Monthly Archives: April 2022

Over the past 5 years, unprecedented results have been achieved in Uzbekistan under the leadership of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, both in domestic and foreign policy.

One of the central areas among the ongoing reforms in Uzbekistanis comprehensive development of labor relations and the labor market, aimed at improving the quality of life of the population and ensuring human interests, which is in line with the UN sustainable development goals.

In this regard, it should be noted that the key indicators of the development of society and the state have become fundamental changes in the public administration of Uzbekistan, which characterize the consistency, coherence, efficiency and timeliness of the implemented measures in the sphere of labor.

The first is the firm establishment of the principle: It is not the people who serve the state bodies, but the state bodies must serve the people. This allowed all representatives of state bodies to work in conditions of priority of the interests of citizens.

The second is the openness of state bodies. We have shown in practice that thanks to openness, both representatives of civil society and the world community were able not only to receive all the necessary information, to implement various projects, but also to establish direct contacts, which is extremely important in the rapidly changing modern world.

The third is the transformation of the model of development of society, in which the principle of society as the initiator of reforms becomes the main driving force of Uzbekistans democratic renewal and development.

These key factors contributed to the fundamental improvement of all areas, including the labor market and labor relations in general, and play an invaluable role in building the foundation of the Third Renaissance in the conditions of what President Mirziyoyev calls the New Uzbekistan. The main goal of the Uzbek governments efforts is to ensure a comfortable life for its people and to make them look to the future with confidence.

In a short time, not a single sphere and industry, city and district, village and mahalla (residential community associations) remained in our country, where the breath of renewal would not come, President Mirziyoyev said.

Thanks to the political will of President Mirziyoyev, concrete results have been achieved in ensuring human rights and their guarantees, as well as the eradication of forced labor, including child labor. The implemented measures in the field of labor relations have already become exemplary for the world community.

In particular, on March 10, the international coalition Cotton Campaign officially announced the abolition of the cotton boycott against Uzbekistan, thanks to the efforts of President Mirziyoyev to initiate and implement reforms in the field of ending forced labor and developing the cotton sector.

Many reputable international non-governmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, the American Apparel and Footwear Association, the US Fashion Industry Association, and a number of other organizations, responded positively to the elimination of child and forced labor and called on international brands to cooperate with manufacturers of Uzbek textile products.

In turn, the lifting of the boycott of Uzbek cotton will serve to the creation of millions of new jobs -- especially in rural areas -- as well as attract foreign investment in the textile industry and expand the export potential of Uzbekistan.

The Uzbekistan government declared that child labor was completely eliminated in 2016. Based on this, the European Parliament ratified the inclusion of a textile protocol to the partnership and cooperation agreement between the European Union and Uzbekistan.

The document provides for the removal of quantitative restrictions and the reduction of customs duties when importing 3,000 items of Uzbek textile goods into the countries of the EU. As part of its new status, customs rates for textile products from Uzbekistan were reduced and ranged from 4 to 12 percent.

It should be noted that in 2019, the export of Uzbek textile products to EU countries amounted to $56.7 million, and increased to $74.1 million in 2020. In 2021, it amounted to more than $141.8 million, which is 2 1/2 times the amount recorded in 2016.

In a 2019 US Department of Labor report, Uzbekistan was rated as making moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. Later, the status was upgraded to the second tier.

In October 2020, the US Trade Representative decided to complete the work to review Uzbekistans compliance with the criteria for ensuring labor rights in accordance with the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). As a result, Uzbek cotton was removed from the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.

Along with this, in December 2020 the European Commission conducted an analysis on the basis of which it was concluded that Uzbekistan met the criteria for participation in the EUs Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+). In April 2021, the GSP+ came into force for Uzbekistan.

In 2021, Uzbekistan improved its position in the Trafficking Against Persons (TIP) Report by upgrading from the Tier Two Watch List to Tier Two.

These successes were achieved as the result of large-scale labor reforms, such as strengthening the legislative and organizational and legal framework; implementation of international standards; reforming agriculture; development of institutional framework; conducting systemic monitoring and research; and activation of cooperation with civil society and relevant international organizations.

Improvement of national legislation

At the national level, 32 new laws were adopted between 2019 to 2021. Several conventions and protocols of the International Labor Organization and the International Organization for Migration were also ratified. In 2021 alone, 16 regulatory acts were adopted, including four laws, two ordinances, four presidential decrees, and six government decrees.

One of the most effective measures was toughening criminal liability for the use of child and forced labor. This brought Uzbekistans legislation into line with ILO Convention No. 29 on forced or compulsory labor.

In addition, taking into account international experience and in order to improve national legislation, the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan On Combating Human Trafficking was adopted in a new edition.

In order to create favorable conditions for Uzbek citizens wishing to work in foreign countries, amendments and additions to the law on private employment agencies were also adopted.

The Oliy Majlis, Uzbekistans parliament, developed and approved a new edition of the Labor Code, designed to protect workers by providing them full and timely payment of wages, favorable conditions and working regimes and most importantly, effective protection of their rights in case of violations.

Uzbekistan is participating in a campaign dedicated to the centenary of the International Labor Organization for the ratification of international labor standards. The republic annually ratifies two ILO conventions on average.

To date, the republic has already ratified 19 ILO conventions, including eight fundamental and four directive conventions.

Development of the organizational and institutional base

The Uzbek government is paying special attention to the development of institutional frameworks to combat human trafficking and forced labor.

The National Commission for Combating Human Trafficking and Forced Labor has been functioning since 2019. It coordinates the activities of all ministries and departments on these issues and works with representatives of civil society and international organizations.

The creation of the National and Territorial Commissions to Combat Human Trafficking and Forced Labor -- as well as the establishment of the institution of the National Rapporteur on these issues -- facilitates comprehensive, coordinated and effective work in this direction.

The National Commission meets to improve the activities of relevant ministries and departments, and strengthen interaction with civil society, including with foreign partners. When developing new measures, all recommendations of international partners and representatives of civil society are taken into account.

The Ministry of Employment is taking all necessary measures to improve labor relations in the republic. Law enforcement agencies work to prevent infringement of human rights, particularly in the workplace.

Systematic measures are being taken in the agricultural sector as part of the Agricultural Development Strategy of the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2020 to 2030. Priority is given to creating a favorable environment for agribusiness, increasing its investment attractiveness, the widespread introduction of market principles, as well as labor mechanization.

In 2021, more than 30 legislative and regulatory acts in this area were adopted.

An unprecedented step was the development of a cluster system, the purpose of which is to form a single chain that combines all the processes of manufacturing finished products from acquiring raw materials to processing them and manufacturing the final product.

Work is underway to mechanize cotton farming. About 12 percent of raw cotton was harvested by machine in 2021, an increase from 8.5 percent in 2020.

Imported cotton harvesters and spare parts for them are exempt from customs duties and recycling fees for the next three years.

Special attention is paid to the wages of cotton pickers. The payment for 1 kilogram of handpicked raw cotton in 2021 has increased almost tenfold since 2015.

These measures are being implemented to strengthen the system for protecting the rights, freedoms and interests of citizens, as well as to eradicate forced labor in accordance with international standards.

Monitoring resultsSince 2015, the ILO has been conducting third-party monitoring to prevent child and forced labor in the cotton sector.

In the first two years, monitoring was carried out exclusively by international experts. Since 2018, it has been gradually transferred to human rights activists, and in 2021, the monitoring was completely carried out by human rights defenders themselves, according to ILO methodology.

In 2021, 17 human rights activists were involved in the monitoring. They conducted a survey of 11,000 people, including farmers, foremen, representatives of civil society and cotton pickers.

The results show that there has been an absence of systemic forced labor in Uzbekistan for the past five years.

ILO representatives emphasized that, according to the monitoring results in 2021, Uzbekistan has managed to end the systematic use of forced and child labor in cotton harvesting. The countrys experience in implementing international standards in this area is a model for the world.

As ILO Director General Guy Ryder noted, this years ILO report showed that Uzbek cotton is free from child and forced labor. Uzbekistan now has an opportunity to move up the value chain and creating millions of decent full-time jobs in the textile and clothing industries.

The state also monitors domestic trade unions annually through the state-run Labor Inspectorate. The chairperson of the Oliy Majlis also established a Parliamentary Control process to root out cases of forced or child labor.

In the cotton harvest season, the Labor Inspectorate sanctioned 62 officials for violations of labor legislation. Of these, five officials had allowed forced labor.

A unique system of international cooperation has been created. The National Commission on Combating Human Trafficking and Forced Labor regularly takes measures to strengthen cooperation with foreign partners such as the ILO, the World Bank, the IFC, IOM, UNODC, the US Department of State and the US Department of Labor, as well as with the Cotton Campaign coalition among others.

Today, comprehensive action plans have been successfully implemented based on the recommendations of the ILO, the US Department of State, the US Department of Labor, as well as the Cotton Campaign coalition on combating human trafficking, forced labor and ensuring workers rights.

In this regard, the ILO plays a key role. Over the past few years, it has been strongly supporting democratic reforms in Uzbekistan and is implementing joint comprehensive measures to develop labor relations. Over the past 10 years, fruitful work has been carried out with the ILO in such areas as the fight against forced labor, monitoring the observance of labor rights, as well as the implementation of international standards in the field of labor relations.

A new employment strategyUzbekistan is a country with a high demographic burden on the labor market. At present, the working-age population is about 20 million; the number of employed is 15 million; and the number of people in need of work is 1.3 million. More than 500,000 young people enter adulthood and need employment every year.

As an effective solution to this issue, Uzbekistan, with the support of the ILO, is developing a National Employment Strategy.

Decent work has occupied and continues to occupy a central place on the agenda of the ILO throughout its century of activity. But only in the last decades of this century has this issue acquired a comprehensive, global character.

This is more due to the growing need of states and societies to provide their citizens with work and social protection throughout the world.

In such conditions, it is the actions of states and international organizations on the principles of decent work at all levels -- state, regional and global -- that will open up new strategic opportunities and effectively solve the remaining problems in the field of the labor market and labor relations.

The ILO estimates that, worldwide, there are 207 million unemployed people, up 21 million from the pre-pandemic period of 2019, and the damage to labor markets may become irreversible. The effects of the pandemic on labor markets are being felt all around the world. The pandemic has especially severely impacted womens employment, the effects of which is likely to be felt over the coming years.

