WHY WE ALL NEED BLACK HISTORY MONTH

WHY WE ALL NEED BLACK HISTORY MONTH

A position paper prepared for the Harrow BHM 2010 Steering Group by Kwaku

Last year, I read a run-down of how Black History Month came about, having started in America in 1926. A summary can be found on page 4 of the Events Programme.

This year, I’d like to focus a bit on What is Black History Month or BHM? And Why it is needed.

The start of BHM in Britain can be traced to a young African boy of Caribbean heritage, who asked his mother: "Mum, why can't I be white?"

Ironically he was named Marcus, in honour of the great pan-Africanist icon Marcus Garvey. That not withstanding, we can see how negative impressions or lack of positive images and achievement had impacted on the boy’s psyche, identity and self-worth, at such an early age.

A colleague of the boy’s mother, Akyaaba Addai Sebo, who was then working at the GLC, decided to do something to combat what was causing inferiority complexes in some of our African children.

Incidentally, when we use the term African in this forum, we mean anyone of African heritage where from the African continent or its diaspora.

Sebo decided to use history – African history to empower Africans to improve their self-worth and knowledge, and indeed for the wider community to also learn more about the achievements of Africans, which is not often found in mainstream education or media.

In short, the primary aim of BHM is to provide African people, who are generally marginalised and disadvantaged on numerous fronts, a positive environment to improve self-esteem and self-worth, and also knowledge about themselves.

This is what the late Bernie Grant MP said when BHM was introduced to the UK: "Ignorance of black history and heritage breeds low self-esteem".

At a time when Africans generally speaking tend to habit the lower ends of the academic league tables, and are over-represented within the criminal justice system, knowledge of self and respect for self and each other, are some of the tools we need in combating some of society’s ills and prejudices.

Recently, there has been both confusion and a move to have everybody that can be mustered under the black banner for BHM. However it is worth pointing out that BHM is singularly about the African experience. Which is the reason some refer to it simply as African History Month.

BHM was launched in London under the African Jubilee Year Declaration. The Jubilee year run from August 1987, marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great pan-Africanist icon Marcus Garvey, who was born August 17 1887, right through to 1988, marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Organisation Of African Unity on May 25, and the 150th anniversary of the end of chattel enslavement in the British Caribbean, which was on August 1.

We should repeat here that unlike the supposedly “more humane” indentured servant system, the cruel chattel enslavement system was confined to Africans.

This is why in Harrow BHM is focused on African history, but with a British link, where possible, and is also driven by Africans, but for the whole of the Community to participate in. We also do things a bit differently by expecting participants to leave with at least a couple of clearly definable learning outcomes.

Back to the introducion of BHM to the UK, Statutory bodies such as Councils were convinced to buy into the Declaration, which consisted of a number of commitments. These included the demonstration of anti-racist, anti-apartheid, and human rights policies.

There was also a commitment to promote positive imagery, achievements and contributions of Africans at home and abroad over a wide range of endeavours, plus naming buildings, parks or monuments or streets after notable Africans, such as the CLR James Library in Hackney, and Mandela Street in Camden.

Finally, the commitment extended to solidarity with the freedom struggles across Africa. Remember, in 1987, countries such as South Africa and Namibia were not politically free.

The Declaration also bound Councils to undertake to organise events that publicise, encourage and implement the tenets of the Declaration and to encourage other Councils and statutory bodies to do likewise

However although the Declaration did not have legal backing, it was underpinned by an important section in the 1976 Race Relations Act, which is extended in the post-Steve Lawrence Inquiry inspired 2000 Race Relations Amendment Act.

The Act demands of statutory bodies such as Councils, and educational bodies to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination; and to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between people of different racial groups. BHM is certainly an important plank when it comes to the last point. No doubt our Councillors and Council staff especially are aware of this.

