Creating Economic Repair: Capitalism, Ubuntu and Spatial Justice Conference

Creating Economic Repair: Capitalism, Ubuntu and Spatial Justice re-thinks the relationship between the historical injustices of the past and our contemporary economic position.

Forming part of Decolonising The Archive's University of Repair project, a platform exploring the practical, methodological and historical approaches to centre repair, this economic conference will consider the diasporic circumstances emerging from London’s involvement in the enslavement of African people, contemporary reparation discourses, and the practice of collective economics in Africa and beyond.

Connecting the past, present and future, speakers and panel discussions will deepen conversation and collaboration between scholars, community representatives, entrepreneurs and students.

Join us as we reflect and re-imagine our economic future.

The Conference Programme

Speakers and Panellists

Keynote Speaker

Professor Matthew Smith

Matthew J. Smith is Professor of History and Director of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery. Previously he taught at the University of the West Indies, Mona in Jamaica where he was Professor of Caribbean History. Among his publications are Liberty, Fraternity, Exile: Haiti and Jamaica After Emancipation (2014) and, Red and Black in Haiti: Radicalism, Conflict and Political Change, 1934-1957 (2009)

Panellists for Roundtable

Amahra Spence

Amahra Spence [she/her] is an artist, organiser, producer, designer for social justice movements and spatial practitioner. In 2013, she birthed The Black Land & Spatial Justice Project and established MAIA, an artist-led social justice organisation exploring the relationship between imagination and liberation, through developing programmes, art works, resources, and spaces to practice alternative paradigms. In 2020, MAIA created YARD, a community hub and residency space in Birmingham and are currently raising capital to establish an art hotel, ABUELOS, which will redistribute the cultural sector’s hospitality spend into creative social infrastructure that meets the artistic and material needs of local people.

Esther Stanford-Xosei

Reparations Specialist, Director, Legal Advisor, International Advocate, Political Advisor, Media Spokesperson, Scholar-Activist, Environmental Jurisconsult (reparations activist), dynamic community advocate and historian.

Esther is a modern day abolitionist and freedom fighter, passionate about law, justice and education and using those as tools in resisting forms of oppression and injustice. Carrying on the legacy of African freedom movements, she is preoccupied with African self-determination from a contemporary Black Nationalist perspective.

Dr. Tamanisha John (WRF) is a representative from the Walter Rodney Foundation

Dr. John Is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Clark Atlanta University, researcher whose work focuses on Racial Capitalism, International Political Economy (IPE), Transnational and Multinational Corporations (TNCs & MNCs), Caribbean development, Canadian banks, and financial exclusion.

Adotey Bing-Pappoe

Senior Lecturer Department of Economics and International Business at University of Greenwich, Pan African Banking developer and Social Entrepreneur

University of Repair

Connie Bell

A Cultural Producer, Memory Worker and also one of the founding members of Decolonising The Archive (DTA) and University of Repair. With over 11 years of experience working with African and indigenous communities, presently she leads on the Radio Broadcasting arm for DTA RADIO.

Who We Are

University of Repair (UoR) is an independent entity born from research projects with Decolonising The Archive (DTA) . We are currently collaborating with the Museum of London Docklands on a series of events situating the practice of reparatory justice within sites of oppression, so as to create a positive proactive responses to the challenges of the legacies faced within that paradigm. As as a site with a problematic history, we aim to draw on the Museum of London Docklands’ London, Sugar & Slavery gallery to initiate a process of repair.

We have teamed up with the Walter Rodney Foundation and many community groups to further encourage better practice and moving beyond the performative in Museum, Heritage and Learning institutions. We encourage those who foresee a safe, balanced and brighter future to engage with us and support the work we are doing here

Catering

Catering will be provided with Caribbean cuisine (Vegan/Pescatarian/Vegetarian)

The Marketplace

In association with 11 Black-owned businesses from the community showing Cooperative, Ethical and Ubuntu models to business, we will be hosting a marketplace alongside the conference where you can learn about how different models of economics can work and re-think the relationship between the historical injustices of the past, and our contemporary economic position. This free drop-in marketplace is open to all members of the public.

Come and support these Black-owned businesses:

VYVYD ( https://www.instagram.com/vyvyd_/) - Handmade beaded jewellery and accessories.

New Beacon Books (https://www.newbeaconbooks.com) - Specialists in African and Caribbean literature since 1966.

LovePokudots (https://www.instagram.com/lovepokudots/?hl=en) - West African inspired accessories with a twist from the ‘West’.

ThePinkRosePhotography (https://www.instagram.com/thepinkrosephotography/?hl=en-gb) - Business cards, canvasses, photobooks.

Rachel and Malika (https://www.rachelandmalikas.com/) - Hand crafted homewares, jewellery and gifts from around the world.

360 Lifestyle Support Network CIC (https://360lsn.co.uk/) - We educate, empower and inspire Black African and Black Caribbean people to take control of their holistic health.

RepairNation - T-shirts, Hoodies, Badges, Caps.

Auntie Jean - Dried Fruit/Candy.

History Through the Black Experience - History Through the Black Experience Vol 1&2.

Promoting Our Heritage (https://www.instagram.com/promotingourheritage/?hl=en) - African and Caribbean Heritage promoter through books..books..books.

Financial Growth/Group Economics.

My Local dressmaker (https://www.mylocaldressmaker.com/) - Handmade cowrie shell jewellery and made to measure clothing.

Umoja Generational Wealth (https://www.oduwacoin.io/) - Financial Literacy and Equity Investors.