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Can schools of global public health dismantle colonial legacies?

Nature Medicine volume 26, pages 1504–1505 (2020)Cite this article

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To the Editor — The United Kingdom’s leading global public health university, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), recently issued an unprecedented statement to its staff and students about the urgent need to address racial inequalities at the institution. The statement acknowledged the school’s “roots in colonial history and an ideology” that have “created institutional structures which continue to reinforce racism and bias.” It comes after LSHTM and other global public health universities across the United Kingdom have been rocked by calls for an acknowledgment of, and actions to address, colonial structures that continue to perpetuate racial inequalities inside and outside the organization. At LSHTM, for example, a letter signed by us and over 600 other students, alumni and staff details very personal, and sometimes painful, accounts of systemic racism, harassment and discrimination. The letter echoed sentiments in similar calls for action by leading global health organizations like Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).

The transfer of energy from the United States to Europe to stand against racist practices has been palpable. Protests on both continents are requiring re-examination of historical underpinnings of modern-day structural racism in various institutions. This same is true of academia, where European universities confront colonial legacies. Even as current problems of racism at UK universities are highlighted in its Equality and Human Rights Commission Report1, the historical underpinnings of structural racism as an extension of colonialism and white-centric paradigms are rarely acknowledged nor fully addressed. LSHTM has a mission to “improve health worldwide.” However, along with other institutions, it was founded to strengthen the dominance of the British Empire. At its 1909 opening, the school’s founder, Patrick Manson, touted British Imperialism and lamented that the Africa problem, like the Asian one before it, was the white man’s burden.

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References

  1. Equality and Human Rights Commission. Tackling racial harassment: universities challenged. https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/tackling-racial-harassment-universities-challenged (2020).

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge LSHTM’s DGH group and the BLM network of current and former staff and students. The authors also acknowledge and thank L. Hirsch for her research on colonial history of LSHTM, which inspired this Correspondence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Universal Health, Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, UK

    Ngozi A. Erondu & Mishal S. Khan

  2. Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Dorothy Peprah

  3. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

    Mishal S. Khan

  4. Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan

    Mishal S. Khan

Authors
  1. Ngozi A. Erondu
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  2. Dorothy Peprah
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  3. Mishal S. Khan
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N.A.E., D.P. and M.S.K. conceived the idea together. N.A.E. developed the first draft, M.S.K. and D.P. made significant revisions to the draft, and all authors approved the final version for publication.

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Correspondence to Ngozi A. Erondu.

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Erondu, N.A., Peprah, D. & Khan, M.S. Can schools of global public health dismantle colonial legacies?. Nat Med 26, 1504–1505 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1062-6

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