Even without the legal requirement, BHM should be a catalyst for inspiring development of extra curricular activity in schools – and we don’t mean face-painting or “African dance”, whatever that means, encourage the formation of Saturday schools and African parents education/mentoring groups.

We believe BHM programmes should be designed to
a) educate the community, Africans and non-Africans, about African history and achievements,

b) not focus solely on song and dance, except where its primary aim is to tell or underscore history, rather than purely to entertain and

c) show that African History is much wider than enslavement. This is because although enslavement had devastating consequences, and its effects are still with us, it took place over a relatively short period of the African history time continuum, and there’s lots more besides that can be explored.

Finally, do we need BHM? Certainly Yes, so long as the mainstream arena, be it education, media or other social outlets, do not adequately reflect the histories and achievements of Africans.

A community that’s better informed about each other should hopefully make for better community cohesion based on informed views, rather than prejudices. This is the aim of Harrow BHM’s events starting from today, and hopefully beyond October.

Kwaku © 2010

Harrow BHM Steering Group

Reflecting On 2007 For Kilombo Magazine

Kilombo Article
by Kwaku

I’m the founder of BritishBlackmusic.com and Black Music Congress, which are focused on developing the British black music sector through debates, networking, and music industry education.

Perhaps more relevant for readers of this magazine is BTWSC, a pan-London voluntary organisation I run with its Ghanaian-born barrister and co-ordinator Ms Serwah. BTWSC uses the creative arts to develop potential, raise aspirations, and promote social inclusion. I also teach, write, facilitate courses and community events.

I would like to use this article to give some background about myself, reflect on 2007, and round up with what’s in store for 2008.

Although I’m British-born, I’m very proud of my Ghanaian and African heritage. I use one name – Kwaku, because it’s the only name I have that tells people that I’m African. It was a conscious decision I made in the late 1980s, when I started in the journalism game.

Now, I enjoy using just one name, because I also love telling people who ask for a surname that I only use one name.

Why should I bother with a surname? Of course I do have one. But it’s European – something to do with colonialization, and besides it carries no weight in England, although in Ghana, it has the advantage of being a fairly well-known name.

A year ago most of us were marking – I will not use the word ‘commemorating’ – the Abolition Of The Slave Trade Act of 1807 and Ghana’s 50th anniversary of ‘independence’.

I will start by concentrating on the 1807 Act. We organised and spoke on a few Abolition-themed events last year. BTWSC is part of Truth2007, a grassroots organisation set up to put forward the African/African-Caribbean perspective in contrast to the British Government-backed Abolition activities. The latter was referred to by some of us as Wilberfest, on account of the overwhelming focus wrongly put on the British MP William Wilberforce as an Abolitionist and the man who freed enslaved Africans.

By the way, as a way of marking the legacy of those enslaved Africans, I’ve vowed that as of 2008, the descriptor to use for people of African descent, irrespective of where their antecedence is located, should be African, instead of black.

One of the founding members of Truth2007 is Ligali, the London-based African rights and media monitoring group. It was Ligali founder Toyin Agbetu who interrupted the Abolition memorial service at Westminster Cathedral, and requested the Queen, the Prime Minister, and the Arch-bishop, apologise for the role of the monarchy, Government and church in the trans-Atlantic ‘trade’ of enslaved Africans.

Agbetu was writing about how we were in line for a commemoration of the Abolition that would white-wash the facts long before 2007. He also tried unsuccessfully to engage the authorities in order to have the roles of Africans properly reflected in the Abolition story.

Indeed, my interest in the whole Abolition issue stemmed from reading an article Toyin had published in one of Britain’s African newspapers.

I then published articles in the African press in 2006, which basically stated that as we get ready to mark the bicentennial of the Abolition Of The Slave Trade Act and the twentieth anniversary of Black History Month in Britain, we must take from it two things.

Firstly, everyone of African descent would do more to honour the memory of the enslaved Africans if they referred to themselves as Africans or African-British. I pointed out the Asians born in Britain or from east Africa, refer to themselves simply as Asian.