To remedy this situation, the Decent Work Country Program for 2014-2016 was successfully and fully implemented, and extended until 2020. The Decent Work Country Program for 2021-2025 is currently ongoing. Notably, Uzbekistan is one of the first countries that developed the Country Program taking into account the new requirements imposed by UN system reforms.

The new Country Program pays special attention to addressing such strategic issues as improving the legal framework governing labor relations; expanding employment opportunities and decent work; expanding the access of the most vulnerable groups of the population to quality and inclusive education and social protection; and strengthening social dialogue and institutional capacity of social partners.

These key indicators of decent work in the future will contribute to the development of economic opportunities; employment for citizens; and the creation of millions of new jobs. Most importantly, it will contribute to the sustainable development of society and the state.

In addition, these issues are reflected in the Development Strategy of the New Uzbekistan for 2022-2026. This comprehensive document includes almost all human rights and decent work standards.

Uzbekistan is also working with international partners on the implementation of international standards in the field of labor relations, through its Better Work Program and Better Cotton Initiative. At the end of 2021, Uzbekistan applied to the ILO and the World Bank to consider the possibility of assisting in the adoption of the Better Work Program and received positive responses.

Thus, it should be noted that the ongoing concrete measures in the field of ensuring human rights, creating decent working conditions and improving labor relations have laid a solid foundation for building a Third Renaissance in the New Uzbekistan.

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Tanzila Narbaeva is the chairperson of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the chairperson of the National Commission on Combating Human Trafficking and Forced Labor--Ed.

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Labor relations are foundation for building Uzbekistans Third Renaissance - The Korea Herald

The DMK has demanded the resignation of Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi. And thats not fair. What did he do? Well, the DMK says the problem is that he didnt do anything on the bill to abolish NEET. Its not just about the governors inaction over the anti-NEET bill (which I think is not a solution to ensure equal opportunities to students of all economic sections). Its not the problem with the governor; its the problem with the governors post. Governors have always been representatives even instruments of the Union government on whose advice the President installs them in Raj Bhavans across the country. Hence the conflicts between the government and the governors in states ruled by parties that oppose the one in power at the Centre.

Some of those ensconced in the palatial comforts of Raj Bhavans get into vociferous fights with the government as we have seen in Bengal, Kerala, Telangana, Delhi and Puducherry; some, like the one in Tamil Nadu, remain silently belligerent. For the latter, inaction is the weapon. Remember Banwarilal Purohit? The governor, who spent long hours trying to learn Tamil, didnt deem it urgent to forward to the President a resolution the state assembly passed in September 2018 recommending the release of all the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convicts till the Supreme Court disturbed the gubernatorial slumber two years later.

When the apex court set January 2021 as the deadline for the governor to act, he forwarded it to the President, who, since then, has been sitting on it.

In the case of the Tamil Nadu NEET abolition bill, the governor first erred in listing out the wrong reasons for sending it back to the government (you, me and His Excellency can disagree with the contents of the bill, but thats not a reason for the governor to send it back). Less than a week after the governor returned the bill to the government in the first week of February, the assembly re-adopted the bill and sent it again to the Raj Bhavan. I leave it to legal experts to analyse the constitutional propriety of the governors inaction, but his not forwarding the bill to the President shows again that the governor is but a political puppet.

Heres an old suggestion: Abolish the governors post. If the primary job of a governor is to swear in the chief minister and the cabinet of ministers, and address the assembly at the opening session, these can be done by the chief justice of the high court or the speaker of the assembly. The contribution of governors as chancellors of universities has been abysmal, so nobody will miss them there. As for Centre-state relationship we can have liaison officers who can work out of much smaller offices than the 150-acre Raj Bhavan that employs more than 600 people to work for one family.

So, what do we do with the Raj Bhavans? They should be opened to the public as leisure spots. Some of them could be converted into museums that house exhibits of the origin, evolution and end of a colonial relic called, well, the Raj Bhavan. The Chennai Raj Bhavan is special in that it is part of a national park in the middle of the city something no other Indian city can boast of (Mumbai has a national park on its periphery).

Here, public access could be regulated so as to not disturb the wildlife. Chennai Raj Bhavan should continue to be home for protected species. I mean the likes of black buck.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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Governor should not resign. Instead, governors post should be abolished - Times of India

'Old Town Road' gets its Bonnaroo moment at the Grand Ole Opry

Old Crow Medicine Show surprised the Bonnaroo crowd with a cover of Lil Nas X's summer hit "Old Town Road"

The Tennessean

Pigeon Forge a Tennessee getawayknown for sprawling theme parks and outlet shops nestled at the edge of the Great Smoky Mountainsisn't listed as a collaborator on Old Crow Medicine Show's fierynew LP "Paint This Town."

But maybe it should be.

"When you walk around Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, you see the future of Old Crow Medicine Show," said Ketch Secor, the band'sfrontman and co-founder."You're looking at the folks that're gonna spend $32.50 on an Old Crow ticket and slap a bumper sticker on their truck.

"That's who I want to have throw money in the tip jar. Those are some hard-workin' folks. We have a responsibility if you've got so many fiddles and banjos to your band to endear yourself to those kind of people."

Secor and company decamped to drummer Jerry Pentecost's Sevier County cabinfor writing sessions that laid the foundation of "Paint This Town," a rip-roaring album that chronicles stories from rural anarchy torampant addiction,racial erasure on Music Rowand19th century abolition.

"Paint This Town" hits shelves and streaming services Friday via ATO Records; Old Crow celebrates album release day this week with an intimate one-night show at Third Man Records' Blue Room venue.

Cut at Old Crow's clubhouse in East Nashville, "Paint This Town" offers a collection of time-traveling stories untouched by compromise and fueled by a creative freedom earned after nearly 25 years as a band.

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"It's like we've finally become the band that we started out to be," said Secor, who worked his was up from busking on downtown Nashville street corners to becoming a Grand Ole Opry member with Old Crow. He continued: "Idon't think we realized we had as much freedom of choice as we did until a couple years ago."

For "Paint This Town," Old Crow exercised its artistic freedom from inside the expansive "Hartland"band cave,where the group tracks, rehearses and produces much of what fans hear (or see, in the case of Old Crow's pandemic-born online variety show "Hartland Hootenanny").

Inside Hartland, lyric sheets line the open rehearsal room floor; the band's awards including the 2015 Grammy for Best Folk Album sit in a case lining one wall of an adjacent sitting room, while ceiling-to-floor show flyers cover another wall. Around the corner from a studio control space, the band staged another room with memorabiliaand old-time fittings for the "Hootenanny" set.

Previously a tool and die factory that Old Crow took over in 2020, Pentecost described the space as "magic" from day one.

"Everybody put a lot of work into this place," Pentecost said. "Everybody's proud to be able to call it home. ... I think that's the energy and vibe we brought to it."

And at the clubhouse, Pentecostfound his place as a percussionist in the longtime string band. A Nashville native who's active in the local music scene, Pentecost joined Old Crow in late 2019 as the band's first dedicated drummer.

With Old Crow at a creative crossroads, Pentecostpulled alinchpin signaling the band's new creative chapter, Secor said.

"Things had changed a lot [since the band's last album, 2018's 'Volunteer']," Secor said. "We broke up with our longtime manager. We lost Critter [Fuqua], who was our longtime banjo player. There was an opportunity to do two things: Placate the crowd and the team and just keep on doin' it. Maybe switch to casinos, that kinda thing. Or reinvent it, reinvigorate it. And that decision coincided with callin' Jerry."

Secor added,"[He] brought a full head of steam to the locomotive and it just kept goin' down the tracks."

For Pentecost, bringing full-time percussion to a group known for high-flying upright bass, banjo and fiddle playing offered a chance for the musician to carve a unique space in Old Crow.

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"That's all I've ever done, isplay drums," Pentecost said, adding: "That's part of the whole revitalizing ... I'm real proud of the work we've done here. I think you can hear the energy and musicianship."

Listeners hear the result of Secor's self-described reinvigoration immediately: Opening title track "Paint This Town" channels an autobiographical taste of roots rock fueled by restless rebellion.

Adopting a punk ethos where the teenage protagonist decorates his backroad townwith anarchy signs "Paint This Town" signals an Americana truth-telling to come on the 12-song album. The band straddles a line of historical fascination ("John Brown's Dream") with social reflection ("New Mississippi Flag"), bygone empathy ("Gloryland")and ongoing environmental decay ("Used To Be A Mountain").

Real, fictitious, or somewhere in-between, Old Crow spins stories about everyday heroes,Secor said.

"I like folks who act as signposts for other folks," Secor said. "I like folks who can be both a symbol and real.... I meet people all the time who I might have the choice to write a song about or not write a song about. There's so many fascinating, interesting characters in this town and all of the towns."

And Pentecost isn't solely behind the kit for "Paint This Town." He takes lead vocals on "DeFord Rides Again," an impassioned song about DeFord Bailey, a trailblazing Black country music entertainer shunned more than half-a-century ago by an industry that continues to struggle with equality.

Co-written by Pentecost with Secor and guitar wizard Molly Tuttle, the song gives nod to Bailey's 1920s fox-chasin' harmonica before turning to the years when Music Row closed its doors to the performer.

Pentecost sings: "... up at Greenwood youll find a plot four foot nine/ For our citys biggest shame they whitewashed his name/ And for that kind of sin there aint no excuse/Blow, blow DeFord, blow/ Play that 'Pan American.'"

Last week, Old Crow teamed with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Bailey's grandson Carlos DeFord Bailey for an interactive harmonica lesson.

"It's about perspective," Pentecost said. "We're talking about the first African-American star of the Opry. I feel like if you ask nine out of 10 country fans, they'd be like "Who?"

"For an individual like myself I don't know if I'll ever be a star of the Opry but who's trying to live a similar life and be an African-American in the country music world, it's important to acknowledge that legacy and those hardships."

Like much of the album, Pentecost said he hopes the "why" of tellingBailey's story stands firmly at the forefront of what fans from those cruising the streets of Pigeon Forge and beyond hear on "Paint This Town."

"All you can do is hope that it translates," Pentecost said.

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Old Crow Medicine Show paints America with a punk spirit and old-time twang on new album - Tennessean

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On Thursday, April 21, 2022, despite heavy security measures, thousands of teachers and educators in Tehran and in at least 51 other cities in 24 provinces rallied in protest against the difficult living conditions, meager salaries, the lack of response to their demands, and non-implementation of equalization of pensions. Carrying photos of imprisoned teachers, they condemned the continuous and systematic repression and detention of protesting teachers and union activists.

