Latest news with #University of Edinburgh
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on the legacies of slavery: the response to Edinburgh's report must go beyond academia
The British campaign against slavery and the slave trade has long been recognised as an inspiration for later social movements. But for centuries, the brutality inflicted on the millions of African people who were bought and sold into chattel slavery in British colonies was either veiled from view or treated as a sin that was expunged when it was abolished. New research from the University of Edinburgh, about its history of involvement in slavery and the slave trade, is part of a belated reckoning by UK institutions with this disturbing aspect of their past. Another Scottish university, Glasgow, was among the first to embark on such a process. In response to evidence about substantial gifts from plantation owners and slave traders, it partnered with the University of the West Indies on a reparative justice programme in 2019. Edinburgh's report highlights a minimum of £30m in funds raised, over the years, from numerous donors with links to slavery, and points to the university's historic role as a 'haven' for racist thinkers, some of them prominent advocates of the pseudoscience of phrenology. It also criticises the university for being less active in the abolitionist movement than others. Recommendations, to which the university is weighing its response, include the establishment of a new racism and colonialism study centre, the renaming of buildings, and efforts to diversify the university's staff and student body, with a particular focus on the low number of Black students and academics. But as well as new policies and financial decisions such as the creation of new scholarships or a summer school, the research demands a reaction beyond the institution itself. The University of Edinburgh has a prominent role in the life of the Scottish capital, with Gordon Brown and John Swinney among its alumni. Steps to address injustices within academia, which are part of the legacy of slavery, are important. But the point of such investigations goes beyond this. As well as prompting internal changes, the report should promote stronger public understanding of the ways in which present-day unfairness is rooted in the abusive practices and ideologies of the past. For too long, the myriad ways in which our modern world was shaped by grossly unequal colonial-era relations were glossed over as historians focused on other topics – often those which showed Britain in a favourable light. But the truth is that traces of the exploitative dynamics of previous centuries are all around us: in our global financial system; in the landscapes and built environments of former imperial powers and the countries they colonised; in museum collections; and in the histories of organisations such as the Guardian, which examined its own links to slavery in the Cotton Capital project. Institutions with centuries of power and influence behind them, and endowments of obscure provenance, have a responsibility to be open that some have started to recognise. Universities such as Edinburgh cannot, in good conscience, continue to trade on past achievements unless they are also honest about the parts of their past that provoke anger and regret. But reflecting on historical events, while necessary, is not sufficient. As this report makes clear, the challenge for organisations that benefited directly from slavery, and colonial-era exploitation more broadly, is to ensure that their actions in the present are guided by awareness of the past.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
University of Edinburgh profited from slavery and promoted racist pseudoscience
An inquiry into the University of Edinburgh has found it played an outsized role in the creation of racist pseudoscience and greatly profited from transatlantic slavery. It also found that the institution had not engaged meaningfully with students and staff concerned about its ties to Israel, and that students and staff experiencing racism tended not to report it. A report entitled Decolonised Transformations: Confronting the University of Edinburgh's History and Legacies of Enslavement and Colonialism found that the institution raised the equivalent of at least £30million today from slavery and empire linked sources, with the value potentially over £800m if measured by 'Relative Output' which measures the amount of income or wealth relative to the total output of the economy. It found that: "The University of Edinburgh was a haven for professors and alumni who developed theories of racial inferiority and white supremacism, such as the idea that Africans were inferior to whites and that non-white peoples could be colonised for the profit of European nations. Read More: We visit the University of Edinburgh student encampment protesting for Palestine University of Edinburgh principal defends pay despite plans for £140m cuts LIVE: Donald Trump in Scotland as President spends second day at Turnberry "These ideas provided powerful intellectual justifications for enslavement and colonialism and underpinned the rapid expansion of European empires around the world. "University of Edinburgh professors and alumni played an outsized role in developing racial pseudo-sciences that created civilisational hierarchies and habitually positioned Black people at the bottom and white people at the top. "These ideas also provided the basis for British ethnology. Examples include Adam Ferguson, Dugald