Interviewed and Transcribed by Carla Gozo
Dr. Kendi Guantai is the University Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Leeds. Kendi's dedication to creating spaces that welcome people of all backgrounds into academic and professional spaces is something that has truly inspired us at Graft. This Black History Month, she has talked to us about her experience navigating the "black identity" as a born and raised Kenyan and how it made her an advocate for listening and learning from those in your community you might not identify with right away.
As a black, female, first-generation immigrant now well-established in the academy, what was it like trying to find your place professionally?
“I discovered that my identity as a black woman in the academy shut some doors firmly in my face. There were spaces I was not allowed in and support I wasn’t given. There was an invisibility cloud around me even though I tried to be seen and be heard. I just thought I wasn’t good enough. Eventually, I got to a point where I said, ‘I can’t be asked to do this anymore.’
I stepped out of the academy and started doing things mostly with other people of African descent and suddenly found that I was able to make a contribution. At that point I started to question, ‘Hang on a minute – I’m the same person. Why am I not appreciated in the academy, where I put greater effort, but I show up in other places and do the smallest thing and it’s celebrated like it’s such a massive thing?
Later, right around the pandemic, I found that it was the circles I was working with outside the academy who drew me back into it. I started to find people within the University of Leeds who are amazing, doing great research, and aligned to my way of thinking. It was just amazing to finally find ‘my tribe’.”
How have you come to understand your role now as a black woman living and working in England?
“Coming from Kenya, I grew up there until the age of 29. My grounding and everything about me was actually in Kenya. I had a strong identity, I knew who I was – colour doesn’t inform the structures and setups of institutions in the way it does in England. Because I was in the majority of the country, I never thought of myself as black. When I thought of black, I thought of Black Americans that you see on TV.
Coming here and feeling and understanding that I was a black woman was a whole thing because I’d never asked myself what that means. Black was always somebody else's identity so stepping into the role was uncomfortable. It still is uncomfortable because I don’t know that the black identity was invented for people like me.
The concept of black is a very African-American concept that was necessary because they couldn’t identify with the mother country since they grew up somewhere else. And for me to step into that identity, I feel like I dilute a very powerful thing that works and helps the black people who really need it.”
Can you please explain the sort of significance of community in helping you build yourself and your identity since immigrating?
“For a long time, I was the only black person in my department and, as far as I knew, the only black faculty in the business school so I didn’t even have a frame of reference. There was nobody I could sit with and go, ‘Is this happening to you too? Wait a minute, what do we have in common?’
One day it finally happened, I was actually with Iwi and another colleague at a conference that had nothing to do with race. My colleague had come up to me saying a microaggression just happened to her. She had shared that with us and then Iwi shared something and I shared something – before we knew it we were finishing each other’s sentences! This was a shared experience that made us realise this is structural.
I did find people who eventually when they got to hear – really heard my story. When they got to hear the stories of other people who were like me, they simply said, ‘Oh we need to do something about this.’ So there has definitely been positive action. It’s good that we are having conversations with senior leaders and line managers so they can hear what is unique about our experiences.”
Earlier this year you were appointed the University Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. What has progress been like in this department since you’ve come in?
“We have been designing, constructing, and co-creating plans like mapping our strategy against existing strategies. Of course, EDI should be embedded in everything that we do. It is not a stand-alone thing. We do have our KPIs and strategic objectives in place – which are available online.*
In terms of results, for staff for example, we are looking at the pay gap. Aligning salaries – and that is not just from a race perspective, but from a gender perspective as well. Our approach to EDI is intersectional. We think about the person holistically because people are often neither just one or the other: how they identify or how they are identified is nuanced, so we do have to think about protected characteristics and also beyond them.
The next thing we’re going for is the Race Equality Charter. So the question is, for people who are applying to university, how many do we take in? And if our hiring practices are as such that most people are still hiring to their likeness, that question to ask next is ‘why’. And we are very open to having those discussions and taking a deep dive into our processes and our ways of being.”
Say these immediate goals are met, what are the next best steps for your team or, more broadly, any workplace/university trying to examine their own strategies?
“Once we have more people in these spaces that look like me or yourself - people from the global majority who are doing research, teaching, part of our professional and support services – the next step is to ask how they are progressing. It’s one thing to get in, but will I get a promotion? Do I have access to the same opportunities as everybody else? What positive action are we taking in areas where our people need support?
What will really be key for creating and rolling out strategies is listening to the experiences of minoritized students or staff. I am one person – I cannot claim to understand completely the black experience. I am a black, female, first-generation immigrant. There are similarities in my experience with black women who were raised here, but there are also marked differences. For me to propose to speak for everyone who looks like me would be a lie, so we need to become a listening organisation.”
Based on your research and observation, how are you feeling about the future of young African immigrants trying to find their place in England’s universities and workspaces?
“I’m hopeful because a lot of young people are now immersing themselves in African/Black culture – they’re learning more about it and talking more openly about it. They are able to express themselves in a way that their parents and grandparents might not have had the space to do so. The challenge for them will be how they take up space.
What I would encourage young people to do is to look at theatre, the arts, and music for the answers. This is where it is demonstrated that Africa has something of value, something beautiful. It’s then that traditional spaces – economics, politics, commerce – tend to follow.”