Secondly, I pointed out the Black History Month concept was introduced to Britain in 1987 during the African Jubilee Year, as a way of highlighting Africa’s contribution to the world’s civilisation and uplifting people of African descent. So I called for Black History Month to be African and history focused, as opposed to a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural celebration, which provided little or no African history content.

Back to the Abolition – Ms Serwah and I spent much of 2007 correcting individuals, newspapers and websites that the 1807 Act did NOT seek to abolish enslavement. We also conducted lectures on enslavement and the Abolition for university students and local authority staff.

It seemed hardly anyone had read the 1807 Act. Had Africans read it, they might not have celebrated it – the worse ones being a dinner & dance and a football tournament, to commemorate an Act that enshrined discrimination against Africans by stating that Africans who served in the King’s army were not entitled to pension!

BTWSC organised talks programmes, ‘Abolition Truths’ and ‘Putting Abolition & Slavery Into Perspective’, and edu-tainment music programmes, ‘Then To Now’ and ‘From The Talking Drums To Rap And Grime’, aimed at raising awareness that the 1807 Act did not abolish the enslavement of Africans, and it was efforts by African abolitionists in Britain like Olaudah Equiano and Ottobah Cugoano, and leaders across the colonies such as Toussaint L’Ouverture of Haiti, Nana (Nanny) and Sam Sharpe of Jamaica, and Bussa of Barbados to name a few, that brought about the 1807 Act and the 1833 Abolition Of Slavery Act.

Indeed, because of the misunderstanding and mis-information, BTWSC will be publishing an Abolition primer this year for young and old alike, to find about the basic facts.

Regarding Ghana’s golden jubilee, someone said the fact that the country had survived that long without any major skirmishes was reason enough to celebrate. It did not seem reason enough, until one saw what has been happening in Kenya. One hopes that the maturity that has followed recent elections in Ghana continue after this December elections.

That said, I find very little to celebrate. I’ve already highlighted many of the issues in my Travelogue feature in the January 2008 edition of New African. All I’ll add here is that it worries me when our leaders think the way to develop is either to sell our assets to foreigners or continually ask for foreign aid. Also, not having a handle on the way Accra, for example, has expanded without adequate infrastructure, which results in regular interruption of water and electricity supplies is unacceptable for a nation that aims to be the hub of the sub-region.

I marked the jubilee with a small Ghana @ 50? display of Ghanaian goods during the BTWSC Abolition events, and An Evening With Mr K B Asante, where the esteemed former Ghanaian diplomat read from his ‘Voice From Afar’ book, and fielded questions ranging from his time working with Ghana’s first president Dr Kwame Nkrumah, to the vision for Ghana.

We launched the BTWSC Professor Allotey Science Prize in London in October. The Prize, which is named after the renowned eponymous Ghanaian mathematician and physicist, aims to popularise the sciences among young Africans in Britain and Ghana. The Prize, which has a laptop computer as the top prize, will also be presented to the best student at Professor Allotey’s wife Ase Allotey’s alma mater Aburi Secondary School in April 2008.

I started 2008 as one of the panellists on the Ghana We Can Do Better Conference, which highlighted some of the work done by Ghanaians in London, and sought ways in which we can positively impact upon Ghana.

One of the suggestions I put forward was that if we who are overseas have ideas that we believe will benefit Ghana, we have to be mindful not to drive it through in a patronising manner, and that it would be an advantage to work through local personalities or agencies to champion the idea.

Feedback To London Mayor's Drastic Black History Month Funding Cut

As someone who organises African/Black History Month (BHM) events, I am disappointed that London Mayor Boris Johnson has made serious cuts to his BHM budget. However, whilst I won’t dissuade those campaigning for a re-instatement of the budget, I’m focusing on self-reliance.