Stewart, David Hume, James Cowle Prichard, Robert Knox and Arthur James Balfour who, through research and teaching, proliferated racist ideas against African, Asian, Middle Eastern and other non-European peoples that underpinned enslavement and colonialism." In a modern context, the report found many students and staff from racial minorities face ongoing racism, with reporting systems 'potentially inadequate' as these did not tend to be reported. The report also made reference to the Balfour Declaration, the letter from British foreign secretary and chancellor of the University of [[Edinburgh]] to Lord Rothschild favouring the creation of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. The UK Government had pledged to recognise Arab independence in the region in exchange for support against the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, and had also secretly agreed with France to divide what was then Ottoman Syria between the two nations. A protest at the University of Edinburgh (Image: Newsquest) Following the war, British Mandatory Palestine was established and eventually partitioned to create modern day Israel and Palestine. The report said: "One of the University's longest serving Chancellors, Arthur James Balfour (1891–1930), played a unique role in establishing and maintaining a century-long process of imperial and settler-colonial rule in Palestine through the 1917 Balfour Declaration. "This Declaration led to the partitioning of Palestine and the permanent exile of many Palestinians from their homeland. "Balfour assumed race to be a social and biological fact and upheld the right of white Europeans to govern and dominate non-Europeans. This racist view directly affected his attitude towards his governance of imperial and domestic affairs. "The University of Edinburgh continues to be entangled in the historical harms that Balfour instigated through its direct and indirect investments that are supporting the Israeli government's human rights and international law violations against Palestinian people today." Students currently enrolled at the University have protested about the institution's ties to [[Israel]] in the context of its ongoing occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and it's military operations in the former. The report said: "To date, the University of Edinburgh's senior leadership team and Court have not demonstrated sufficient direct engagement with the requests emerging from one of the most well-supported community mobilisations in the history of the University. "Importantly, this mobilisation is comparable to the successful divestment campaign that took place in the 1970s from another apartheid state, South Africa. In 1971, the University of Edinburgh listened to students and staff, and after intense protests it sold all its investments complicit with apartheid. 148 But in the case of Palestine, the senior leadership team has deployed a 'conflict agnostic' approach, a term that denies the Nakba and its settler-colonial afterlife. Read More: Horrifying images are clearly the tipping point for public outrage over Gaza SNP to force vote on recognising Palestine to coincide with UN summit Glasgow University accused of profiting from 'blood money' due to Gaza ties "This approach also means that the University of Edinburgh runs the risk of eluding due diligence and exposing itself to complicity with genocide, crimes against humanity and an illegal occupation." The report recommended that the University of Edinburgh de-adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. The IHRA definition, which is used by most UK universities, includes 11 examples to support that definition, seven of which reference the state of Israel. Falling under its definition of antisemitism are "claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour", "applying double standards by requiring of it a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation", and "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis". The University of Edinburgh report said: "The IHRA definition violates academic freedom and freedom of speech by framing any criticism of Israel's policies of settler-colonial dispossession driven by state racism as a form of antisemitism." The report further found that donations explicitly sought from slavers were used to help build the Old College on South Bridge in the 1790s and the old medical school near Bristo Square in the 1870s. The university had at least 15 endowments derived from African enslavement and 12 linked to British colonialism in India, Singapore and South Africa, and 10 of those were still active and had a minimum value today of £9.4m. It currently has close to 300 skulls gathered in the 1800s from enslaved and dispossessed people adherents of phrenology, a racist pseudoscience which holds that intelligence can be determined by skull shape. University Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Peter Mathieson said: "The publication of the University of Edinburgh's Race Review is a landmark moment in this ancient institution's willingness and determination to learn from its past, as well as its present, in order to shape its future. "The University of Edinburgh acknowledges its role not only in profiting materially from practices and systems that caused so much suffering but also in contributing to the production and perpetuation of racialised thought which significantly impacted ethnically and racially minoritised communities. "On behalf of the institution, I extend our deepest apologies to all individuals and