SIR GEOFF PALMER

Thought provoking views on slavery and colonialism with Sir Geoff Palmer, Scotland's first black Professor, in conversation with Adrian Goldberg. After emigrating from Jamaica at the age of 15 and encountering racism in the British school system, Sir Geoff became a research scientist and discovered a method of speeding up the process of turning barley into malt – saving the brewing industry untold millions of pounds.   He has also written about the legacy of slavery in his book The Enlightenment Abolished; Citizens of Britishness – and revealed that his own ancestors were bought and sold. He's also had one of Scotland's most prominent landmarks in his sights – the Melville Monument in Edinburgh’s New Town erected in honour of Henry Dundas, the first Viscount Melville, who successfully argued for the gradual – rather than immediate – abolition of slavery. Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Funded by subscriptions to Byline Times.