A (short, recent) history
The timeline below captures of some of the key moments in efforts to decolonise the University of Cambridge since #RhodesMustFall in 2015.
TIMELINE
9 March 2015 – The first Rhodes Must Fall protest takes place at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The statue is removed on 9 April 2015.
7 June 2015 – The Decolonise Cambridge Facebook group is founded, and becomes a place to share news, events and resources relating to decolonisation.
7 Sept 2015 – The Black Cantabs Research Society is founded to archive the stories of Black Alumni in Cambridge.
19 Oct 2015 – A panel titled “Why is my curriculum white?” takes place at Clare College, hosted by the SU BME Campaign.
“What we study and how we study it is important because it shapes the lens through which we see the world” (Olufemi 2015)
16 Nov 2015 – The Decolonise Cambridge Network is created.
On 30 Nov, they host their first meeting to establish a joint action platform, to build solidarity and connect those interested in decolonisation.
19 Dec 2015 – A panel on “Decolonizing Gender” is hosted by the Trans Awareness Campaign (SU LGBT+) at Kings College.
12 Feb 2016 – Cambridge Climate Justice (formerly Zero Carbon) launch their first report calling for divestment in Cambridge.
19 Feb 2016 – An event titled “Must Smuts Fall? Apartheid Legacies and Eurocentric Heroification” hosted at Christ’s College.
Smuts was prime minister of South Africa 1919-24, an architecht of segregation, and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1948 until his death in 1950.
19 Oct 2016 – The Decolonising the Curriculum in Theory and Practice seminar series launches in Cambridge. (Recordings available).
Nov-Dec 2016 – Aboriginal activists Rodney Kelly and Roxely Foley speak at Cambridge to draw attention to the stolen Gweagal shield and spears, held by Trinity College and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
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9 Feb 2017 – “Can Cambridge University be Decolonised?: A Panel Discussion” brings students and staff into conversation at Kings College.
21 June 2017 – Students at the English faculty pen an open letter calling for their curriculum to be decolonised.
31 Oct 2017 – Following backlash in the press, Cambridge rallies in support of decolonisation, with both students and staff expressing their solidarity.
16 Nov 2017 – The second Decolonisation Assembly is hosted in the club room at Darwin College. The purpose of the meeting is to create links between different organising groups and find shared goals to work towards.
20 Nov 2017 – Rent Strike Cambridge (previously Cambridge Cut the Rent) launches campaigns at four Colleges, and following an in-depth Varsity investigation, activity quickly spreads to many more.
15 Feb 2018 – The link between decolonisation and divestment is explored at a panel event at King’s College.
23 Feb 2018 – An open letter calling for the establishment of BME Officers across all Cambridge college JCRs and MCRs circulates, responding to resistance in some colleges.
16 March 2018 – Following a week-long student occupation of the Old Schools, an open meeting with the the Vice-Chancellor is held in Great St Mary’s, in which Prof Toope expresses public support for decolonisation.
March-April 2018 – Decolonisation working groups are now established across over at least 16 departments and faculties, including Anthropology, Archaeology, Classics, Education, English, Geography, History, History of Art, History and Philosophy of Science, Law, Medieval and Modern Languages, Music, Philosophy, Politics and International Studies, and Sociology.
13 Sept 2018 – Demilitarise Cambridge is formed and divesting university finances from Arms companies becomes an explicit part of the decolonisation agenda in Cambridge.
1 Oct 2018 – The “Black Cantabs: History Markers” exhibition is hosted in the University Library to tell the stories of Black Alumni in Cambridge.
26 Oct 2018 – The End Everyday Racism Campaign is launched, with the aim of mapping the experience of racism at Cambridge.
8 Oct 2018 – Student creative activist group 12 Pints Press publish the first Cambridge Disorientation Guide following a successful crowdfunding campaign, and distribute 1,100 copies at the 2018 Fresher’s Fair.
20 Oct 2018 – Michaelmas Term starts with a Decolonisation Assembly, recapping what’s happened with the movement so far, sharing skills and experiences, and collectively devising a strategy for decolonisation campaigns.
16 Nov 2018 – Students from across the University march through the centre of Cambridge for the Divest, Disarm, Decolonise rally.
March – July 2019 – Postgraduate students run a series of Untold Histories Museum Tours to uncover the stories behind objects and their collectors at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge.
28 Oct 2019 – Dismantling the fossil fuel university report is launched by Cambridge Climate Justice, finding: “our university supports and legitimises the destructive practices of the fossil fuel industry through the investments of its endowment, extractive research, by acting as a platform for greenwashing, and creating a revolving door for fossil fuel executives and university officials.”
28 Nov 2019 – In the midst of UCU strike action, a Fight the Hostile Environment on campus teach out event takes place enabling people to understand how borders and border enforcement works in the contexts of universities, and how to fight against it.
8 March 2020 – Cambridge Undoing Borders is established as a local branch of the national People and Planet campaign.
3 March 2020 – Solidarity College is founded in the midst of strike action as a space dedicated to liberatory pedagogy and student/staff solidarity.
March 2020 – Students occupy the Senate House for 10 days, demanding the University’s official recognition of Cambridge UCU.
9 June 2020 – The BME Campaign, Cambridge Decolonisation Network and Cambridge Defend Education release a joint statement in support of the Rhodes Must Fall and Black Lives Matter campaigners protesting in Oxford, demanding that Oriel College remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes.
1 Oct 2020 – Following years of student activism, Cambridge University commits to fully divestfrom fossil fuels by 2030.
16 Oct 2020 – The first End Everyday Racism Report is published, summarising over 100 racist incidents and revealing the pervasive nature of racism in Cambridge.
27 Oct 2021 – Jesus College returns the Okukor Bronze to Benin, Nigeria, following a student-led repatriation campaign that first started in 2015.
6 Nov 2021 – The Rename Seeley Library Campaign launches with an open letter that garners over 600 signatures.
23 Feb 2022 – Students from Solidarity College occupy the Sidgewick Lecture Block and rename it the Angela Davis Building.
17 June 2022 – The St Catharine’s History Society and the Rename Seeley Library campaign host a seminar and discussion “to explore the politics of commemoration and legacies of colonialism at Cambridge”.
28 June 2022 – Clare College changes the name of its off-site accommodation from “The Colony” to “Castle Court”.
Cambridge Radical Archives 