This year's lecturer is African affairs writer and lecturer Margery Perham. In 1939 she became the first female fellow of Nuffield College at Oxford University, and was elected as Reader in Colonial Administration. During her time she became the memoranda-writer for a group which secured government funds and asserted the University's role in colonial studies. Her books, reports and papers provided the basis for the Oxford Institute of Colonial Studies, and she was appointed its Director in 1945. She also helped initiate the Oxford Colonial Records Project. In her Reith series entitled 'The Colonial Reckoning', she considers the effects of colonialism.

In this lecture entitled 'Anti-Colonialism and Anti-Imperialism', she dissects what colonialism actually means. She explores the rift between East and West to understand why the word has become an abusive term, highlighting examples from tropical Africa. Show less