A FREE new online course is being launched to investigate the history of British colonial slavery in the Caribbean, reflecting its links to racial inequalities and present-day global protests.
The University of Glasgow and The University of the West Indies (UWI) are partnering to deliver the online course that will take people on a 350-year journey from West Africa and the Caribbean through to the Windrush Generation and present day.
The four-week course, called History of Slavery in the British Caribbean on FutureLearn.com, is now open for registration and will go live on October 12 during Black History Month.
Dr Peggy Brunache, lecturer in the history of Atlantic Slavery and Director of the Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies at the University of Glasgow, is a lead contributor on the course.
Dr Brunache said: “The past is not over. The past is still the present.
“While the abolition of the slave trade and racial slavery occurred in the early 19th century, the structures of racial inequality and anti-black racism have never dissipated. Does that mean that every white British citizen is racist? Of course not.
“However, these structures of power remain infused into the very fabric of contemporary society, privileging those who identify as white and especially those with generational wealth. It’s as insidiously active in the Commonwealth Caribbean as much as it is in the British metropole.”
People who take part in the course will be encouraged to reflect on their own family history and look for the legacies of slavery in their own community.
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