In 1967, an equestrian statue of Belgian King Leopold II, the owner and absolute ruler of the Free State of Congo from 1886 to 1908, was taken down and discarded on the outskirts of Kinshasa, in today’s Democratic Republic of Congo, as part of President Mobutu’s postcolonial re-indigenising policy. In… Read More
In 2015 the #Rhodesmustfall protests erupted at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The resulting debate and movement soon spread globally, with similar protests occurring at the University of Oxford. This case study shows how protests over symbolic historical representations can draw wider attention to issues of structural… Read More
In June 2016, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi was gifted to the University of Ghana in Accra, by the Indian President. Shortly after, staff and students at the University circulated a petition calling for the statue’s removal due to Gandhi’s racist writings on Africans. In 2018, two years after the… Read More
This book examines the role of post-conflict memorial arts in bringing about gender justice in transitional societies. The book brings together research from scholars around the world who are interested in the gendered dimensions of memory-making in transitional societies. Aimed at those interested in the fields of transitional justice, memory… Read More
This book critically opens new pathways for de-colonial scholarship and the reclamation of indigenous self-definition by women scholars. Indigenous peoples around the world are often socially and gender egalitarian, matricentric, matrifocal, matrilineal, less violent, beyond heteronormative, ecologically sensitive, and with feminine or two-gender deities or spirits, and more. Bernedette Muthien… Read More
The CARGO classroom initiative aims to address the narratives that are missing from the history that is taught in schools across the UK, including the perspectives of individuals of African and African Diaspora descent and the recognition of their resilience, contributions and visionary leadership. Includes lesson plans and they are… Read More
A social enterprise that aims to deliver black British history all across the UK. We run a variety of virtual and in-person programmes to schools, young people and corporations to promote the importance of Black history. We also have a curriculum and develop free and licensable resources for schools to… Read More
In December 2019, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) appointed a Special Committee to probe the early history of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) to identify inequalities in the way the organisation commemorated the dead of the British Empire from the two world wars. Where such inequalities were identified,… Read More
Dedicated to communities who are committed to facing their contested spaces, from statues to historic buildings, to names and dedications, the Toolkit supports institutions and communities who are interested in using a commitment to change as an opportunity to go beyond symbolism, to tell more complete and truthful histories, and… Read More
Resources available for use with staff and students for decolonising the curriculum. Includes teaching resources, glossaries, and workshop materials. Read More
Los Angeles has long been celebrated—and caricatured—as a “city of the future.” Does it follow that this sensibility invites or even requires minimal attention to the past? Given recent and ongoing upheavals across the United States regarding commemorative monuments, statues, and the like—underpinned by increasingly widespread and resonant cries for… Read More