Simukai Chigudu, African politics professor: I support reparations

Amol Rajan speaks to Simukai Chigudu, associate professor of African Politics at Oxford University about the legacy of empire and how to reckon with the past.

A member of the first generation born after the end of colonial rule in Zimbabwe, Simukai Chigudu came to the UK as a teenager and later became one of the founding members of a campaign to try to get the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes moved from Oriel College in Oxford.

Now an associate professor of African politics at the University of Oxford, he has written a memoir called Chasing Freedom: Coming of Age at the End of Empire.

He discusses the legacy of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, why he thinks we should be decolonising the curriculum and whether countries like Britain should pay reparations for slavery.

Thank you to the Radical with Amol Rajan team for its help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Helen Thompson, professor of political economy at Cambridge University, and acclaimed author Sir Salman Rushdie. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Amol Rajan Producer: Cordelia Hemming Editor: Damon Rose

Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Simukai Chigudu)

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(1939)

Christopher Nolan, director: We need to take risks

“The biggest risk in motion pictures is to not take a risk. You have to be putting it out there and offering people something new, and that's what will get them out of their houses.”Katie Razzall spea...

16 Jul 23min

Jim Continenza, Kodak CEO: Reinventing a brand

“We were losing about $160 million a year. We burned through our cash and we had to make some changes. I don’t mean a financial restructuring. I mean transformation of the business. It’s a skill and a...

14 Jul 22min

Patrick Tiernan: War risk is being rewritten

“As there is more drone warfare, more artificial intelligence in the decision making, we’re going to have to completely reimagine how we cover [war]”Business presenter Felicity Hannah speaks to Patric...

12 Jul 22min

Jacob Zuma’s daughters: Polygamy is a subject we lived

“It's a subject that I know I've lived, I've seen up close…That includes watching my father. That includes the relationships that I saw him have.” Presenter Anne Soy speaks to Gugu Zuma-Ncube and Th...

9 Jul 23min

Steve Hilton: Brit running for California governor

“I'm a proud American. I became a citizen in 2021. I feel at home here both in America and actually, in a way I actually have never felt before. I feel like this is where I'm meant to be, and I couldn...

7 Jul 23min

Victor Glover, astronaut: We went into sci-fi

“The last thing to come into view was this blue glow, and we could see craters and the surface of the Moon. But the Sun is on the other side, so what was lighting the Moon? It was ‘Earthshine’, the li...

5 Jul 23min

Jackie Jantos, Hinge CEO: Gen Z struggle to connect

Sean Farrington speaks to Jackie Jantos, CEO of popular mobile dating app Hinge, about finding romance in today’s rapidly-changing digital world.Launched back in 2013, US-based Hinge has steadily grow...

2 Jul 23min

Katie Sadleir, Commonwealth Games: They are still relevant

“It had grown to be quite an expensive event. Our members wanted to host the games, and because of the size and the scale of the event that was not possible.”Mani Djazmi speaks to Katie Sadleir, CEO o...

30 Jun 23min