Create James Africanus Horton as a touchstone for Black complexities

src/moments/01/thomas-guy.md

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+---
+title: The Statue of Thomas Guy: Man of Charity, Investor in Slavery 
+tags:
+  - moment
+  - essay
+category: student
+---
+
+**Sadie Mansfield ** is a third-year Liberal Arts student
+
+Constructed by renowned Flemish sculptor Peter Schneemaker and unveiled in 1734, this statue commemorates Thomas Guy as the founder of Guy’s Hospital. Schneemaker constructed the statue from brass and raised it above pedestrians upon a marble pedestal. The statue is accompanied by the inscription ‘THOMAS GUY SOLE FOUNDER OF THIS HOSPITAL IN HIS LIFETIME’, perhaps an attempt to refute the false accusations Guy faced after his death that he had not donated within his lifetime and only left money in his will.  
+The campus and nearby hospital itself would not exist without Guy’s charitable donations. Guy left £200,000 in his will – worth approximately £424.7 million in 2020 – to finance the establishment of the hospital. This wealth originated from the capital he invested in South Sea Company stock in 1711. This was on top of the £18,793 he had spent to initially build the hospital. While it was not uncommon at the time for gentlemen like Guy to engage in philanthropy, the creation of a new charitable institution with the financial backing to ensure its longevity does make his acts significant. The charitable donation left in his will was the largest in early eighteenth-century Britain by a significant amount.  
+What were Guy’s motivations for building the hospital? His social class and the status that charitable giving brought certainly would have played a part. Christian values, wherein the wealthy provided the less fortunate with aid, were imbued within his social status as a gentleman. To be seen as a Samaritan would have been desirable to Guy, and his varying charitable donations and previous role on the Board of Governors at St. Thomas’ Hospital certainly indicates that this was something he strived for. It seems his work certainly paid off in that regard; the statue was proposed by the executors of his will, who praised his ‘pious and honourable intentions’. The pedestal itself is decorated with depictions of scenes from the New Testament: of Christ healing, and of the Good Samaritan. While perhaps not a completely selfless act, the significance of his donation does indicate that Guy had a particular impulse to provide care for others, over and above some of his peers.  
+While the statue uplifts Guy for these charitable efforts, it does not tell the full story of his life and interests. The South Sea Company was involved in the shipment of enslaved Africans to Spanish America. Guy held shares in the company between 1711 and 1720. During this time, an estimated 15,901 enslaved individuals embarked on their vessels. Approximately 20% of these women, men and children perished during their voyage. Guy’s humanitarian desire seemingly did not extend to these enslaved individuals. 
+The statue was finished and unveiled ten years after Guy’s death, and maintains its prominent position in the entrance to the campus today. Since 2022, it has been accompanied by interpretation panels, commissioned by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation. They appeared after hoarding around the statue, hoarding that had shielded it from public view for the previous two years, was removed. The Foundation states on its website that they aim to ‘develop fuller stories’ about Thomas Guy and other individuals with connections to the hospitals and slavery. Visitors can scan a QR code on these panels to access a website with more information. 
+Since 2020, the Foundation has devoted increasing attention to these public history efforts. This is a direct result of the increased public awareness of the complexities associated with the decision to keep these monuments standing following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. As well as commissioning independent historical research on Guy, they consulted the public on their visions for the future of the statue. The results generated mixed responses, and more questions that still hang today as we consider the histories of these complicated individuals and the way they are commemorated today. Can we untangle Guy’s involvement in the slave trade from his celebrated charitable work, and how can we discuss these things together? Should the statue still sit in such a prominent position? Or should it even stand at all?  
+
+## Sources
+Bennett, Michael D. and Esther J. T. Brot, ‘Report on Thomas Guy, Sir Robert Clayton, and Our Shared Colonial Past: Sources, Context, Connections’ (2021). https://gsttfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Historical-Report.pdf. 
+Guy's and St. Thomas' Foundation, ‘The Statues of Sir Robert Clayton and Thomas Guy’ (November 2023). https://gsttfoundation.org.uk/our-work/arts-and-heritage/our-collection/statues/. 
+Hervey, Nick, ‘Guy, Thomas (1644/1724), Philanthropist and Founder of Guy’s Hospital’, _Oxford Dictionary of National Biography_ (September 2004). https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/11800. 
+Solkin, David H, ‘Samaritan or Scrooge? The Contested Image of Thomas Guy in Eighteenth-Century England’, _The Art Bulletin_ 78, 3 (September 1996), 467–84. https://doi.org/10.2307/3046196. 
+Xtend (UK) Ltd, ‘Exploring Narratives: Views on the Meaning and Future of the Statues of Sir Robert Clayton and Thomas Guy’ (2021). https://gsttfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Exploring-Narratives.pdf.  

