The decision by Cambridge University to launch an inquiry into whether they profited from and contributed to the slave trade has received a mixed reception online, from: “it’s the only way forward” to “it’s time to move on.”

The world-renowned British academic institution has revealed it will conduct a rigorous two-year investigation that will seek to “acknowledge its role during that dark phase of human history.” It will look at how they may have benefited from forced slave labour during the colonial era, through gifts and donations.

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Professor Stephen Toope, the university’s vice-chancellor, claimed that there was a growing public and academic interest in the links between Britain’s universities and the slave trade.

… it is only right that Cambridge should look into its own exposure to the profits of coerced labour during the colonial period.

The move has been welcomed by many on social media who insist the wounds of that period in time still reverberate today in the 21st century. Labour MP David Lammy took to Twitter to insist that “Contrition and atonement for of a grievous wrong is the only way to face the future.”

Another Twitter user @NickWrack argued that “understanding the past” will help people learn “how we got to where we are today."

I commend Cambridge University decision to examine its colonial past and slavery. To whom much is given much is expected.The wounds of that period still reverberate today. Contrition and atonement for of a grievous wrong is the only way to face the future. https://t.co/BZeiXuDFGx — David Lammy (@DavidLammy) April 30, 2019

What can possibly be wrong with investigating the links between Cambridge University or any other public institutions with slavery & the slave trade? The more we understand the past the more we can learn about how we got to where we are today. #r4today — Nick Wrack (@NickWrack) April 30, 2019

Finally acknowledgement of the elite UK institutions profiting from the slave trade is happening - but what will they do with the results of the study which is bound to be damming?? “Cambridge university to study how it profited from colonial slavery” https://t.co/MQM9cIThgR — Sharmaine Lovegrove (@SharLovegrove) April 30, 2019

However, the move also faces a backlash with some making the case that it was time to look to the future and not dwell on the past, accusing backers of the inquiry of “virtue signalling.”

@5helloil tweeted, somewhat sarcastically, that he was contemplating “suing the Scandinavians for their Viking misdemeanours in England. Where does this self flagellation end?”

I am thinking of suing the Scandinavians for their Viking misdemeanours in England. I also am looking for the perpetrators of the Barbary pirate raids on village's in Cornwall and southern Ireland.Where does this self flagellation end? — 🇬🇧HowardB🇮🇪 (@5helloil) April 30, 2019

I wonder if the Romans will do the same, maybe the Egyptians and Persians as well. Oh let’s not forget the conquistadors. — Mark adams (@MarkyOatcake) April 30, 2019

Ah more white guilt from Lammy. Slavery was abolished in this country nearly 200 years ago. It was an awful thing to have happened ( slavery not its abolishment) but don’t you think it’s time to move on and look to the future and not dwell in the past? — Sarah Goodchild (@norfolkmum1) April 30, 2019

We all profited, in its widest sense, from slavery, but the UK led the world in ending the known slave trade 200 years ago. Regrettably it still exists though. Rather than virtue signal over the past, your attention would be better directed towards where it currently continues. — Nick Tyler (@nicktyler1) April 30, 2019

The report is expected to “recommend appropriate ways” for Cambridge to acknowledge any such links and their impact on contemporary life, the university said.

It comes amidst a wider “decolonise” movement has been sweeping universities in Britain in recent years.

In November 2017, Students at Liverpool University called for the name of former British PM William Gladstone to be removed from a residence hall, as they said he fell short of wholeheartedly fighting for the abolition of slavery.

In July last year, a poem by renowned 19th century writer Rudyard Kipling was scrubbed off the walls of Manchester University’s student union amid claims his literature “dehumanised people of colour” and that he was an apologist for British colonialism.

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