabeth (we call her Queen E) visited
Singapore in March of 2006 (and on my birthday too!), my brother was in a small group of children
chosen to greet Her Majesty in Toa Payoh estate. I was only 3 at the time but even I knew it was a
big deal. Everyone loves Her Majesty and like the ‘kiasu’ Singaporeans we all are, fawn over
celebrities taking notice of our tiny island. We really are an excitable people. Her mint coloured
dress and hat are for reasons unknown imprinted in my mind. I remember loving and still do love
Princess Diana even though I was born after her passing. I remember the excitement of Prince
William and Princess Kate’s wedding. And then there was Prince Harry and Princess Meghan’s
wedding which was utterly momentous. Yet equally momentous and quite heartbreaking was their
departure from the royal family. In most recent memory was HRH Prince Philip’s passing and
funeral which my mum and I both watched albeit separately and coincidentally. In short, I love the
royal family.

Then there is British culture and history, in particular Scottish and English history. I almost
joined Pipes and Drums in Secondary 1 as my chosen Co-curricular Activity to become a
bagpiper. Instead I became a Scout which frankly is equally British. My mum and uncle were both
Scouts as well which is yet another link to the idea of Britishness. I adore British marches and
military history. I did a 2500 word research essay on the Acts of Union 1707. I participated twice in
the Commonwealth Essay Competition, once winning a silver award. I am a staunch believer in
the Commonwealth. I’m an avid tea drinker and having discovered Yorkshire’s, exclusively drinks
that. The list of British things I love goes on and on. However since it appears I’ve greatly
detoured from my original intentions into an ode to Britain and the Commonwealth, I shall redirect
this essay.

Frankly, I’m not sure when I began to embrace my ex-imperial masters or if it was innate. I
think in part it has a great deal to do with Singapore’s history in particular and its unique role in
the British Empire. In school, we learn that the British had contributed greatly to the development
of Singapore as a port city and without them, we frankly would not be where we are today. We
built our country on British laws and the Westminster system. We welcomed their investments.
We continue that legacy of maritime trade and naval prowess. In more ways than one, Singapore
is undoubtedly a golden child of Britain and its empire. Simultaneously, we are one of few that
have an unmarred colonial past. Certainly our past is not perfect, the most glaring being the fall of
Singapore and the Japanese occupation in 1942 which many older Singaporeans still feel strongly
about. I remember my grandmother recalling the buzzing din of warplanes and bombers
overhead. However, Singapore certainly gained more than it lost from its imperial masters,
perhaps the reason why there remains a culture of reverence towards the West among many
Singaporeans, even my peers. There is the feeling that Westerners are more affluent and even to
an extent socially superior to locals. Perhaps it is an Asian thing to feel that the West is better than
the East. Or perhaps it can simply be put down to exoticism and curiosity rather than a true and
proper inferiority complex. I however should disclose that I hold no such feelings toward
Westerners. We’re certainly less desperate for a return to the British Empire than our cousin Hong
Kong. Nevertheless as a Commonwealth citizen and a staunch globalist, my relationship with
Britain and colonial history is perhaps reminiscent of a foster child and their romanticised
biological parent, someone they’ve never interacted with but completely obsessed over.

Many other countries are less fortunate. The Indian subcontinent and The Partition was
and remains a prime example of the failure of colonialism. Africa’s relationship with colonialism
too is highly complex. This was poignant and immediately apparent when reading Ngũgĩ wa
Thiong'o’s Weep Not, Child upon which my art piece Mau Mau Uprising: Colonialism’s Ransom
was inspired. As a student of history, I’ve always had a fascination with propaganda, in particular
wartime and communist propaganda. I wanted to draw on those elements in this art piece. Drawn
digitally in pencil, the text “Mau Mau Uprising” and the image of the bound man are imaged in
grayscale to evoke a feeling of being in the past, in contrast to the brightly hued and vibrant Union
Jack evoking the feeling of modern 21st century Britain. Initially, I had imagined the man being
bound by the Union Jack as a depiction of colonialism and Britain’s imperial past. However, I
evaluated my personal experiences with colonialism and the many stories of others past and
present, and decided to relate those numerous experiences and perspectives in my work, hence
the Union Jack and the man both bound by rope. It was designed to demonstrate how both the
African continent and ex-colonial powers both continue to grapple with and are ransomed by the
tarnished but shared colonial history. It remains a shared challenge even to this day. Yet
simultaneously, the upward, weary but hopeful gaze of the man communicates the continual
journey that both parties have to make to perhaps one day reconcile those many and vast
differences. Certainly there have been efforts made in the British Commonwealth and
Francafrique, but much more still needs to be done to heal those wounds.

Having myself reaped the fruits of colonialism and the West, I am hardly the person to
lecture on colonialism. Many of my friends in similar positions certainly feel that they do. They
certainly enjoy criticising colonialism. I however have a smidge more humility. In a postcolonial
world, with many nations still suffering (or enjoying - depending on perspective) from colonial
hangovers, I believe that it remains important to study colonialism. Invariably, our takeaways from
those studies may differ, in my case greatly from my peers, but colonial studies is still necessary.
It is the bedrock upon which global dynamics have been built, consciously or not, or even
purposefully or not. It explains the Afro-European power dynamic, the US-Europe and the
Asia-Europe relationship. It is also the foundation of many social movements today, from the
LGBT debate in Africa and Asia on how homophobia is a colonial-Christian import, to gender
issues to even the climate debate and especially racial discourse. These conservative Western
imports have since entrenched themselves in many societies around the world and have been
adopted as “Asian values” or “African values”, despite their ex-imperial masters having greatly
progressed themselves. And when these enlightened values attempt to move to Asia and Africa,
they have been frustratingly labeled as cultural imperialism and modern colonisation. The study of
colonialism is thus extremely important in navigating the polarisation and misinformation
surrounding many of these issues today. It is particularly important for activists like myself to
understand these issues to be better informed. In Singapore, these issues present themselves in
the constitution and the Singaporean consciousness. Colonial relics such as Section 377A
present a challenge to people like me and the community in our bid for equality. Equally, it
challenges the postcolonial narrative that we have constructed here in Singapore where the idea
of how we succeeded as an independent country has been entrenched in the Singaporean story.
Yet in that independence, we remained shackled to the most vexing of colonial antiquities. Of all
the things we could have adopted from British government. I would very enthusiastically adopt the
Queen as our head of state as opposed to repressive and discriminatory laws borne from 1938
Straits Settlement values and circumstances. What do you think?