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Empire Circumscribed: Silence, Disconnection, Public Secrets, and the Absent-Presence of the British Empire in Bristol Alex Jason Gapud For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Social Anthropology At The University of Edinburgh 2018 Abstract This thesis explores the ways in which the British Empire is understood and represented in historical discourse and heritage practice in the city of Bristol. It attempts to develop a wider literature on metropolitan post-colonial memory, looking at the ways in which European Empires are understood and talked about in their former metropoles. While commentators including journalists and other scholars have suggested that Britain has an amnesiac relationship with its history of Empire, this thesis uses a more nuanced framework, largely based off of Ann Stoler’s concept of colonial aphasia. As with Stoler, I suggest that this is not so much a matter of memory or forgetting as much as it is about processes of silence, displacement, and disconnection. A central assumption concerning histories of Empire is that they happened a long time ago, somewhere over there and thus, have limited relevance in present-day Britain as artefacts of the past. This thesis looks at both anthropological theory and its own ethnographic data to critically explore what work this central temporal and spatial assumption does, arguing that it is a way in which Britain can effectively displace or write around this fundamentally constitutive and uncomfortably ambivalent aspect of its own history and construction, despite its ongoing material presence. The work ultimately seeks to further destabilise this central assumption, noting the ways in which a port city like Bristol was both fundamental to and fundamentally built by the imperial encounter, both historically and in the present, not least of all through ongoing debates about Bristol’s contentious history as an epicentre of the transatlantic slave trade. Based off of 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork with an emphasis on history workers (particularly heritage volunteers and alternative [non-council] historical actors), the thesis explores various practices taken by these history workers to interpret, narrate, and represent the both the city’s material, urban landscape and its history. Looking at materiality through walking tours, the thesis explores the ways in which the present- absence of Empire is manifested in the cityscape, even if it is not explicitly addressed in the Council’s narrative of the city’s history. Furthermore, Council museum representations effectively circumscribe the wider history of Empire from present day Bristol in accordance with the central assumption above with the exception of discussions of the slave trade which is contained and compartmentalised from the rest of the city’s history. However, while these circumscribed histories of Empire are not effectively addressed by Council actors, they are confronted through alternative, non-Council heritage actors and sometimes framed as a conspiracy by the city’s elite (with ties and roots to Bristol’s mercantile trade) to conceal Bristol’s problematic histories. i In this light, taking into account theorisations of materiality and memory, silence, and public secrets, I ultimately argue that Bristol’s history debates over its past are debates about the very nature of British and English identities, as well as the time and place of Empire in the politics of the present. KW: British Empire, materiality, aphasia, silence, public secret, absent-presence, metropolitan post-colonial memory, circumscription ii Lay Summary How is the British Empire understood today in Britain, a country whose cities were built by the processes, connections, and unequal relationships of Empire? This thesis investigates some of the common assumptions with which the British Empire is often understood today in terms of its when and where; namely that to many (especially white, middle-class) Britons, the Empire was something that happened a long time ago, somewhere else over there. I argue that this central assumption is re-produced and re-written (however consciously or unconsciously) by many actors and volunteers involved in the presentation of history and heritage. The problem with this, however, is that this is a way of effectively disconnecting the connections and relationships between past and present and here and now when it comes to understanding how the history of the British Empire is pertinent and arguably has its continuities (materially in terms of buildings and monuments built by the wealth of Empire and intangibly through racism and structural inequality) in Britain today. Where some scholars and journalists have marked these disconnections as evidence of forgetting this past and declare it a case of amnesia, I am skeptical to over-interpret these motives and instead, consider the observation of a disconnection and what this disconnect effectively does in terms of understanding and in contemporary political debates about identity and the meaning of Britishness and Englishness. I argue that the ways in which the British Empire is understood in local history and heritage in Bristol, the city where I did 12 months of research and fieldwork often involve ‘talking around’ the ambivalent connections and history of Empire and its significance to building Bristol. Although Bristol’s role in the transatlantic slave trade is openly addressed, debates about how that history have been ongoing for over 20 years. However, my thesis looks beyond solely these representations of slavery to make connections to the wider phenomena of Empire which acts as a frame that includes (but is not limited to) transatlantic slavery. iii iv Declaration I, Alex Jason Gapud hereby declare the following: (a) that this thesis has been entirely composed by myself, and (b) either that the work is entirely my own, and (c) that this work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Signed ___________________________ Date _____________________________ v vi Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. i Lay Summary ................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ ix Introduction: Empire as a Narrative ................................................................................................ 1 Chapter One: Empire with a Metropolitan Focus - Material and Immaterial Relationships, Connections, and Continuities ...................................................................................................... 35 Chapter Two: Presenting the Past: The City, Its Past, and its Present via Historical Walking Tours, Presence, and Absence ....................................................................................................... 69 Chapter Three: Silences of Circumscription: ‘Silence,’ Displacing, and Disconnecting Empire 115 Chapter Four: Public ‘Secrets’, Contestations of Power and History, and Historical Topographies of Privilege ............................................................................................................ 171 Afterword: The Haunting of Edward Colston’s Ghost ................................................................ 207 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 215 vii viii Acknowledgements This thesis is firstly dedicated to the memory of Kirsty Bailey and John McGurk, two dear friends whose friendship I will always treasure. Both of their friendships and their devastating losses have been defining experiences over the past few years and I am grateful to have known both of them, and even more privileged to call them friends. “Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.” In the words of one of my heroes, Hillary Rodham Clinton, “it takes a village.” Writing a thesis has been no exception. I am firstly grateful to my family—to my parents Ben and Veny, my brother Eric and my sister-in-law TengTeng—without whom none of this would be possible. Their love and support, their patience and encouragement, and their generous financial contributions have been one of the foundations of not only my work, but who I have become. I am more grateful to you than I can ever say. One of the biggest things I have learned through all of this is that it is a matter of process and becoming. Thank you