
George Bridgetower Essay Competition 2024
The prompt for this year's essay competition was:
How do the current conversations about academic freedom and freedom of speech affect Black students at Cambridge?
The prizegiving ceremony was launched by Sonita Alleyne, Master of Jesus College, who noted that while this is the third year of the essay competition, it is the first year that it has been coordinated by the Black Advisory Hub, which has been established to help build a diverse and inclusive community for all students and staff members at the University of Cambridge, as part of institutional action to improve Black students' outcomes at Cambridge. Tyra Amofah-Akardom, who is co-chair with Sonita Alleyne of the Black Advisory Hub Steering Group, outlined the decisions made by the judging panel to give the prize to two students.
Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education, Professor Bhaskar Vira, then announced the outcomes of this year's competition.
The winners
- Dara Osinowo (Human, Social & Political Sciences undergraduate, Downing College)
- Apeike Umolu (History MPhil student, Queens' College)
Highly commended
- Oluwatoni Adewole (Law undergraduate, Homerton College)
- Chris Lorde (Human, Social & Political Sciences undergraduate, Christ's College)
To read the essays, please go to this page (Raven password protected)
Background to the competition
This essay competition was established by the Alexander Crummell Fund, which was initiated to provide ongoing support for anti-racism work at the University and funded through philanthropic donors including Professor Henry Louis Gates JR. This is the third year of the competition, which is currently coordinated by the Black Advisory Hub.
It is named after George Bridgetower, who studied at Trinity Hall and was awarded a music degree in 1811. The competition was founded to provide a forum for students to share their insights into historical and contemporary experiences of race at Cambridge, and create space for Black knowledge-making practices.
Previous competition winners
- 2023: Antonia Antrobus-Higgins, a Human, Social & Political Sciences undergraduate (Murray Edwards College).
- Antonia's essay (Raven login required)
- 2022: Maya MacFarlane, a Human, Social & Political Sciences undergraduate (Pembroke College).
- Maya's essay (Raven login required)
- Article on the winner of the inaugural competition
- Our interview with Maya
Who were Alexander Crummell and George Bridgetower?
Recent research concludes that Alexander Crummell was the first Black individual to fully matriculate, study with residence and graduate from Cambridge.
‘From 1849 to 1853, the abolitionist and pan-Africanist Alexander Crummell studied at Queens’ College, Cambridge. His graduation ceremony was an historic occasion for Cambridge, as Crummell is the first recorded Black graduate of the University*. At the ceremony, an individual from the gallery reportedly called out, “Three groans for the Queens’ n*****” … A pale slim undergraduate … shouted in a voice which re-echoed through the building, “Shame, shame! Three groans for you, Sir!” and immediately afterwards, “Three cheers for Crummell!” This was taken up in all directions … and the original offender had to stoop down to hide himself from the storm of groans and hisses that broke out all around him.’
(Source: C. Benson, 1891, Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, The Life of Edward White Benson, vol. 1 , p. 109.)
However, the records do show that George Bridgetower (or sometimes Bridgtower) received a BMus in 1811 and can indeed be considered a graduate by the definitions of the time. The requirements for a Bachelor of Music were quite unlike those for other Bachelor’s degrees, as follows:
He must enter his name in some College. His exercise is a solemn piece of Music of his own composing (to be examined by the Professor before the performance) to be performed at the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor before the University. It is usually performed at St Mary's Church on the Commencement Sunday.
The Trinity Hall alumnus has a room in the College named after George Bridgetower, where we held the Prizegiving Ceremony in October 2024.