In Tehran, teachers protested outside the Education Ministry, and in other cities outside the provincial education departments, including in Tabriz, Bukan, Isfahan, Shahreza, Ardabil, Karaj, Bushehr, Shahrekord, Mashhad, Neyshabur, Ahvaz, Andimeshk, Zanjan, Shiraz, Qazvin, Qom, Sanandaj, Kamyaran, Saqez, Ziviyeh, Dehgolan, Bijar, Marivan, Kermanshah, Eslamabad-e-Gharb, Yasuj, Dehdasht, Rasht, Khorramabad, Pol Dokhtar, Aligudarz, Kuhdasht, Delfan, Sari, Arak, Hamedan, Yazd, Mehriz, Harsin, Shooshtar, Baghmalek, Sonqor, Baneh, Zarrin Dasht, Ilam, Sardasht, Abdanan, Mahshahr, Shush, and Borujerd.

Since this morning, the State Security Force (SSF), turned out in force, trying to prevent the formation of rallies and block people from joining them. The repressive forces arrested a large number of teachers in Tehran and other cities. The demonstrators chanted: Raisi, Qalibaf (Speaker of the regimes parliament), this is the final warning, the teachers movement is ready for the uprising, Imprisoned teachers must be freed, Teachers are vigilant and outraged against discrimination, Teachers rise up to eliminate discrimination, Shame on the incompetent Education Minister.

In todays rallies, teachers called the regimes Education Ministry a place for plotting and codifying laws against teachers and education and called for a halt to the policy of privatization and monetization of education, which results in an increase in child labor, and spreads social harms. The protesters also called for the unconditional release of all imprisoned teachers, the abolition of harsh prison sentences against union activists, and an end to all cases of summoning the protesting teachers. They reiterated, We will not leave the streets until our demands are met. Repression and incarceration and fabricating charges against protesting teachers will not work in stymying the teachers movement, even for one step.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), saluted the protesting teachers and educators and said: The honorable and deprived teachers of our country reflect the anger and outage of 80 million Iranians who are suffering from the oppression and plunder of the inhuman clerical regime. She added: Most of the teachers and other working sectors live below the poverty line, while the embezzlements by the mullahs, IRGC leaders, and their children are skyrocketing. The answer is to overthrow this plundering regime and establish democracy and peoples sovereignty in Iran.

Pictures of rallies in several cities are below.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

April 21, 2022

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Iran Teachers Stage Nationwide Rally in 24 Provinces, Demand Their Rights - National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

Q&A

Outspoken and controversial author, scholar, Temple prof, activist, and Germantown bookshop owner Marc Lamont Hill returns with Seen and Unseen next month but has plenty else to talk about.

Marc Lamont Hill / Photograph by Linette & Kyle Kielinski

Marc Lamont Hill has no shortage of opinions, and hes not afraid to speak out whether its through his latest book on race and justice, by voicing his objections to media coverage of Ukraine, or via an interview in the back of a MAGA-clad Uber. Here, the Germantown scholar, professor and author shares all of it and what he watches when hes trying not to think so damn much.

Hi, Marc.[Lots of background noise.]

Marc? Its so loud Marc? Where are you?Sorry, yes, Im in D.C., where I just shot the show I do for Al Jazeera, UpFront. So Im on the street and about to get in an Uber and hopefully make my train back to Philly.

Is Philly home now?Philly will always be home. Im back full-time now, living in Germantown. At one point in my life, I was between Atlanta, Philly, L.A. and New York. Every week.

Is Germantown where you grew up?Nope. I started in Hunting Park, and then we lived in West Philly.

So back in Philly. And back teaching at Temple?Yeah, man. Thats the main gig. Teaching will always be the main job. Anything else is an outgrowth of that or informs that. Teaching is my first love. After I graduated from Temple in 2000 and went to grad school at Penn, I came back to Temple as faculty in 2005. I moved on to Columbia and then Morehouse, but I was recruited back to Temple in 2017. Best decision I ever made.

How has the student body changed over the years?The problem is that the students stay the same age, but I just get older and older. The cruel reality of being a professor. When teaching about popular culture, I used to be able to go to my CDs for material. Now, I have to do some serious research to know whats poppin on the street.

We photographed you at Uncle Bobbies, the bookshop/cafe you opened in Germantown in 2017 as a labor of love. Is it still just that?Ive been fortunate to be able to transform it into a real business. If we broke even, or if I took a small loss each month, I would still keep it open. But the community really supports us. They buy the books, love the coffee, and appreciate the sense of community. Our motto is Cool people, dope books, great coffee. Most places dont have all three. Its a vibe.

On the subject of books, your seventh book comes out on May 3rd. Is book-writing getting any easier?I dont love hmm. I like writing, but I love having written. The completion process is incredibly rewarding, but the writing is an intense, painstaking process. The world is so messy, and my job as critic, scholar and analyst is to help people make sense of the world. And since the world aint gettin no simpler, the work I have to do will only get harder.

In this new book, Seen and Unseen, you delve into how visual media have shifted the narrative on race and reignited the push towards justice, as your publisher summarizes it. When I think of visual media in this context, I think of the George Floyd video. Are we talking solely about caught-on-video instances of police brutality?Great question. Thats part of it. But lets look back in history. In the 19th century, journalist Ida B. Wells used photography to keep track of Americas lynching regime. Media and tech have always been part of the fight, but that role is changing as tech develops. And this book is trying to tell a story of not just the contemporary moments, but also the long arc of resistance.

Would this book exist if not for the murder of George Floyd in 2020?Ive been thinking and talking about these issues for a long time. Lets look back at the beating of Rodney King and the role of tech in that. Put George Floyd aside, and that same week, Amy Cooper called the police on a Black man who was birdwatching in Central Park and falsely accused him of threatening her, all because he asked her to put a leash on her dog. That was on video. And we saw how the internet responded, outing Amy, exposing her, calling her job and telling them what she did. But the George Floyd murder obviously had a profound impact. We watched for more than nine minutes as a man was murdered. A modern-day lynching.

Imagine if there wasnt someone there to catch it on video.There have been a lot of horrific abuses through five centuries, and in modern times, enough of them have been recorded. Here, all of America was stuck at home during a pandemic and forced to witness this spectacle of George Floyds death. What if it had just been a photograph? Or what if we only had audio? This particular tech arrangement allowed us to witness that in a very particular way. We had to stare at his body for so long. But this also harkens back to when we had to stare at 14-year-old Emmett Tills face, swollen many times over, when his mother insisted on a public, open-casket funeral for him after he was beaten and dragged into the Tallahatchie River on August 28, 1955, because of white-supremacist mob violence. The George Floyd video opened up a new kind of conversation but this is a very wide and very deep story that doesnt hinge on any single act of violence.

You mentioned Rodney King. You were 12 then, in 1991. Some 12-year-olds were very aware of what was going on in the world at the time. Others were playing Nintendo. Which were you?Particularly in the Black community, even people who have no interest in politics or the daily news cycle had to come to terms with the Rodney King beating. For me, it was the first time I felt like America was forced to come to terms with the types of stories my friends and family told me since I was born. It reminded me of my fathers story of the Rizzo police beating him on Kerbaugh Street in Hunting Park in the 1970s. So for me, Rodney King wasnt new information. But it was the first time America was forced to come to terms with anything like this. Black witness was always insufficient. Black people saying something happened was never enough. But now, its caught on tape. Who could deny he was beaten by police?

And yet look how it turned out.Right. That was also the first time I felt confident in a victory. And by victory, I meant that the cops would be fired and prosecuted and sent to jail. So when the verdict came back, it certainly wasnt what we were expecting. It was soul-crushing for me and many of my friends. We had a belief that this would work out. It got to! When it didnt, it shifted the way I understood the criminal legal system and changed the way I understood the worth of Black lives in this country.

Has the movement that George Floyds murder set ablaze lost momentum? Its been two years.No. Movements change form. They arent just about people in the streets for 24 hours a day. Movements survive news cycles. Movements survive the liberal whites falling off the bandwagon. What I see now is increasing skepticism and wariness of police. People dont just say, Well, if a cop said it, it must be true. And I also see an increased push for the defunding and abolition of the police. We could never return to innocence after George Floyd.

Your mentioning terms like defunding and abolition is sure to elicit some reader reactions. Some will say, In a city where murder is out of control, how can we defund or abolish the police? What do you say to those readers?I say that for the last few centuries, we invested more and more in policing, and it hasnt made us any safer or less drug-addicted or less vulnerable. We need a new way. Every year in government, we take money and move it to different places. We reallocate money to use it more effectively and efficiently. In the case of police, they are now being asked to be social workers, crisis-response teams, therapists and tax collectors. So even if you believe in police, you have to admit theyre being asked to do jobs they arent trained for and dont have the capacity to do. So take money from the budget and hire therapists and social workers. Thats defunding. Its not Everybodys gettin shot, so lets fire the police and hope everything works out.

But abolition?When I think about abolition, I begin with a very fundamental question: What would the world look like if all our needs were met? And for me, abolition is an attempt to answer that question in real life.

Hill speaks onstage at the Stand With Meek Mill rally on June 18, 2018. / Photograph by Gilbert Carrasquillo / WireImage/Getty Images

This month, your 2021 book, Except for Palestine, comes out in paperback. I havent read it, but Its awesome. I can promise you. [laughs]

The gist is that many progressives arent so progressive when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Right?Yes. Oftentimes, many of the same principles, ideas and values that we apply to other areas of our lives dont make it to this particular issue.

And your remarks over the years about Israel and Palestine have had consequences. CNN fired you as a commentator. Temple publicly rebuked you. Some have called you an anti-Semite. What exactly is your position on Israel and Palestine?I believe that hold on one second. [pauses] Im not avoiding your question; Im getting out of an Uber. I have to run for a train. [car door closes; street noise] Okay, listen. I have to tell you this. I just gave most of this interview in the back of an Uber that was Blue Lives Matter-and-MAGA-adorned.

