Colonialism Quotes

“The problem of Palestine is exactly the same … as the problem of Ireland, namely, two peoples living in a small country hating each other like hell’,”
― Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning

“As we have heard, when Frederick Douglass visited Britain from 1845 to 1847, he found ‘a perfect absence’ of the racial hatred that had pursued him in the United States.”
― Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning

“Here is a piece of heresy,’ he wrote. ‘The British governed their colony of Nigeria with considerable care. There was a very highly competent cadre of government officials imbued with a high level of knowledge of how to run a country … British”
― Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning

“On the eve of decolonisation, the British often found themselves criticised on both sides – by conservative natives for violating tradition and by progressive natives for not changing it enough.”
― Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning

“David Livingstone’s assessment of Africans in 1857: ‘I have found it difficult to come to a conclusion on their [Africans’] character. They sometimes perform actions remarkably good, and sometimes as strangely the opposite … After long observation, I came to the conclusion that they are just a strange mixture of good and evil as men are everywhere else.”
― Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning

“Up until 1833 Hindu and Muslim holy men had blessed the colours of sepoy regiments,[19] and the British took part in Hindu ceremonies and festivals. Thereafter, such practices were discouraged.”
― Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning

“Because slavery had not existed in England for centuries, the common law was completely silent on the status and treatment of slaves.”
― Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning

“Two hours of Arab grievances drive me into the Synagogue, while after an intensive course of Zionist propaganda I am prepared to embrace Islam.”
― Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning

“There was no essential motivation behind the British Empire.”
― Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning