Britain is far from combating ‘racism through transformative education’

August 23 is designated by the UN as the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. The theme of many of the events for this year’s commemoration has been ‘Fighting slavery’s legacy of racism through transformative education.’ The UN Secretary-General, speaking earlier this year, pointed out that the resurgence of white supremacist hate can be fought with the most powerful weapon in our arsenal: education.

Five years ago, at the University of Chichester, this is exactly what we did. We established a Masters Degree by Research (MRes) in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora. The aim was not just to present that important history, but also to train students as historians to carry out their own research into any aspect of this history. We were particularly intent on recruiting students of African and Caribbean heritage who are so poorly represented at all levels in universities in Britain.

The MRes was established following the History Matters conference held in London in 2015, supported by the University of Chichester, the Royal Historical Society and the History Association, among others, and aimed at addressing the question as to why young people of African and Caribbean heritage seem to lack interest in studying history in Britain’s schools and universities.

The students responded, indicating that the main problem was the Eurocentric curriculum and presentation of history — and that this focus must change in order to attract young people. The History Matters conference made several important recommendations, including urging the creation of a course that would encourage those who had been alienated to return to education and to both engage them in research and train them as historians. This recommendation led directly to the creation of the MRes.

The MRes degree attracted students of African and Caribbean heritage, who enrolled at the University of Chichester, but since the coursework was conducted entirely online, it therefore attracted students from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the US and Canada, as well as from Britain. It encouraged seven students to continue their education and embark on PhD research; six of the seven remained at the University of Chichester, and one received her PhD two months ago.

The programme appeared to be very successful and likely produced the largest cohort of ‘Black British’ postgraduate history students ever in Britain, the majority of which engaged in PhD research. The only issue was the lack of publicity provided by the university to the programme, which mainly gained traction by word of mouth and on social media. Nevertheless, the University of Chichester appeared to be proud not just of the degree programme, but also of the recruitment of so many students of African and Caribbean heritage to what was otherwise a very monocultural university. It also appeared to be proud of the fact that it employed the first person of African heritage in Britain as a professor of history.

Everything changed in May 2023, however, when the university announced that it was reviewing all of its taught postgraduate degrees. It was subsequently revealed that this review had come about due to numerous financial shortcomings, a serious problem throughout the education sector in Britain caused by inadequate government funding. The University of Chichester then claimed that the MRes programme was not recruiting a sufficient number of students and suspended all recruitment until the next academic year, telling the students who had enrolled that the programme was unavailable.

Some weeks later, it used the pretext of allegedly low recruitment numbers to threaten the writer of this article with redundancy, while attempting to keep these allegations and threats secret from all current students. When these machinations were revealed to the students, they were understandably outraged. They responded with a global petition of protest that has so far attracted more than 11,000 signatories and initiated legal action against the university. Ironically, in suspending recruitment, the University of Chichester produced more publicity for the MRes in three weeks than it had in five years when it had actually wished to attract students.

The events that occurred at the University of Chichester appear to indicate that very little notice is taken of the concerns of the UN and the need to combat ‘racism through transformative education.’ The degree programme was not only unique in Britain, but was also the only course of its kind in Europe. It was open to all and even took some students without first degrees if they could prove an enthusiasm for history, a commitment to study and some ability to write. It produced researchers and PhD students, some of whom subsequently received awards and book contracts.

Yet that was evidently not enough. In previous years other courses and academic programmes in Britain focusing on the history of those of African and Caribbean heritage have also been closed. As a specialist in that history, I’m facing redundancy for the second time in my career.

August 23 is the date of the commencement of the famous Haitian Revolution of 1791, a unique event in which half a million enslaved Africans and their allies overthrow those who claimed to own them, defeated the three great powers of Europe, Britain, France and Spain, and liberated themselves after a protracted struggle of more than a decade.

It was the greatest act of abolition and anti-racism of that era and still resonates with us today. It is for that reason that the MRes programme’s study of history began with the Haitian Revolution, that great struggle that brought the world the first modern definition of human rights. It demonstrated once again that however dire the circumstances, we humans are the agents of historical change and that we can, when united and organised, transform the world and advance our interests.