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Times
16-07-2025
- Times
African tea estates planted by Scots named as world heritage sites
At the turn of the 20th century, planters with seedlings from Edinburgh would have crawled among the sacred trees and waterfalls of Malawi's towering Mount Mulanje, establishing Africa's first commercial tea plantations. Tea from Mulanje can still be bought in the UK. It is a remnant of a colonial history of industrious — and brutal — Scottish planters and Presbyterian missionaries, whose legacy in the area includes the name of Malawi's second city, Blantyre. The region now carries an added significance. The Mount Mulanje cultural landscape was recently designated a world heritage site — one of five new sites in Africa named by Unesco as annual committee meetings ended in Paris. 'Revered as a sacred place inhabited by gods, spirits, and ancestors, [Mulanje] holds deep cultural and spiritual significance,' the Unesco inscription reads. 'The mountain's geological and hydrological features are connected with the belief systems and cultural practices of the Yao, Mang'anja, and Lhomwe peoples.' The number of African world heritage sites has boomed in recent years, from just a few in 1978 when the list began, to 93 in 2018 and 112 as of this week. Unesco also awarded the prestigious designation to the Diy-Gid-Biy cultural landscape of Cameroon's Mandara mountains, the coastal and marine ecosystems of Guinea-Bissau's Bijagós archipelago — Omatí Minhô, and the Gola-Tiwai complex in Sierra Leone. It also extended the designation from South Africa's iSimangaliso Wetland Park into Mozambique's Maputo National Park. Complex colonial histories linger at many Unesco sites in Africa, where European powers had a footprint for hundreds of years and maintain historical ties. This can have a stark symbolism, such as the dramatic degradation of world heritage sites linked to French history in Senegal, which is among the many West African countries now distancing themselves from their former colonial masters. • French rediscover their love of tea — and want to supply Britain Traces of British influence also remain in Sierra Leone, which was established as a colony for freed slaves in 1808 and was the main base for the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, which was pivotal in anti-slaving operations. Sierra Leone's Gola-Tiwai complex is a biodiversity hotspot, hosting more than 1,000 plant species and 55 mammals. According to Unesco, 19 of the mammal species are globally threatened, including key species such as the pygmy hippopotamuses of recent viral video fame. British naturalists such as Henry Smeathman were dispatched to Sierra Leone as early as 1771, and the area that is now the Gola Rainforest National Park — part of the new Unesco site — was commercially logged under the colonial administration.
The Guardian
01-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Shattered Lands by Sam Dalrymple review – the many partitions of southern Asia
Earlier this summer, amid renewed tensions between India and Pakistan following a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, Donald Trump remarked that the two countries had been fighting over Kashmir for 'a thousand years'. It was a glib, ahistorical comment, and was widely ridiculed. Shattered Lands, Sam Dalrymple's urgent and ambitious debut, offers a more comprehensive rebuttal. Far from being a region riven by ancient hatreds, the lands that comprise modern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar – as well as parts of the Gulf – were divided up within living memory from an empire in retreat. 'You can't actually see the Great Wall of China from space,' Dalrymple begins, 'but the border wall dividing India from Pakistan is unmistakable.' Stretching more than 3,000km and flanked by floodlights, thermal vision sensors and landmines, this is more a physical scar left by the hurried dismantling of British India than a traditional geopolitical divide. What might now seem like natural frontiers were shaped by five key events: Burma's exit from the empire in 1937; the separation of Aden that same year, and of the Gulf protectorates in 1947; the division of India and Pakistan, also in 1947; the absorption of more than 550 princely states; and, in 1971, the secession of East Pakistan. Neither ancient nor inevitable, these lines were hastily drawn in committee rooms, colonial offices and war cabinets. What makes Shattered Lands remarkable is not just the breadth of its archival reach or the linguistic range of its interviews (from Bengali to Burmese, Urdu to Konyak), but the way it reframes south Asia's history through the lens of disintegration. The son of acclaimed historian William Dalrymple, Sam nevertheless writes with a distinct sensibility. His work is shaped by a generational awareness of fractured identities, contested borders and the violence of nation-making. Where the elder Dalrymple has often chronicled the grandeur and decline of empires, the younger is more interested in how they splinter. And so, rather than treat the 1947 Partition as the singular rupture, Shattered Lands shows it to be one of many. The imperial map frayed gradually, and each unravelling left its own legacy of dispossession, nationalism and insurgency. Take Burma (now Mynamar), whose reconstitution as a crown colony in 1937 represented the first major partition of the Raj. Dismissed by many Indian elites as peripheral, Burma's separation was both strategic and symbolic. Gandhi, often invoked as a unifier, was among its supporters. 