When Boris got into City Hall in 2008, I had a discussion with someone who also organises community events. He expected Johnson to cut the BHM budget, but he thought this would make us more self-reliant, and that many programmes would be delivered out of necessity, rather than the availability of a grant.

In Harrow last October, for example, when the Council’s oversight meant no BHM grant was offered, apart from two events I was involved in, In Search Of Achievers Closer To Home and the Harrow NARM (Naming And Role Model) Photograghic Exhibition, none of the organisations that had previously delivered BHM events with Council funding organised any events.

Also, I wonder how those complaining about the Mayor’s budget cut have actually attended any of the Mayor’s sponsored BHM events?

Back to the Harrow experience, when nothing much happened, all of a sudden we had some people calling and emailing, asking what was happening to Black History Month? But when the NARM exhibition was extended within Harrow libraries to four residencies right into March 2010, none of those people bothered to attend that or other African history related events they were invited to.

It seems there are some people who just want to know that there are numerous BHM events, though they are not particularly interested in attending. But once funding is cut, they are ready to make noise about how there needs to be more BHM events.

Quite frankly, I think many BHM events do not do anything to improve anyone’s knowledge of African history. The majority are focused on 'culture', rather than history. I am not decrying culture, after all I’m the founder of the Black Music Congress and have a passion for promoting British black music and culture.

However BHM isn’t about singing and dancing, which may make one feel good but not necessarily raise awareness of our history. Nor is it about face-painting, food, and other activities not related to history. We should not also tolerate the same-old, and often lazy “black history” focused just on Mary Seacole, Martin Luther King, and now, Barack Obama.

In Harrow, we fought for the Council to devolve the running of BHM to community groups. The Council has decided to fund a Black History Season that ends in March. And even though the budget has been cut in recent years from £10k to £5k, better programmes are being delivered, because not only do funded events have to be focused within an African history context, there also must be learning outcomes for the audience.

So, for example, even though Messrs Coleridge-Taylor & Pine, which takes place on March 23 at Harrow’s Council Chamber, is about the British classical composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and jazz musician Courtney Pine, the focus is not on entertainment, but on learning about the works and lives of the two musicians, and their contributions to world civilisation and history.

Also, I believe BHM events should not only highlight history, but should where possible, have a British connection, either in content or by pointing to references or connections closer to home.

So if, for example, an event should re-visit the American civil rights and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, it would help if the audience were made aware of some of the civil rights activities that took place in Britain, including the Bristol Bus Boycott, which ended on the same day MLK delivered his famous I Have A Dream speech.

The Bristol Bus Boycott is one of the many African British histories that comes out of my talking through the subjects of the NARM photographs.

The moral here is that a budget cut does not necessarily mean poor quality events; a multiplicity of BHM events does not necessarily mean our knowledge of African history is improved; and that many of those complaining about the Mayor’s budget cut would not necessarily participate if there was a plethora of Mayor-funded BHM events.

Finally, even though statutory bodies, such as the Mayoralty and Councils, are enjoined to support the tenets of BHM, and they ought to be providing adequate BHM funding, I would rather we found ways within our own means to empower ourselves and particularly those of us who routinely claim “we don’t know our history”, rather than concern ourselves with budgets which have in the main been used to entertain, rather than educate us.

Kwaku



Our related events in March 2010:
BTWSC:

March 16, 5-7pm: launch of African Voices: Quotations By People Of African Descent book at Houses Of Parliament with Brent South MP and Minister for Youth Citizens & Engagement Dawn Butler MP. For more info: www.btwsc.com/AfricanVoices

Late March: confirmation of accreditation of new course Copyright, Contract, Music & Cultural Industries. BTWSC’s other accredited courses are Event Planning, Music Industry Overview, African History Overview, Training For Trainers. For more info: info@btwsc.com

BLACK MUSIC CONGRESS:
March 23, 12noon-2pm: Copyright + Music Industry + Music Industry Education – 2010, Where Are We At? A free conference at Houses Of Parliament with Minister for Higher Education & Intellectual Property David Lammy MP and stakeholders covering legal, consumers, musicians, music industry and education. For more information: editor@britishblackmusic.com

