Editorial: Commemorations and Conversations

Editorials not infrequently stray into the prophetic and the prophetic is risky territory. Nevertheless, I am going to make a prediction. By the middle of this century, there will be a cluster of PhD students preoccupied with the burgeoning of the anniversary culture in the ‘noughties’. Kicked off by the debates on how to mark the new millennium, fuelled by the ‘heritage’ industry, accompanied by a growing academic interest in the contested politics of memory and the modes of memorialisation, this culture flowered in the UK around the commemoration in 2007 of the bicentenary of the British abolition of slavery. In Commonwealth circles, the 60th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth in 2009 attracted attention that was almost entirely lacking at its half-century. Yet it is sometimes hard to guess which anniversaries will attract the attention of the media and the general public. The PhD students of the future might, however, ask why it was that the 50th anniversary of Harold Macmillan's ‘Wind of Change’ speech in February 1960 attracted almost no attention in the UK, South Africa or the wider Commonwealth, although academia marked it with a notable conference at the University of East Anglia last March.1

The year 2010 is a year of anniversaries. Not only is it the centenary of The Round Table, a major event marked by special conferences and publications, but the significant milestone is shared by another organisation that has also emerged from the old imperial chrysalis as a colourful Commonwealth butterfly—the Royal Overseas League (ROSL).2 We are delighted that a review of the ROSL's centenary history appears in this issue. Another anniversary that has more relevance to, and interesting parallels and contrasts with, these Commonwealth markers than secular and casual observers might think is the centenary of the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh, commemorated and celebrated by the ‘World Church’.3 The transition from mission churches to World Church is in some ways similar to that from Empire to Commonwealth, and this anniversary too is marked by strenuous efforts to engage with youth and exploit all the possibilities of new media and ICT. Edinburgh 2010 has its Youth Online Consultation and Youth Multimedia Competition.

The best anniversaries are those that move beyond self-indulgent nostalgia or critical assessment of the past and seize the moment to ask new questions (or old questions in new ways), broaden participation, and break new roads ahead. This is what The Round Table is aiming to do in its centenary events. An example has been set by the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS), itself still eight years away from its next significant birthday,4 with its major initiative, the Commonwealth Conversation.5 Described by the RCS as ‘the largest global dialogue ever undertaken between the peoples of the Commonwealth’, the Conversation sought to:

•	gather the opinions of people across the Commonwealth about what the association should aim to achieve in the future;
•	identify key issues of international concern on which the Commonwealth should campaign and focus;
•	synthesise a summary of recommendations from the people about their vision for the Commonwealth that provides a compelling argument to influence key audiences;
•	produce data and materials that can be used to stimulate widespread discussion beyond the life of the Conversation itself; and
•	raise awareness across the Commonwealth about what the association is and does.

It is gratifying to find The Round Table described as ‘the leading Commonwealth academic journal’ (p. 53), ‘replete’ with Commonwealth stocktaking in the Conversation's final report, An Uncommon Association: A Wealth of Potential. 6 All readers of this journal should read that report or at the very least its summary of recommendations. In their barest form, these recommendations look like the clichéd management-speak that all organisations and enterprises feel obliged to spout: ‘Live out Principles … Lead from the Front … Innovate and Be Bold … Prove Worth … Exploit Unique Strengths … Invest … Short is Sweet … Communicate Clearly … Reach more People’. In the smaller print of the report there are some concrete action points and some hard-hitting criticisms that have undoubtedly ruffled some feathers in the Commonwealth pond. The Commonwealth is repeatedly taken to task for its ‘timidity’, defensiveness and aversion to controversy. The 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting communiqué is dismissed as an ‘interminable list of largely unrelated topics’ (p. 49). Some Commonwealth insiders will murmur ‘Just what we have been saying for years’, others that the timing and tone of the report are unhelpful, even disloyal, although the authors of the report are surely right in asserting that though the Commonwealth Conversation‘undoubtedly created the space for airing a lot of criticism about the Commonwealth, it didn't generate any that did not already exist’ (p. 48) and that it did a great deal to raise consciousness of the Commonwealth and its positive attributes and achievements.

An important paragraph of An Uncommon Association reads:

Measured terms have their place, but our consultations have revealed an urgent need for the Commonwealth to think afresh about brave and innovative ways in which it can invent itself in the eyes of the world. Measured terms must not be used as an excuse for avoiding uncomfortable truths. Any organization committed to building a healthy future must be prepared to open itself to constructive and honest criticism. The Commonwealth has so many strengths. It need not be defensive and it should not be afraid. (p. 41)

Editors, and learned journals, tend to pride themselves on ‘measured’ terms, but what is said of the Commonwealth here is also applicable to The Round Table in its centenary year. The Commonwealth Conversation(s) must continue and this journal will play a full part in this. Once there was a danger that conversations would be dominated by he who shouted the loudest; in 2010 there is perhaps a danger that conversations are dominated by he/she who has the best internet connection and the snappiest soundbite. The conversation must go on but close attention should be paid to who is participating and who is listening.

Notes

1. www.uea.ac.uk/his/eventsnews/events/wind+of+change

2. For The Round Table centenary events and the ‘Empire to Commonwealth’ lecture series at the ROSL, see www.moot.org.uk/about/centenary.asp

3. See www.edinburgh2010.org

4. Founded as the Colonial Institute in 1868.

5. www.thecommonwealthconversation.org/

6. Published on Commonwealth Day 2009 and available on the Commonwealth Conversation website.