'I have no doubt in my mind that Burma cannot form part of India under swaraj [self rule],' he once wrote, aligning with the view of many Indian leaders who viewed India as Bharat, the sacred geography referred to in the epic Mahabharata, which excluded Burma and Arabia. Speaking to Rangoon's Gujarati community, Gandhi told them they were 'guests in a foreign country' despite many Burmese seeing themselves as Indian. That same year, as Burma and Aden were severed from the Indian Empire, the Congress party adopted Vande Mataram as India's national song. In equating the nation with the Hindu goddess Durga, it alienated Muslims such as Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who increasingly saw Congress as a vehicle for Hindu majoritarianism. The ideological groundwork for the creation of Pakistan was already being laid. Among the most poignant moments in the book is a brief account of a Bible salesman from the Naga hills who volunteers to fight in the second world war. The Nagas are ethnically Tibeto-Burman peoples native to the borderlands of north-east India and north-west Myanmar, with distinct cultural traditions and a strong sense of nationhood that long predates these modern states. When asked if he is Indian or Burmese, the man replies, 'I am a Naga first, a Naga second, and a Naga last.' The British system, designed to sort subjects into clear administrative categories, had no space for an affiliation that transcended colonial borders, and he was turned away. If there's a critique to be made, it's that Dalrymple's account remains largely anchored to the great men of history: viceroys, premiers, politicians, princely elites. While there are flickers of grassroots perspective – such as the Naga would-be soldier and Rohingya families from the borderlands – they often play a supporting role in a narrative shaped by those drawing the maps. Yet perhaps that is the point: these were top-down decisions, made in grand offices, whose human cost has still not fully been reckoned with. More significantly, Shattered Lands speaks powerfully to our present moment. At a time of widespread historical amnesia – when revisionist governments across south Asia are remaking textbooks and erasing inconvenient truths – this book reminds us how recent, contested and fragile these dividing lines are. The prose is vivid, the storytelling cinematic, and Dalrymple draws together forgotten archives from Aden to Assam. Above all, there is a refusal to mythologise, and instead a clear-eyed history that lays bare the possibilities foreclosed by the region's fragmentation. Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia by Sam Dalrymple is published by William Collins (£25). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
The National
01-07-2025
- General
- The National
English museum asks visitors if it should display 2,700-year-old Egyptian mummy
The Manchester Museum in northern England is asking visitors whether it should withdraw an ancient Egyptian mummy from its displayed collections, 200 years after it was first shown. The mummified body of a woman called Asru, who lived in ancient Thebes 2,700 years ago, has been on regular display at the museum since she was unwrapped from her wooden sarcophag i in 1825. Now, a small plaque has been placed next to her body, asking visitors to decide whether or not to keep displaying the artefact. 'Asru's mummified body was unwrapped at the Manchester Natural History Society in April 1825. She has regularly been on display for two centuries since. 'In that time, we have also changed as a museum and are thinking more about how we care for people. 'To mark 200 years since her unwrapping, we would like to start a conversation about her future.' Visitors are invited to share their thoughts online or through a small postal box next to the display. It is part of a wider conversation that museums in the UK are having about their colonial histories behind their collections. Ancient artefacts were often taken by European archaeologists and explorers from their sites and displayed back home, in acts which today would be considered art theft and looting. The Manchester Museum says that 'decolonising' is an 'integral part' or its mission. 'Decolonising is a long-term process that starts with acknowledging the true, violent history of colonialism and how it shapes our world and this museum,' it says on its website. British cotton merchants Robert and William Garnett acquired the coffins with the mummy in the ruins of Thebes in Egypt in the early 1800s and later donated it to the museum. Their father John Garnett was a known slave trader. Curator Dr Campbell Price described the sacred rituals through which Asru was first buried. 'When she died, transformative rituals of mummification were performed on her body, which was carefully wrapped in layers of linen cloth,' he said, in a video about the work. Hieroglyphs on the coffins, one inside the other, give the names of her mother, Tadiamun and her father an 'important official' Ta-Kush. The decision to unwrap her in 1825 was typical of the period's fascination with artefacts, the body and pseudosciences that were popular at the time. 'Such a decision was not uncommon as a form of investigation and entertainment, in 19th century learned societies' Dr Price writes in a blog post about Asru.
