Library Research Notes #41
Historical memory and colonization
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Hello and welcome back to the Library Research Notes newsletter. As always, thank you so much for reading along, and please be sure to let me know if there are any new topics you would like me to cover in a future issue.
There are so many things going on in the world, the United States, and our own neighbourhoods, which makes it difficult to just pick one topic. However, after a series of events over the past few weeks, I’ve decided to write about the absence of historical memory in the United States and how major events can trigger disagreements rooted in collective forgetting.
I know that sounds cryptic, but it will all come together in the research.
If you are intrigued, I hope you will keep reading as we go forward. I believe this topic will span several issues and I hope to have some conversations spurred by it as well.
Again - thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing you in the comments.
Colonialism
As you may know, if you have been on the internet or watched television in the last 72 hours, Queen Elizabeth II passed away on Friday, 9 September 2022. Her passing marks the end of a 70-year timespan dubbed the second Elizabethan age. Her son, Charles, will now take the title of King and be known as Charles III. His decision to use Charles III was surprising because there was a rumour, back in 2005, that Charles might actually take the name George VII, both to honour his grandfather, and to distance himself from the 2 legitimate and 1 illegitimate (mashable.com) “Charles” Kings.
Charles I was beheaded, Charles II was a philanderer, and Charles “III” was never fully recognized as a King. The stories of I and “III” are both interesting, but what I want to focus on here is II, since this Charles oversaw the creation of the Royal African Company (RAC). The company, set up to loot gold from the Gambia River, eventually “developed and led a brutal and sustained slave trade” (wikipedia.com). As stated on the same Wikipedia page: “The RAC shipped more African slaves to the Americas than any other company in the history of the Atlantic slave trade, and was owned entirely by the British Crown”. This sentence alone, and the fact that the monarchy has never formally apologized or offered reparations to the descendants of the humans who were bought and sold for the profit of the ‘crown’, is reason enough to have critical discussions about the Queen’s 70-year reign.
This is certainly something that Charles III might want to distance himself from, but it might actually be a legacy he could point to and make atonement for instead. He could be the one that looks back on his mother’s 70-year reign and discusses how perhaps the ideals of empire and continuing to profit from colonization are wrong. He could acknowledge the harm done in the name of the British Empire when it comes to colonization in general and extends an apology for this disgusting history.
This, I suppose depends on two things:
1 - is the historical memory of the people from nations that have been colonized by the British strong enough to override the collective forgetting of a small number of those who deem it not worthy or unseemly to converse on?
2 - is Charles III willing to take the monarchy in a direction that could be detrimental to the ‘system’ in order to atone for past mistakes?
Only time will tell if Charles will draw on his sentiments from earlier days and try to make right what Queen Elizabeth II and all the monarchs that preceded her did in the name of the British Empire.
For a clear and concise beginner history of colonialism, check out this article from Teen Magazine: What Is Colonialism? A History of Violence, Control, and Exploitation.
Historical memory vs. collective forgetting
As I stated above, the next several pieces will deal with the ideas of historical memory and collective forgetting. These concepts seem, on their face, to be in opposition to one another, but at times they work together to create a society where we decide not to face the facts of the past and, rather reinvent history to our liking. We are seeing this occur in the push to ban books. We see it in curriculum rewrites to downplay the history of slavery and oppression that occurred in the United States. We see it in the move toward a more authoritarian state couched in the fake patriotism of the far right. We see it in the removal of long-held rights to bodily autonomy for pregnant people. And we see it in the everyday microaggressions that occur, in person and online, when people who are afraid to discuss the true history of the US attempt to silence those who speak the truth.
When it comes to colonialism, it seems that many people would prefer to only think about the ‘good’ parts of the past and not the whole story. But if we don’t remember the past with clarity and think about it through a critical lens, we will never be able to move forward into a more equal and fair future. When a world leader passes away, it is fair to be critical of the time they spent leading. We can mourn their death and still be aware of the harm that individuals who have passed on did.
The truth isn’t always going to be pretty, happy, jolly, or what have you. Sometimes the truth is going to hurt, but that is progress. If we feel the pain, we can self-reflect and figure out how to stop that pain from repeating in the future. We can help solve the pain of others through reparations and restoration.
As I move forward in this series, I will be looking at how we interact with the past, how we reconfigure the history that we should preserve, and how we can stop the rewrites and face the truth to move forward, together. I hope that this series will be useful and spur meaningful interactions in the comment threads. Also - as I say each time - please don’t forget to vote!
Good news from the stacks
Thank you for reading this far! Here is your good news…
Buffalo and Erie County Public Library offers free help for the new school year
‘More than books’: 8 ways to best use your local library
From Books to Beats: How the library promotes literacy through music
CELEBRATING BANNED BOOKS WEEK 2022
Thank you for reading the Library Research Notes Newsletter! Now it’s YOUR turn. Please share your thoughts along with any other questions or suggestions for future research, in the comments. I look forward to lively discourse.