After a reckoning and the toppling, what is replacing Britain’s symbols of empire?

In this month’s newsletter: communities are reshaping how empire is remembered in public life. Plus, holding royalty to account in Jamaica and repairing centuries of harm in California

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Hello and welcome to the Cotton Capital newsletter. I’m Nadine White and this month we’re asking: after the toppling, what comes next?

Britain spent much of 2020 arguing about what should come down. Statues of enslavers and colonial figures were toppled, defaced or quietly removed. Edward Colston ended up in Bristol harbour. Robert Milligan was taken down outside London’s Museum of Docklands, while campaigners renewed calls for Cecil Rhodes to come off his plinth at Oriel College, Oxford. But six years on, one of the most persistent battles is still playing out.

How slavery reparations could help make yearning to return to Africa a reality | Natricia Duncan

British corporation continued trafficking of enslaved Africans to Guyana 40 years after abolition | Chris Osuh

Trafficked on the last US slave ship, Cudjo Lewis never returned home to Benin. But his descendant has | Adria Walker

Moringa lattes and tigernut kebabs: the Ghanaians ‘taking back the power’ of their food | Kaamil Ahmed

Sydney’s sugar rush: how the colony’s most powerful profited from Australia’s slave trade | Paul Daley