Oh, God.It was amazing. I couldnt wait to tell you, and I cant imagine what the driver was thinking, hearing what I was saying. Okay, but now were into the easy stuff. Israel-Palestine. [laughs] People ignore that I am a scholar of the Middle East. I have a graduate degree in Middle Eastern studies. And I do a lot of research in the field. I dont just weigh in as a citizen with random commentary. [long pause] Okay, hold on. I just ran for the train, and let me figure out who Im sitting next to. Could it be worse than the Uber driver?

You could be sitting next to one of my Trump-loving relatives.Wow. That must make Thanksgiving awkward.

Oh, you have no idea.Listen, my position is that I stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their fight for freedom and justice. But what happens there should all be decided by Israel and Palestine. Not outsiders. I am against any occupation of Palestinian territory, but I also believe the entire region must have freedom, safety, dignity and self-determination for everybody. I believe in the possibility of a shared land. I dont think anyone has to leave. And I also know that anti-Semitism is something we must take seriously. We cannot deny that anti-Semitism is a persistent and even expanding problem both here and around the globe. We must fight anti-Semitism and stand in solidarity with Jewish people around the world.

You were on Fox News and CNN for years. Now, youre on Al Jazeera and, until it abruptly shut down in March, the Black News Channel. Have you been blacklisted by mainstream media because of your outspokenness on Israel-Palestine?Not at all. I think to believe that would be to believe theres some media conspiracy. I was excited about doing the Black News Channel, and Im proud to be with Al Jazeera. I am allowed to have an authentic voice and cover the stories I care about, and that means everything to me. I like where I am right now.

Your Fox News stint was in the mid-to-late-2000s. Was it as polarizing then as it is today?Fox News has always been to news what the WWE has been to sports. Is the WWE a sport? Its sport adjacent. I think over time, though, Fox has given up on even the pretense of objectivity. They arent even pretending to be fair and balanced these days. Theyve become not just the communications arm of the Republican Party theyve always been that but now, they are the communications arm of the extreme right. Theres a huge difference between Bill OReilly, whose show I was on many, many times, and Tucker Carlson.

If Fox News offered you big bucks today to rejoin the network, would you take the job?No. Absolutely not. I could not work at Fox News today, on principle.

Black News Channel did that have much of a white audience?[Laughs] I had a lot of white viewers. In the two months before the station shut down, my show quadrupled its viewership, and a lot of the feedback and data showed that many white people watched it. They enjoyed the conversation. I covered international news. I covered debates on race. I covered entertainment. These are things white people care about, and so they watched it and engaged with it. Black people have been watching white news for a long time, and we managed to be just fine in our own community while watching what white people were doing. The world would benefit from watching a variety of vantage points and perspectives.

So what happened with the Black News Channel?It wasnt because of the number of viewers. We had a record number of viewers right before they announced the shutdown. But the bosses said it just wasnt making financial sense. I cant say much more about it, because it wasnt my decision.

On one recent Black News Channel broadcast, right before the shutdown, you criticized the media on the Ukraine invasion, saying, and Im paraphrasing, that things like this are happening all over the world to non-white communities, but now that a bunch of white European people are being bombed, thats on 24/7.Yes. When famine is in Africa or theres violence in Chicago, we say, oh, thats what happens there. But when the same things happen in places that are whiter, we respond with sympathy and outrage, particularly because our model is still whiteness. No one wants to see human beings harmed, but if you dont fully appreciate and experience Black people as humans, its much easier to ignore their misery or suffering.

Marc Lamont Hill at Uncle Bobbies, his bookshop in Germantown / Photograph by Linette & Kyle Kielinski

I have to ask you about one very Philadelphia saga that youve inserted yourself in for many years Mumia. The two of you are friends, and youve called him one of the greatest truth-tellers that weve ever seen. Do you believe he didnt do it? Or do you just think he shouldnt be in prison today?I believe he is both factually innocent and legally not guilty. I believe he didnt do it. And I believe that they didnt make their case against him. To be even clearer, I would not support Mumia if I thought he was guilty.

Well, Im sure I wont get any emails about this interview.[Laughs]

Some of the interviews Ive done in this space recently havent been quite so, well, serious. I welcome the seriousness, but to go down one less serious path what do you do when youre not writing books, teaching students, speaking your mind, and pissing people off?Until I ruptured my Achilles in September, I played basketball. A lot. Now, I have been grounded by my age. But I still spend my time at Sixers games. I am a courtside season ticket holder, and I can be seen yelling at opposing players and complaining to refs. Other than that, I watch lots of TV.

CNN? Fox News?[Laughs] No news! No news of any kind! Reality shows. Silly stuff. Seventies sitcoms. I want laughs. I want the absurdity. Its my best escape from this crazy world we find ourselves in.

Published as On the Record: Marc Lamont Hill in the May 2022 issue ofPhiladelphiamagazine.

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Marc Lamont Hill on the State of Media, Defunding the Police, and His New Book - Philadelphia magazine

In the late 18th century Britains Caribbean island colony of Grenada was a place of boom and bust. A hurricane, a plague of ants, and Britains wars against France and American revolutionaries made for volatile trade in its main commodities sugar, coffee, and slaves.

Amid the turmoil, property changed hands regularly among Britains financial elite, but in the early 1770s the ownership of two plantations and 599 people passed to an unusual new owner: the Bank of England.

The Bank has already apologised for its role in the slave trade, but revelations of the institutions direct ownership of the people have been uncovered in new research commissioned in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

The research has been presented in a new exhibition that opened this week at the Banks museum in its headquarters on Londons Threadneedle Street. The names of the 599 slaves, acquired by the Bank in the 1770s, take a central position in the free exhibition.

During the protests the Bank apologised for the 25 governors and directors who had owned slaves. It removed eight paintings and two busts of the slave owners from public display, although the exhibition includes some reproductions.

It has been part of a reassessment of historical links to slavery and imperialism by institutions ranging from many of the UKs big high street banks Barclays, HSBC, NatWest Group and Lloyds Banking Group to the insurance market Lloyds of London and the brewer Greene King, as well as the National Trust and English Heritage, the custodians of British country houses that were in many cases built using colonial or slave wealth.

Despite the key role that slavery played in the British imperial economy, that reassessment has become a sensitive subject. The National Trust in particular has faced a barrage of criticism from parts of the Conservative party and campaigners who complained that acknowledging links to slavery and colonialism would give country house visits a political and racial dimension.

The Bank of England was itself criticised this month for supposedly woke policies after it changed the flag depicted on its logo from the English flag of St George to the Union flag, to better reflect the central banks role serving the whole of the United Kingdom.

A Bank of England spokesperson said: In 2021, the Bank of England commissioned a researcher to explore its historic links to transatlantic slavery, working with the Bank of England museum and archive.

This research found that in the 1770s the Bank made loans to a merchant company called Alexander & Sons. When the business defaulted on those loans, the Bank came into possession of two plantations in Grenada which had been pledged as security for the loans. Our research has found that 599 enslaved African people lived and worked on those plantations. The Bank subsequently sold on the plantations.

The research was led by Michael Bennett, a specialist in the history of early modern Britain and Caribbean slavery, and followed work by a small group of volunteers from across the Bank, including members of its ethnic minorities network.

Michael Taylor, a historian whose 2020 book The Interest showed how the British establishment resisted abolition, said it would be difficult to find any UK financial institution of a comparable age that was not involved in some way with the slave trade.

For the century before the abolition of the slave trade in 1807-8, Britain was the worlds leading slave power, he said. Moreover, slave-grown sugar, coffee, and cotton were among the most valuable commodities in global markets. Together, these factors meant that the slave economy was absolutely vital to Britains wider prosperity.

Owning and running slave plantations was a capital-intensive enterprise: planters needed to buy slaves, import machinery and build boiling houses, all of which took massive up-front investment and extensions of credit. Plantations were then mortgaged and remortgaged, and in these ways British banking was connected intimately to slavery.

Accounts for the plantations show spending on hospitalisations of slaves, the recapture of runaways and cage fees, as well as payments to the Bank of England.

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The plantations, called Bacolet and Chemin, were eventually sold in 1790 to an MP, James Baillie, for the equivalent of 15m in todays money. The plantations were held under nine of Andrew Baileys predecessors as the Banks current governor.

A 1788 inventory of Bacolet, reproduced in the exhibition, shows property under several headings: land, slaves, buildings and stock. Most of the men, women and children listed have European names such as Pierre, Alexandre, Catherine and Marie, with no information on which country they were taken from.

Beside each name is a sterling price for how much the person was worth to her or his owners, ranging from 330 for Pierre, a field man labelled as a driver, to 30 for Michell, who is described in a bracketed note as sickley.

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Bank of England owned 599 slaves in 1770s, new exhibition reveals - The Guardian

Tue, 04/19/2022 - 09:57am | By: David Tisdale

Dr. Vanessa Holden, a professor of history and African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky, will give a presentation on her book Surviving Southampton: African American Women and Resistance in Nat Turners Community Thursday, April 21 at 5:30 p.m. in Gonzales Auditorium, located in the Liberal Arts Building on The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Hattiesburg campus. This event is presented by the USM Center for the Study of the Gulf South, and admission is free.

Surviving Southampton examines the impact of the contributions African American women and children made to the Southampton Rebellion, more popularly known as Nat Turners Rebellion. Her work has been published in Slavery and Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, Perspectives on History, Process: A Blog for American History, and The Rumpus.

Dr. Holdens researchfocuses on African American women and slavery in the antebellum South; her areas of interest are the history resistance and rebellion, gender history, and the history of sex/sexuality. At Kentucky, she offers courses in American History, African American History, and African American Studies.

For information about the USM Center for the Study of the Gulf South, visit https://www.usm.edu/gulf-south/about-csgs.php

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Center for Study of the Gulf South Hosting Lecture April 21 on Hattiesburg Campus - The University of Southern Mississippi

Summary

In April 2014, the first EU-Africa Summit for several years was held in Brussels. It was attended by almost every European and African head of state or government except the then British prime minister, David Cameron. It seemed that neither the European Union nor Africa was that much of a priority for him at least, not more important than the Conservative Party constituency event in Wales that he attended instead. In this, Cameron might have been reflecting the views of the many British voters who had little interest in Africa or, at the time, the EU. Alternatively, he may simply have taken both for granted, thinking that they would always be there when he needed them.

Following Britains exit from the EU, the current prime minister pledged that Global Britain would engage more actively with the rest of the world. In the event, the governments February 2021 Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development, and Foreign Policy made few references to either the EU or Africa (beyond some modest platitudes about engagement with the latter to paper over the drastic cut in aid budgets it had recently announced). Clearly, neither were government priorities.

