AFUA HIRSCH is a former barrister, journalist, and documentary maker. As well as Enslaved, her recent projects include a major 3-part BBC series about African art, and an Audible original series We Need to Talk About the British Empire. She regularly writes, reports and speaks on international current affairs, and has published two bestselling books, “Brit(ish)”: On Race, Identity and Belonging, winner of the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Prize, and “Equal to Everything”, about the UK Supreme Court. Afua was a judge for the 2019 Booker Prize and is currently the Wallis Annenberg Chair of Journalism at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Why AFUA HIRSCH?

It's important to know that Wendy Williams has returned to the Home Office in September 2021. This Black History Month, in light of Wendy Williams Lessons Learned Review - The NETWORK is "Proud To Be" hosting this event to help:

• maintain awareness of British Colonial/Empire History.

Wendy stated: "...What is clear to me is that operational and organisational failings of the department had a causative impact on the detrimental treatment received by the Windrush generation as a result of them being caught up in measures designed for people who have no right to be in the UK. In particular, their history was institutionally forgotten.....even the department’s experts struggled to understand the implications of successive changes in the legislation and the way they interacted with changes in the relationship between the UK and Caribbean countries and the resulting impact those changes had on individuals’ status in the UK..... "

Wendy's recommendations include:

Recommendation 1 – Ministers on behalf of the department should admit that serious harm was inflicted on people who are British and provide an unqualified apology to those affected and to the wider black African-Caribbean community as soon as possible. The sincerity of this apology will be determined by how far the Home Office demonstrates a commitment to learn from its mistakes by making fundamental changes to its culture and way of working, that are both systemic and sustainable.

Recommendation 6 – a) The Home Office should devise, implement and review a comprehensive learning and development programme which makes sure all its existing and new staff learn about the history of the UK and its relationship with the rest of the world, including Britain’s colonial history, the history of inward and outward migration and the history of black Britons...

Recommendation 11 – The department should re-educate itself fully about the current reach and effect of immigration and nationality law and take steps to maintain its institutional memory. It should do this by making sure its staff understand the history of immigration legislation and build expertise in the department, and by carrying out historical research when considering new legislation....

AFUA will speak on British Empire "then" and "now" and her book "Brit(ish)". In light of Wendy Williams Lessons Learned Review, This BHM Event is an opportunity for us to continue on our journey to learn/add to our knowledge about the history of the UK and its relationship with the rest of the world.

• We invite you to watch AFUA's video below.

This session will be via MS Teams - time for Q & A is included.

Your place will be confirmed by a meeting invitation to join the MS Teams live event that will be forwarded to you ahead of the Event.

Please ensure that you are available to attend the meeting slot and if you are not able to attend, indicate in the first instance and/or when you receive the meeting invite.

Please register using your work email (.gov.uk) as these events are open to civil servants only unless prior arranged.

Kind Regards

The Network Support Team

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