The Guardian
01-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Shattered Lands by Sam Dalrymple review – the many partitions of southern Asia
Earlier this summer, amid renewed tensions between India and Pakistan following a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, Donald Trump remarked that the two countries had been fighting over Kashmir for 'a thousand years'. It was a glib, ahistorical comment, and was widely ridiculed. Shattered Lands, Sam Dalrymple's urgent and ambitious debut, offers a more comprehensive rebuttal. Far from being a region riven by ancient hatreds, the lands that comprise modern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar – as well as parts of the Gulf – were divided up within living memory from an empire in retreat. 'You can't actually see the Great Wall of China from space,' Dalrymple begins, 'but the border wall dividing India from Pakistan is unmistakable.' Stretching more than 3,000km and flanked by floodlights, thermal vision sensors and landmines, this is more a physical scar left by the hurried dismantling of British India than a traditional geopolitical divide. What might now seem like natural frontiers were shaped by five key events: Burma's exit from the empire in 1937; the separation of Aden that same year, and of the Gulf protectorates in 1947; the division of India and Pakistan, also in 1947; the absorption of more than 550 princely states; and, in 1971, the secession of East Pakistan. Neither ancient nor inevitable, these lines were hastily drawn in committee rooms, colonial offices and war cabinets. What makes Shattered Lands remarkable is not just the breadth of its archival reach or the linguistic range of its interviews (from Bengali to Burmese, Urdu to Konyak), but the way it reframes south Asia's history through the lens of disintegration. The son of acclaimed historian William Dalrymple, Sam nevertheless writes with a distinct sensibility. His work is shaped by a generational awareness of fractured identities, contested borders and the violence of nation-making. Where the elder Dalrymple has often chronicled the grandeur and decline of empires, the younger is more interested in how they splinter. And so, rather than treat the 1947 Partition as the singular rupture, Shattered Lands shows it to be one of many. The imperial map frayed gradually, and each unravelling left its own legacy of dispossession, nationalism and insurgency. Take Burma (now Mynamar), whose reconstitution as a crown colony in 1937 represented the first major partition of the Raj. Dismissed by many Indian elites as peripheral, Burma's separation was both strategic and symbolic. Gandhi, often invoked as a unifier, was among its supporters. 'I have no doubt in my mind that Burma cannot form part of India under swaraj [self rule],' he once wrote, aligning with the view of many Indian leaders who viewed India as Bharat, the sacred geography referred to in the epic Mahabharata, which excluded Burma and Arabia. Speaking to Rangoon's Gujarati community, Gandhi told them they were 'guests in a foreign country' despite many Burmese seeing themselves as Indian. That same year, as Burma and Aden were severed from the Indian Empire, the Congress party adopted Vande Mataram as India's national song. In equating the nation with the Hindu goddess Durga, it alienated Muslims such as Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who increasingly saw Congress as a vehicle for Hindu majoritarianism. The ideological groundwork for the creation of Pakistan was already being laid. Among the most poignant moments in the book is a brief account of a Bible salesman from the Naga hills who volunteers to fight in the second world war. The Nagas are ethnically Tibeto-Burman peoples native to the borderlands of north-east India and north-west Myanmar, with distinct cultural traditions and a strong sense of nationhood that long predates these modern states. When asked if he is Indian or Burmese, the man replies, 'I am a Naga first, a Naga second, and a Naga last.' The British system, designed to sort subjects into clear administrative categories, had no space for an affiliation that transcended colonial borders, and he was turned away. If there's a critique to be made, it's that Dalrymple's account remains largely anchored to the great men of history: viceroys, premiers, politicians, princely elites. While there are flickers of grassroots perspective – such as the Naga would-be soldier and Rohingya families from the borderlands – they often play a supporting role in a narrative shaped by those drawing the maps. Yet perhaps that is the point: these were top-down decisions, made in grand offices, whose human cost has still not fully been reckoned with. More significantly, Shattered Lands speaks powerfully to our present moment. At a time of widespread historical amnesia – when revisionist governments across south Asia are remaking textbooks and erasing inconvenient truths – this book reminds us how recent, contested and fragile these dividing lines are. The prose is vivid, the storytelling cinematic, and Dalrymple draws together forgotten archives from Aden to Assam. Above all, there is a refusal to mythologise, and instead a clear-eyed history that lays bare the possibilities foreclosed by the region's fragmentation. Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia by Sam Dalrymple is published by William Collins (£25). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Japan and South Korea mark 60 years of ties despite lingering tension and political uncertainty
