Cotton Capital: Reparations – episode 6

This week we are revisiting our Cotton Capital series that originally ran in April 2023. Today in Focus will be back with new episodes on Tuesday 29 August.

In the final episode of the series, the Cotton Capital editor and Guardian journalist Maya Wolfe-Robinson looks at the subject of reparations.

She talks to the Guardian editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, and Joseph Harker, the senior editor for diversity and development, about the findings that link the Guardian founder, John Edward Taylor, and his financial backers to transatlantic slavery and how the Guardian has responded to those revelations. The Scott Trust said it expected to invest more than £10m, with millions dedicated specifically to descendant communities. It also plans to increase the scope of Guardian reporting with a number of new correspondents, expand its journalism training bursary scheme and work on external partnership and community programmes. Research into the Guardian’s links to transatlantic slavery will continue.

Maya also talks to Barbara Makeda Blake-Hannah, a leading figure in the reparations movement, in Kingston. After becoming the first Black woman to present on British television in 1968, Blake-Hannah dedicated her life to campaigning for social justice for African descendants of transatlantic slavery. And she hears from Laleta Davis-Mattis, chair of Jamaica’s national council on reparations, which advises the government on the path towards reparatory justice. Davis-Mattis also represents the country on the wider regional Caricom council.

This podcast is episode six in a six-part series for the Cotton Capital project, which is looking at the Guardian’s links to transatlantic slavery and the legacies of that history. It takes listeners from Manchester to Jamaica, the US, Nigeria and Brazil and back to the UK.

Host: Maya Wolfe-Robinson

Guests: Joseph Harker, Katharine Viner, Barbara Makeda Blake-Hannah, Laleta DavisMattis

Series producer: Courtney Yusuf

Producer: Silas Gray

Consultant executive producer: Colin Stone

Historical consultant: Dr Keston Perry

Original music: Melo-Zed

Sound design: Max Sanderson

Development series producer: Tej Adeleye

Development producers: Weyland McKenzie-Witter and Fatuma Khaireh

Commissioning editors: Nicole Jackson and Maya Wolfe-Robinson

With thanks to: Ray Kerr, Reverend Bowen, Dr Emory Campbell, Patt Gunn, Iya Nyeuza Cruz, Esther Figueroa, Esther Stanford-Xosei, Dr Leon SealeyHuggins



Cotton Capital Podcast artwork. 5000x3000px, with title, with logo

Cotton Capital Podcast artwork. 5000x3000px, with title, with logo

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