Olivette Otele

Olivette Otele is a Distinguished Research Professor of the Legacies and Memory of Slavery at SOAS, University of London. Her area of research is colonial, post-colonial history and memory studies. Otele holds a Ph.D. in History from Université Paris La Sorbonne, France and received an honorary doctorate in Law from Concordia University in Canada in 2022. She is a Fellow, a former Vice President of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. She was the recipient of several prestigious national and international research grants. Otele was a judge of the International Man Booker Prize, has written numerous scholarly papers and books, and she is also a regular contributor to the press, television and radio programmes in Britain, the US and France. Otele was broadcaster and a consultant for films and documentaries such as Chevalier in Cinema in 2023, on Disney+ and African Queens airing on Netflix (2023). Her latest books include an edited volume, Post-Conflict Memorialization: Missing Memorials, Absent Bodies (2021) and African Europeans: an Untold History (2020). She works with policy makers and other institutions to engage with the histories of colonial slavery and restorative justice strategies (See Welsh Government Report and the Guardian Newspapers project Cotton Capital). In 2023, Olivette was made Commandeur de L'Ordre de La Valeur by special decree from the President of Cameroon, alongside Boxing world champion Francis Ngannou, and she was awarded a Chevalier de Saint Georges Medal of Honour by President of Culture, Mayor and President of Tourism of Guadeloupe.