The complexity of colonial identity

This book reminds us how daunting an intellectual task it is to interrogate the nature of colonial identity. The authors in this volume deftly illustrate how the social and cultural dimensions of empire were – and are – multi-faceted, dynamic and conflicted. This volume is timely, for it urges the reader to pause and reflect on the complexity of our colonial past. And, indeed, our colonial present: as the authors explore, the legacy of transatlantic migration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries continues to shape the social and cul-tural contours of community and identity today. These ongoing influences are dynamic, real and complicated.

At the moment – at least in Canada – ‘colonialism’ is frequently referenced in popular social and political discourse. Usually when used, the word con-notes something wholly negative. It is a heuristic for a monolithic, oppressive force that is unidirectional and fundamentally destructive.

On the one hand, this shorthand is useful and important: it gives us a vocabulary for myriad social ills that have grown out of post-Enlightenment political and economic structures. European hegemony in the modern age has resulted in persistent and intersecting forms of oppression, and this legacy is recognisable across all societies touched by the Western imperialism of the fifteenth to twentieth centuries. Words are powerful: in naming this legacy ‘colonialism’, we hold ourselves to account and create a framework for righting some of the wrongs of the past. On the other hand, if we are reductionist in how we talk about colonialism – by conflating the simplified heuristic with the messier reality – we do ourselves a disservice. Half a millennium of social, political and economic interaction was not monolithic and is not adequately summed up in a single term. If we are to fight the daunting, intersectional forces of racism, sexism and classism (among others) stemming from colonial experiences, we must be clear-eyed about their complexity. We must accept that colonialism was an aggregate of disparate, layered and competing human experiences. These were both positive and negative, and were constantly shifting and being negotiated in light of local circumstances – not only political and economic, but equally environmental, linguistic, social and cultural.

This volume is a compelling case study in this complexity. By examining the connections between the Scottish Highlands and the Atlantic world from a variety of different vantage points, the authors demonstrate that the roles of coloniser and colonised were not fixed.