In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, disputes, questioning and introspection have spread in the United States, in Europe and particularly in the United Kingdom where a significant wave of questioning has since revolved around the colonial past of the country and its representation. In mid-September, the National Trust, an association responsible for the conservation of great British sites, had indicated that a third of the historic monuments for which it was responsible had links to colonialism or slavery.
But last June, two old British institutions, the Anglican Church and the Bank of England, made an impression on Thursday by expressing repentance over the historic role of some of their members in slavery. This repentance is a response to the work of University College London (UCL) showing that officials of these institutions had profited from human trafficking. “While we recognize the leading role that the clergy and active members of the Anglican Church have played in securing the abolition of slavery, it is a source of shame that others within the Church have actively participated in and benefited from slavery, ”wrote a Church spokesperson.
A nationwide review
Less than a year later, the Church of England, an official Anglican institution, goes further. According to the Guardian, it is now tackling a “contested heritage”, encouraging, through guidelines to be released this week, each of the 12,500 parishes and 42 cathedrals in the country to examine monuments dedicated to slavery and to take action. (modification or outright withdrawal) in consultation with local communities.
The aim of the Church of England is above all to deal with the problem without imposing any systematic decision or measure. It will be appropriate for each parish to consider the heritage elements concerned and to act. According to the Guardian, this ranges from removing a statue, plaque, monument, moving, simply modifying or adding contextual information, or even none of that.
These new considerations of certain heritage items have at times given rise to tensions in British society, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson denouncing “extremists” and calling not to “censor the past” after protests leading to the unbolting of statues or the tag of a monument to Winston Churchill with the inscription “racist”. The current mayor of London, for his part, has recently set up a commission to improve diversity in the public space, a measure that will grow at the heart of the program which led to his re-election this week.
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