The Legacy of Colonialism in I&D

The legacy of colonialism and its effects, particularly that of the British Empire, has come into sharp focus in the last two years.  

The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 brought with it discussion, debate, and direct action about Britain’s part in the slave trade, with the toppling of the Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol providing a historic image of the depth of feeling.  

In August 2022 Queen Elizabeth II passed away, and with her, for many people, a particular image of Britain and its colonial past.  

Spanning 400 years, at its peak, the British Empire ruled over 23% of the world population and transported 3.1 million enslaved African people. Over the 20^th century the Empire declined and dissolved, with wider geopolitical shifts and events, such as Indian independence in 1947 and the transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997.  

While many countries have now regained their independence, 14 overseas territories remain under British sovereignty and many are still part of the ‘Commonwealth’, a membership of politically connected former colonised countries. We explored the complex history of the Commonwealth games in a recent blog.

In the last few years at least six Caribbean countries have signalled their intention to remove the Queen as their Head of State: Belize, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Kitts and Nevis. Barbados made the move in 2021.  

What is Colonialism? 

Colonialism is the practice of colonising a country, whereby one country or group enters another, settles there, and exploits the land and people to extract resources.

It is closely linked to imperialism, the ideology of entering and taking control of another country by any means necessary, usually military force, for economic, political or other self-serving gains.  

By nature, colonialism relies on exploitation of native people and resources in the colonised country to support the colonising country. For instance, many countries in the Caribbean suffered colonisation and all crops switched to sugar to meet the rising demand in Western Europe. Labour on these sugar plantations was provided by enslaved natives and enslaved African people.  

Colonialism is responsible for much of the inequality and disparity in living conditions we see worldwide today. The global north are beneficiaries of colonialism, and this must be acknowledged and addressed. Understanding and reflecting on the past is crucial to understanding present and future impacts of colonialism on people and social progress.  

What has been the scale of Britain’s role in colonialism?

As a result of the industrial revolution, from the late 16^th to the 18^th century Western European countries were desperate to expand, gain power and become wealthier. Now, having advanced technology, racing each other to claim the most land, Western Europe colonised large portions of the world by force. Britain played the biggest role in this, colonising 90+ countries, mainly across the global south.  

To fund and enrich Britain, colonised countries and their peoples were subjected to genocide, enslavement, war, disease, famine, oppression, segregation, assimilation, theft, displacement, and much more, stripping them of all human rights and condemning them to life under imperial rule, while making Britain extremely wealthy. 

It is hard to say what the full extent of Britain’s role has been or how native people responded as much history has either been erased or whitewashed and filtered through the colonial perspective. 

How does colonialism impact many countries and people in the world today? 

History is not disconnected from the present; it casts a long shadow. The impact of colonialism does not just disappear when countries take back their independence. Colonialism has a persisting and painful legacy.

Social and cultural: 

Colonisation seeks to control people to use them as a resource. Part of Britain’s strategy to achieving this was to ban local culture and replace it with British ideals (class, dress, religion, beauty standards – which persist today).

This taught that anything native was ‘uncivilised’ and resulted in the erasure of languages, religion and belief systems, art, philosophy, crafts, practices, rituals and more.

For instance, prior to the European colonisation of Nigeria, in Yoruba communities, men and women held roles at all levels of society. Victorian British colonisers came from a society where women were not legally entitled to have property, let alone be in positions of power. Colonisation introduced European patriarchy to Nigerian culture, and passed legislation restricting women from certain jobs, taxing their work unfairly, and enforcing the idea of women as subordinate to men.  

Colonialism also promoted a white supremacist hierarchy of race, one of the most prevalent and overt impacts of colonialism, which continues to be widespread, having severe impacts. We can see this today in ‘colourism’ – where darker skinned people of colour are often subjected to the worst discrimination and exclusion.  

Political, economical and institutional:  

Many former colonised nations continued with British institutions for governance after regaining independence.

This means that while laws and policies progressed in Britain, this is not necessarily the case elsewhere. These lingering and harmful laws concern women, LGBTQ+ people, marginalised ethnic groups, religion, class, working conditions and more. For example, half of the 80 countries worldwide where homosexuality is illegal are former British colonies.  

Power dynamics also continue to influence former colonies due to the nexus of power still sitting with the global north (through capitalism, mining natural resources, exploitative supply chains, restrictive immigration policy, controlling trade and tariffs, etc.), and the global north continues to mass manufacture while the global south suffers the greatest impacts of environmental damage through pollution, rising sea levels, rising temperatures, and health implications.  

Meanwhile, many former colonies are still trying to pull themselves out of the disastrous economic legacy created by colonisation and descendants of enslaved and indigenous people continue to face economic and social inequality.  

Fair reparations have not yet been made to those who have lost culture, community, land and resources and who continue to be marginalised (with some countries nearly losing their entire indigenous populations, e.g. Australia, New Zealand and the Americas).

This results in generational trauma and impacts, meaning that people today don’t have access to the same opportunities and living standards they would have had colonisation not been imposed. 

Once a country has regained independence, it is only the beginning of repairing damage left behind by colonisation.

The list above is not exhaustive; we must continue to dismantle systems of oppression which result in global inequality. We can ally former colonised countries by providing reparations, stopping unethical extraction of natural resources, supporting independence, returning cultural artefacts, reducing taxes and tariffs on trade and donating to grassroots campaigns which make social progress.  

How can we ensure we consider the legacy of empire and colonialism in our work as I&D professionals?  

As with many historical prejudices and power imbalances, many of the ways in which colonialist ideas affect the workplace are subtle.

They hide in implicit biases, value judgement, and power dynamics, so it’s essential to educate ourselves to avoid perpetuating systems of oppression. If you and/or your colleagues are from, or have heritage from, former colonised countries, it is likely that you continue to bear the ongoing impacts of colonisation.  

We’ve shared some reflection questions below to help you start to unpick where these inequalities might be hidden in your workplace systems and behaviours: 

1. Communication styles 

• Does your organisational communication style assume that everyone’s first language is English? Do you use acronyms, figurative language or idioms in a way that could be unclear or excluding to someone not from the UK? 
• How can you allow space for different communication styles, e.g. more direct questioning?  
• Is it clear to your staff how to use different communication channels, and whether they are formal or informal? 

2. Global working

• Do you have systems that allow for different working patterns, structures, styles and philosophies? For instance, are your timesheets able to flex across working patterns, time zones, and cultural festivals?  
• How could you take a ‘global perspective’ on events such as the death of Queen Elizabeth II? As we explained our recent blog, different people had different reactions to the event, often wrapped up with colonialism and the painful legacy of the British Empire. We need to be careful not to silence or censor these reactions, they are legitimate feelings and impact our colleagues.  
• To what extent does the location of your offices, or who sits on leadership teams, replicate the power hierarchies of colonialism? For instance, if you work in the UK and India, are all your senior staff British and other staff Indian? What impact might this have on culture, power dynamics and work relationships? 

3. Recruitment

• How might value judgements about someone’s cultural background affect your recruitment process? For instance, are qualifications from certain universities valued more highly than the same qualifications from others?   
• Does your recruitment and talent attraction strategy take into consideration transferable skills?  
• Are your hiring managers trained to mitigate bias and run an inclusive recruitment process? 
• What does cultural ‘fit’ mean for you? Who might it be excluding? 

Further support

If you’d like some further support on this topic, we can support you in various ways.

If you’re already a member, explore our resources or speak to your account manager.

Otherwise, please get in touch to find out about training, consultancy or membership to support your organisation’s inclusion goals.