Many British traditions and products are rooted in empire. How best should we examine them?- Vicki Robinson

In recent years, and particularly since the 2020 BLM protests, Britain has been looking more closely at its history of empire. Although its empire is known globally, it has not been so closely looked at here. Part of this process has been examining the roots of many of our traditions and products.

Some approaches have been clumsy. On 31st January 2020, the day the UK formally left the EU, the BBC tweeted a clip of Nish Kumar introducing a Horrible Histories song, ‘British Things’. Aimed at children, it portrayed a servant telling an increasingly disgruntled Queen Victoria that tea is Indian, sugar is Caribbean, and both have come to her in cruel ways. It ends with there being ‘hardly any’ British things and implies that Britain has contributed nothing to the world. Frankly, it was excruciating.

Concerningly, Kumar appeared to link Brexit with empire. The song also contained numerous inaccuracies, pointed out by Trevor Phillips, contributor to The Equiano Project, in the replies:

“a) slavery ended three years before Victoria became Queen and b) for most of her reign Britain imported much of our sugar – maybe half – from French and German sugar beet producers … Also, you’d be hard put to find “slaves in Africa” cutting cane (Madeira, maybe). And historically, most British tea came from China. Today, over half is imported from East Africa. Spoils the politics, I know, but if we’re trying to tell the anti-colonial story, let’s tell it right...”

More recently, gardener James Wong also came under fire for tweeting in December that “UK gardening culture has racism baked into its DNA”, pointing out that it is epitomised by the “fetishization” (and wild misuse) of words like ‘heritage’ and ‘native’. His wording seemed a touch overblown.

In truth, both Wong and Horrible Histories have a point, many of our common garden plants were imported here by imperialists. The British empire’s desire to control the tea trade led to the Opium Wars with China. To further break the Chinese monopoly, the British East India Company relocated tea cultivation to India via a mix of corporate espionage and the discovery of tea plants in Assam. The indentured Indian workers suffered greatly and strongly supported Gandhi’s campaign for Indian independence. In another part of the empire, attempts to control the profits of the tea trade to America through taxation led to revolts, notably the Boston Tea Party, which also led to independence.

It is important that these challenging topics are raised. The issue is the medium. Twitter is a highly emotive space with a limited word-count that encourages over-simplification. Wong later clarified that gardening is not racist, adding that ‘native’ and ‘heritage’ are used to imply that something is better without any grounding in science. This is fair, and the racist abuse he received for his tweet must be condemned. Horrible Histories’ approach was more worrying. A jaunty song is no place to introduce the difficult and complex subject of empire and children’s education should never be politicised.

It must however be acknowledged that Britain’s avoidance of the subject of empire has itself created an inaccurate, politicised view of history. It works both ways and Horrible Histories should not be singled out unfairly because of a single clip going viral on social media. 

Our history of empire needs to be understood. After all, many Britons today have ancestry rooted in former colonies. Not acknowledging this causes deep frustration and makes it harder to see how much we have changed as a country. Fair-trade tea is now widely available and tea is now grown here in Cornwall. Many Britons are knowledgeable about tea, even exploring its relationship with Buddhist meditation.  

Tea and other plants are neutral. They do not belong to any country. Britain is one of many places with traditions around gardening and tea. The warmth and comfort of British rituals are just as valid as the more esoteric traditions of countries like Japan. We can learn from the past to create a better future. Our traditions encompass both historical pain and the transformation of it. We should be very proud of the progress we have made.

Vicki Robinson

@storiesopinions