Unlearning Empire: education and the legacies of the British Commonwealth

This panel discussion examines how the legacies of empire persist in education systems across the Commonwealth, shaping curricula, pedagogy, and institutions in ways that reproduce colonial hierarchies. It will look at how educators, activists, and organisers are contesting these legacies through counter-histories, community learning, and decolonial practice.

Taking place in the lead-up to the 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where reparations and colonial legacies will be on the agenda for the first time, this discussion will also feed into the development of the People’s Dossier on Truth and Injustice in the Commonwealth, a living archive of testimonies, resources, and evidence of ongoing harm.

Meet our speakers

Obaapanin Adwoa Oforiwaa Adu of the University of Media, Arts and Communications, Ghana, is a Pan-Afrikan reparations scholar-activist and global justice advocate with two decades of work on decolonisation, gender empowerment, and sustainable development. She completed her PhD at the University of Sussex, Brighton in 2020. She began her activist and scholarly journey with the International Secretariat of the All-Africa Students Union in Accra, before pursuing further studies at London South Bank University, where she worked with networks including the Rendezvous of Victory, GRASSNIF, and the Global Justice Forum. On returning to Ghana, she joined the University of Education, Winneba, continuing action research and decolonial pedagogy while also undertaking further studies at the University of Sussex.

Patricia Daley is Professor of the Human Geography of Africa at the University of Oxford. Her research interests can be grouped under four themes including the political economy of population migration and settlement (forced migration, identity politics and citizenship); the intersection of space, gender, militarism, sexual violence and peace (feminist geo-politics); racial hierarchies and violence (geographies of racialisation and coloniality using Critical Race Theory and decolonizing methodologies); and the relationship between conservation, resource extraction, and rural livelihoods (political ecology).

Muhammad Ibrahim Alom is a 3rd year undergraduate student in the Department of International History at LSE. He is currently serving as President of the LSE Students for Justice in Palestine and Chairman of the LSE Majlis. He is passionate about fostering dialogue on Middle Eastern history, culture, and politics and aspires to become a journalist committed to amplifying underrepresented voices and bringing historical context to contemporary issues.

Chair

Asha Herten-Crabb is IRD Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE. Her research covers international trade, health policy, and gender equality - and their intersections – with an emphasis on how global governance structures shape policy making and its outcomes at the national (UK), regional (EU, MERCOSUR), and international levels (WHO, WTO).

More about this event

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