A Red Letterbox and the Heritage Quest

Growing up, I had an inexplicable fascination with letterboxes – specifically the Royal Mail ones – which only amplified when I moved abroad for my studies. I could often be found photographing letterboxes and explaining the Royal Cyphers on them to whoever was willing to listen. I vividly remember being overjoyed when my dad located a letterbox with the GR VI (Georgius Rex VI) cypher in downtown Nicosia, as I had only found the ER II (Elizabeth II Regina) ones in Cyprus. However, my fascination rarely led me down the complicated avenues of my country’s colonial past, owing to which, these letterboxes got there in the first place.

Colonial remnants are not hard to find in Cyprus – though their origins are often naturalised in common discourse, especially among younger generations, to whom these seem almost foreign, being so far in the past. Despite the recent addition¹ of the emblem of the Republic of Cyprus, the Presidential Palace of Cyprus carries, to this day, the coat of arms of the United Kingdom, a remnant of British rule on the island. This is not a unique example, with British colonial architecture characterising various buildings in Cyprus, some of which have been repurposed into government offices. Elements of British colonialism can even be seen in the education system in Cyprus, with the English School in Nicosia² being a particularly strong example of this, as it was founded by an Anglican priest during British rule, and still follows the UK education system, with English being the school’s primary language of instruction. Many more schools following this archetype have been established in Cyprus since then, further entrenching the British presence into the education system of the island. Even the legal system of Cyprus is influenced by the English legal system.³

Of course, colonial heritage is not limited to the period of British rule. The iconic Venetian walls, a prominent symbol of Nicosia, were, of course built during Venetian rule of Cyprus;⁴ the Othello bastion, was originally built by the Lusignans and later modified by the Venetians;⁵ the Kition site evidences the presence of Mycenaean Achaeans and Phoenicians on the island,⁶ while mosques and hammams are associated with Ottoman rule. These and many more, are all remnants of a past as adventurous as violent, as majestic as arduous.

As an aspiring heritage scholar, I have begun to ponder on my own fascination with the grand sites found on the island, especially in the context of internalised colonialism, a term my friends and I started using jokingly during my years in higher education, that I have – and I am ashamed to admit this – only recently found out is an actual thing. Internalised colonialism, or more broadly, internalised oppression, occurs alongside intergenerational oppression, with generationally oppressed individuals coming to internalise negative perceptions about themselves (David & Derthick, 2013)⁷ – i.e., they begin to act and think like their coloniser in relation to biases and stereotypes of their own people (Gonzalez et al., 2013).⁸

Discussions of this phenomenon are particularly prevalent on the issue of racial oppression, with Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks being a seminal text in this area.⁹ Here Fanon famously declares that “the black man wants to be white” (Fanon, 1952/1967, p. 11), with increasing whiteness being perceived as bringing black individuals “closer to being a real human being” (Fanon, 1952/1967, p. 18).⁹ In this context, my own idolisation of the grand remnants, sites, and ruins found in Cyprus, may simply point to this deeply psychological and intergenerational experience of inferiority and oppression. This phenomenon takes form in my exasperated remark – Cypriots! – every time anything going on in Cyprus annoys me in the slightest, and I chastise a whole nation, my own nation, as if everyone else has reached enlightenment, and we have been left far behind. I am becoming my own coloniser.

At this point of my heritage journey, I am faced with the difficult task of figuring out what my heritage is, as a Cypriot woman. It is true that the grand sites and grand (his)stories associated with Cyprus represent the island’s heritage, but not necessarily that of Cypriots. I often struggle with the question, If someone else made it, how is it my heritage? How can I accept something as representative of my roots, when it constitutes evidence of my nation’s own oppression? Of course, these questions may be entirely meaningless, as I do not know what kind of ethnic mix I may be the product of, given the diverse peoples that have lived in Cyprus through the centuries, which makes my identity struggle even more complicated.

The way I am currently finding comfort in my heritage quest, is to focus not on the grand and tangible, but the everyday and intangible. I focus on songs, stories, knowledge, crafts, dances, recipes, traditions, proverbs, dialects. I look at the sky every August to determine what the weather will be like in the next year, like my grandfather taught me, and I am learning the handicrafts my grandmother tried to teach me when I was younger, which I scoffed at, seeing them as something archaic – a symbol of how backward my people still were. When I think of grand buildings, I remember the stories I have heard about them more than their architectural elements; and I believe this is the whole point. These are the things I long for when I have no one to speak to in my dialect, and when I miss my mom’s cooking. At the end of the day, perhaps my heritage is simply the endurance and perseverance of my people, their determination to make something out of nothing, to dare to exist, struggle, and create, despite the tumultuous circumstances they always found themselves in.

The value is not in the letterbox, but in every person that has passed by it.

References:

<a href="https://archive.cyprus-mail.com/2013/10/01/president-unveils-republics-emblem-on-palace-facade/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">¹ Psyllides, G. (2013). President unveils Republic’s emblem on palace facade. Cyprus Mail Archives. Available from: https://archive.cyprus-mail.com/2013/10/01/president-unveils-republics-emblem-on-palace-facade/ (Accessed 25/02/2026).</a>

<a href="https://englishschool.ac.cy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">² The English School, Nicosia. https://englishschool.ac.cy/</a>

<a href="https://e-justice.europa.eu/16/EN/national_justice_systems" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">³ National justice systems | European e-Justice Portal.</a>

<a href="https://tcchcyprus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Nicosia-Walls-between-Mula-Bastion-and-Roccas-Bastion.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">⁴ Nicosia Walls between Mula Bastion and Roccas Bastion. tcchcyprus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Nicosia-Walls-between-Mula-Bastion-and-Roccas-Bastion.pdf</a>

<a href="https://www.tcchcyprus.com/projects/othello-tower-citadel-in-famagusta/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">⁵ Othello Tower / Citadel in Famagusta. https://www.tcchcyprus.com/projects/othello-tower-citadel-in-famagusta/</a>

<a href="https://www.visitcyprus.com/discover-cyprus/culture/sites-and-monuments/kition-archaeological-site/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">⁶ Kition Archaeological Site. https://www.visitcyprus.com/discover-cyprus/culture/sites-and-monuments/kition-archaeological-site/</a>

⁷ David, E. J. R. & Derthick, A. O. (2013). What Is Internalized Oppression and So What?. In David, E. J. R. (Ed.), Internalized oppression: The psychology of marginalized groups. Springer Publishing Company.

⁸ Gonzalez, J., Simard, E., Baker-Demaray, T. & Iron Eyes, C. (2013). The Internalized Oppression of North American and Indigenous Peoples. In David, E. J. R. (Ed.), Internalized oppression: The psychology of marginalized groups. Springer Publishing Company.

⁹ Fanon, F. (1967). Black Skin, White Masks (C. L. Markmann, Tans.). Pluto Press. (Original work published 1952).