Jeremy Corbyn is wrong about the evils of the British Empire

Under a Corbyn government, we learn today, historical ‘injustice’, colonialism and the role of the British Empire will be taught in the national curriculum. It’s quite staggering: anti-Britishness will be taught in British schools. Make no mistake: this would not be the story of Africa. It would be political propaganda designed to do Britain down.

I loathe identity politics, but I have to say: a lot of the people making the Corbynite proposals are white. Perhaps as a proud African Brit, the descendant of people who received the British and then fought against them in Uganda, I might have ‘privilege’ – as the Corbynistas would doubtless say – to point to another side to the story. 

Before the British and other western powers arrived, much of Africa was a borderless wilderness inhabited by warring tribes and clans who were collectively vulnerable to killer tropical diseases, blinded by ignorance and often enslaved by superstition.