Verene Shepherd | University of Cambridge says ‘Mea Culpa’

When I entered Cambridge University for my PhD in history after completing the BA and MPhil also in history, at The University of the West Indies, I did so during a period of heightened protest against the apartheid regime in South Africa, which I joined, of course, scrutinising the origins of every apple, every bottle of wine, and other products.

But I detected no talk of calling on Britain to make amends for the debilitating colonial inheritance; no movement to call on former colonial powers to adopt a new approach to development by engaging reparation advocates in meaningful dialogues on addressing the legacies of colonialism and the causes and consequences of the colonial debt; no engagement of the colleges with their own relationship to the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement of Africans. How times have changed. The transition from research to advocacy at Cambridge University is yet to be seen, but some scholars there have started to unsettle the obstructionist theory of distance, according to which historical acts have no contemporary relevance or necessity for repair.

Proof of this trend is the growing number of colleges that have launched studies into their past, specifically their connection to African enslavement. Among these are Jesus College, which has established a Legacy of Slavery Working Party; Kings College; and others. In light of growing public interest in the issue of British universities’ historical links to slavery, a study carried out by the Legacies of Enslavement Advisory Group, appointed in 2019 by the University of Cambridge’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, and including historian Dr Sabine Cadeau, found that the nuiversity and its colleges benefited significantly from companies and individuals participating in the trans-Atlantic trafficking in enslaved Africans.

EAST INDIA COMPANY

The research found that fellows from Cambridge colleges were involved with the East India Company, first formed in 1599 and which was active in the trade in Malagasy enslaved persons. Names of Cambridge academics are also present on the founding documents of the successor new East India Company, the charter of which mentions chattel slavery, and which transported enslaved Africans from Mozambique and Madagascar.

Graduates of St John’s College were identified as leaders of the Virginia Company, founded in 1607 and operational in the newly colonised Americas and Bermuda. The Virginia Company trafficked enslaved Africans to the Virginia Colony via Jamestown in 1619 as well as to Bermuda while continuing the long history of enslavement of Indigenous Peoples from 1607 until well into the 18th century.

The study also showed that from the 1660s, the parents of Cambridge students and influential college benefactors were among those who led and invested in the Royal African Company, which played a key role in the trans-Atlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans. A similar pattern can be identified with the South Sea Company in the early 18th century. Indeed, the study revealed that Cambridge University’s most significant and direct financial involvement in slavery centred on its investments in the South Sea Company when Cambridge colleges (Corpus Christi, Gonville and Caius, Jesus, King’s, Pembroke and likely others) directly purchased South Sea Company shares and annuities during the years of the company’s major participation in the trans-Atlantic trafficking in enslaved Africans. According to the report, the university received financial and capital donations from investors in the South Sea and Royal African Companies.

“Tobias Rustat’s donations, which include significant funding for the University Library, may not have derived directly from the profits of the slave trade, but he was a leading figure as a director of the Royal African Company … .”

RUSTAT’S MEMORIAL

Attempts by Jesus College to remove Rustat’s memorial from the college chapel have failed. Another benefactor, Lord Fitzwilliam, supported the foundation of the Fitzwilliam museum in 1816.

From the mid-17th to the 19th century, Cambridge University and its colleges earned significant amounts of money from the education of the heirs of many involved in the trade, and ownership of enslaved people, receiving significant amounts of money from these students in fees, representing a long-lasting institutional exposure to wealth derived from slavery. Such financial involvement both helped to facilitate the slavery enterprise and brought very significant financial benefits to Cambridge as stated by the Legacies of Enslavement report.

Beyond the financial benefits to Cambridge, the university provided the foundational growth of academic racism. From as early as 1670, students of Cambridge were allegedly advocating the narrative of a fundamental distinction between people based on race. Dr Thomas Townes, the son of a Barbadian planter, pursued ‘scientific research’, which was noticed by the Royal Society and heralded the start of the university’s research into the differences between black and white people.

Following its investigation, the Legacies of Enslavement Advisory Group made a series of recommendations, which the University of Cambridge has agreed to implement. These include:

• Creating a Cambridge Legacies of Enslavement Fund starting with a £1.5 million seed funding that will be put towards the research, community engagement, and partnership activities proposed in the report.

• Setting up a dedicated Cambridge Legacies of Enslavement Research Centre to continue the investigations initiated by the inquiry as well as to encompass global Black British histories and enhancing existing academic links with universities in the Caribbean and West Africa.

• Collaborating further with Caribbean institutions through funding and creating opportunities for not only research there, but for scholars from the Caribbean and Africa to study at the university.

• Increasing the number of postgraduate scholarships and bursaries for underrepresented cohorts and minority ethnic communities such as Black British, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and students from Africa and the Caribbean.

• Memorialising black scholars by commissioning a piece of art commemorating the achievements of black academics in the university.

• Naming some streets and open spaces in the Cambridge Innovation District after prominent black Cambridge graduates as well as notable abolitionists.

• Stepping up efforts by the university’s leadership team to help recruit, retain, mentor, and more generally, support the professional advancement of black members of staff.

MEANINGFUL CHANGE

The recommendations by the university, therefore, purport to create meaningful change through research and institution building, engagement with black British communities, university partnerships, and memorialisation. They have also supported the actions by the British museum to return the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. I am happy that such actions of returning Africa’s looted heritage are being undertaken, but I always question what I regard as the hypocrisy of repatriating articles stolen during the period of the trafficking and chattelisation of Africans while at the same time claiming that slavery and the trafficking were legal at the time so “no” to reparation.

Time will tell if these recommendations will be implemented, with tangible results for the Caribbean and Africa, the scenes of the greatest crimes against humanity. Most of the recommendations relate to repair in the UK – necessary actions, of course - but chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, Prof Hilary Beckles, has repeatedly accused UK universities of “researching and running” rather than engaging in advocacy and joining with Caribbean scholars in their calls for a discursive return to the reparatory justice approach to economic development.

Prof Verene Shepherd is the director of Centre for Reparation Research, The University of the West Indies.. Send feedback to reparation.research@uwimona.edu.jm.