Yet Britain and Africa still have significant shared interests. The partnership between the two has great potential. But it will not fulfil that potential without some significant changes in Britains priorities and actions. And the effort will be all the more effective if Britain engages with Africa in cooperation with the rest of Europe. This paper explores how this could be achieved. It sets out the historical context of Britains relationship with Africa before and after independence. It explores the main economic, political, and social dynamics that underpin the existing relationship and what they mean for the future, as well as how this is affected by changes in Africa itself. Finally, it looks at the European dimension, and where closer collaboration rather than increased competition between Britain and Europe in Africa could have benefits for all parties.

The paper often uses the term Africa in reference to Britains diverse relations with individual African countries and with the African Union. This is convenient shorthand. It is not an attempt to treat Africa as a single country. Equally, the paper refers to Europe as including the United Kingdom and other non-EU states rather than just the EU.

For a people so proud of their traditions, the British sometimes have a remarkably selective memory of their countrys imperial history. Britains relationships with African countries as with Ireland, India, and even the United States (however special that may seem now) have deep and contested historical roots. Where the British side may see an empire to be proud of and even nostalgic about the other sees imperial exploitation and oppression that took all too long to banish. Until recently, British education tended to gloss over more than 200 years of brutal and profitable slave trade by concentrating on the more virtuous story of the abolition of that trade. Greater honesty about the past which is spreading increasingly into classrooms, national bodies, and corporate boardrooms can help build a more balanced and honest relationship between Britain and Africa.

But history still has consequences.

Language is one of them. Almost all Africans now live in countries where English, French, Arabic, or Portuguese is one of the official languages and is at the core of the national curriculum. This has enabled them to connect with and influence the wider world, but also receive information mediated through these global languages be it from the BBC, Agence France-Presse, Al Jazeera, or Xinhua. The fact that one-third of Africans speak and read English in some form is a major benefit for Britain as it seeks to engage with them.

Economics is another such area. It was trade and profit that first drew British merchants to Africa. And, while not every colony was strictly profitable in an accounting sense, they all sent raw materials to Britain and received its goods, financial services, and other forms of trade. That was a core purpose of the British Empire. So, British colonies became an integral part of a global network of business, trade, and finance that continued after independence. This network lingers on in companies and trading patterns that still link Africa to the UK.

Thirdly, while independence marked a rupture, it did not sever political ties between Britain and African countries. The Commonwealth was the mechanism by which Britain sought to convert an empire into an alliance that was sufficiently loose and non-committal for all to feel comfortable within it. It has even expanded from 17 former British territories in Africa (neither Zimbabwe nor South Sudan is currently a member) to include Rwanda and Mozambique. Commonwealth heads of state and government are due to meet in Kigali in June 2022, following a two-year delay caused by covid-19. Although the Queen remains the head of the Commonwealth, its members gather now less to meet with the British government than to meet with one another. It is an international network that cuts across regional groupings and imposes few constraints on its members. The Commonwealth has been useful in bringing its members together through a common language; a formal commitment to democratic values such as pluralism and human and civil rights (though this is often tested and has sometimes proven flexible); and its networks of expertise in common law and parliamentary and electoral practice.

Independence enabled African nations to join the panoply of global structures that make up the multilateral system, from the United Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the World Health Organization to the International Court of Justice, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. African countries have also joined the political networks that emerged within these structures such as the G77 and the Non-Aligned Movement and their own regional organisations, ranging from the Organisation of African Unity (now the AU) to the Economic Community of West African States, the Southern African Development Community, the East African Community, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. While African leaders see some of these multilateral structures as part of a Western-dominated global system, the rebalancing of the global order in the past decade is beginning to change this perception. This matters for Britains relationship with Africa, because it is both mediated through and reflected in the multilateral system. Ultimately, as Britains permanent seat on the UN Security Council depends on its credibility as a global player, African states view of that credibility matters.

Since independence, Britain and much of Commonwealth Africa have maintained strong links with each other. However, the countrys connections with non-Commonwealth Africa have been weaker. Britain expanded its trade and tourism with Morocco and Egypt, while making big energy sector investments in Algeria and Angola. But, in Egypt particularly, Britains former role as an imperial power creates both an affinity and mistrust. History can be papered over, but it never goes away.

Paradoxically, it was to Britain that many Africans fled to escape post-independence political turmoil and conflict in the 1960s and the 1970s. Dissidents, refugees, and their families moved to the UK from Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Somalia, and several southern African countries. Life was not always easy; they faced widespread racism and prejudice. But survival was possible while it might not have been back home. This new diaspora followed the arrival in the UK of almost half a million people from the Caribbean in the 1940s and the 1950s.

Nevertheless, Britains post-independence relations with Africa were bedevilled by the slow process of decolonisation in southern Africa and the struggle against apartheid. Prime Minister Margaret Thatchers support for the South African government seriously strained Britains relations with a number of African governments and damaged the countrys reputation on the continent.

From the mid-1990s, however, the relationship took a new turn, especially under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Coinciding with the revival of African countries economic fortunes and the spread of democracy after 1990 (the African Renaissance, as some called it), this proved to be a heyday for British-African relations as reflected in the attention the UK paid to Africa at G8 summits, the Blair Commission for Africa, the creation of the Department for International Development (DFID), Britains increases in aid spending from 2.5 billion in 1997 to 8.5 billion in 2010, and British support for the New Partnership for Africas Development and other African initiatives.

After 2010, the relationship began to fade. Camerons coalition government stuck to the same rhetoric, encouraged investment, and introduced legislation that formalised Britains commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of GNI on foreign aid. But travel to Africa and meetings with African leaders were largely delegated to then-deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. And British ministers for Africa came and went with monotonous regularity, allowing none to establish sustained relations with African leaders. The neglect accelerated after the 2015 election and the overwhelming focus after 2016 on extricating Britain from the EU. The British political establishment and civil service had little bandwidth for other priorities. Theresa May, as prime minister, came as close as anyone to defining a more coherent strategy on Africa, as revealed in her speech on a brief tour of the continent in 2018, but never translated this into a formal document on her return. Britain slightly expanded its diplomatic presence in Africa, but any potential benefit to the relationship was blown away by her successors announcement of the abolition of DFID and deep cuts to UK aid in late 2020.

Brexit baffled leaders of Anglophone African countries who could not understand why Britain would throw away the power and influence that came with EU membership but generated hope among leaders of Francophone ones, who speculated that Britain would at last engage with them more closely. The Integrated Review, insofar as it was noticed at all on the continent, did not reassure the former or satisfy the latter, despite its pledge to maintain a raft of policies on Africa and prioritise relations with South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Ghana. Actions speak louder than words, and they told a different story.

Britains current engagement with Africa arguably falls under four broad headings: economic links, security cooperation, cultural and educational contacts (part of soft power), and people.

Britains trade with Africa has shrunk in absolute and relative terms. In 1960 the UK accounted for around 30 per cent of all African trade, but now accounts for barely 3 per cent. According to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Africas November 2020 report on UK-Africa Trade after Brexit and research by Carnegie, trade in goods and services grew from $15 billion in 2000 to $27 billion in 2008 and $43 billion in 2012, before falling back to $34 billion in 2019 and (partly due to covid-19) only $14 billion in 2020. By comparison, China accounted for $190 billion of Africas $1,300 billion in global trade in 2019. That year, more than 40 per cent of the UKs African trade was with South Africa and Nigeria. Pre-Brexit trade relations had been governed by the EUs Cotonou Agreement. This allowed for quota- and duty-free access to most African countries under the Everything but Arms agreement, with economic partnership agreements for others that allowed largely free access, albeit with the controversial requirement for the reciprocal liberalisation of African markets. Since Brexit, Britain has simply rolled over the same regime, signing new deals with 16 African countries that are almost identical to the old ones. So far, there is no sign that the UK is changing its trade regime to support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). And the media perception of doing business in Africa remains unduly negative.

Nevertheless, the UK has maintained a stronger position in investment in Africa. In 2019 the country held the second-largest stock of foreign direct investment in Africa (after China) at $66 billion 83 per cent of it invested in oil, gas, mining, and financial services. Annual investment grew rapidly after 2000, but plummeted after Brexit and recovered in 2018-2019, only to fall again during the covid-19 pandemic. African investment in the UK was around $3 billion in 2014, but the UK has found a niche in encouraging expanding African companies to list on the London Stock Exchange. By 2019, more than 110 African companies with a combined market capitalisation of $175 billion were listed on the London Stock Exchange more than on any other stock exchange outside Africa. The firms had been attracted by the liquidity of its market and relative ease of listing. London has also become the most popular foreign location for issuing African sovereign bonds, with $36 billion raised in total. This has partly compensated for the retreat of British banks from African markets: Standard Chartered remains, but Barclays has almost completely withdrawn and HSBC has only a limited presence. Arguably, the financial relationship between the UK and Africa is too close. There is abundant evidence that Londons openness to foreign wealth has facilitated the laundering of the corrupt gains of ruling elites from Africa and elsewhere, especially in the property market.

But financial flows go both ways. There is no precise figure for remittances from the UK to Africa, but a thorough study in 2017 estimated the flow to be $6.5 billion in 2015. Much of this money flows directly to households to fund education, construction, and small businesses. With remittances significantly exceeding the volume of aid spending to Africa, there was pressure on the government in 2020 to cut the transfer cost of remittances to support communities suffering the economic consequences of covid-19.

Since hosting the first UK-Africa Investment Summit in January 2020, the government in London has worked hard to promote British investment in the continent. A key role in this has been played by the CDC Group, now rebranded British International Investment. Having invested more than 7 billion in the past five years, the organisations new strategy for 2022-2026 pledges to allocate between 1.5 billion and 2 billion per annum to long-term investments in viable, job-creating enterprises particularly in renewable energy while withdrawing from the fossil fuel business. Much of this investment will be in Africa. This makes economic sense: Africa is home to several of the fastest-growing economies in the world; financial technology and telecoms are booming on the continent; African minerals are increasingly in demand; and Africa has great potential to improve its agricultural output.

