The University of Glasgow and the University of the West Indies have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at setting up an academic corporation programme for reparative justice.
The document, framed as a “reparatory justice” initiative, acknowledges that while the University of Glasgow lent support to efforts to abolish the trade in enslaved Africans and to end slavery, it also received significant financial support from people whose wealth was derived from African enslavement.
The two universities have agreed to partner in a reparations strategy that focuses on how best to use historical knowledge in order to fashion reparatory justice tools and research for Caribbean development.
Acknowledging that universities have a duty to be at once excellent and ethical, the MOU will enable the University of Glasgow to make specific and general contributions to Caribbean problem solving development.
Speaking at the signing ceremony on Wednesday, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles commended the University of Glasgow for taking a bold, moral, historic step in recognising the slavery aspect of its past, to rise as an advocate of reparatory justice, and to set an example of 21st Century university enlightenment.
Under the terms of the MOu, the two universities agreed to establish the Glasgow-Caribbean Centre for Development Research.
The centre, through reparatory-oriented policy research, will address the legacies of slavery and colonialism, such as persistent poverty and extreme inequality in economic relations, chronic disease proliferation, educational inadequacies, and related inhibiting factors adversely impacting economic growth and social justice in the region.
Over the next two decades, University of Glasgow commits to spending £20 m pounds as part of its programme of reparative justice, including seed funding, benefactions and research grant income, raised from grant-giving bodies.
The University of Glasgow will allocate resources to support the running of the centre, scholarships, research, public engagement, and related initiatives.
The 2 universities will work together to attract external funding for mutually agreed projects that will benefit the communities of the Caribbean islands and other parts of the world affected by the slave trade.
Another commemorative signing of the m-o-u is scheduled at the University of Glasgow on august 23, coinciding with UNESCO’s International Day of Remembrance of the slave trade.
It will include the unveiling of a commemorative plaque in honour of the enslaved.
Meantime, Culture Minister Olivia Grange has welcomed the step taken by the University of Glasgow, in Scotland to engage in a programme with the University of the West Indies, which is geared toward reparatory justice.
On Wednesday, the UWI and UOG signed a memorandum of understanding, that will see the Scottish institution spending £20 m over the next 2 decades, for a ‘reparative justice’ academic corporation programme.
This programme includes a partnership to establish the Glasgow Caribbean Centre for Development Research.
Grange said the MOU is symbolic of a moment in history that will help define the process of reparations for the atrocities of slavery.
She said the MOU sets an example for others to follow.
The minister noted that the signing of the MOU by the University of Glasgow does not absolve European countries of their responsibility.