In a country like Britain, with its history of imperialism, colonisation and slave trading spanning hundreds of years, a deep, continuous consideration of Black history is vital. To many, it is absurd that we had to wait until 2018 to welcome a Black female history lecturer in the UK. However, understood within the UK’s longstanding context of systemic racism, discrimination and violence towards Black people, it is, unfortunately, less surprising.
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Olivette Otele, the pioneering professor: a brief history
Born in Cameroon and raised and educated in France, Otele received her PhD from Université Paris, La Sorbonne, where she focused her research on colonial and postcolonial histories and the histories of people of African descent.
First appointed a Professor of History at Bath Spa University in 2018, Otele is currently a Professor of History and Memory of enslavement at the University of Bristol. Otele’s position as the UK’s first Professor of the History of Slavery is undeniably a momentous one, as her academic career not only advances our understanding of colonial and postcolonial history, but blazes the trail for Black women in academia.
Alongside her impressive academic career, Otele is Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society and Chair of Bristol’s Race Equity Commission. During a 2020 interview for Epigram, the University of Bristol’s independent student newspaper, Otele remarked, “There aren’t many Black people in these places. So, it’s important to be there and encourage people to understand that individuals from all different backgrounds need to be integrated into these boards and committees. There are some where they don’t even have any women! So, for me, that is just not on”.
Within the Bristolian context
Having written her doctoral dissertation on Bristol's role in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Otele's work with Bristol University expansively examines Bristol's links to the slave trade and further unearths the ways in which Britain's history affects Black people today. Though modern-day Bristol is commonly known for its progressive, multicultural and socially conscious population, it is far from exempt from the systemic racial discrimination that plagues the country as a whole. Research by the Runnymede Trust in 2017 named Bristol the most segregated core city in Britain, from its somewhat segregated neighbourhoods to its employment and education. This is further exemplified by a BBC Inside Out West 2018 investigation, which showed that of the 1,346 teachers who taught at Bristolian secondary schools, only 26 were Black - a meagre 0.02%. 4.4% in Bristol were of BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) backgrounds. Comparatively, the city's racial demographics reflect a Black populace of 6%, with BAME people making up 16%, indicating direct educational inequity and underrepresentation. These statistics not only highlight the significance of Otele's success but the importance of the work she does, specifically within the Bristolian context.
In June of last year, when the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was toppled, dragged and thrown into Bristol harbour by anti-racism protesters, Otele said, "I was very surprised by the whole movement. It was coming from young people taking matters into their own hands. But I also understand that this conversation has been going on for decades and it looked as if we'd exhausted all other avenues." Otele likened the statue being thrown into the harbour to underwater slave memorials. She believes Colston's statue belongs in a museum, with the scars and dents of his journey to the harbour intact, "It would be interesting to see those moments within the body of the statue, as long as we have it somewhere where it can be contextualised. It's part of the history of Bristol."
Author extraordinaire - African Europeans: An Untold History
In addition to her regular contributions to media outlets such as The Guardian, BBC, Huffington Post and The New York Times, to name a few, the current summit of Otele’s writing career is her 2020 book African Europeans: An Untold History, "A dazzling history of African Europeans, revealing old and diverse links between the two continents". Shortlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2021, Otele’s African Europeans has also been named a Guardian Best Book of 2020, a Waterstones Best Book of 2020 and a History Today Book of the Year 2020.
In her first English book, Otele challenges the misconception that Africans have only recently been present in Europe as she traces African heritage, from the present day all the way back to the third century. The historical context she presents stands in firm opposition to the idea that European identity is fundamentally white. As she explains in her must-read 2020 interview for The Guardian, “In France, you are either French, which basically means white, or French ‘of so and so origin’. For me they are completely intermingled.” Otele’s book comes from a personal place as she fights against the invalidation she experienced as an African-European and lays the ground for a world in which her French, Cameroonian and Welsh children can be seen and respected in their identities.
As written in The Guardian’s aforementioned interview with Otele, “The book is many things. A scholarly work that reveals detail and colour about African Europeans; a study in how race waxes and wanes in its significance within social structures; and a claiming of black history as European history. But more than anything, it is a rebuke – a rejection of the simplistic accounts of race and the history of black people in Europe”.
Otele’s highly anticipated next book, Doorway to the World, is set for publication with Basic Books in 2025.
The importance of women like Otele in positions of power and influence
Though Britain's imperialist, slave-trading history is commonly known for Pan-Africans and the Diaspora, many young Britons are unaware of their country's colonial past. They prove even more ignorant regarding the global impact of colonialism and current postcolonial movements. Otele's work is of great importance and value in its dedicated effort to accurately address colonial history and unveil postcolonialism for what it is, especially within British and French frameworks. It paves the way for a more informed next-generation, and sparks hope for a facade-ridden and reformed reality. Otele can boast a long and impressive list of accolades, but her main hope is that the trail she has blazed will "open the door for many hard-working women, especially Black women in academia".
With Black History Month coming to an end, we must remain consistent in our efforts to explore, understand and highlight Black history. As Otele puts it in her article for The Guardian during Black History Month last year, "Black activism can't be effective if we aren't taught Black history".