Understanding The Past, Shaping The Future

Cambridge University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope, discusses their University’s forthcoming study into its historical relationship with the slave trade and other forms of coerced labour.

- Stephen J Toope

History is inescapable in Cambridge. I was very moved upon learning recently that the eldest daughter of Olaudah Equiano, the former slave-turned-abolitionist, is buried in St Andrew’s Church, Chesterton, just a stone’s throw away from the center of Cambridge. She was only four at the time of her death, in 1797.

Equiano’s memoir of kidnap and enslavement was vigorously championed by Thomas Clarkson, whose effigy adorns the outside of St John’s College chapel. Inside the chapel is a statue of William Wilberforce, another St John’s alumnus, who got the Abolition Act of 1807 through Parliament.

One of the criticisms lobbed at the University after it announced plans to commission research into its historical links to the slave trade is that it is willfully ignoring the role played by some of its members in slavery’s suppression. I disagree. Should justifiable pride in our alumni’s contribution to the abolition campaign prevent us from acknowledging that they did not represent the entire picture?

It has also been suggested that, rather than ruminating on the past, the University should employ its resources and talent towards solving current and future problems. If it was really interested in issues of inequality, one commentator said, the University might wish to turn its attention to issues like unconscious bias and racial profiling in the development of artificial intelligence. In fact, through the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Cambridge has been actively involved in understanding the impact of A.I. on diversity and social justice.

I reach here for the words of the Rev Dr. Michael Banner, Dean and Fellow of Trinity College, who commenting on the announcement said: “Understanding the past and shaping the future are not necessarily separate projects.” Cambridge, I would add, is exceptionally well placed to undertake both of them.