June-early July: June Is British Black Music Month. BMC and partners deliver a range of events from talks, performances to education. For more info: editor@britishblackmusic.com

AKOBEN AWARDS
March 23, 6.30-8.30pm: Messrs Coleridge-Taylor & Pine at the Council Chamber, Harrow Civic Centre as part of Harrow Black History Season. A free audio-visual presentation and discussion on the lives and works of African British classical composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and jazz musician Courtney Pine. For more info: akobenawards@gmail.com

Q&A With Ekow Asante Aged 12

What is pan-Africanism? Pan-Africanism is a movement which seeks to unite all Africans in the world.

What was Ghana called before independence? Gold Coast.

Why did Kwame Nkrumah choose the name Ghana? He chose it because it used to be a great West African empire.

Name some African leaders and tell us why they are great.
Kofi Annan: He became the UN Secretary General and he helped to reduce poverty.
Nnamdi Azikiwe: he fought for Nigeria’s independence.
Nelson Mandela: he also fought for South African independence.

By Ekow Asante aged 12. Accra, Ghana

Black S/Hero - South Africa: Hamilton Naki, the unsung hero

South Africa: Hamilton Naki, the unsung hero.

Did you know that a black man, Hamilton Naki, played a major role in the first human heart transplant heart transplant in 1967, but was forced by apartheid South Africa South Africa to pretend he was just a gardener? Yet, without Naki's surgical skills, that medical breakthrough might not have happened. Tom Mbakwe reports.

Hamilton Naki had no formal training in medicine, but he is one of Africa's best-kept medical secret. Thirty-seven years after the first human transplant that propelled the South African surgeon, Christiaan Barnard Christiaan into the limelight, the truth about Naki's role in that groundbreaking operation is finally coming to light and his achievements are now the centre of several accolades.

Last year, the British daily, The Guardian, interviewed Naki and aptly summed his amazing tale thus: "Two men transplanted the first human heart. One ended up rich and famous--the other had to pretend to be a gardener." Until now!

Today, as deserved praise and tribute pile up on this unpretentious 78-year-old pensioner, his reaction is as humble as the man himself:

"I want you to know that you have made me very happy, and may God bless you for that," he said in an acceptance speech to the London-based Black S/Heroes Award (BSA) committee, which recently honoured him for his services to medicine.

The BSA is an annual award set up in 2003 by the BTWSC, a London-based voluntary organisation that encourages the development of potential through the use of the creative arts. BTWSC stems from the initials of the organisation's first project, a writing competition called "Beyond The Will Smith Challenge" that encouraged young people to write poems, songs and articles with a positive theme.

The aim of the BSA award is to honour unsung contemporary men and women of African descent (both at home and in the Diaspora), who deserve recognition for acts that are inspirational to humankind. And no better candidate deserved the 2003 award than Hamilton Naki.

While most people associate Dr Christiaan Barnard, who died two years ago with the first successful human heart transplant in 1967, the role that Naki played at the Groote Schuur in Cape Town - on that momentous day and subsequent years--was kept secret. Those who attempted to reveal his crucial role were threatened with imprisonment.

As The Guardian put it: "With as photogenic a celebrity as Barnard, the journalists and photographers who crammed into Groote Schuur Hospital had little reason to notice a figure in a white coat lurking on the fringes. Had they asked, they would have been told that Hamilton Naki was a cleaner and gardener who washed floors and swept leaves (at the Hospital). What else, after all, would a black man be doing in a research institute in apartheid South Africa?

"Nobody thought to even ask the question and it is only now, almost four decades later, that the truth has emerged. Naki was not a gardener. The employment records (at Groote Schuur Hospital) which described him thus for 50 years were a lie, a fiction to fit the edicts of a racist state.