communities impacted by the legacies of our connections to enslavement and colonialism. "We cannot have selective memory about our past, focusing only on the historical achievements which make us feel proud. We are right to address its complexities too, and learn from those aspects which are highly challenging to confront. Only by fully engaging with and understanding the entirety of our institutional past can we truly learn and move forward. We are unwavering in our commitment to a future where racism, racial discrimination, and racialised inequalities have no place in higher education or society. The findings of the Race Review will help to inform our evolving policies and practices as we design a University fit for the future. "Our institutional vision embodies a proactive approach to fostering an environment of racial equality and justice, through our research, teaching, improved institutional practices and community engagement. We will also continue to strengthen our global partnerships, recognising that we do not have all of the answers ourselves and that building progressive, consultative and equitable relationships is crucial. "I am deeply grateful to everyone that contributed to the University of Edinburgh's Race Review, and in particular to Professor Tommy Curry, Dr Nicola Frith and Chris Cox who led the various sections, to community members for their active involvement in discussions and workshops and also to the Steering Group chaired originally by Sir Geoff Palmer: Geoff sadly died in June 2025 but he had seen the draft report and he and I reflected together on the importance of this work, and its legacy, very shortly before his death. We will honour his memory through our ongoing commitment and contribution to advancing race equality within our institution and in society more broadly. "
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Edinburgh University had ‘outsized' role in creating racist scientific theories, inquiry finds
The University of Edinburgh, one of the UK's oldest and most prestigious educational institutions, played an 'outsized' role in the creation of racist scientific theories and greatly profited from transatlantic slavery, a landmark inquiry into its history has found. The university raised the equivalent of at least £30m from former students and donors who had links to the enslavement of African peoples, the plantation economy and exploitative wealth-gathering throughout the British empire, according to the findings of an official investigation seen by the Guardian. The inquiry found that Edinburgh became a 'haven' for professors who developed theories of white supremacism in the 18th and 19th centuries, and who played a pivotal role in the creation of discredited 'racial pseudo-sciences' that placed Africans at the bottom of a racial hierarchy. It reveals the ancient university – which was established in the 16th century – still had bequests worth £9.4m that came directly from donors linked to enslavement, colonial conquests and those pseudo-sciences, and which funded lectures, medals and fellowships that continue today. Sir Peter Mathieson, the university's principal, who commissioned the investigation, said its findings were 'hard to read' but that Edinburgh could not have a 'selective memory' about its history and achievements. In an official statement, Mathieson extended the university's deepest apologies for 'its role not only in profiting materially from practices and systems that caused so much suffering but also in contributing to the production and perpetuation of racialised thought which significantly impacted ethnically and racially minoritised communities'. The investigation also found that: The university had explicitly sought donations from graduates linked to transatlantic slavery to help build two of its most famous buildings, Old College on South Bridge in the 1790s and the old medical school near Bristo Square in the 1870s. The donations were equivalent to approximately £30m in today's prices, or the higher figure of £202m based on the growth of wages since they were received, and as much as £845m based on economic growth since then. The university had at least 15 endowments derived from African enslavement and 12 linked to British colonialism in India, Singapore and South Africa, and 10 of those were still active and had a minimum value today of £9.4m. The university holds nearly 300 skulls gathered in the 1800s from enslaved and dispossessed people by phrenologists in Edinburgh who wrongly believed skull shape determined a person's character and morals. Fewer than 1% of its staff and just over 2% of its students were Black, well below the 4% of the UK population, and despite Edinburgh's status as a global institution. The report's authors said their findings raised serious questions about the university's role as the seat of the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th and 19th centuries when it became famous for the work of luminaries such as the economist Adam Smith and the philosopher David Hume. The fact its history was in part 'connected to slavery and colonialism, the violent taking of bodies, labour, rights, resources, land and knowledge is deeply jarring, not least for an institution so closely associated with the humanistic and liberal values of the Scottish Enlightenment', it said. The report's authors urged the university to redirect the money from those bequests to hiring academics from Black and minority backgrounds and on research and teaching about racism and colonialism, partly to combat the