Simukai Chigudu, African politics professor: I support reparations

The Interview · Apr 9, 2026 · 23m

Amol Rajan speaks to Simukai Chigudu, associate professor of African Politics at Oxford University about the legacy of empire and how to reckon with the past.

A member of the first generation born after the end of colonial rule in Zimbabwe, Simukai Chigudu came to the UK as a teenager and later became one of the founding members of a campaign to try to get the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes moved from Oriel College in Oxford.

Now an associate professor of African politics at the University of Oxford, he has written a memoir called Chasing Freedom: Coming of Age at the End of Empire.

He…