Latest news with #AfrikanReparations
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
Manchester Museum asks visitors if Egyptian woman's body should be taken off display
One of Europe's leading museums is asking visitors if it should continue to display the body of an ancient Egyptian woman 200 years after it was brought to the UK by cotton merchants, as it 'decolonises' some of its most famous exhibits. Manchester Museum, which in May was named 2025's European museum of the year, is running a consultation on the future of Asru, a woman who lived in Thebes, the ancient city in the location of modern-day Luxor, 2,700 years ago. A plaque at the museum asks: 'Should we continue to display the body of Asru?', inviting visitors to submit answers in a postbox underneath. It adds: 'Asru's mummified body was unwrapped at the Manchester Natural History Society in April 1825. She has regularly been on display for the two centuries since. In that time, we have also changed as a museum and are thinking more about how we care for people.' The story of Asru's body is one of several that show how the development of the UK museum sector benefited from colonialism and transatlantic slavery, at a time when the ethics of displaying human bodies and spoils from imperial expansion are being questioned. In March a report by MPs from the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations called for bans on selling ancestral remains and publicly displaying them without consent. Asru's finely decorated wooden coffin reveals a few biographical details. An affluent woman who was about 60 when she died, her father was called Pa-Kush, which means 'the Kushite', a Black man from modern-day Sudan. Pa-Kush worked as a scribe, a high-status role, when Egypt had Kushite pharaohs. Asru's name means 'her arm is against them'. In the 19th century, Asru's sarcophagus was acquired by Robert and William Garnett, the sons of a former trader in enslaved African people, who had followed him into the cotton industry, research by one of the museum's curators, Campbell Price, found. The Garnetts donated Asru's body to the Manchester Natural History Society, the forerunner to Manchester Museum. Alongside the Asru consultation, the museum has launched its Decolonise! Trail , named after the initiative in arts and culture that is being used to challenge stereotypical perspectives linked to empire and colonialism. The trail links displays of items from Africa and Asia, subverting traditional 'Eurocentric' narratives about them through artworks newly displayed alongside them. It is supported by a booklet that asks questions such as 'Should a desire for knowledge override the wishes of ancient cultures?', 'Do you know where the minerals in your technology come from?' and 'What is climate justice?'. 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 Next to African spearheads – items that the booklet describes as having 'reinforced reductive and inaccurate ideas about African people' – is an LGBTQ+ comic strip story by the Congolese artist Edher Numbi. A mural by the British artists the Singh twins in the museum's south Asia gallery examines the link between enslavement and India's colonisation. It features a 1928 quote from the then UK home secretary, William Joynson-Hicks, who, speaking of India as a major export market for 'Lancashire cotton goods', said: 'We did not conquer India for the benefit of the Indians … We conquered India as an outlet for the goods of Britain. We conquered India by the sword, and by the sword we shall hold it.' Chloe Cousins, Manchester Museum's social justice manager, who created the trail, said: 'The trail is new but the concept of decolonising isn't new to Manchester Museum at all. Telling more accurate and nuanced accounts of the history of the collections is one of the ways we can care for the people and communities whose belongings, stories and histories are held here.'
The Guardian
a day ago
- General
- The Guardian
Manchester Museum asks visitors if Egyptian woman's body should be taken off display
One of Europe's leading museums is asking visitors if it should continue to display the body of an ancient Egyptian woman 200 years after it was brought to the UK by cotton merchants, as it 'decolonises' some of its most famous exhibits. Manchester Museum, which in May was named 2025's European museum of the year, is running a consultation on the future of Asru, a woman who lived in Thebes, the ancient city in the location of modern-day Luxor, 2,700 years ago. A plaque at the museum asks: 'Should we continue to display the body of Asru?', inviting visitors to submit answers in a postbox underneath. It adds: 'Asru's mummified body was unwrapped at the Manchester Natural History Society in April 1825. She has regularly been on display for the two centuries since. In that time, we have also changed as a museum and are thinking more about how we care for people.' The story of Asru's body is one of several that show how the development of the UK museum sector benefited from colonialism and transatlantic slavery, at a time when the ethics of displaying human bodies and spoils from imperial expansion are being questioned. In March a report by MPs from the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations called for bans on selling ancestral remains and publicly displaying them without consent. Asru's finely decorated wooden coffin reveals a few biographical details. An affluent woman who was about 60 when she died, her father was called Pa-Kush, which means 'the Kushite', a Black man from modern-day Sudan. Pa-Kush worked as a scribe, a high-status role, when Egypt had Kushite pharaohs. Asru's name means 'her arm is against them'. In the 19th century, Asru's sarcophagus was acquired by Robert and William Garnett, the sons of a former trader in enslaved African people, who had followed him into the cotton industry, research by one of the museum's curators, Campbell Price, found. The Garnetts donated Asru's body to the Manchester Natural History Society, the forerunner to Manchester Museum. Alongside the Asru consultation, the museum has launched its Decolonise! Trail , named after the initiative in arts and culture that is being used to challenge stereotypical perspectives linked to empire and colonialism. The trail links displays of items from Africa and Asia, subverting traditional 'Eurocentric' narratives about them through artworks newly displayed alongside them. It is supported by a booklet that asks questions such as 'Should a desire for knowledge override the wishes of ancient cultures?', 'Do you know where the minerals in your technology come from?' and 'What is climate justice?'. 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 Next to African spearheads – items that the booklet describes as having 'reinforced reductive and inaccurate ideas about African people' – is an LGBTQ+ comic strip story by the Congolese artist Edher Numbi. A mural by the British artists the Singh twins in the museum's south Asia gallery examines the link between enslavement and India's colonisation. It features a 1928 quote from the then UK home secretary, William Joynson-Hicks, who, speaking of India as a major export market for 'Lancashire cotton goods', said: 'We did not conquer India for the benefit of the Indians … We conquered India as an outlet for the goods of Britain. We conquered India by the sword, and by the sword we shall hold it.' Chloe Cousins, Manchester Museum's social justice manager, who created the trail, said: 'The trail is new but the concept of decolonising isn't new to Manchester Museum at all. Telling more accurate and nuanced accounts of the history of the collections is one of the ways we can care for the people and communities whose belongings, stories and histories are held here.'
