Every summer, Britain hosts a classical music festival, the BBC Proms, at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The first Proms was in 1895. The festival lasts weeks and ends with a song, written in the 18th century, titled, “Rule, Britannia!”
It goes:
When Britain first, at Heaven’s commandArose from out the azure main;This was the charter of the land,And guardian angels sang this strain:“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:“Britons never will be slaves.”
And so on.
As you can imagine, in recent years, the usual suspects have complained that this is an offensive reference to Britain’s colonialist past and the mere mention of slaves means that the song ought to be canceled or at the very least rewritten.
Most recently, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, a prominent British cellist who played at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, told the BBC that when the song was performed at last year’s Proms, he left early to avoid hearing it. He said: “I don’t think it should be included and I didn’t stay for that. That’s just my opinion. I think maybe some people don’t realise how uncomfortable a song like that can make a lot of people feel.”
On Good Morning Britain, Alka Sehgal Cuthbert defended the song, explaining that its origins were patriotic — not racist. But her opponent, Femi Oluwole, disagreed.
When it was pointed out to Oluwole that the original poem was written about Alfred the Great defending himself from Viking invaders hundreds of years before the transatlantic slave trade, he replied that it was still objectionable because “it was actively sung by people who were actively engaged in the slave trade.”
“So it’s music from that period that’s the problem?” the presenter asks.
For an idea of how ignorant and self-hating these sentiments are, I advise watching the whole interview.