Black History themes and ideas for future items
We plan for the Black History Lunchtime Lecture Series to roll on throughout the year, working in partnership with a range of historians, researchers and organisations in UK and other countries.
Our aim is to explore ways to tell aspects of our shared histories in a simple and accessible way, with links to resources for further research and study.
We are particularly interested in research into stories being udertaken by community researchers, connecting our shared history with local people or local stories.
The order and content of the sessions will be presented in a 'magazine style' and will be subject to change and in the following weeks, but sessions are planned to cover aspects on the following themes - with lead researchers or organisations:
Livingstone and Stanley: looking at roles of Africans supporting European explorers and other perspectives on the ‘Scramble for Africa’ - Belong Nottingham colleagues, Norbert and Chief Thomas, and Richard Mulinda
Ongoing challenges: history of DRC and Ugandan links with the UK - Norbert and colleagues
Scotland and Slavery - David Alston and Richard Anderson
Wales and the Slave Trade - Prof Chris Evans and Learning Links International
The Pennants Story - LLI and Caroline Sansome
England and the Slave Trade ???
Windrush - following the story - Levi's father: Daniel Lawrence
Stories of the so-called 'Windrush Generation' Jim Thakoordin and Learning Links International
The history and legacy of indentured Indian (and other Asian) labour and post emancipation challenges
Pre-colonial African history - Prof Sati and Abu Bakr Madden-Al Shabaz
Learning from African and Caribbean Historians - led by Prof Sati Fwatshak and colleagues from UWI
Teaching Black History - Prof Charlotte Williams
Colonial History - "owning our own madness" Dr Hilary Robertson Hickling
Early Black Presence in Wales and Britain - Belong Nottingham, Learning Links International and Miranda Kauffman
The impact of Rastafari in Britain and around the world, and the story of Emperor Haile Selassie’s UK stay and visits around UK Yasus Afari, Rastafari Heritage and Jamaican Heritage Links / Learning Links International and Joseph
Aboriginal Rights and the impact of Colonisation, and Welsh Plantation owners in Australia NAIDOC Week in June
Black Languages: Respect and recognition for Caribbean and African Languages - Dr Morgan Dalphinis and LLI
Challenging Racism - recognising importance of statues to tell the story - Prof Sir Geoff Palmer
The importance of textiles - Cotton and Wool - in world trade and the slave trade - Belong Nottingham and LLI
African American Abolitionists - Prof Chris Evans and NWAS and LLI
Historians and Authors from Africa, US, UK and the Caribbean - Prof Sati and UWI rep
Notes below to remind us of ideas and other suggestions
TEXTILE - Cloth and Culture - Silk, Cotton, Wool and Bark Cloth
Publishes research in textiles, cloth, and raw materials with their social, personal and cultural meanings in material history and visual culture worldwide.
Interesting stories
'In this article, the photographic artist Joy Gregory reflects on the discovery of the uncataloged archives of couturier Trevor Owen and the 2013 Artists’ Residency that took place at the Beach House, Owen’s home and atelier in Reading, Jamaica.
In 2005, five miles down the coast from Montego Bay, Derek Bishton and his wife Merrise purchased a small beach house retreat in Reading. They discovered among the things left in the property, a store room filled with dressmaking materials: row upon row of stiff patterns hanging from the ceiling, bundles of material, boxes of buttons, and numerous jars of odds and ends, along with several portfolios of designs, newspaper clippings, address books, and notebooks with measurements of former clients. The story of Owen’s 30-year career, the societies in which he moved, the company that he kept and his occupation of a property that was once part of the Tate & Lyle sugar plantation, also unravels the story of Jamaica’s colonial past, that is, the uneven relationship between the island and Europe.
Absent from European and American fashion histories, Owen is recognized in Jamaica as the couturier who dressed wealthy local residents and tourists from Kingston, the wider Caribbean, the USA, and Europe, jet-setters who populated the Montego Bay strip in its hey-day during the 1950s. He is a major figure in Jamaica’s post-Independence fashion industry. This timely article, illustrated primarily by Gregory’s photographs, highlights and responds to his legacy.'
Penrhyn Castle - Caroline Sansome
Black Sailors:
Black Sailors: https://www.facebook.com/pplscollection/
UNESCO History of Africa project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qekYtLVi9Fo
The Great City of Benin
Levi Lawrence and brother Neil: re Windrush and father Neil Lawrence
Miranda Kauffman - Black Tudors
Marie Claire ???? Congolese links
Pauline - Stanleys Wife
Abu Bakr Madden
Faces of Africa: Haile Selassie, the pillar of a Modern Ethiopia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9xN6DeZWDI
'Rastafari - Jamaica's Gift to the World'
This title is taken from Yasus Afari's book 'Overstanding Rstafari - Jamaica's gift to the world'
'My research is primarily focused on Rastafari theology. During my MPhil research I explored Rastafari dietary practices in Jamaica and the UK through ethnographic fieldwork, whereas my PhD work examines Rastafari environmental theology through fieldwork in the UK, St. Lucia and New Zealand.'
Joseph Powell ?? Rastafari?
One More Voice project, which is a continuation of the Livingstone Online project, and is covering the stories of all the African companions on British explorations. Only issue for that one is time, as he is based in central USA.
Jamaican Dr Joseph Farquason
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20191007/theres-money-jcan-patois-say-linguists