institutional racism that permeated the institution, they argued. Among a sweeping series of 47 recommendations, the review's authors have also asked Edinburgh to support the unadoption of the definition of antisemitism published by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) because it stifled 'free conversation' about Israel's policies and actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Most UK universities recognise the IHRA definition. The review also called on Edinburgh to urgently sell off its investments in companies with significant contracts with the Israeli government. Mathieson said Edinburgh was 'actively' reviewing its support for the IHRA declaration and its investments in Israel-linked companies after a series of protests by staff and students who have accused the university of complicity with Israeli actions in Gaza. He added that he recognised the strength of feeling but said he could not commit to withdrawing support for the IHRA definition or to divest in companies facing boycott until those reviews were complete. 'Obviously this is a very hot, contemporary topic,' he said in an interview with the Guardian. Mathieson said the decolonisation report had reached 'deeply shocking' and 'really discomforting' conclusions, including the discovery in student notebooks from the 1790s that one of its most famous moral philosophers, Dugald Stewart, had taught thousands of students that white Europeans were racially superior. Ironically, Stewart and his mentor Adam Ferguson were 'lifelong abolitionists' yet their theories of race had been used to justify slavery in the American south. The university had to accept harsh truths about its past activities, as well as bask in its successes, Mathieson said. This review, he added, was the most extensive investigation of its kind carried out by any university in the UK. Sign up to The Long Wave Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world after newsletter promotion Mathieson said: 'I think a lot of the report is hard to read, but I have confidence in its accuracy because I trust the experts that have produced it. I think we were seeking the truth – that's really the purpose of a university, and it includes the truth about ourselves as well as the truth about anybody else.' Mathieson and university executives set up the review, which was chaired by Prof Tommy J Curry, a specialist in critical race theory, and Dr Nicki Frith, an expert in reparations, in response to a groundbreaking review in 2018 by the University of Glasgow on its links to slavery and the Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, which also affected Edinburgh. Among other findings was evidence that the university had invested endowments derived from African enslavement into government war bonds, colonial bonds and buying Scottish Highland estates, and had received money from taxes levied on ships transporting sugar and tobacco from those plantations. The university had reacted to the abolitionist cause with 'inertia', the report finds, by not joining three other Scottish universities and colleges who had petitioned parliament calling for the abolition of slavery, even though Edinburgh had professors at the forefront of abolitionist campaigning. Curry said: 'Scotland has a moral debt to pay by sustaining an ideology that helped to exploit, kill and dominate racialised people for centuries. 'There's no argument against the fact that the people who orchestrated colonialism came from Edinburgh. It is not the only place they came from, but the University of Edinburgh was at the forefront at that time of creating and proliferating those theories.' Edinburgh became one centre of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when some staff and students demanded it rename a tower block named after Hume, the Enlightenment philosopher who published an overtly racist footnote that upheld the notion that black people were inferior. To the fury of some historians, the university agreed to temporarily rename the building '40 George Square'. A further review by the university has recommended the change of name should be permanent and that a new naming committee investigates renaming another modern building named after Dugald Stewart due to his theories of race. Mathieson indicated the university will accept many of the recommendations of the decolonisation review submitted by the 24-strong team of academics, researchers and consultants, but others would require consideration and external funding. 'If at the end of it we lose courage because we don't like the conclusions, that kind of invalidates the original decision to do the work,' he said. 'We knew that this was not going to be pretty.' The university will set up a new race review implementation group which will actively support the review's call for Edinburgh to establish a centre for the study of racisms, colonialism and anti-Black violence, he said, by helping find philanthropic donors and external funding, and find rooms for a community space. Mathieson said the university also had a lot of work to do to understand why it had so few Black staff and students. In contrast, a third of its students are Asian, including nearly 9,300 students from China. Edinburgh would 'undoubtedly' fund new scholarships for students from minoritised groups, he said. 'Some of the university's resources can be and will be diverted to this.' Even so, he said, the university may be unable to repurpose some bequests linked to slavery or colonialism if their terms restrict the money to specific purposes.