TOKYO (AP) — Japan and South Korea are marking the 60th anniversary of the normalization of their diplomatic relations Sunday. The two Asian powers, rivals and neighbors, have often had little to celebrate, much of their rancor linked to Japan's brutal colonial rule of Korea in the early 20th century. Things have gotten better in recent years, but both nations — each a strong ally of the United States — now face political uncertainty and a growing unease about the future of their ties. Here's a look at one of Northeast Asia's most crucial relationships, from both capitals, by two correspondents from The Associated Press. The view from Seoul, by Kim Tong-hyung South Korea's new liberal president, Lee Jae Myung, is determined to break sharply from the policies of his disgraced predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, who now faces a trial on charges of leading an insurrection over his imposition of martial law in December. Relations with Japan, however, are one area where Lee, who describes himself as a pragmatist in foreign policy, may find himself cautiously building on Yoon's approach. Before his removal from office in April, the conservative former president tried to repair relations with Japan. Yoon wanted to also tighten the countries' three-way security cooperation with Washington to counter North Korean nuclear threats. In 2023, Yoon announced a South Korea-funded compensation plan for colonial-era forced laborers. That decision caused a strong backlash from victims and their supporters, who had demanded direct payments from Japanese companies and a fresh apology from Tokyo. Yoon's outreach boosted tourism and business ties, but there's still lingering resentment in South Korea that Japan failed to reciprocate Seoul's diplomatic concession by addressing historical grievances more sincerely. While advocating for pragmatism and problem-solving in foreign policy, Lee has also long criticized Japan for allegedly clinging to its imperialist past and blamed that for hurting cooperation between the countries. Some experts say the stability of the countries' improved ties could soon be tested, possibly around the Aug. 15 anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II, when Lee is expected to publicly address the nation's painful history with Japan. Some in Seoul want Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to mark the anniversary with a stronger statement of remorse over Japan's wartime past to put bilateral ties on firmer ground. While wartime history will always linger in the background of Seoul-Tokyo relations, Lee and Ishiba may face a more immediate concern: U.S. President Donald Trump's rising tariffs and other America-first trade policies. South Korea's Hankyoreh newspaper in an editorial this week called for South Korea and Japan to 'collaborate immediately' on a joint response to Trump's policies, arguing that the proposed U.S. tariffs on automobiles pose similar threats to both countries' trade-dependent economies. The view from Tokyo, by Mari Yamaguchi Ishiba, eager to improve ties with Seoul, has acknowledged Japan's wartime aggression and has shown more empathy to Asian victims than his recent predecessors. His first encounter with Lee seemed positive, despite worries in Japan about South Korea's stance under a liberal leader known for attacks on Japan's wartime past. Lee, in that meeting with Ishiba at the G7, likened the two countries to 'neighbors sharing the same front yard' and called for building a future-oriented relationship that moves beyond their 'small differences and disagreements.' Ishiba and Lee agreed to closely communicate and to cooperate on a range of issues, including North Korea's nuclear and missile development. Under a 1965 normalization treaty, Japan provided $500 million in economic assistance to South Korea, saying all wartime compensation issues were settled. However, historical issues including forced labor and sexual abuse of Korean women during the war have disrupted ties over the decades, while South Korea has become an Asian power and a rival to Japan, and while Tokyo, especially during the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 's rule, has promoted revisionist views. Japan has since offered atonement money twice for the so-called 'comfort women,' an earlier semi-private fund and a second one unilaterally dissolved by former South Korean President Moon Jae-in's liberal government. Things have improved in recent years, and Japan is watching to see whether Lee sticks with his conservative predecessor's more conciliatory diplomacy or returns to the confrontation that marked previous liberal governments. Cooperation between the two sides is 'more essential than ever' to overcome their shared problems such as worsening regional security and Trump's tariffs that have shaken free trade systems, Japan's largest-circulation newspaper Yomiuri said in a recent editorial. At a 60th anniversary reception in Tokyo, Ishiba said that he sees 'a bright future' in the relationship. He expressed hope also for cooperation in 'common challenges' such as low birth rates and declining populations. ___ Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea.
