A collaborative decolonial research project.

Attend the exhibition and see the past we have uncovered up close!

William Wright’s memoir reproduced with permission of Royal College of Physicians by Daisy Chamberlain During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, many medical graduates from the University of Edinburgh …

Born in Jamaica, he qualified in medicine in 1813 before becoming the only ever black governor of Sierra Leone in the mid-1840s. Fergusson became a model example for future West …

Primary source material reproduced from Jean Baptiste Philip, An Address to the Right Hon. Earl Bathurst, His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, Relative to the Claims which …

Primary source material reproduced from ‘Extraordinary History of Mr Thomas Jenkins’, Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal, 15/12/1832 Mr Thomas Jenkins was the son of an African king, and bore externally all the usual …

Illustration by Yaz Serrano By Dingjian Xie In the 1850s, the University of Edinburgh became one of the first destinations for early Chinese students who wanted to study overseas. Dr …

Image Credit: Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh By Tom Cunningham James “Africanus” Beale Horton was born in Gloucester (Sierra Leone) in 1835. Graduating (M.D.) from Edinburgh University in 1859, …

Illustration by Yaz Serrano By Hannah McGurk Jesse Ewing Glasgow Jr. was an exceptional African American intellectual who attended the University of Edinburgh 1858-60. After attending elite institutions for African …

Primary source material reproduced from James Africanus Beale Horton, West African Countries and Peoples: British and Native, with the Requirements Necessary for Establishing that Self Government Recommended by the Committee …

By Uttara Rangarajan Aghorenath Chattopadhyay was born in the village of Brahmanagar in East Bengal in 1855. An exceptional student, he was awarded the Gilchrist scholarship in 1875 to pursue …

It is one of the first Indian Associations in Britain. [‘Edinburgh Indian Association’, The Student, 11/05/1961]

Illustration by Yaz Serrano By Vidhipssa Mohan Prafulla Chandra Ray was a chemist, an industrialist as well as a Bengali nationalist. He was born on 2 August 1861 in Bengal Presidency …

Illustration by Yaz Serrano By Vidhipssa Mohan Kadambini Ganguly (1862-1923) is one of the earliest women physicians from South Asia. Ganguly was born in Bihar on 18 July 1862 when India …

Image reproduced courtesy of the National Archives of Singapore By Dingjian Xie During his life, Lim Boon Keng (Lin Wenqin, 林文庆), a Chinese Singaporean, was celebrated as one of the most …

Primary source material reproduced from Nestorius Marcus, A Persian in Scotland: Being the Story of the Life of Nestorius Marcus of Uramia, Persia, Student of Divinity at the University of …

Primary source material reproduced from ‘Governors of Sierra Leone: William Fergusson, 1841-2 and 1844-45’, Sierra Leone Weekly News, 06/01/1900 Staff-Surgeon Fergusson, as Lieut Governor assumed the government, 3rd September 1841 …

Image reproduced courtesy of the Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh By Devika Meher A.D. Naoroji came to the University in 1901 and was the first Indian woman to …

Primary source material reproduced from TES Scholes, Glimpses of the Ages, or the ‘Superior’ and ‘Inferior’ Races, So-Called, Discussed in the Light of Science and History, Vol.1 (London, 1905) pp.xiv-xv, …

Primary source material reproduced from ‘Letter to the Editor’, The Student, 26/10/1905. Dear Sir, I was told some time ago that the ‘University Hall’ did not admit any coloured people …

Illustration by Yaz Serrano By Tom Cunningham Arthur Cecil Alport (1880-1959), born in Beaufort West, the Karoo, South Africa, was a medical student at Edinburgh between 1900 and 1905. He is …

Primary source material reproduced from The Student 01/03/1906. Alongside debates, the Edinburgh Indian Association hosted recitals of poetry. ‘To Asia’ (possibly by BK Das, who addressed the association two weeks …

Image – reproduced courtesy of Hakim Adi & the British Library By Henry Dee In 1908, a footnote in a book about a missionary skeptically quipped: “His Highness Prince Bandele …

Primary source material reproduced from Bandele Omoniyi, A Defence of the Ethiopian Movement (Edinburgh, 1908), pp.20, 42 & 80. Published in March 1908, after black Edinburgh medical graduates had been …

Illustration by Yaz Serrano By Tom Cunningham H.C. Bankole-Bright enrolled at the Edinburgh Royal College of Surgeons in 1905 and qualified as physician in 1910. He ran a medical practice in …

Image reproduced courtesy of the University of Glasgow Archives & Special Collections, University collection, GB248 UP5/4/7. By Natasha Ruwona Finandra/Fanandra Nath Bose (1888/9-1926) was born in Calcutta, India.  Beginning his studies …

Image Credit: Estelle Appiah & Margaret Rousse-Jones, Returned Exile:A Biography of George James Christian of Dominica and the Gold Coast, 1869-1940 By Esme Allman Clara Marguerite Gordon (née Christian) was a Dominican-born …

Image courtesy of the Idries Shah Foundation By Esme Allman Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah was an Afghani-Indian, who attended Edinburgh University to study medicine in the late 1910s. Ali Shah was …

Illustration by Yaz Serrano   By Lea Ventre Jung Bahadur Singh was first named ‘Deenanath’ at birth, meaning ‘protector of the poor’. His father preferred the name Jung Bahadur, after a …

Primary source material reproduced from ‘Lectures for Indian Students’, The Leader, 04/11/1920 The YMCA have also opened a hostel for Indian students at No 5 Grosvenor Crescent […] The new …

Primary source material reproduced from Ikbal Ali Shah, ‘Edinburgh University Indian Ambulance Corps’, The Student (special war memorial edition, May 1920). The Edinburgh University Indian Ambulance Corps played an important …

