A space to breathe: reflections from the Centre for Black Humanities

As my fellowship draws to a close at Bristol University, I’ve been reflecting on my experiences at the Centre for Black Humanities. My project entitled 'Co-creating knowledge with communities who have a hidden heritage of enslavement' was rooted in interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement - particularly with descendants of the enslaved and African diaspora communities.

I was attracted to the Centre for Black Humanities and their interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers who were focused on black humanities and people of African descent. The time spent within the centre and collaborating with colleagues has been deeply meaningful, which can only be attributed to intellectual and physical space created by colleagues.

Within this space I was able to explore those contradictions shaped by my positionality as a black South African woman and black social work academic. Mckittrick (2022) refers to the ambivalence and contradiction of black life which is seen as central to black interdisciplinary thought. The centre allowed me to engage with the contradictions and ambivalences I experience within the context of both Bristol University and University of Cape Town.

As my research spans black families, intergenerational trauma, gender-based violence, and histories of enslavement it was essential for me to engage with these contradictions. For example, while I identify politically as black, I’m aware of the complexities of colourism and my dual heritage. I may therefore be perceived as South Asian or brown.

As a black academic from South Africa, I had confidence that I could contribute to the broader agenda of the Centre for Black Humanities, however I was also aware that social work was a profession and there are hierarchies of knowledge systems between global north and global south.

Furthermore, at Bristol, I’m a research fellow at a Russell Group university, but I may also be perceived as foreign, black and an immigrant. This became relevant during the violent 2024 Anti-Immigration protests which took place across the UK as well as in Bristol. Colleagues within the centre were available for support and support networks were activated for students and staff who were affected by the violence.

The interdisciplinary collaboration between academics is central to coming to understand the many ways black communities and those of African descent in different contexts have had to respond to multiple forms of oppression both individualised as well as collectively.

McKittrick (2022) encourages black studies scholars to not articulate what we know but how we come to know. The assumption is that we already know about the lived experiences black life or the afterlife of enslavement and colonialism – or apartheid, Jim Crow, Stephen Lawrence or George Floyd.

As black, brown or immigrant academics we know how we know because we have the lived experience of being othered. We are therefore already doing interdisciplinary work. As I engaged with my colleague (a historian) in researching slave memory in Bristol and Cape Town I was struck by the value of the interdisciplinary work with historians. For example, both in Bristol and in Cape Town, there is a need to have slave memorial sites which allow the descendants of the enslaved to grieve and meaningfully reflect on this history.

In another collaboration with Dr Leighan Renaud focusing on carnivals such as Notting Hill in the UK and “Klopse” [clubs] in Cape Town, I became aware of colonial tropes of black people which has persisted - not only across time but also across two vastly different contexts.

This raises a question about how knowledge is being replicated, but more importantly how to write and theorise about black life which does not replicate violence and oppression, while still making visible the harm done to black communities. Interdisciplinarity of black studies which is what centre offers is therefore essential to articulate black life.

The outcomes of the fellowship focused on networking and building partnerships with researchers which would contribute to my own scholarship beyond the fellowship and solidify exchange between University of Cape Town and Bristol University. This would help my academic career and ease the academic pressures all academics experience, however particularly black academics.

Additional outcomes also included presenting seminars which took the format of dialogues. I facilitated several dialogues entitled - The elephant in the room: Decolonising teaching and research in higher education in South Africa, Vulnerability as a black researcher working with black families and Exploring memory and identity with youth who had a slave heritage: Interdisciplinary work with historians and museums. Links to the abstracts of the dialogues can be found at https://bristolblackhumanities.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/events/

My fellowship benefitted from the partnership which the Centre for Black Humanities has with the Reparative Futures project and the Black Southwest Network. I facilitated a dialogue as part of the ‘Unmuseum’ series which was entitled “Exploring our Memories and Identities”. The event was for members of the community, academics working with heritage and museums and heritage workers, and stakeholders. The dialogue took place at the Coach House a venue of the Black South West Network in St Paul’s.

I was made aware of the many ways black life can be similar but also different across contexts. Thus, it is important that we engage with communities to centre their experiences in our work because listening to the voices of communities allows us to explore the creative ways which black communities respond to but are not defined by racism.

The work of black academics and those in Centre for Black Humanities allowed me to reflect on the knowledge which I produce as well as the knowledge my students and the communities I work with produce. Why does this matter? Because in these moments and safe spaces, my knowledge is accepted, and my colleagues know how I know. It allowed me to breathe. I am then able to find clarity and carefully, share narratives about black life, which exposes the harm done to black communities but also able to share the joy, action and creativity which emerges from sites of racialised oppression.