This focus on investment has been accompanied by an abrupt and drastic cut in Britains aid budget, from 0.7 per cent of GNI to 0.5 per cent. Given that the country had multilateral commitments it could not abandon at short notice, this translated into a cut for most African bilateral programmes of more than 60 per cent from one year to the next. The announcement in November 2020 came hard on the heels of the governments decision five months earlier to merge DFID into a new Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.

There was a perfectly good case for integrating DFID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office more closely, especially in overseas missions and, indeed, for reducing aid in favour of investment in Africa. But with a characteristically cavalier destructiveness, Prime Minister Boris Johnson threw away any potential benefit of defining a new strategy in favour of an arresting phrase and a cheap headline, using the occasion to throw some red meat to the diehard opponents of aid on his own backbenches and to appeal to the two-thirds of British voters who thought aid spending was too high. His references to the aid programme as a giant cashpoint in the sky and his view that Ukraine and the Western Balkans should receive more aid than Tanzania and Zambia seemed calculated to add insult to injury. In Africa, they went down like a lead balloon.

These decisions badly damaged African leaders trust in the British government as a reliable partner. The aid cut, the abolition of DFID, and the rebranding of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and CDC Group all signalled that British aid was now to be used in pursuit of Britains interests, not those of the poor or the recipient countries. As several observers have argued, the cuts are more a public signal of Britains international weakness than its commitment to a global role.

Since independence, Britain had sought to maintain good contacts with African military officers, mainly through their sponsored attendance at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the Royal College of Defence Studies. The closeness of these relationships has been limited by post-colonial and anti-apartheid sensitivities, the tendency of some African militaries to take a direct role in politics, and Britains reluctance to play as active a military role as France in Africa. The military intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000 was an exception. But, in a few African countries, Britain remains important militarily.

Britain has maintained an exceptionally close military relationship with Kenya since 1963 in the form of a regularly renewed defence treaty that allows up to 10,000 British troops to train in Kenya every year and to provide training support to the Kenyan military. In recent years, especially since al-Shabaab attacked the Westgate shopping mall in 2013, this support has particularly focused on counter-terrorism training with some success. Despite controversy over the behaviour of British soldiers training in Kenya, the relationship looks set to continue whoever wins the Kenyan presidential election this year.

Britain has also supported Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram, but with rather less success. Following an agreement in 2018, this led to the first UK-Nigeria security and defence partnership meeting in London in February 2022. Future training will focus particularly on community policing, respect for human rights, and the role of women in the police force, as well as counter-terrorism cooperation.

Both Kenya and Nigeria border countries where terrorist activity poses a growing threat to political stability. In the Sahel, the UK has supported Frances Operation Barkhane since 2018 with the deployment of three Chinook helicopters, and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). London recently committed to provide political support to the multinational Takuba Task Force that was planned to replace Barkhane, and to deploy 250 reconnaissance troops alongside MINUSMA soldiers though it is still unclear how these activities will be affected by the coup in Mali earlier this year and the French withdrawal from the country. In the Horn of Africa, the UK has been one of the strongest advocates of EU support for the AU Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). As penholder for Somalia on the UN Security Council, the UK negotiated an extension of the mandate and continues to provide financial support to the country alongside the EU. But, without AMISOM, Somalia could quickly succumb to chronic instability and a resurgent al-Shabaab. And the decision on the missions future is now more in the hands of the AU and the EU than the UK.

The Integrated Review made much of Britains status as a soft power superpower, citing the influence of the BBC and the British Council (both of which are threatened by government cuts), as well as the royal family and Premier League football.

Britains cultural influence in Africa is indeed wide and deep, but that is not enough in itself to turn the soft into power. That requires a political gearing mechanism. And the relationship is more reciprocal than many realise: Africas cultural influence in the UK is growing faster than vice versa.

Millions of Africans watch Premier League matches every week, as much to follow the fortunes of African players as the teams themselves. The Ivorian ambassador to London used to point to a framed photo of footballer Didier Drogba on his mantelpiece, explaining: he is the real Ambassador of Cote dIvoire to this country. The most famous Egyptian in Britain is undoubtedly Mohamed Salah. And more Africans will have heard of footballer Harry Kane than Johnson. More still will have heard of the Queen, and there is an immense reservoir of affection for her and the (still widely trusted) BBC among Africans of an older generation. London, too, retains its powerful attraction as a place to visit, study, and work.

But none of this automatically translates into support for the British governments policies or votes at the UN. For that to happen, London would need to improve the political gearing mechanism and admit that the abolition of DFID, savage aid cuts, and apparent neglect of Africa have severely dented that so-called soft power.

Britains diplomatic network in Africa is extensive, with missions in all but 13 countries, and includes some excellent staff who maintain effective and influential contacts. But these can only be fully mobilised with visible political backing. Britains ever-changing cast of Africa ministers tour the continent assiduously, but remain junior and transient figures. The British royals are popular in Africa, but have no political power. Without the regular engagement of the foreign secretary and prime minister, the gearing will not be effective.

Nevertheless, one area remains of crucial importance to soft power: education. Britain continues to have a world-class higher education system, which many Anglophone African students aspire to attend. In 2020 around 25,000 students from Africa were studying in British higher education (75 per cent of them from Nigeria). And, over many years, this experience has had a lasting influence on the attitudes of African elites, who often go on to senior jobs at home or abroad. A few stay in British academic or private sector jobs, bringing skills and an African perspective to the country. The British governments policy is to encourage overseas students to attend educational institutions in the UK. Accordingly, in 2020, the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office sponsored 401 Chevening scholars from sub-Saharan Africa to study in the UK. However, there remain two impediments to this effort: the high costs for overseas students with a relative lack of scholarships to fund poorer students and the persistent difficulty in obtaining a visa. Since the government cracked down on so-called visa factory language schools a decade ago, it has become harder to secure one, particularly for short-term academic study visits. This has stimulated a significant shift of African students towards the US (which is easier to access), China (which is cheaper), and even to Ukraine (where internationally recognised degree courses were both cheap and easy to access).

British universities are beginning to respond to this trend by directly building partnerships with African universities. Rather than create overseas branches as they do in the Middle East or Asia, they are increasing the capacity of partner universities in situ, to help strengthen African higher education in ways that are more accessible to most local students. As this approach is beneficial and sustainable for both parties, the British government should increase its support for such partnerships, especially by facilitating visits to and from Africa.

Soft power also works in the other direction. Africa has growing cultural influence in the UK in everything from music and literature to cinema and TV not just through the African diaspora but throughout British cultural industries and consumer choices. Events such as Film Africa and Africa Writes attract growing audiences, while UK concerts by leading African musicians sell out in hours.

This goes hand in hand with changes in political attitudes. The Black Lives Matter movement stimulated in 2020 a renewed interest in facing up to Britains own history, reflected in recent reports and investigations by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the National Trust, and private companies. The question of the restitution of cultural property, particularly of the Benin Bronzes, has also resurfaced. These demands for greater honesty and transparency about the past come from communities in the UK as much as from African countries themselves. And Britains reputation among Africans and those of African heritage everywhere will suffer if the government is unresponsive to such demands. An effort to ensure that Africa is accurately represented in the British school curriculum, as recently recommended by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Africa, would be a good place to start.

The most dynamic element of Britains evolving relationship with Africa has been the growing population of African origin in the country. In colonial times, the British migrated to Africa; in the post-colonial world, the flow has reversed. Recent estimates put the total African diaspora in the UK at more than 1.4 million. The 2011 National Census identified 3.3 per cent of the British population as being Black/African/Caribbean/Black British and another 1 per cent as mixed African/Caribbean/White heritage. As a share of Britains estimated 2021 population of 68.4 million, this equates to around three million people in Britain with some African heritage. The largest grouping of these people is in London, but there are also growing communities across the country, including in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Cardiff, and Edinburgh. People of African heritage work in all sectors and make up around 2.5 per cent of the total NHS workforce accounting for a disproportionately large share of nurses. In practice, Africa like south Asia has become an integral part of what Britain is.

Many in the African diaspora in the UK maintain close and active links with the countries where they have family ties. Flights to and from west Africa are some of British Airways most lucrative routes. These connections are often commercial as much as familial, with organisations such as AFFORD encouraging the diaspora to support African development efforts. The British government, too, has been keen to create links with the diaspora as a way of connecting with the continent but, to be effective, this needs to involve more listening and less talking. Britains African diaspora is one of its major geopolitical and economic assets a fact that the government has taken too long to recognise.

One issue in particular dominates Africans views of Britain: visas. A 2019 report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Africa highlighted the visa problems that African visitors face in the UK. Its conclusions are borne out by conversations with Africans across the continent. No other topic creates more animosity towards the UK than the expensive, time-consuming, uncertain, and occasionally even humiliating experience of applying for a visa to visit the UK. The British authorities have made improvements in response to the report, while covid-19 travel restrictions temporarily eased the pressure on the visa system. But the issue has not gone away: it continues to have an outsized influence on perceptions of Britain across Africa.

Three factors will shape the trends discussed above: geopolitics; domestic politics (in both Africa and the UK); and global policy issues, particularly health, climate, conflict, and demographics. In many of them, Britains interests are mirrored by Europes.

Since independence, African nations have asserted their own agency in international affairs individually, as well as collectively through the AU and its predecessor. They are now considering how their interests are best served in a world that is becoming more multipolar. There is undoubtedly a struggle for influence on the continent, but it is a struggle that will be decided by Africans themselves. To be courted by world leaders be they from Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Istanbul, Berlin, or Brussels is to realise the power of choice. The recent round of summits with Africa have included, in 2019, Russias in Sochi and, in 2021, Frances in Montpelier, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Senegal (the first away from Beijing), and Turkeys in Istanbul. With the AU-EU Summit also having taken place in Brussels in February 2022, can Britain compete?

It depends on what African leaders are looking for. Investment and trade: certainly. Respect: of course. Support on health and climate: obviously. Security: sometimes. Lectures: certainly not. European Council President Charles Michels proposal that the EU and Africa form a new alliance was not welcomed this was not what African leaders wanted. Though 28 African states voted for the recent UN General Assembly resolution demanding that Russia withdraw from Ukraine and only one (Eritrea) opposed it, 17 abstained and eight were absent, reluctant to vote against a nation with whom they had close links even if it was trampling on the sovereignty of an independent state and trying to reimpose imperial rule from Moscow. Even more abstained from voting on (23) or opposed (9) a resolution to remove Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. Contrast this with the unanimous African vote against the UK on the Chagos Islands resolution in 2019 (when only five countries in the world backed the British position ), and the overwhelming African support for the Indian rather than the British candidate for the International Court of Justice in 2017.