"Naki was a surgeon--a pioneering surgeon considered by colleagues to be the most technically gifted of the entire Hospital's medical team. Without him, the transplant might never have happened," The Guardian added for good measure.

Naki's story is one that exposes not only the worst ills and dehumanising schemes of the apartheid regime, but also proves how insecure members of the white-only government were towards embracing black people who were more intelligent and better skilled than them.

Naki was not only barred from training as a doctor, but in the whites-only operating theatre where he was considered an aberration, he was initially not allowed to slice white flesh. "Nobody was to say what I was doing," Naki revealed last year. "A black person was not supposed to be doing such things. That was the law of the land."

Although forced to be invisible at Groote Schuur Groote Schuur, Naki still proved his prowess as a natural surgeon by performing laboratory experiments on animals. He went on to teach white doctors and medical students lots of things about surgery - an unusual occurrence in the apartheid era.

But despite this discrimination, Naki was Dr Barnard's obvious choice for assistant when he introduced his ambitious new open-heart surgery open-heart surgery

Any surgical procedure opening the heart and exposing one or more of its chambers, most often to repair valve disease or correct congenital heart malformations (see congenital heart disease). techniques in 1967. Yet, even Barnard would not publicly acknowledge Naki's role. It was only towards the end of his life that Barnard (who died on 2 September 2001) revealed his admiration for Naki's skill and dexterity: "He probably had more technical skill than I had," Barnard finally admitted publicly in the evening of his life.

But it was all a hush-hush affair on 3 December 1967, when Barnard performed that famous first heart transplant on the 55-year-old diabetic patient, Louis Washkansky. It was Naki who led Barnard's team of medics for the 48-hour operation that removed the accident-victim Denise Darvall's heart to be transplanted into Washkansky.

Recalls Naki: "Your hands got tired. We were exhausted." But that was not all. When the news of the transplant broke out, the world media was all over Barnard. But where was Naki? "I was called one of the backroom boys. They put the white people out front. If people published pictures of me, they would go to jail," he says.

Is he bitter? "Not at all. It was the way things were. They pretended I was a cleaner." But not any more.

Naki was born in 1926 in Ngcingane, a small village in the Eastern Cape. At the age of 14, he went to Cape Town Cape Town to look for work and was lucky to be hired by the University of Cape Town as a gardener.

In 1954, he was chosen to help Dr Robert Goetz with laboratory animals. Dr Goetz was a Jewish doctor who had left Germany for South Africa. Naki loved his work. Arriving at 6 am every morning, and no matter how far he had to travel, he almost never missed a day at work. By the early 1960s, he was slicing, stitching and using drips on the laboratory animals.

Recalling his days with Dr Goetz, Naki says: "Ooh yes. At that time there was no one else you can see, no one else willing to do that sort of work ... It was difficult work but I wanted to learn."

His colleagues admired his steady hand, and many of the surgeons who trained in Cape Town learned from him. One such surgeon was Rosemary Hickman, who told The Guardian: "Despite his limited conventional education, he had an amazing ability to learn anatomical names and recognise anomalies."

Before the BTWSC award, Naki had already received the Order of the Mapungubwe -one of the highest honours in South Africa. His exploits are now the subject of a yet-to-be made documentary (and perhaps a feature) film proposed by the South African film company, Ad Astera, under the apt title: "Hands of a forgotten Hero".

The film producer, Dirk de Villiers, who was a friend of Dr Barnard's, says Barnard tipped him off about his (Barnard's) collaboration with Naki, and his outstanding role in heart surgery. "A lot of stories have been told about Barnard, but this (Naki's) is one that has not been told," says De Villiers.

But despite his achievements, Naki now lives on the pension of a gardener.

"When I read about him and the fact that not only had official recognition been withheld from this inspirational figure, but also that he was living on a gardener's pension, I decided to do something more than commiserate,” said the BTWSC co-ordinator and co-founder of the Black S/Heroes Award (BSA), Ms Serwah. "This is why we are publicly recognising Naki."

