UK college seeks to remove slave trade-linked plaque
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A UK church court is considering whether a Cambridge University college can remove a marble memorial to a 17th Century donor who invested in the slave trade from its chapel.
An ecclesiastical judge is presiding over the hearing in Jesus College’s chapel, where the plaque to Tobias Rustat is mounted.
Rustat, a courtier to King Charles II, invested in the Royal Africa Company – which transported tens of thousands of West African slaves across the Atlantic.
Jesus College wants the memorial moved to another building, where a panel explaining its context will be added.
Some alumni and descendants of Rustat oppose its removal.
Jesus College recently repatriated a Benin Bronze cockerel to Nigeria.
Sonita Alleyne became the college’s master in 2019 – the first black person to be chosen to head a college at Oxford or Cambridge.
AFP
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