By Claudia Tomlinson
One of the key objectives of the University of the West Indies when it opened in 1948 in Jamaica, was to teach pupils and students the history of their region. Before 1834, it was largely forbidden to educate the majority of the population: the enslaved, trafficked Africans. Once universal education was started, it was modelled on the British education system. No differentiation was made of the education of a child going to school in Lethem, Guyana, to a child being educated in Leicester in the East Midlands of England. They all learned about the Kings and Queens of England, and sang Christmas carols about snowy winters and cosy, welcoming hearth fires at Christmas. The Guyanese pupils would have puzzled looking out at the 100 degrees sun whilst singing this. This was despite the rich cultural histories of those who lived in Guyana at the time, many who were brought from Africa, or who travelled from India, China and elsewhere. Part of the work of the University of the West Indies was to diversity the local curricula in schools and to introduce the local history of the peoples of the region. Many began to learn their histories for the first time. Cheddi Jagan, the Chief Minister, pushed through these innovations and developed the University of Guyana.
In October 1968, Walter Rodney, eminent Guyanese historian of African history, and political activist on behalf of the working masses, was banned from his appointment teaching history at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamacia. This sent reverberations around the globe, sparked student uprisings, and a new dawn for Black Power in the West Indies. Because of neo-colonialism tendencies in the 1970s after the British West Indies achieved independence, Rodney’s quest was also a perilous one when he eventually returned to Guyana.
He went back home following the offer of the post of Professor of History at the University of Guyana in 1974. This offer was rapidly withdrawn, and it is widely believed that this was due to political pressure from Forbes Burnham, then President, and his international allies. Rodney became more involved in politics in Guyana seeking to achieve the same aims of his academic work. He wanted a more equal Guyana, one that did not rely on the exploitation of the masses and one which delivered what he saw as the true goals of independence. Within a few years of his return to Guyana, Rodney was dead. Assassinated at the hands of government agents.
Now, fifty-five years later, another black professor of African history, the first black person to be appointed as professor of the history of Africa and the African diaspora in Britain, is facing a similar academic ignominy as Rodney. Both alumni of the highly reputable university SOAS (The School of African and Oriental Studies) in London, Rodney and Adi share a similar perspective on Black History and dedicated their lives to this work. They have both worked in academia, and non-academic spheres to produce research that fills the silences about black people’s lives, and corrects the distortions, deliberate untruths.
Professor Hakim Adi is the world leading authority on Pan-Africanism, a leading researcher, and is the author of many books on Black British history. He established the Master’s in the History of Africa and the African diaspora, offered on a fully online basis to attract students from around the globe. Six of the Master of Research (MRes) students have gone on to take a PhD at his university (the University of Chichester, UK), and one of these has recently completed their Ph.D. This first Ph.D. graduate produced a biography of Jessica Huntley, the Guyanese publisher who established Bogle L’Ouverture Publications in Britain, and was Walter Rodney’s close friend, associate and publisher. Bogle L’ Ouverture published Rodney’s The Groundings With My Brothers, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa and provided personal and political support for him over decades until his assassination. The publisher, spearheaded by Jessica Huntley, was also responsible for publishing a generation of mostly Caribbean and British writers. Jessica Huntley and Bogle L’Ouverture were also at the forefront of resisting the devastating racialised injustices in Britain and globally. This biography of Jessica Huntley will be published next year by Bloomsbury Academic, increasing visibility and awareness of a period of British history that is little known. This has stemmed from the initiative and vision of Professor Adi. He currently has ten Ph.D. students, and several masters students who will all be cut adrift, along with their important, ground-breaking research.
Most of Professor Adi’s students are published authors due to this stewardship, and a further Ph.D. student, A.S. Francis, will have an important monograph published by Lawrence Wishart later this year, entitled Gerlin Bean – the Mother of the Movement. Professor Adi has founded History Matters, to increase research and other scholarly activity in Black British history, and to increase the number of scholars active in this field. It has produced two conferences, and two edited books of new research. He founded the Young Historians Project to increase activity and involvement of young people, of any background in the history of Africa and the African diaspora. The other exciting research that is emerging from Professor Adi’s students include biographical work on Duse Mohammed Ali, women resistance fighters in Kenya, the Movement for Reparatory Justice, the Tigray war, Pan-African spirituality, and the Black British women’s movement in the twentieth century. The doctoral researchers specifically selected Professor Adi for his subject knowledge expertise, and their research is at risk of never being completed. It cannot be assumed that alternative supervisors, without this knowledge and expertise can substitute Professor Adi’s knowledge. There is also a failure to acknowledge the years of collaboration and working relationship developed between Professor Adi and his students.
Professor Adi’s university has informed him that the MRes is not economically profitable, and as he introduced it, his entire post is no longer viable. Out of the blue, the course was put on ice, and he is being put through an HR redundancy process. Questions must be asked about how it can possibly be that the sole responsibility for the recruitment to the course can be laid at the door of Professor Adi? He has very actively promoted it and it is a growing and popular course. This surely must be a university responsibility. Can it really be the case that a professor’s entire career and livelihood be placed at the vagaries of a single university course?
As with Rodney, there has been a backlash from the academic community, students, and eminent academic have spoken out in outrage that such a figure Hakim Adi, easily the most accomplished at his university, can be cast aside so callously, and his students be left to sink or swim. Fellow world class black historians have expressed shock at this move, and demanded that the university reverse this ill-considered act. A petition calling on the university to halt these actions has achieved over approaching 12,000 signatures. British, U.S and South African media has reported on the outrage caused.
The University of Chichester, until weeks ago, was admired for this flagship course, and its esteemed scholar Hakim Adi. It has now applied a knee to its own advancements, threatening to snuff out initiatives that have greater significance than financial objectives. The university’s admirers viewed it as an institution that understands reparatory justice and the importance of this research. Unless the university drops this senseless plan, and works collaboratively with Professor Adi and his students, much will be lost, and therefore must be actively resisted.
Claudia Tomlinson is a Guyanese by descent, residing in the UK, a recent PhD graduate of the University of Chichester. She is currently writing a book based on her Ph.D. research, on the life of Guyanese activist and publisher Jessica Huntley, to be published in 2024 by Bloomsbury.