The award and a cheque for [pounds sterling]1,000 were received on behalf of Naki by the South African acting deputy high commissioner in London, Sisa Ncwana, who said he was honoured by the award.


L-R: Asante, Wadsworth, Cllr Nana Asante-Twumasi,
Ms Serwah, Kwaku, Mrs Matilda Asante, Ncwan

"Naki is a man who participated in the great history-making event," Ncwana said. "It was a great feat indeed and we will remember him for his humility. It is with the same humility that I today receive this award--not for the South African High Commission in London, but for the people of South Africa as a whole."

Speaking at the same event, K. B. Asante, one time Ghanaian high commissioner in London, said what disadvantaged people needed was the restoration of self-confidence and hope. "It is therefore right that the BTWSC, which inspires individuals to develop their potential, should at its first annual general meeting highlight the exploits of an unsung hero."

Asante continued: "Hamilton Naki had no formal medical training. Yet, he played a leading role in the first successful human heart transplant. But apartheid South Africa did not give him any recognition because that would be contrary to the stereotyped disparaging character imposed on the African people.

In honouring him, Asante said, the BTWSC was reminding all people of African descent that they had a history in which great black men and women played heroic roles, and of which they should be proud.

"Their history is not that of meaningless gyrations of the human torso as one former Oxford professor would have us believe," Asante said. "We have men and women from whom we can take inspiration and rise to great heights. It is necessary that, as we take pride in the achievements of our sung or unsung people, we should be inspired by their vision to attain heights of self-confidence and creativity."

Naki ended his acceptance note thus: "We, the people of South Africa, will never forget the day when we saw the moon, the sun and the stars all at the same time. That is the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990. But for him, maybe I wouldn't be receiving this award today. Because of that, I dedicate this award to him and all other freedom fighters around Africa. Forward with Black S/Heroes!"

COPYRIGHT 2004 IC Publications Ltd.

Photos courtesy of BTWSC (www.btwsc.com)

RIP: Hamilton Naki (26 June 1926 – 29 May 2005)

Open Letter by The Equiano Society's Arthur Torrington To Anti-Slavery International

AN OPEN LETTER TO: ANTI-SLAVERY INTERNATIONAL
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TO
The Trustees & Directors
Anti-Slavery International
Thomas Clarkson House
The Stableyard
Broomgrove Road
LONDON, SW9 9TL 10 JUNE 2007

Dear Sir/Madam

I write about my concern that Anti-Slavery International’s (ASI) promotional material is causing misunderstanding among many people of the main issues and legacies of transatlantic enslavement. For example, one of your Fact Sheet ‘Slavery Past and Present’ has a picture showing white sailors taking black Africans below the deck of a slave ship. References to the enslavement of Africans, and British involvement are closely associated with your publicity. There is even a tendency for some White commentators to say or imply that we should not be bothering too much about the stories of the past that give details of African enslavement, but that we should be working to abolish modern slavery. I often hear this as organisations and individuals commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Abolition Act.

This is serious matter because very many African and African Caribbean youth today do not know the history and legacies of the enslavement of their ancestors. For decades the British education system has excluded such studies from the national curriculum. This year, the Government has taken action to address the issue.

I know that some Black organisations and individuals are not happy with some of Anti-Slavery International’s promotional and fundraising material, but are reluctant to write to you, because of the respect that others have for the good work that you do. But, this is done at the expenses of portraying negative images of Black people, and giving the wrong impression to British society. Your material closely associates African enslavement and modern slavery. Whereas, legacies like the consequences of colonialism, poverty in the Caribbean and Africa after 1838, racism, exclusion, racial discrimination, etc do not receive as many column inches in your publicity. You have ensured that your publicity material features more prominently throughout the bicentenary of the 1807 Abolition Act.

