A Labour MP has been left red-faced after claiming a map of colonial Africa ‘has been hidden from you all your life’ – despite it being taught in schools.
Claudia Webbe triggered a Twitter storm when she posted a shot of the continent carved up between European empires in the 19th century.
The Leicester East MP, who was due to face trial last month for allegedly threatening a woman, claimed people had never been shown the image.
But social media users slammed the ‘ignorant’ tweet, pointing out the scramble for Africa is taught in secondary schools at Key Stage Three.
In the 18th and 19th century European nations vied for strategic superiority on the continent by invading as fast as they could.
Britain and France quickly became the two main players in the race to conquer the area.
France seized most of West and northern Africa, with British enclaves carved out in Nigeria and Egypt.
Britain’s influence spanned from the Mediterranean to the Cape in South Africa with the acquisition of Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania.
Other powers included Belgium, which took the Belgian Congo in the centre of the continent, and Germany which had colonies in the east and west.
Claudia Webbe triggered a Twitter storm when she posted a shot of the continent carved up between European empires in the 19th century
Ms Webbe had last night shared the map of African colonies after the Berlin Conference in 1884.
She wrote: ‘This map has been hidden from you all your life. This is how they carved up Africa.’
Ms Webbe was quickly corrected for her ‘uneducated’ comments, with historians and politicians weighing in.
Dr Katherine Schofield, a historian at King’s College London wrote: ‘If you didn’t do colonialism in Africa directly, surely you studied the ”scramble for Africa” when you studied the causes of WWI? We did.’
King’s College London classics PhD student David Wilson put: ‘Claudia Webbe, once a really dreadful councillor at @IslingtonBC, now crashes on idiotically.’
He added: ‘We were all taught about the ”scramble for Africa”. As ever, she wasn’t listening.’
Coronation Street actor Charlie Lawson posted: ‘Wasn’t hidden from me. We studied history.’
Tory MP Ben Bradley said: ‘Hidden away, seen by nobody, deep in the pages on the National Curriculum for Key Stage 3 – taught in basically every secondary school in the land.’
Oxford-educated Dr Chris Parry, a former Royal Navy Rear Admiral, wrote: ‘Not hidden from me. I had an education, for which I am grateful.’
Sharing a map of Britain, he added: ‘By the way, this is how the Angles, Jutes and Saxons carved up this country. What’s your point?’
Save Our Status, a Twitter page dedicated to defending monuments to Great Britons, commented: ‘We keep hearing of ”hidden history” from those who want to plaster our statues with propaganda plaques.
‘So next time you hear that, just remember this ridiculous tweet. There’s no such thing as ”hidden history”, just ignorance.’
In Key Stage Three the National Curriculum teaches students about the colonisation of the continent.
Chapter 4 of The Victorian Empire by Collins focuses on The Scramble for Africa between 1876 and 1914.
In the teachers’ guide to the book, it says students should ‘study a map of Africa in 1900, with all of the different European possessions shaded and labelled’.
It adds: ‘Onto this map, pupils could label information about the different stages of European colonisation.
‘Gaining Cape Colony in 1814; invading Egypt in 1882; colonising parts of western Africa through the United African Company, and parts of eastern Africa through the Imperial British East Africa Company, and so on.’
Chapter 4 of The Victorian Empire by Collins focuses on The Scramble for Africa
Britain fought several costly wars to ensure predominance in the continent, including the famous Anglo-Zulu war of 1879.
With the development of the machine gun, among other military innovations, colonising powers were easily able to take over.
In a single day’s battle for Sudan, 10,800 Sudanese were killed, compared with 48 British soldiers.
British rule in Africa continued for over a hundred years, mostly by using ‘indirect’ puppet governments to put down rebellions.
Ms Webbe was due to stand trial on March 16 amid allegations she harassed a woman.
The 56-year-old was accused of making a series of phone calls to Michelle Merritt and threatening her on two occasions between September 2018 and April last year.
She pleaded not guilty on November 11 but was still suspended from the Labour Party until her hearing.
But the case at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on March 16 was adjourned because her barrister Courtenay Griffiths QC was rushed to hospital.
Ms Webbe was elected in the December 2019 general election, taking over the seat previously held by Keith Vaz.