Real friends are there when you need them and that cuts both ways. African leaders may prefer a trip to London to one to Moscow, but the UN votes suggest that Russia carries more clout in Africa than the UK for all its aid, investment, and education. With UN Security Council reform again in the air, it is worth asking: if there was a straight vote between the UK and Russia for a seat on the Security Council, who would gather the most African votes?

Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine has changed global politics. Alliances are becoming more important. And both Britain and the EU need to build robust partnerships in Africa if they are to demonstrate the value of, and thereby preserve, a multilateral system based on international law rather than the law of the strongest. Most African countries, with relatively small economies and limited military capabilities, have much to lose if the multilateral system that gives them a vote and a voice is replaced by a global system of patrons and clients. Africa did not fare well in the cold war which brought it conflict and corruption rather than growth or good governance. Africas growth story only began after the cold war ended.

But not all Africans see it that way. For many in the street, and some in government, the West has had its way in the world for too long: the global system is still stacked against Africa, Africans are still poor, Western countries failed them yet again in their response to covid-19, and a change is overdue. China and Russia provide some African leaders with what they want investment and security, with no questions asked. France is already facing a backlash in west Africa, where its counter-terrorism campaigns are widely accused of being more neo-colonial than supportive. And just when Africa needs extra support to deal with the impact of covid-19 and rising world food prices, the UK is reducing its aid budget. Therefore, domestic political pressure in a growing number of African countries may drive governments to reject old partners and seek new ones. There is a battle of narratives in Africa. Neither France, Britain, nor the rest of Europe can take African sympathy and support for granted.

British domestic politics could also drive it away from Africa. Opinion polls confirm that there is extensive public support for aid cuts and the closure of the border to foreigners, including refugees. And the Johnson government is likely to stick by these policies. There is currently no British minister willing to make the case in cabinet for prioritising closer links with Africa. The Conservative Friends of International Development were defeated in their efforts to push the government to return to a 0.7 per cent of GNI target for aid spending. Seen from Africa, there seems to be little chance that the British government will genuinely listen to Africans concerns and address their needs.

And yet, if some aspects of global and domestic politics risk pulling the UK and Africa apart, there are global and local crises in which African countries would look for support from Britain if it was willing to work hand in hand with the rest of Europe, as it has on Ukraine. This could create a basis for a new and lasting partnership.

The most urgent of these issues are health, climate, conflict, and demography.

The covid-19 pandemic revealed the desperate need to upgrade Africas health capabilities. Despite major investment in African healthcare in recent decades especially to combat AIDS, Ebola, malaria, malnutrition, and to improve maternity care the West is widely seen to have failed to deliver adequate vaccines in Africas hour of need. African countries are determined to develop their own pharmaceutical industries. And the EU and Britain should take the lead in supporting this, as British universities are in supporting African higher education. British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca, for example, has the potential to increase its investment in Africa, which would promote vaccine equity and reduce the risks that future outbreaks will develop into pandemics.

COP26 underlined the shared interests of African and European countries in tackling climate change. Africans are among the first to suffer the consequences of climate change, while Europeans want to accelerate action to mitigate these effects. COP27 in Egypt provides an opportunity to reinforce the unity of purpose with unity of action. Thanks to the widely respected work of COP26 President Alok Sharma, Britain had a leading role in Glasgow. To carry weight in Sharm-el-Sheikh, it will need to act in concert with the EU. Africas and Europes green agendas are not identical but, as the AU-EU Summit declaration demonstrated, they have common ground. And the EU can back up its climate goals with far greater investment than Britain alone can mobilise. On the other side, Africas ability to influence both China and India is critical to limiting the speed of climate change. Sharma would be well-placed to organise a partnership along these lines with both Africa and the EU, if the government gave him the support to do so.

Nevertheless, adapting to climate change requires a degree of stability and government effectiveness that, in parts of Africa, appears to be under strain not least from the impact of climate change itself. Across both the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, intensifying pressure on resources appears to be exacerbating jihadism, banditry, political instability, and a wider decay in governmental capacity to maintain law and order. These trends could lead to greater disorder and displacement which, in turn, would put further pressure on established governments and accelerate what is in some places already becoming a process of state disintegration. Political disagreements risk degenerating into uncontrollable conflict, precipitating ever larger movements of people that destabilise neighbouring countries. Britain could certainly play a constructive role in working with African institutions to reduce these risks and build on the successful growth story elsewhere on the continent. But, by acting alone, it lacks critical mass. Britain can only provide support and apply pressure that will make a difference by working with the EU and the AU.

Africas remarkable demographic growth underpins all three challenges. Unlike most other continents, Africa will continue to experience a rapid increase in its population. This is thanks to the revolution in healthcare since the 1960s. Africans median age of 19.7 means that there will be an expanding labour force for many decades to come. The key question concerns what they will do. Population growth can stimulate economic activity, but only if it is accompanied by the mobilisation of physical resources (such as land, water, and energy) and investment (in infrastructure, transport, manufacturing) to create jobs and other economic opportunities. If young Africans cannot find a livelihood where they are, they will move to a place where they can. That is the history of human society. It will not stop because of the relatively recent invention of national borders.

All this has a direct impact on the EU and Britain. Both have a choice between supporting more rapid economic growth in Africa or preparing to welcome more African migrants. As all have learnt in different ways from the covid-19 and Ukraine crises, it is impossible to insulate one region from events in another, however far away it may feel. To address these problems, the UK needs to work closely with other European countries as well as with the US, the AU, and the UN to support political stabilisation in these regions. This should involve more effective international coordination to prevent external powers, including Gulf states, from exacerbating local conflicts a problem that has plagued peace efforts in Libya and the Horn of Africa.

It is already clear that it is hard to separate British policy on Africa from that of the rest of Europe. Of course, seen from Downing Street, Britain is competing for business and influence with its European rivals. But, frankly, there are bigger games in play and Britain risks losing out if it chooses to go it alone (as the recent ECFR report Beyond Global Britain makes clear).

As an EU member, the UK was considered a heavyweight on African affairs with considerable influence on EU policy, alongside France and Germany (which, under former chancellor Angela Merkel, also prioritised Africa). Since Brexit, EU Africa policy has become decidedly more French and Mediterranean. This is not necessarily to Britains or Africas advantage.

The European Economic Community, the EUs predecessor, inherited strong links with Africa from member states that formerly held African colonies, but without some of the historical baggage. It initially focused on aid and trade, through the Lom and then Cotonou conventions the latter seeking to strengthen the link between economic development and good governance. From the first EU-Africa Summit held in Cairo in 2000, the formation of the AU in 2003, and the agreement on a Joint Africa-EU Strategy in 2007, the relationship aspired to become an equal partnership. This partnership was reaffirmed at a successful summit in Brussels in 2014, but then tested by the migration crisis in 2015. The latter culminated in the Valletta Summit on migration in November 2015, which set out the five pillars of policy that both sides endorsed and established a trust fund to help finance the resulting initiatives.

The most recent AU-EU Summit, attended by 40 African and almost all EU heads of state or government, reaffirmed the partnership and set out a joint vision for 2030. It was a substantive affair. And its timing, just ahead of Russias invasion of Ukraine, was fortuitous. There were intense negotiations over the wording of commitments on migration and intellectual property rights for pharmaceutical products. This is because what was said mattered.

The relationship now revolves around six key issues, including those identified above:

On many of these issues, the UK and EU are almost entirely aligned and would strengthen each other by working together. The British governments apparent belief that it will carry more weight by approaching African countries independently of the EU is not borne out in practice. Of course, British diplomats can join forces with their EU colleagues on an ad hoc basis, but this would be less effective. The government currently discourages participation in EU coordination meetings, an approach that makes no sense in a world where influence matters more than posturing. Common UK-EU positions would demonstrate to Britains African interlocutors that it still had influence within the EU, thereby enhancing the countrys capacity to achieve its objectives in Africa.

The consequences of Britains refusal to reach a formal post-Brexit foreign policy coordination mechanism with the EU are now apparent. Without institutional mechanisms to support this process, such coordination is ad hoc and rushed. Bilateral engagement with individual member states is a time-consuming and clumsy alternative to such mechanisms.

Britain could easily begin to address this issue in Africa by allowing its ambassadors and high commissioners to liaise with their EU counterparts on a more regular basis. More efficient still would be to create a formal coordination mechanism in Brussels that would bring the UK into the room when it mattered most. Despite the bad blood created by Brexit, most European countries would welcome this.

Britain retains great assets in Africa and in its African diaspora. But, having neglected both, the country is now paying the price in diminished influence and reduced business. It needs to change policies and priorities if it is to reverse that trend. The key to this is for the government to listen to what Africans are saying including those who are now an integral part of British society and to address their concerns, not merely seek to impose its own policies on them. This is now a matter of domestic and international politics. Listening and responding is very much in Britains national interest if only the government would admit it.

Britains position in the world depends on real power, hard security, and economic benefits not on wishful thinking. Waffle in Whitehall and Westminster has no clout in Africa. And Britains global influence depends as much if not more on African and South Asian opinion as on the views of China, with whom it is currently engaged in a stand-off, and the US, which too often takes Britain for granted. Having friends still matters in global politics. It is essential for Britain to build fruitful partnerships with African countries domestically and internationally. This is obviously true of Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya, which are courted by all major players and can pick and choose their partners. Therefore, Britain should make a particular effort to court Francophone and smaller Anglophone countries that global powers regularly ignore Malawi, Botswana, Zambia, Gambia, Uganda, Somalia, South Sudan, Cte dIvoire, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A real commitment to Africas interests and progress would produce big political dividends.

The transformation of the international order caused by Russias war on Ukraine makes Africas role in the world more important than ever. Some African countries will be tempted to equivocate or play one great power off against the others. This is a dangerous and potentially damaging game, as Russias involvement in Syria has demonstrated. It is fundamentally in the interests of Africas democracies, Africas development, and arguably all African people to enhance global stability rather than encourage or tolerate continued conflict.

This is profoundly in the self-interest of both Britain and the EU. By acting separately, they weaken their ability to support Africas development. The case for democracy, liberal values, and an open economy needs to be argued, demonstrated, and won in public debate. By allowing its influence in Africa to fade, and by distancing itself from the European mainstream, Britain has limited its ability to affect the outcome of that debate in ways that have serious consequences for its role in the world.