Slavery existed worldwide before Africans were enslaved and taken to the Caribbean and the Americas. That institution was maintained in different forms in many pre-15th century civilisations and cultures. In fact, it goes back thousands of years. But, we should not equate transatlantic enslavement conducted mainly by some Europeans with what is happening today. Your promotional and fundraising material tends to give the impression that modern slavery/trafficking has its history in transatlantic enslavement, whereas this is not really so, and may be misleading. It is evident that capitalism and human greed drive the actions of men and women who conduct slavery and trafficking today. Modern slavery, trafficking, etc are also present within Eastern European, Asian, Chinese and other nations, so why do African people almost always feature in your promotional material? Is it that the images of suffering black African people raise more money for your organisation?

I am asking Anti-Slavery International to reconsider how its promotional material is presented.

Yours faithfully

Arthur Torrington

Response To ‘Race chief may quit in row over Brown's all white Cabinet'

Dear Sir,

I read with interest the article entitled ‘Race chief may quit in row over Brown's all white Cabinet'* in the July 14th 2007 issue of the Mail newspaper.

Mr. Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Committee for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR), is alleged to have threatened to quit in protest against Prime Minister’s Gordon Brown’s over all white Cabinet. He is apparently concerned that too few ethnic minorities and women have been appointed to Mr. Brown’s Cabinet.

I am confident that Mr. Phillips is aware that although it is a positive step to have ethnic minorities represented in Cabinet, it is even more important that those appointed to Cabinet or Committees, work for, and not against the interests of any groups they might represent.

For example, the mere fact that a person of African descent is in Cabinet or on a committee, does not necessarily mean that he or she will represent the
interests of Africans. A case in point is the commemoration of the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. According to information available, there were Africans including Mr. Phillips on the Advisory Group set up to oversee the 2007 commemoration events.

Sadly, the commemoration appears to have been largely used as an opportunity to deify William Wilberforce. Worse still, the 2007 commemoration events and publicity have on the whole, wrongly portrayed Africans as a group of amorphous victims waiting to be freed by Europeans. The focus of the commemoration was not on Africans like Nana (Nanny) of the Maroons, Toussaint L'ouverture, Dessalines, Sam Sharp, Cugoana and Equiano, to name a few who fought for the freedom of enslaved Africans. The commemoration was largely focused on William Wilberforce, and gave the erroneous impression that he almost single-handedly abolished the Slave Trade, and the efforts of others, both in the UK and abroad have largely been overlooked.

The CRE had the opportunity to set the record straight, promote race equality, and empower young people of African descent during its own commemoration event, which featured Mr Philips, by focusing on the resilience of enslaved Africans who strategised and organised rebellions to free themselves and their fellow men from enslavement.

The CRE commemoration event could have focused on the likes of Queen Nzinga of Angola who fought to ensure that her people were not enslaved, relevant readings from books of African abolitionists such as Olaudah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano, or Phyllis Wheatley, would have shown how Africans used their writing to stir the conscience of the British public, and to demonstrate that Africans had intellect and were not merely passive onlookers during the Abolition process. Crucially, relevant readings from Equiano’s book would have demonstrated the difference between servitude in Africa, and chattel slavery under the slave trade, and helped dispel the myth that there was a similar kind of slavery in Africa. Sadly, the CRE missed
the opportunity.

I communicated with the CRE before their event to find out whether there would be readings from the books of African abolitionists, but I failed to get a definitive response. Nearly two months after the event, I still can not get a definitive answer as to whose readings were dramatised apart from William Wilberforce’s.

As the CRE Abolition commemoration event was put together under Mr Phillips’ watch, he could take inspiration from the adage “Charity begins at home”, and focus on ensuring that his new quango maximises its opportunities to promote race equality, which is not enhanced by failing to give prominence to the endeavours and achievements of African people.

Ms Serwah
NewAfricanPerspective

*Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-468480/Race-chief-quit-row'