EVENT: The Centre is hosting a #PGR Writing Retreat.📆Wed 10 May 10-3:30 .Focused periods of writing and sociable breaks. Lunch & snacks provided.Book: @HCAGrad_Edin @HCA_PeerSupport @HCAatEdinburgh @hcahgsr @EdUniStudents @ECGHGradWrkshp .#shutupandwrite

NEW: The Lothian Lockdown Project - .Investigating questions of public health, media and communication among residents of Edinburgh and the Lothians in relation to COVID-19. Read 'Covid Oral Histories' by @AnitaManisha & @dialect's new post on our blog:

Starting now! 👇.

📖A quick reminder that our Postgraduate Reading Group is meeting tomorrow lunchtime. We will be reading 'Hannah Arendt's Ghosts: Reflections on the Disputable Path from Windhoek to Auschwitz.'. Co-author Stephan Malinowski may also pop in to say hello!

Second question on racialised dissemination of contraception in Martinique and Guadeloupe and the position of these radical groups. This is a prominent debate in the archival sources, but GONG emphasised male leadership which obscured women's voices.

First question asks about extent of dialogue between the island groups and elsewhere. Labour movements stifled in BVI and Cayman Islands to a greater extent than other parts of the British Caribbean, leading to less interaction.

Today, citizens in these islands continue to contest their political status and their relationship with the metropole. In 2021, Barbados became a republic and ongoing debates remain in the region over reparatory justice.

Need to understand how these islands negotiated decolonisation without independence - importance of local context and factors. Complexity and diversity of political futures; important to include political voices from smaller territories that were previously overlooked.

Outcomes of decolonisation may appear different but these examples must nevertheless be seen as part of the process of decolonisation. Islanders were influenced by international debates over anti-colonialism and decolonialism, often inspired by experiences studying abroad.

Concluding points: high degree of repression in French Caribbean against independence movements. Less focus on independence in BVI and Cayman Islands but also came with considerable personal cost to leaders.

This took place in context of emergence of tax havens amid decolonisation, a topic developed in Vanessa Ogle's research.

Emergence of offshore finance in Cayman Islands - 1960 Companies Law introduced, leading to collaboration between the merchant elite, British administrator and incoming white investors to develop Cayman as an offshore financial centre.

Also contrast with Bahamas, which became an independent country. This period was a key turning point in the history of Britain's Caribbean islands.

This blocking of the NDP prevented any movement towards self-government as the party advocated. The NDP later disintegrated as a major party. In contrast, a similar situation occurred in Trinidad and Tobago in 1956 leading to a different outcome after British intervention.

The oligarchy was challenged by the National Democratic Party, which won a majority in elections held in 1962. However, the British administrator, Jack Rose, blocked the NDP from gaining power by nominating three anti-NDP members to the legislature.

The Cayman Islands split with Jamaica when the West Indies Federation began to dissolve and became a direct colony of Britain. The ruling oligarchy feared coming under an independent Jamaica and losing their political hegemony.

In the Cayman Islands, the white merchant class oligarchy had gained control of the shipping industry, making them very powerful. The British colonial state colluded with this oligarchy to prevent the emergence of alternative political leadership.

RT @CSMCH_Edin: In today's seminar we're hearing from @Gracemc971 on the topic of: 'Decolonisation beyond Independence: Non-Sovereign State….

Positive Action Movement was incredibly successful, effectively ending the Bates-Hill Agreement and keeping control in the hands of BV Islanders. However, the Movement hasn't gained much scholarly attention - as a broader movement didn't focus on independence.

Bates sought to gain a 199-year lease of much of Anegada, leading to protests in BVI. British government became increasingly concerned and established a commission of inquiry to examine the Bates-Hill Agreement.