Britains assets in soft power, security engagement, financial expertise, and political understanding could have far greater impact if they were linked to the EUs resources and economic clout. The longer Britain continues to separate itself from the EU by avoiding close coordination on policies that are in their mutual interest, the faster its influence in Africa will diminish. A dogmatic commitment to autonomy will only hasten its irrelevance. Some in government may find such advice unpalatable, but ignoring it will only hasten Britains decline. If Britain cannot work with its friends and neighbours, it will swiftly lose the respect of all.

Investing in Africa still makes economic sense, as the continents economies and populations are growing. And Africans will welcome it: faster economic growth is essential to manage the demographic shift, the impact of climate change, and the risk of conflict on the continent. These are important issues for all concerned.

Therefore, in practical terms, the key recommendations are:

Above all, both the UK and the EU need to make a greater political investment in Africas future starting right now, before it is too late.

The European Council on Foreign Relations does not take collective positions. ECFR publications only represent the views of its individual authors.

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Shared fortunes: Why Britain, the European Union and Africa need each other - European Council on Foreign Relations

By Chaz Muth

WASHINGTON (CNS) The devastating impact of the sin of slavery cannot be fixed with a simple apology and monetary restitution, Georgetown University officials acknowledge.

The work began nearly seven years ago to begin to make amends for the schools history of owning and selling enslaved people.

Sometimes people will (ask) when will we finish up the reconciliation initiatives? (The answer is) its ongoing. Its a permanent part of our process, said Joseph A. Ferrara, vice president and chief of staff to the president of Georgetown University, one of the most recognizable Catholic institutions in the U.S.

Its a shameful legacy the Jesuit-run university will bear for the foreseeable future and there is no magic remedy to right the wrong, but Ferrara said university leadership is committed to continuing reparations to the descendants of enslaved people once owned by the Jesuits and to ongoing programs designed to counter systemic racism.

The efforts of Georgetown and the Jesuits to atone for what they label as a sin has been widely applauded as an example of how to begin the process of racial healing in a country still struggling to come to grips with racism.

However, these efforts dont come without criticism from those who believe reparations send the wrong message and from some descendants of Georgetown slaves who say the committed restitution falls short of the damage that was inflicted.

The Jesuits opened Georgetown for classes in 1792, using profits from their slave-holding Maryland plantations to fund what is the oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in the U.S., said Adam Rothman, an associate professor of history at the university and author of Slave Country: American Expansion and the Origins of the Deep South.

Georgetowns history is a microcosm of the whole history of American slavery, Rothman told Catholic News Service in a March interview. The school was founded by a slave-holding Catholic elite. That group really stamped the school in its own image.

Georgetown catered to that social class, educated boys and young men from that class and indoctrinated them with the moral judgments of that class, Rothman said, noting that the Catholic gentry and the Jesuits found a morality in enslaving other humans.

Documents and research find that not only did the profits from slave-holding plantations subsidize Georgetown, but slaves also worked on campus, students brought their own personal slaves to campus, and the students and faculty defended the institution of slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War and fought abolition efforts, he said.

Georgetown as the flagship educational institution of the Jesuits, of Catholic America in the early 19th century was really a pillar of pro-slavery moral order, Rothman said.

With a mounting debt in the late 1830s, Georgetown was on the brink of financial ruin.

So, in 1838 the Jesuits sold 272 enslaved men, women and children to two plantations in Louisiana and used part of the profits from that sale to rescue the college.

The Jesuits and Georgetown officials continued racial segregation policies long after slavery was outlawed in the U.S. and well into the 20th century.

By the end of the 20thcentury, however, the faculty began to research and teach about Georgetowns role in slavery, Rothman said.

Students began to call on the university to address its racist past and by 2014 as the country began to experience protests for racial justice Georgetown officials knew it was time to act, Ferrara told CNS in a March interview.

All of this flows under a construct that has guided our work, he said, which I would put sort of in three words, all of which begin with an a. Acknowledgment, apology and action.

In 2015, Georgetown University President John DeGioia established the Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation.

The working groups efforts led to a formal apology from the Jesuits and the creation of the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation, announced in 2021 as a partnership formed by the Jesuits and the GU272 Descendants Association.

The Jesuit order pledged to raise $100 million for the foundations work, which will support educational opportunities and scholarships from early childhood education to higher education for descendants of the 272 enslaved men, women and children.

The foundation also will support community-based, grassroots and national programs that advance racial healing and transformation throughout the U.S.

The university has pledged to create a smaller reconciliation fund to support community groups that benefit descendants, Ferrara said.

Georgetown University also established a new Racial Justice Institute in 2021, which school officials say will serve as a hub where current and future scholars, activists and thought leaders may work across the academic, policy and advocacy spaces to address the remnants of slavery.

Robin Lenhardt, who is a professor at Georgetown Law and one of the founding faculty of this new initiative, said the Racial Justice Institute will focus on research and societal solutions for racial inequities in economic stability, housing, health, policing, education and a host of other areas.

All these efforts come after scores of meetings many of them painful summits over several years between descendants of the oppressed and Georgetown and Jesuit officials to begin the healing process, Ferrara said.

We cant change the past, but we can change the future, he said. Thats what we want to try to do.

The efforts of Georgetown have not gone unnoticed, and it has been welcome news to Father Stephen Thorne, a Black priest who is chairman of the Archdiocese of Philadelphias Commission for Racial Healing.

Reparations is much more than writing a check to someone, Father Thorne told CNS in a February interview. It really is acknowledging what has happened and doing the work, the hard work, of calling out and making sure it doesnt repeat itself again.

Sister Marcia Hall, a Black nun with the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore, has been inspired by Georgetowns work and hopes other Catholic organizations take a similar path toward racial reconciliation.

Joseph M. Stewart, the acting president of the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation, stressed that addressing the U.S. history of slavery and its continuing implications must focus on looking ahead more than on continuing to deconstruct the past.

Stewart who is a descendant of Isaac Hawkins, whose name was at the top of the bill of sale for the 272 enslaved men, women and children sold by the Jesuits in 1838 made these comments during a 2021 online program hosted by Georgetowns Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life called, Owning Slavery, Pursuing Justice, Seeking Reconciliation.

Were not going to change and mitigate the impact of slavery until we start dealing with the hearts of men instead of the intellectualizing and legal approach, he said, while also giving credit to Georgetown for its outreach to the descendants of the 272 enslaved people and its ongoing research.

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Georgetown Officials Say Amends for Slavery Past Are Ongoing and Long Term - The Tablet Catholic Newspaper

Animal Protection Nonprofit Spearheading Efforts to Enact Similar Legislation to End This Humane Practice throughout North America

ANNAPOLIS, Md., April 21, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Paw Project the leading animal protection nonprofit dedicated to educating the public about the inhumane and crippling effects of cat declawing and advocating for anti-declaw legislation proudly announces that the inhumane practice of declawing animals has been banned in a second U.S. State.

Today, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan enacted legislation prohibiting elective, non-therapeutic declawing, effective October 1, 2022. He signed the following bills into law: SB67, sponsored by Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-17) and HB22, sponsored by Del. Lorig Charkoudian, Ph.D. (D-20).

The law does not into effect until October 1.

"I am so appreciative of Gov. Hogan and honored to work with Del. Charkoudian and Sen. Kagan, who are true champions for animals," said Jennifer Conrad, DVM, a veterinarian and the founder/director of the Paw Project. "Maryland can now consider itself one of the most humane states in the Union."

Declawing is a surgical procedure in which the animal's toes are amputated at the last joint. Part of the bone, not just the nail, is removed. It is analogous to cutting off the first knuckle on the human hand.

It is estimated that 23 million domestic cats (over 20 percent of all owned cats) are declawed in the United States. This highly invasive and painful surgery is performed primarily to protect furniture. It is widely recognized that declawing cats does not reduce health risks for humans with health issues. Recently published studies have shown that declawed cats are more likely to bite.

"Our beloved kitties, who cannot advocate for themselves, need us to protect them," said Sen. Kagan. "I am so proud that Maryland will become just the second state to ban the cruel practice of declawing our cats. Del. Charkoudian and I are grateful to the Paw Project, the many humane organizations and pet lovers from across Maryland who contacted their legislators and helped to get this bill passed."

Del. Charkoudian concurred, "I am thrilled that my colleagues have taken this important action to protect cats from this cruel and unnecessary practice. I am proud that Maryland is a leader in this effort and I hope all other states will follow."

Declawing is already prohibited in the New York state, 13 U.S. cities (including West Hollywood, Berkeley, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Culver City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Monica), and in eight of the 10 Canadian provinces. Anti-declaw legislation is currently being considered in California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

The practice of declawing any cat already is illegal or considered unethical in most of the world, including the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and Norway. Great Britain's Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has declared declawing to be "unnecessary mutilation."

"We sincerely thank Gov. Hogan and the Maryland legislature for taking the momentous step to ban declawing," said Becky Robinson, president and founder of the Bethesda, Md.-based, Alley Cat Allies.

In addition to The Paw Project and Alley Cat Allies, the Humane Society of The United States, the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, Maryland Votes for Animals, and veterinarians all over the world oppose the procedure.

California previously passed legislation to prohibit declawing of captive and wild exotic cats due to the Paw Project's efforts. Veterinarians working with the nonprofit animal protection organization have developed and performed reparative surgery on lions, tigers, cougars, leopards, jaguars and domestic cats that had been maimed by declawing yielding dramatic results. Enjoying relief for the first time after years of suffering, cats that could only hobble a few agonizing steps before reconstructive surgery, now are able to leap, run and play as nature intended.

About The Paw Project

The Paw Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1999 by veterinarian Dr. Jennifer Conrad to educate the public about the painful and crippling effects of feline declawing, promote animal welfare through the abolition of the practice of declaw surgery, and rehabilitate cats that have been declawed through reparative surgery. As a result of its efforts, declawing has been banned in seven Canadian Provinces and nine cities in the United States to date. For more information, visit http://www.PawProject.org.

# # #

Media Contact

Amy Prenner, The Prenner Group, 1 3107091101, amy@theprennergroup.com

SOURCE The Paw Project

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Following Advocacy from The Paw Project, Maryland Becomes Second U.S. State That Bans Animal Declawing - 69News WFMZ-TV