Denzil McDaniel: One place, two parts of a community, but far more than a single story

After growing up in her native Africa, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie went to study in the United States and discovered that Americans had a total misconception of her country; and her view of the U.S. was equally misguided.

From literature and the media, Americans were continually fed the narrative of African countries as a backward and very poor place, with little intelligent life. And if you’ve been to the United States, you’ll know it’s a wonderful country and not the gun-toting, drug-ridden violent place of that single story, despite its problems.

A repeated narrative of people creates a stereotype. There is a single story about any place and people, and the phenomenon is relevant all over the world, including our own country.

For centuries, a commonly-held view is that English ruling classes look at Ireland and the Irish as stupid, lesser beings which they treated abominably. Though even that is a generalisation.

And in reverse, many Irish people look at history and see the arrogance of English imperialists.

Chimamanda says that like most stereotypes, it is part of the truth. But only part of the story.

Centenary

As Northern Ireland marks its centenary this week, we should be reminded that partition has resulted in divisions in this part of the island which rely on stereotypes created in very different times past. But stereotypes which are reinforced by each side passing on its own narrative to succeeding generations.

We are in very different times now, the danger of the single story here is that we could be stuck in a past in which we don’t open ourselves up to respect and embrace each other’s differences. We even educate our children in different schools and have large parts of social housing geared to one side or the other.

The recent loyalist violence, despite the fact that it was very much less and limited than years ago, has immediately brought a focus back on that community again.

And the battle for the leadership of the DUP has commentators assessing where the party is now in terms of its fundamental evangelical history and a progression away from that.

In both cases, the attention of the media is on a certain story.

A Channel Four piece interviewed teenagers from “loyalist estates”; asked what her Protestant culture meant to her, one girl said “bonfires, band parades and the Orange Order” and she and others suggested that in a united Ireland they would be fearful of walking down the street, and “they” would “run our culture into the ground”.

Politically, the debate over the DUP leadership has been moved on to the agenda of the NI Protocol, at least by the likes of Jim Allister and some within loyalism. The Orange Order’s Rev. Mervyn Gibson also joined in and suggested that the new leader should be prepared to bring down the Stormont Assembly.

Seriously? And replace it with what, one wonders.

Is all of the above really a measure of where Unionism is at in 2021? Do those elements who want to bring down the Good Friday Agreement represent Unionism’s soul?

Indeed, do the DUP, as the largest single party, along with the rump of the UUP, now represent the views of the Unionist base, never mind the whole of Protestantism?

“Show a people as only one thing over and over and that is what they become,” says Chimamanda.

There is much more than a single story about Unionism, and it was dissected very well on “The View” on BBC NI last Thursday evening. Professor Peter Shirlow, from the University of Liverpool, spoke about an analysis which the university did of elections, showing that less than half of the pro-Union people voted for those two parties.

Of the total number of people who did not vote in Northern Ireland, 76 per cent of them were pro-Union, while of the pro-Union people who did vote, 30 per cent of them voted for other Unionist parties. In fact, the DUP and UUP only captured 49 per cent of the total pro-Union vote, not even a majority.

This backs up other statistics which show many pro-Union voters heading to Alliance or staying at home.

Professor Shirlow pointed out that 64 per cent of pro-Union people supported marriage equality in a survey, and he opined that there was a high level of secularism and social liberalism within the Protestant community. Interestingly, he found that many people in loyalism don’t want tribal politics and generally many people feel abandoned by the politics of Unionism.

On the same programme, journalist Susan McKay spoke about her findings for her upcoming book which includes in-depth interviews with 100 people across the Unionist spectrum.

Across the class divide she found anger about poverty, about the denial of women’s rights, about homophobic attitudes and, indeed, about Unionists not promoting reconciliation. She also found, surprisingly, that a lot of Unionists were open to a Border poll and although they would vote pro-Union, they were democrats and could live with it if the vote went against them.

It certainly sounded a lot more democratic than the idea that a vote would have to be passed by a two-thirds majority.

The News Letter’s Ben Lowry was also on the BBC programme, manfully trying to maintain the line that anger over the Protocol was the main issue. But it must be said, it’s not the only show in town.

Jim Allister and Jamie Bryson are entitled to have their say on these matters, but they appear to have an exaggerated voice and there is more than one story.

Even within loyalism, there are differing opinions, and it is unfair to the many decent, hard-working people in loyalist areas that people only look at their area is when there are protests or street violence.

There is no doubt, that the Protocol is causing angst among some Unionist voters, and also that many fear for their culture in changing times. But no doubt also, that many others within the Unionist community, particularly among younger people, that flags and emblems and old social issues of the past are not modern-day considerations and they are open to change.

And all this before we even consider our growing new communities.

Progressive leadership

Unionism needs space, and it needs to talk to itself about change. It will also need imaginative and progressive leadership.

Unionist leadership generally has not been good in embracing change or preparing their people; yet change has been coming for 50 years, accelerated in the last decade with changing demographics within Northern Ireland as well as a different dynamic in the United Kingdom.

There is also a lesson for Unionism’s traditional enemies in any discussion about change, particularly constitutional change. A humiliated or defeated Unionism would not be good in any new or shared island.

Unionists are no longer in a majority and will have to accommodate different sections, whether in Stormont or the community at large. There is a recognition across Unionism that a shared society is the only way forward and Unionism needs to be more confident going forward.

So, next week’s selection of leader of the DUP is important in that regard. Unionists are not one homogenous group, and the difficulty for the new leader will be in balancing party factions, along with the conservative and liberal elements of the Unionist community.

The choice is between going back to the fundamentalism of the 1960s and moving forward to a shared society. It’s a choice which doesn’t just face the DUP, though.

Many in the civic Unionist community are ahead of the politicians, and have already made the choice to move forward. That is a story that needs to be told too.