Furious row over leaked WhatsApp messages from Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch saying she doesn't 'care about colonialism' in Africa because it was only old elites who lost out

 Kemi Badenoch was at the centre of a colonialism row today after WhatsApp messages in which she said she didn't 'care' about its impact on Africa were leaked. 

The Equalities Minister said that those who lost out most when European states controlled Africa were 'old elites' rather than the regular people, in messages handed to Vice News. 

She added that the Europeans who went in 'just made a different bunch of winners and losers', adding 'there was never any concept of ''rights'''.

The comments by the Saffron Walden MP, 40, who was born in London to Nigerian parents, were attacked by Labour, with one MP saying they were 'crass, divisive and painfully inaccurate'.

But Tory figures leapt to her defence, accusing her critics of bullying her for having views and opinions.

Peer Baroness Jenkin likened the situation to that of Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who decided not to attend her party conference next week after threats from trans rights activists. 

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The Equalities Minister said that those who lost out most were 'old elites' rather than the regular people, in messages handed to Vice News.

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She added that the Europeans who went in 'just made a different bunch of winners and losers', adding 'there was never any concept of ''rights'''.

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But Tory figures leapt to her defence, appearing to accuse her critics of bullying her for having views and opinions.'At a time when Rosie Duffield doesn't feel safe to attend her party's conference and yet another woman MP has come off Twitter because of abuse, what is with men who seemingly don't like to see women doing well in politics? Let alone a black woman who has faced extra challenges,' the peer tweeted. 

Ms Badenoch's messages were handed to Vice by Funmi Adebayo,a former associate of the minister. She said she acted after Ms Badenoch was promoted in last week's reshuffle to a role involving the Foreign Office.

Who is Kemi Badenoch?

Born in London to Nigerian parents, Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch has two degrees and worked in McDonald's to support herself through her studies.

Her childhood was spent in part in Lagos, Nigeria and the United States.

She returned to the United Kingdom at the age of 16. After studying Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex, she worked as a software engineer at Logica.

She went on to work at RBS as a systems analyst before working as an associate director at Coutts and later as a director at The Spectator magazine.

She has previously been vocal in her concerns about the the 'woke-ification' of British education. 

She used a Commons speech to highlight the duty of schools to avoid political partisanship. 

She does not want white children being taught about 'white privilege and their inherited racial guilt'.

'Any school which teaches these elements of political race theory as fact, or which promotes partisan political views — such as defunding the police — without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views, is breaking the law,' she said.They were taken from private chats and the Conservative Friends of Nigeria group, she said.

In them, Ms Badenoch said:  'I don't care about colonialism because (I) know what we were doing before colonialism got there. They came in and just made a different bunch of winners and losers.

''There was never any concept of 'rights,' so people who lost out were old elites not every day people.'

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Streatham, told Vice: 'For hundreds of years, the British Empire systematically underdeveloped and extracted resources from the global south. Blaming people for their own suffering and exploitation might be a tried and tested Tory tactic but it's not actually what happened.'

Ms Badenoch also mocked a former black Tory MP's chances of becoming party leader.

When she was asked about Sam Gyimah leading the  Conservatives, she replied 'f*ck no'.

Ms Badenoch has previously been vocal in her concerns about the the 'woke-ification' of British education.

Born in London to Nigerian parents, she has two degrees and worked in McDonald's to support herself through her studies.    

She used a Commons speech to highlight the duty of schools to avoid political partisanship. 

She does not want white children being taught about 'white privilege and their inherited racial guilt'.

'Any school which teaches these elements of political race theory as fact, or which promotes partisan political views — such as defunding the police — without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views, is breaking the law,' she said, adding that schools should not openly support 'the anti-capitalist Black Lives Matter group'.

Minister argues colonialism 'just made a different bunch of winners and losers'

Kemi Badenoch appeared to argue in leaked messages that colonialism simply 'replaced' a system of oppression that existed in Africa before Europeans arrived there.

Africa was divided up by several European powers between 1881 and 1914, with 90 per cent of the continent falling under western control. 

Colonialism, as it came to be known, was driven by economic, political and religious reasons with powerful nations like Germany, France and Britain struggling in a time of depression. 

However, it was also powered by a rivalry between empires, with the European nations racing to acquire as much of the continent as possible.   

Africa had an abundance of raw materials from which Europe could make money from and so Europeans acquired products like oil, ivory, rubber, palm oil, wood, cotton and gum. These products became of greater significance due to the emergence of the Industrial Revolution.  

The conquest of the continent also paved the way for the transatlantic slave trade with millions of Africans forcibly transported out and put to work. 

The period of time has been widely derided by campaigners who have frequently called for more recognition of the horrors of empire. 

However, others, such as Ms Badenoch, have argued against the criticism of colonialism. 

Ms Badendoch said: 'I don't care about colonialism because (I) know what we were doing before colonialism got there. They came in and just made a different bunch of winners and losers.

'There was never any concept of 'rights,' so people who lost out were old elites not every day people.

Her argument has some support.    

Societies in Africa with kings and hierarchical forms of government traditionally kept slaves before Europeans arrived in the continent. They would trade the slaves with neighbouring powers.    

And, during the early years of the transatlantic slave trade, the Portuguese generally purchased Africans who had been enslaved during tribal wars. 

In the early 18th century, the Kings of Dahomey, today known as Benin, became big players in the slave trade. 

They waged a bitter war on their neighbours and captured 10,000, including another important slave trader, the King of Whydah.  

They made £250,000 a year selling people into slavery in 1750. 

 There was an export ‘trade’ in enslaved people, taking them via the Sahara from West to North Africa.

This followed a similar route to other trade goods, such as gold and salt.

Enslaved Africans were also sent to the Middle East, India and even China. 

As trade thrived and the various African states developed, inequality also increased. 

There was vast inequality between men and women, the rich and the poor and the free and the enslaved. 

In fact, the powerful Ethiopian kingdom that existed at the time is thought of as a feudal society. 

This meant that power was consolidated in the hands of those with money and land and they in turn exploited the less well off and forced them to work on their land. 

By the time of the European conquest, African states had developed vastly different cultures, beliefs and industries.  

Millions of Africans died in the period of colonialism. One of the worst atrocities was that carried out by King Leopold II of Belgium. Under his control, up to 8 of the 16 million inhabitants of the Congo were killed. 

Leopold owned the Belgian Congo as his personal property from 1885 to 1908 and subjected its people to forced labour while he exploited the country's rubber reserves - leading to millions of deaths in what some regard as a genocide.

Leopold amassed a huge personal fortune while the Congolese were killed or savagely maimed working on his rubber plantations.

Locals who failed to produce enough rubber would have their hands chopped off or their women taken hostage until the target was met. Others were shot dead.

The plunder of resources also included ivory, copper and diamonds, while Leopold even imported some Congolese people to be put on show at a 'human zoo' in Belgium.

Other looted treasures were put on display at the Africa Museum in Brussels, which Leopold used as a 'propaganda tool' for his colonial project.

American writer Adam Hochschild claimed in his 1998 book King Leopold's Ghost that the death toll from Leopold's policies was as high as 10million Congolese.