In promoting ‘European’ values ​​it is essential to recognize colonial crimes

The re-election of Emmanuel Macron – the first French president born after the disappearance of the French empire – will probably mean the continuation of one of the most notable aspects of his foreign policy in the first term: his policy memorielle. The most emblematic step in this policy was undoubtedly the commissioning of the broad Stora Report on aspects of the French colonization of Algeria. Last year, Germany took a further step in settling accounts with its colonial past by formally apologizing for the genocide committed in present-day Namibia against herero and the namas. The movement Black Lives Matter has also had repercussions throughout Europe in the last two years, with a new Vision on the role of colonial-era slavery in the accumulation of wealth in the United Kingdom, the colonial crimes of Italy in the Horn of Africa or the horrendous atrocities committed in the Belgian Congoamong others.

This is another historical reckoning that led to the emergence of the European project after the end of the Second World War and is celebrated on Europe Day. May 9 is celebrated “peace and unity of the European continent” cornerstone of European self-understanding.

European policies to promote peace, unity, democracy and human rights throughout the world are based on overcoming this chapter of history. Its centrality is such that “the principles that have inspired its creation, development and expansion and that it intends to promote in the rest of the world” are listed in the EU Treaty (art. 21.1) “democracy, the rule of law, the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for human dignity, the principles of equality and solidarity and respect for the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law.”

“This interpretation of European history, of course, avoids the fact that colonialism was not a thing of the past during the first decade of European integration: Algeria and the Belgian Congo, for example, were still colonies when the Treaty of Rome”

This interpretation of European history avoids, of course, the fact that colonialism was not a thing of the past during the first decade of European integration: Algeria and the Belgian Congo, for example, were still colonies when the Treaty of Rome was signed. . It is clear that they did not experience European democracy, the rule of law and respect for human dignity. Building on the work of scholars such as Peo Hansen and Kaylspo Nicolaïdis, who have exposed these inconsistencies in European historiography, my recent article on The International Spectator examines such omissions in the particular context of the EU’s promotion of democracy and human rights in former European colonies. It tries to examine the consequences of the silencing of colonialism in the discourse of the EU.

We know that the European colonial powers energetically and systematically repressed, until the last days of colonial rule, the demands for democratic political participation of the colonial subjects. We know that colonial human rights abuses ranged from the suppression of freedom of association and expression to detention without trial, forced labor, collective punishment and systematic torture. We also know that the rule of law was actively resisted by colonial powers, who regularly resorted to emergency legislation and imposed separate sets of laws for local populations and settlers. In the colonial wars there were acts such as displacements and forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions, and even the use of non-conventional (chemical) weapons in some places where the EU now promotes values ​​of unity and peace.

«LThe promotion of democracy perpetuates in a certain way the discourses of the past by implicitly maintaining a civilizational hierarchy»

The article shows, through a series of examples, that these colonial misdeeds are mostly hushed up in the context of the EU’s promotion of democracy in former colonies. In this sense, when it comes to promoting democracy, the EU has not followed in the footsteps of the politics of memory that is emerging in France, Germany, Belgium and other countries.

This silencing of colonialism in combination with the EU’s “appropriation” of democratic and human rights ideals, the article argues, has an important consequence: that the hegemonic discourses of the colonial era remain intact. In these discourses, the colonizer was enlightened, well-governed, developed, and humane, while primitive violence, extremism, and barbaric criminality were projected onto the other colonized. Thus, the promotion of democracy life in a certain way the discourses of the past by implicitly maintaining a civilizational hierarchy. By ignoring the colonial violence of European states and the denial and systematic violations of human rights, instead of acknowledging them – and possibly atoning for them – Europe manages to maintain “moral superiority” over former colonies that are currently less democratic and respectful of rights. human rights.

Article originally published in English at The International Spectator website.