‘The journey is long, because it’s a journey of activism,’ says Professor Marie-Annick Gournet, newly appointed Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (APVC) Reparative and Civic Futures. She reflects on her life and career and the threads that have run through them – but begins by explaining what Reparative Futures means.
Reparative Futures is a University of Bristol programme seeking to redress the systemic injustices that arose from the transatlantic trafficking in enslaved Africans. The phrase ‘Civic Futures’ is also in my job title to recognise that, as a civic organisation, we have a role in driving sustainable change in social and racial justice; and it acknowledges the importance of working in partnership and collaboration with the community to make that change.
Legacies and literature
I’ve always been interested in righting wrongs. Recently I’ve been reflecting on things in my background that make that mission even more personal
I was born in Guadeloupe and moved to France when I was seven years old. My father had gone there a year before, in 1972, through a government agency called BUMIDOM which brought people from the French Caribbean to France to be given jobs, and to stop people rebelling on the islands: a decline in sugar cane demand led to widespread factory closures, rising unemployment, and social unrest. Combined with decolonisation movements across African and Caribbean nations, this posed a threat to the French government. BUMIDOM, which operated from 1963 to 1982, aimed to address this, and to ease labour shortages in metropolitan France.
The French government introduced banana plantations to replace sugar cane, but alongside it they introduced a pesticide called Chlordecone, which had been banned in the US in 1973 and was never approved by the French toxicity commission; however, it was introduced in Guadeloupe and Martinique through a special derogation, made possible under the still-active Code noir. The ground is still contaminated in some parts of the islands, and people have developed cancers and other conditions. When I think about systemic injustices, this is an example of a legacy that’s still very much alive and in need of redressing.
I always liked reading, and that became an important route for discovering my voice and my passion for activism. As a student in Paris, I started reading Black American literature for the first time – books like The Confessions of Nat Turner, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man (which resonated with me because that’s how I felt at times). Through those, I discovered Caribbean literature, which was the first topic that I felt spoke directly about my experience – and which became my research area.
Towards inclusive education
I worked at the University of the West of England (UWE) for 24 years, firstly as a lecturer in French and later as director widening participation, then as director of Learning for All, a new hub for training teachers in inclusive pedagogy and curriculum development, and in intercultural competence and communication. In 2017, I left UWE to set up a consultancy to offer this kind of training to other HE institutions.
Since I joined the University of Bristol in 2019 as Director of Part-time Programmes in the School of Humanities, I’ve continued to deliver and co-ordinate training in inclusive pedagogy. There’s still more to do there; it’s a key factor in making students from diverse backgrounds feel included and understood and in allowing them to thrive academically. Unless we keep looking hard at what we teach, and how, and really start to address the core issues around retention, we’ll perpetuate the same patterns of underachievement and dropping out. That’s one reason I started working with students and feeding their perspectives into our training material.
From reparative to liberation
It’s equally important to have the community voice in whatever we do. I did some work with citizen researchers as Principal Investigator of a UKRI-funded project, and there was a strong sense of ‘What do you want us to contribute, and how do you recognise the value that we bring?’ That was very important in shaping the way we engage with communities, and it’s why, for Reparative Futures, we’ve recruited Accountability Partners – local experts who are paid to contribute their expertise.
So now we have staff, students and external communities influencing and contributing to the Reparative Futures programme. These cross-border dialogues should also extend to those who might be descendants of enslavers as well as those descended from enslaved people.
The trauma from the legacy of enslavement still exists in people, in many forms – from the ongoing effects of Chlordecone in Martinique and Guadeloupe to the Windrush scandal in the UK, to systemic inequality everywhere. We’re challenging these issues step by step: through anti-racism, equity and equality. But we have to begin with the reparative – and the ultimate goal is liberation.
I use the graphic below to illustrate what I mean.
The journey is long, because it’s a journey of activism, which is always filled with challenges and obstacles. The Reparative Futures programme is new and exciting path in that journey.
As APVC Reparative and Civic Futures, I’m looking forward to developing platforms for people to collaborate, both within and – more importantly – outside the institution. That’ll enable the kind of systemic change that we aspire to through programmes like Reparative Futures.
You can read more about Professor Gournet’s life and career, and about the University’s Reparative Futures programme, by following the links below.
TheirStories with Marie-Annick Gournet – Journey of Discovery and Racial Justice – YouTube
Reparative Futures programme | About the University | University of Bristol