adminLovemore Ranga Mataire The Reader
There is a certain respected intellectual who is driven to instant delirium by the mere mention of the phrase post-colony. He believes this must be banned from any serious academic discourse because it gives an illusion of having transcended all linkages with the colony. He contends such a label
must not be attached to “independent” Africa for the continent still groans, still labours and still lumbers under the yoke of “long colonialism”.
Long colonialism is a term yet to establish its niche in academic discourse. The reason may be that the word also gives a veneer of being stuck in the past. Post-colony is a fashionable term that gives birth to a soothing celebratory narrative of having overcome direct colonial rule.
Yet despite having achieved political independence, Africa still suffers from its failure to effectively and psychologically shake off all petals of colonial hegemony.
Long colonialism and the vestiges of the empire are the issues raised in “Imperialism and Popular Culture”, edited by John M. MacKenzie, which deals with a number of issues concerning the British sense of importance or omnipotence from patriotism, popular art, showbiz imperialism- focusing on Peter Lobengula and Ben Shephard to citizens of the empire.
In his introduction, MacKenzie says there was a time in the British body politic when politicians ignored the issue of imperialism at their own peril.
“Nonetheless, the idea that the politician ignored imperialism only at his peril seemed to be confirmed by the two notably imperialist elections of 1895 and 1900. In the former, an Indian, Sir M. M Bhownagree, was able to defeat a working-class sitting member in Bethnal Green North-East by espousing fashionable Unionist and imperialist views.”
But the importance of imperialism was not lost on Cecil Rhodes who commenting on the outbreak of the Boer War in 1889 which seemed to constitute the final bout of popular imperial fervour said “they were tumbling over each other, Liberals and Conservatives, to show which side are the greatest and most enthusiastic imperialists”.
Thus in “Imperialism and Popular Culture”, MacKenzie expertly compiles material from various experts focusing on how imperialism influenced popular culture not only in British colonies but also the mother country. Popular culture became a vehicle for the dominant ideas of the time as it reflected the nationalist and imperialist ideologies throughout Europe.
The book traces the various media through which nationalist ideas were conveyed in late Victorian and Edwardian times in the theatre, “ethnic” shows, juvenile literature, education and the iconography of popular art.
In a chapter on Patriotism and Empire – Music-Hall Entertainment, 1870 -1914, Penny Summerfield advances the view that 19th century hall was known as the “fount of patriotism” but others vehemently dismissed music hall for manipulating working class opinion to favour exploitative imperialist policies.
The absence of mass opposition to the Boer War and the celebrations of victories at Mafikeng convinced others of the pervading effect of music hall which inverted the love of one’s nation into the hatred of another nation, and the fierce craving to destroy the individual members of the other nation.
Music hall was the first indigenous and fully capitalised culture form, which reached its full commercial zenith between 1880 and 1919. It featured a miscellaneous revue of art and amusements- featuring song, dance, music, comic routine, acrobats and animal acts.
According to Summerfield it was the songs of the 1870s which earned music hall its reputation as the “fount of patriotism”. The most famous, widely quoted by historians, was “By Jingo” written by G. W. Hunt in 1877 and performed by G.H. Macdermontt during the crisis of 1877-8, when the Russians threatened to take Constantinople, the Turkish port guarding both the entrance to the Black Sea and the route through the Mediterranean. The British stake in the issue was to keep the route East to Indian the principal British colony, free from interference by any of the European Great Powers.
Given the array of contributors, the book offers fascinating insights into the history of both the media and imperialist ideology. It is handy to historians and students of cultural and social history, media studies and imperial history as well as general readers interested in the wider concerns of propaganda.
The irony was that before the 1870s, Turkey, whose defence was now advocated as a moral imperative, had been regarded in less than sympathetic terms as despotic ‘heathen’ power endangering the independence of the Balkan states.
However, it was such subtleties that music hall jingoism ignored. Its appeal depended upon the presentation of complex issues of international politics in black and white, with Britain’s cause always just and inevitably victorious.
Various songs were composed in support of British’s imperial interests and the songs found expression in the daily lives of the ordinary people. A typical example is the description of the Russians as dogs of war in the song ‘The Dogs of War,’ which derisively goes like:
The ‘Dogs of War’ are loose and the rugged Russian Bear,
Full bent on blood and robbery, has crawled out of his lair,
It seems a thrashing now and then, will never help to tame,
The brute, and so he’s bent upon the ‘same old game’
Given the array of contributors, the book offers fascinating insights into the history of both the media and imperialist ideology. It is handy to historians and students of cultural and social history, media studies and imperial history as well as general readers interested in the wider concerns of propaganda.
Online Reporter