Emma Dabiri: Who Got Burned By The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment is hailed as the birth of modern reason, science, and liberty… but who got burned? Who was left exploited, sicker and poorer? Was this a moment of enlightenment or one of histories darkest periods?

Emma Dabiri is an academic, broadcaster and bestselling author and she’ll join Trouble CEO Ellie Newton to unpack how “universal” ideals of liberty coexisted with and profited from slavery, colonialism, and the invention of race as a hierarchy of human worth. We will ask who the Enlightenment’s “universal man” really was, and explore how entire knowledge systems and oral traditions were dismissed or erased in the rush to enshrine European reason as the gold standard.

What myths from this era still shape our politics, our culture, and our self‑image today? How might our world look if other forms of knowledge had been given equal weight?

Does the Enlightenment need a rethink or a complete rebrand?

The talk will finish with an audience Q&A and then stick around for drinks and debriefing.