#BlackLivesMatter Part 2 #BritainisnotInnocent

Key information

Date
Time
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Venue
Virtual Event

About this event

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Abstract

This panel looks at the history of the Black Lives Matter Movement in the UK and USA. Expert panelists will discuss ongoing coloniality, scrutinise how whiteness operates in contemporary discussions regarding the BLM movement, and contextualise the global anti-racist movements in education. The BLM discussion has a commonwealth and diaspora theme, with a focus on decolonising education and youth movements.

The panelists include:

  • Aniesha Obuobie, Moderator
  • Aleida Borges, she is a scholar doing research on youth movements in Lusophone African countries.
  • Lola Olufemi who led the Cambridge #mycurriculumsowhite movement. She is also the author of Feminism Interrupted.
  • Chumani Maxwele, the South African activist and founder of the Rhodes must Fall Movement.
  • Tasha Harris, US Based Educator and longtime advocate for black children and families.
Biography

Lola Olufemi is a black feminist writer, organiser and Stuart Hall foundation scholar from London. Her work focuses on the uses of the feminist imagination and its relationship to political demands and futurity. She is author of Feminism Interrupted: Disrupting Power (2020) and a member of 'bare minimum', an interdisciplinary anti-work arts collective.



Aleida Mendes Borges is a PhD candidate at King’s College London. Her research interest focuses on the political participation and engagement of women, youth and the diaspora in Lusophone Africa. Her current research project focuses on how youth navigate spaces of political marginalisation in Cabo Verde and São Tomé e Principe to solve local problems and engage the State.

She comes from an interdisciplinary background and holds a BA in Law with French, an LLM in International Legal Practice and an MSc in Research for International Development. Her previous experience includes legal practice in Human Rights law, international development work as well as research and publications on women in politics, youth political participation in Lusophone Africa, governance in Africa, diaspora political participation, external citizenship and minority rights in Brazilian law.

Mr Chumani Maxwele is founding member of #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall Student Movement in South Africa. He was the one who conceptualised and curated the solitary political protest of throwing the human excrements at the statue of Cecil John Rhodes at the University of Cape Town. The solitary political protest led to the founding of #RhodesMustFall Student Movement in South Africa. Mr. Chumani Maxwele is currently an international organiser of #RhodesMustFall International Movement working together with #RhodesMustFall Oxford and other movements globally. Mr. Chumani Maxwele is scholar reading for his MPhil and a political activist currently based in South Africa.

Tasha Harris is a Mentor Teacher at Codman Academy Charter School. She has dedicated 15 years of service to a diverse population of students and families in public and independent school settings. Tasha believes that young children come to their first formal schooling experiences with their moral compass fully intact and seeks to find curricula that heightens this awareness and builds authentic social capital and supports developmentally appropriate racial identity\cultural competency.

Tasha is also a certified Forest Therapy Guide who uses nature as the conduit to relieve societal, emotional or spiritual tensions. She founded Centertime Retreats (centertimeretreats.com) and offers Forest Bathing retreats on a regular basis.

Aniesha Obuobie is a Civil Liberties Paralegal working on Actions against the Police and State and Human Rights claims. She has an LLM in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice from SOAS, in which she focused on violence against women, particularly domestic violence as an international human rights issue.

Aniesha is a Trustee and Young Women’s Advisory Panel Member for FORWARD (Foundation for Women’s Health and Research Development), an African women-led organisation working to end violence against women and girls.

Registration

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This event is part of the Virtual SOAS Festival of Ideas which will kick off a week-long series of virtual events. The festival includes: panel discussions, student led installations, masterclasses, keynote lectures, a public debate for/against on Decolonising Knowledge and a Verbatim performance by Bhuchar Boulevard on ‘Decolonising Not Just a Buzzword’ capturing SOAS conversations about the need to decolonise its imperial mission.

Keep updated on the upcoming Virtual Festival of Ideas events and watch recordings of previous events on the SOAS website. Please contact foi@soas.ac.uk with any questions regarding this event and/or the Virtual SOAS Festival of Ideas.

Please support SOAS Festival of Ideas by donating to our crowdfunding campaign at https://soas.hubbub.net/p/SOASFestivalofIdeas . All proceeds go to supporting the speakers, performers, and artists involved.

Organiser: SOAS Festival of Ideas

Contact email: foi@soas.ac.uk