The Guardian
25-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Most Britons do not know scale of UK's involvement in slavery, survey finds
Britons are widely ignorant of the scale and legacy of Britain's involvement in slavery and colonialism, a survey has found, with the vast majority unaware how many people were enslaved, how long the trade went on for, or for how long UK taxpayers were paying off a government loan to 'compensate' enslavers after abolition. The poll, released to coincide with Tuesday's UN International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, was commissioned by the Repair Campaign, which is working with Caricom to secure reparatory justice for member states through health, education and infrastructure projects. The sample of more than 2,000 people representative of the UK population found 85% did not know that more than 3 million people had been forcibly shipped from Africa to the Caribbean by British enslavers. It also found 89% were unaware British merchants had enslaved people in the Caribbean for more than 300 years and that 75% did not know it was after 2000 that British taxpayers finished paying off the money borrowed by UK government in 1833 – equivalent to 40% of the government's total annual expenditure at the time – to compensate enslavers for their 'loss of property'. Nonetheless, the survey found support for some form of reparations is growing, with 63% now agreeing that Caribbean nations and descendants of enslaved people should receive a formal apology, up 4% from last year's poll, while support for financial reparations has also increased, with 40% now in favour. Ninety percent of those in favour of financial reparations said they should be directed toward long-term education, health and infrastructure projects. Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan Reparations, said she was 'not surprised' about the lack of understanding about the scale of slavery, and that reparative justice also required education. 'People point to reparations and think merely in financial terms, but one of the most important things is correcting the record – because until people learn what happened there will not be that widespread, public will to make reparation possible,' she said. The Labour government has said the UK will not pay cash reparations, but is working with Caribbean partners on issues such as security, growth and climate change. Ribeiro-Addy said there had to be a 'willingness to listen' from the UK government, which is yet to make a formal apology for slavery, faced with a 'large chunk of the world' that was unified on the need for reparative justice. 'For us not to listen is disgraceful and could have consequences of its own,' she added. Walker Syachalinga, a solicitor at the law firm Leigh Day, which is investigating claims against institutions, companies and families, said of the survey's findings: 'They speak to what has been a feature of English law and commerce – this idea of offshoring the more unpalatable aspects of our history while retaining the benefits.' Denis O'Brien, Repair Campaign's founder, said the poll showed 'heartening' growth in public support for an apology and reparations, but also 'how little people in Britain really know about the country's past.' Dr Hilary Brown, a programme manager at Caricom Secretariat, said: 'Our shared humanity demands justice for the horrific crimes committed. Addressing the knowledge gap in the UK on the country's history of trading and enslaving Africans is urgent.'
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Government denies talks with Caribbean nations over slave trade reparations
The government has denied it is set to hold talks with Caribbean representatives over reparations for the slave trade as one Labour MP called for the UK to take steps towards acknowledging the damage caused by its colonialist past. The Foreign Office (FCDO) angrily denied reports on Saturday that it was to hold talks with a Caribbean delegation on reparations. Clapham and Brixton Hill MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who chairs the APPG on Afrikan Reparations, said she had been 'surprised' by the initial reports in The Telegraph, but added it was 'a shame' they are not going ahead. She told The Independent: 'Talks with CARICOM nations would be a significant step towards acknowledging the enduring harm caused by enslavement and colonialism. Critics often miscontrue the campaign for reparations as being solely about financial compensation, or historic events that have no relevance today. 'But for these countries our historic crimes play a central part in their present struggles. So reparations at its core is about equality and justice. There are many ways we can go about righting our wrongs, and that starts with a conversation.' It had been reported that foreign secretary David Lammy had give Foreign Office officials the green light the FCDO to hold talks with embers of the Reparations Commission of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), a political grouping of 15 states, to discuss the UK paying for its past acts as a colonial power. But in a statement on X, the FCDO claimed the reports were false. 'The Telegraph front page today is wrong and mendacious. There will be no such delegation of Caribbean leaders or officials in spring. We do not pay reparations.' It had been speculated that the decision to hold the meeting follows last year gathering of Commonwealth heads of government in Samoa where Caribbean nations pressed the prime minister Keir Starmer into discussing the ongoing impact of historic slavery and reparations. At the time, Sir Keir agreed to continue talking about the issue but had suggested he was against paying reparations. Sources have suggested that the delegation would be led by Mia Mottley, Barbados's prime minister. Ms Ribeiro-Addy's comments followed Tory shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel leading attacks against Mr Lammy on the issue linking it with controversial plans to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. She said: 'When Labour negotiate, Britain loses. Having agreed to surrender billions of pounds of taxpayers money to Mauritius to giveaway the Chagos Islands, the rest of the world has seen how easy it is to force this weak and pathetic Labour Government to bend to their demands. "Now we see that Keir Starmer and David Lammy have once again been caught out failing to defend the national interest. Instead of focusing on strengthening future trade and partnership ties with the Commonwealth, they are letting their Labour friends and activists set the agenda. 'Whether it's the surrender of Chagos, kowtowing to China, cosying up to the EU or considering reparations, Labour cannot be trusted to defend our interests and protect hard-pressed British taxpayers."