Primary source material reproduced from ‘Sir PC Ray’s Speech in the Edinburgh Indian Association’, Amrita Bazar Patrika, 13/11/1920 Our distinguished countryman Sir PC Ray is now in Edinburgh on what …

Image from The Chinese Student – reproduced with permission of the Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh by Dingjian Xie In June 1921, a group of Chinese students at Edinburgh, members …

[The Chinese Student, 1:1 (June 1921)]

Image Credit: Cultural Relics By Dingjian Xie Yuan Changying (袁昌英, 11 October 1894–28 April 1973), a playwright, novelist, scholar of literature and feminist in China, was the first Chinese female graduate …

Primary source material reproduced from: ‘Colour Bar in Edinburgh’, The Scotsman, 21/05/1927; ‘Colour Bar in Edinburgh’, The Scotsman, 24/05/1927; ‘Colour Bar: Edinburgh Case: Ventilated in Commons’, The Scotsman, 01/06/1927; ‘Fatuous …

Illustration by Yaz Serrano By Ara Kim Born on 26 August 1897 in South Korea, Yun Posun came from a family of Korean independence activists. Inspired by the 1911 Chinese …

A delegation of African, Indian and Caribbean students together meets the Lord Provost in protest. Another future ANC president AB Xuma also graduates.

Primary source material reproduced from Lay Toon, ‘A Chinaman’s Letter Home’, The Student (special edition), 07/03/1928 On my arrival in the Scottish capital I had expected to see tartan kilts, …

Image – reproduced courtesy of Mike Savage By Henry Dee Dr Agnes Yewande Savage was probably first West African woman to qualify in medicine. An outstanding student at Edinburgh, Agnes …

Ken ‘Snakehips’ Johnson, from Bourne, Mother Country. Image reproduced courtesy of Stephen Bourne By Lea Ventre Kenrick Reginald Hijmans Johnson never finished his studies at the University of Edinburgh. Alas, his …

Image – reproduced courtesy of the Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre By Henry Dee A cigarette-smoking single mother of three, who graduated from Edinburgh in 1936, ran numerous successful medical practices and …

Primary source material reproduced from KAMJI, ‘Colour-bar in Theory or in Practice?’, The Student, 1937 On my asking the two Indian students who returned early from the Christmas Revels, held …

Primary source material reproduced from Arthur Cecil Alport, The House of Curious: The Odyssey of a Father and Son, Etc. (London, 1937), pp. 64; 71-73. Studying medicine during the first five years …

Image reproduced courtesy of the Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh By Lea Ventre Lord David Thomas Pitt, Baron Pitt of Hampstead studied medicine at University of Edinburgh between 1932 …

Illustration by Yaz Serrano By Natasha Ruwona Dr. Oku Ampofo (1908-1998) of Mampong, Ghana, lived in Edinburgh from 1932 to 1940, and became the first Ghanaian to receive a government scholarship …

Image is a reproduction courtesy of the The National Archives, reference CO1069/165/5 By Henry Dee The University of Edinburgh renamed the Hastings ‘Kamuzu’ Banda building on Hill Place in the 1990s. …

Image – reproduced courtesy of Sangamithra Choudree By Laurence Jarlett Dr Ansuyah Singh studied medicine in Edinburgh during World War 2, arriving in 1936 and completing her studies in 1944. Born …

Image reproduced courtesy of the Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh By Fatima Seck Born in March 1916 in Larteh, Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) to a historical family that …

By Fatima Seck In the 1940s, Britain was confronted with race in a way it had never been before: World War Two, fuelled by racial ideologies, started and came to …

Image – reproduced courtesy of Assefa Negash By Tom Cunningham On the 30th April 1998 Amnesty International issued an appeal “expressing serious concern” about the health and medical treatment of …

Image – reproduced courtesy of Eljine Olga Nzeribe By Fatima Seck Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa — more commonly known as Flora Nwapa — is a woman whose accomplishments are impressive in …

Image – reproduced courtesy of Brenda Locke and Tiffany Boyle By Natasha Ruwona Donald Locke (1930-2010) was born in Guyana and travelled to the UK to study art. In 1954 …

Photo of Jean Besson reproduced with permission of Jean Besson By Hannah McGurk Many students recall several positive experiences of Edinburgh and Scotland at large, from the stereotypically friendly Scottish …

Image – reproduced courtesy of the Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh University Students Association By Laurence Jarlett As a pre-eminent economist and prominent government participant, Semei Nyanzi …

Illustration by Yaz Serrano By Hannah McGurk Kenneth Ramchand wrote his PhD on Caribbean literature between 1959 and 1963. He was a scholarship student from Trindad (Kayalis & Natsina, 2011). …

Image courtesy of Professor Geoff Palmer By Natasha Ruwona Godfrey Henry Oliver Palmer, referred to now as Sir Geoff Palmer, was born in 1940 in Jamaica. Palmer joined his mother who was …

[Perraton, A History of Foreign Students in Britain]

Illustration by Yaz Serrano By Fatima Seck Bankole Ajibabi Omotoso, more commonly known as Kole Omotoso, was born in Nigeria in 1943 to a traditional elite Yoruba family (Stellenbosch Writers, n.d). …

Primary source material reproduced from William Besson, Caribbean Reflections: The Life and Times of a Trinidad Scholar, 1901-1986 (London, 1989) On arrival, my friend [George Busby] took me to the …

Primary source material reproduced from Kesaveloo Goonarathnum Naidoo, Coolie Doctor (Hyperbad, 1991) I was absorbed in the great melee of young people from all parts of the world – every …