KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaican researchers and institutions are among the beneficiaries of approximately £450,000 (J$91 million) in funding allocated to projects in the Caribbean and West Africa under an international programme aimed at expanding research into the transatlantic slave trade and improving access to historical records.
British High Commissioner to Jamaica, Alicia Herbert (centre) in discussion with Project Lead for PASSAGE at The National Archives (UK), Philippa Hellawell (left) and Head of Research, Interpretation, and Engagement at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Louise Sanger (right). (Photo credit: JIS)The funding forms part of the Partnership for Atlantic Slavery Scholarship, Archiving and Global Exchange (PASSAGE) International Research Mobility Programme, which was launched at the British High Commission in Kingston this week.
The initiative is supported by a £1 million grant from the UK-based Lloyd’s Register Foundation and is designed to advance research into the history of transatlantic slavery through archival work, digitisation projects and international collaboration.
British High Commissioner to Jamaica, Alicia Herbert, said approximately £450,000 would be allocated to projects in the Caribbean and West Africa.
“The programme supports new research into the history of transatlantic slavery through UK-based archival work and an international research mobility scheme for scholars and archivists in West Africa and the Caribbean,” she said.
Herbert said the initiative places strong emphasis on partnership and knowledge exchange, ensuring that researchers in regions most affected by the legacy of slavery play a leading role in interpreting those histories.
She also said Jamaica’s participation reflects the country’s longstanding contribution to archival research in the region.
“I’m especially pleased that Jamaica will play such a central role in this programme, including support for Jamaican researchers and institutions. That reflects both the strength of expertise here and Jamaica’s important contribution to scholarship across the Caribbean and beyond,” she said.
The programme will support 15 projects across Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana and Cameroon, according to PASSAGE project lead at The National Archives in the United Kingdom, Philippa Hellawell.
Hellawell said Jamaican beneficiaries include the National Library of Jamaica and the Jamaica Archives and Records Department, which will undertake large-scale digitisation of historical records related to transatlantic slavery.
Students and faculty at the University of the West Indies, Mona will also benefit through fellowships, scholarships and bursaries.
Head of Research, Interpretation and Engagement at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Louise Sanger, said the organisation commissioned independent research in 2022 to better understand its historical links to transatlantic slavery.
“Our purpose wasn’t to retell the story of transatlantic slavery but to better understand our role in it,” she said.
She added that the Foundation’s involvement in PASSAGE forms part of a broader commitment to transparency and access to historical records.
“The initiatives that we’ve undertaken… they’re not intended as reputational or repair exercises, and they’re not attempts to settle history. They’re a commitment to transparency, to making difficult histories visible,” she said.
Senior Archivist at the Jamaica Archives and Records Department, Racquel Stratchan-Innerarity, also outlined work under the programme involving the digitisation and cataloguing of historical Vice Admiralty records.
She said the collections include records of maritime legal proceedings in Jamaica during the 18th and 19th centuries, containing information on slave ships, maritime insurance, trade and colonial governance.
Stratchan-Innerarity said approximately 320 archival boxes and 145 bound and unbound items are currently inaccessible due to limited cataloguing and the absence of digital copies.
She said the project would improve access and preservation of the records while reducing handling of fragile originals, making them more accessible to researchers locally and internationally.
