Philosophy Politics Aesthetics seminar series. 'Race', History and Representation.

Re-Presenting Reparations: The Historical Trajectory and Outcomes of the Social Movement for African Reparations (SMAR) in the UK.

Esther Stanford-Xosei, University of Chichester.

Esther Stanford-Xosei is a reparationist, jurisconsult specialising in the praxis of law as resistance and PhD student in history at the University of Chichester. Her research focuses on the history of UK based reparations thought, advocacy and activism.

The recent announcement that CARICOM countries have established a Reparations Commission and the publishing of the Encyclopaedia of British Slave Ownership by University College London tracing the allocation of £20 million compensation paid to former British slave-holders for loss of their 'property' in the enslaved on the Abolition of Slavery in the British Empire, has brought the issue of reparations back into prominent focus. In introducing her ground-breaking insider PhD activist research on the historical trajectory of the SMAR, Esther examines the outcomes, thus far, of this social movement through the lens of those that have been active in it. This lecture will take us beyond the usual discourse about the deservedness or not of reparations for Africans and People of African Descent, to highlighting the historical vision and imagination that has animated the development of the movement since the days of slavery until now.

For further information, please contact Dr Cathy Bergin: C.J.Bergin@brighton.ac.uk