src/moments/02/james-africanus-horton.md

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+---
+title: 'James Africanus Horton as a touchstone for Black complexities'
+tags:
+  - moment
+  - essay
+category: student
+---
+**Abiufo Dan-Abia** is a third-year Politics, Philosophy & Law LLB student
+
+Imagine rushing through Aldwych, maybe to a seminar or a lecture, but among the plaques and full-body statues that line the diplomatic institutions from Australia House to the Royal Courts of Justice, you notice a bust etched in stone towering over you.
+Unlike many monuments in the area that emphasize remarkably similar individuals as heroes, this one stands out: blending motifs of military, racial, and medical histories in memorial to James Africanus Horton, one of Britain’s first Black physicians and regarded as the Father of African Political Thought. His service to the British Army spanned multiple continents over many years, in which he contributed to the understanding of tropical botany, disease, and remedies, including some of the earliest recordings and investigations of sickle cell anaemia. As intriguing as his repertoire is, what is far more intriguing is that this monument does not exist, not in Aldwych, not anywhere!
+Despite his temporal distance, James Africanus Horton stands as a profound touchstone for the complexities of the Black identity, embodying the intricate contrasts and contradictions that defined his life and work. This article will consider his unique positioning and cultural hybridity using the themes of religion and education, Creole identity, military engagement and finally, the formulation of a personal politic in early Africana philosophy.
+
+## Religion and Education
+James was born in 1835 to a family of devout Christian recaptives living in Gloucester, Sierra Leone. He was educated in mission schools, including the renowned Fourah Bay Institute, heightening his exposure to Western value systems of civility. As such, he was steeped in the religious doctrines of his time. Horton’s name itself—James Africanus Beale Horton—echoed this duality, blending African pride with a European assimilation, encapsulating the symbiosis between his African roots and his colonial education. He went on to attend King's College London, where daily prayer was a part of the curriculum, yet he systematically refuted the racist ideologies inherent to the very religion that continually shaped his education. 
+London in the late 19th century saw an uptick in racial curiosity, particularly among scientists at the institutions James worked at: the emergence of early ethnologists and anthropologists divided over the classification of humankind as a single species or separate species welcomed a slew of racist hypothesizing. In tandem, there are Select Committee reports referenced as questioning the ability of Africans to self-govern, prompting his landmark work West African Countries and Peoples, British and Native And a Vindication of the African Race (1868). Although the Anthropological Society would later be absorbed into the Royal Anthropological Society, its impact is evident even in James Horton’s political philosophy as he maintains a similar typification of societies into savage, semi-barbarous and civilized, as would later be formalized by Edward B. Tylor in 1871.
+His work is also reflective of the racial typification that pervaded scientific spaces at the time: despite his dissent concerning the ability of African people to self-govern, he emphasized religion, education and the need for a civilizing force in Africa, which would later be corroborated by members of the Anthropological Society he refuted, who declared 'Christianity, the surest way to civilisation'. 
+Despite this, Horton’s intellectual pursuits were a direct challenge to the Eurocentric beliefs that regarded Africans as inferior, as he fiercely argued for the capability and right of Africans to self-govern.
+
+## The Hybridity of Creole Identity
+Horton was a Creole, a member of a community often overlooked in the racial binaries of his era, existing in a society that largely ignored the complexities of African identities. As such, his life was a testament to navigating this liminal space—neither fully identifying culturally with the European colonizers nor completely aligned with the indigenous African populations. In this, Horton represented the duality of traversing two worlds, yet fully belonging to neither, constantly at the crossroads of cultural identities and clashes.
+
+## An African Doctor in the British Army
+His career as a military doctor further reinforced this paradox. The role itself—a healer within the military—was an oxymoron, compounded by the racial dynamics of the time. Horton likely attended to white soldiers who viewed him with suspicion or outright disdain, despite relying on his medical expertise. His presence in the British Army highlighted the contradictions of colonialism, where a Black man could be a saviour and a subordinate in the same breath.
+
+## A Pioneer of ‘Africana’ Philosophy
+Horton’s intellectual legacy is marked by his rigorous refutation of the eugenics that underpinned colonial rule. He was a scholar who deconstructed the pseudo-scientific racism of his time, yet his politics were paradoxically aligned with the idea of European “civilizing” influence. He stood at the intersection of advocating for African self-governance while also engaging with the colonial structures that sought to oppress his people. Horton’s life was a navigation of these crossroads—between Freetown’s legal trade and the lingering shadow of the slave trade, between national pride and the eugenicist ideologies of colonization, between the roles of caretaker and soldier.
+
+## A Lasting Legacy
+James Africanus Horton’s legacy of profound complexity still rings true today: a man of contrasts, embodying the tensions and dualities of Black identity in a colonial world. His life and work serve as a reminder of the intricate, constantly conflicting forces that shape the journey toward continental, national, and individual self-determination, standing as a touchstone for the layered realities of Black existence in the face of systemic oppression.
+
+## Sources
+
+King, Anthony, 'Decolonizing the British Army: a preliminary response', _International Affairs_, 97, 2, (2021), 443–461.
+Campbell, G., 'On the Races of India as Traced in Existing Tribes and Castes', _The Journal of the Ethnological Society of London (1869-1870), 1(2), (1869), 128–140.
+Horton, J. A. B., _West African Countries and Peoples, British and Native: And a Vindication of the African Race_ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
+Imperial War Museum, 'The Black British Soldiers Who Were Deliberately Forgotten'. 
+The University of Edinburgh, 'James “africanus” Beale Horton'. https://global.ed.ac.uk/uncovered/1800-1859/james-africanus-beale-horton 
+King’s College London Calendar 1858-1859. (1858–1859). King’s College London Calendars. King’s College London. 
+King’s College London, 'Africanus Horton'. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/africanus-horton 
+Kuklick, Henrika, _The Savage Within: The Social History of British Anthropology, 1885-1945_, (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1992). 
+Martin, G. _African political thought_ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
+Wellcome Collection, ‘The secret lives of Britain’s first black physicians’,  https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/YxDHJBEAACIAdasV