"In April 2024, a 40-centimeter-long lizard specimen, known as the Jamaican giant galliwasp, which is now presumed extinct, traveled from the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, to its homeland: Jamaica. Preserved in a jar of formaldehyde and nicknamed Celeste after its scientific name, Celestus occiduus, the specimen was repatriated thanks to an agreement with the University of the West Indies as an act of reparation for the island's slave-owning and colonial past."
"After the University of Glasgow publicly acknowledged that it had benefited from the slave trade, in 2019 it joined forces with the University of the West Indies to explore how to make amends to countries that still bear these scars. Together, they created the Glasgow-Caribbean Centre for Development Research, through which the institutions seek to raise 20 million (about $25 million)."
"The term reparation, which emerged in the context of the first Pan-African Conference held in London in 1900, served to begin charting a course in favor of the struggles of Africans and Afro-descendants for their total emancipation. Although it takes many forms ranging from the return of art to economic or psychological reparations there is one essential first step: acknowledging the facts."
A 40-centimeter Jamaican giant galliwasp specimen, nicknamed Celeste and preserved in formaldehyde, was returned from the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow to Jamaica in April 2024. The specimen had been taken around 1850 and was repatriated under an agreement with the University of the West Indies as an act of reparation for the island’s slave-owning and colonial past. After acknowledging benefits from the slave trade, the University of Glasgow partnered with the University of the West Indies in 2019 to pursue amends, creating the Glasgow-Caribbean Centre for Development Research to raise £20 million. Reparations take many forms and require first acknowledging historical facts.
Read at english.elpais.com
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