Black - B r i g h t Black History Month - Special Edition
Issue 44
Who are the Pillars of Luton’s Black Community (Look inside)
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What’s Inside...? Key Features.. ISSN No. 1751-1909
Black-Bright News Registered Office Studio 57 LU2 0QG Tel: 01582 721 605 email: blackbrightnews@gmail.com
- Editorial
- Black Victorians
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
-When Did Black People Get Here?
- Forced Marriage - I’m Enraged (Letter to the Editor) Founder & Managing Editor of Award-Winning Publication Myrna Loy Logo Design: Flo Alowaja Photos taken from Google Images Front Cover: ‘Meditation Beneath the Duppy Cherry Tree’ (Courtesy of Root Magazine) www.jamaicahiddenhistories.com Graphic Design: M Loy
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A Brief History of Gospel Music - Meditations Beneath a Duppy Cherry Tree
EDITORIAL
BLACK-BRIGHT NEWS
Hello Readers: Every year Black History comes around, and every year it means something different to me. Black History Month has been highlighted more in the UK, since I came back from the States in 2001, and I remember joining a local Black History Group with Robert Nugent, Rose Davis, Patrick Markland and a few others back then. It felt great being instrumental in doing something to celebrate our blackness.
SPONSOR FORM YES! I would like to sponsor BlackBright News to support its mission against human trafficking, exploitation and other forms of abuse of power.
After that year, I didn’t really hear much about Black History Month in Luton until more recently. I mean, the event was bandied about, but no obvious local celebrations.
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10 years later, I look at Black History Month in the UK, totally differently. For me it is about educating others (especially young people) how we came here, what we have achieved while we have been here and what we are doing to create a new and better history as our legacy. It is about the ‘ordinary’ black people who are trailblazing through business, academics, sport and the arts. It is about our past meeting up with our future, which happens every day of our lives – so rather than take our achievements for granted, let us announce them to the world via Blackbright News.
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Blackbright News is here for you, in whatever capacity you want it to be. So please submit your piece to Blackbright News, send photos in of people you believe can and will impact our future; write about black business owners who have stood the test of time; academic achievers, evolving artists and successful sports enthusiasts (and when I say ‘successful’ I don’t mean in the eyes of the media, but in your eyes.. in the eyes of those that know them) in this way, we will be able to celebrate our Black History on a consistent basis.
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The next couple of editions will be hard copies and will raise awareness about Human Trafficking, Child Sexual Exploitation and Female Genital Mutilation. If you think this only happens in other parts of the world, you are mistaken – so look out for these issues, and if you want to subscribe just complete the form to it email and publication the in blackbrightnews@gmail.com.
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Black-Bright News Stimulates - Educates - Motivates
Thank you as always. The Editor.
This issue raises public awareness about Human Trafficking
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What is Our History? slavery in Britain itself, and an encouragement to Black people and to abolitionist campaigners. The abolition of slavery was confirmed in 1806 by an Act of Parliament.
The Black Victorians THE HISTORY OF BLACK PEOPLE IN BRITAIN certainly goes back a long way - well before the reign of Queen Victoria. There were Black people in Britain in Roman times, and there has been a continuous Black presence here since 1555. For Shakespeare’s London audiences, Black faces would have been a familiar sight.
As the 18th century drew to a close, Britain’s Black population was well established, breaking free from slavery - but usually very poor, sometimes destitute. The first-generation immigrants were overwhelmingly male, supplemented by arrivals of Black sailors, plus 4,000 Black refugees who had fought for George III against the American Revolution. Black people integrated and intermarried into poor white urban populations, and entered the nineteenth century sharing in the misery and historical anonymity of the British poor.
The eighteenth century saw a great expansion in Britain’s Black population. After the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713, British slavers dominated the infamous Atlantic slave trade. Some slaves were landed and sold at London, Liverpool or Bristol, but many Black people were brought as domestic servants by returning sea-captains, colonial administrators and plantation owners. For the English aristocracy and the newly rich, a Black page or handmaiden was an asset to be shown off as evidence of exotic wealth, so in the 18th century Black people were ironically more evident in the art and writing of the time than they were to be in the early Victorian period. By the 1760s, the Black population had grown to somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000; Granville Sharp estimated the number of black servants in London alone at 20,000, in a city of 676,250 people. Many had attained freedom - or run away from their masters. In 1772, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield’s historic decision in the case of runaway John Somerset ruled that a slave could not be deported from Britain against his or her will. This was the beginning of the end of
www.victoriaspast.com http://kwekudeetripdownmemorylane.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/s arah-forbes-bonetta-davies-african.html
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Submitting Your Story...
Who is Black-Bright For?
We welcome ideas for content and contributions from our subscribers and readers. Below are some guidelines to help you identify and supply material which fits with our editorial policy:
Black-Bright is for anyone with an interest in what impacts the life of the under-represented, exploited, stereotyped, abused and disadvantaged.
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Black-Bright exists to showcase what Blackbright Community Services Ltd (BBCS4Luton), along with its partners are doing to raise awareness about unfair treatment. It also offers a forum for the exchange of information; practical information and advice to facilitate growth in understanding. Black-Bright offers a unique platform for advertisers to communicate with organisations that have a common remit. It has a readership of just under 12,000, is published quarterly in January, April, July and October, and is issued to all organisations that advocate against the violation of human rights (including modern slavery, exploited migrants and abuse of power, resulting in death in custody).
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Black-Bright is the independent voice and business network for the under-represented, exploited and disadvantaged persons in Luton. The editiorial content is designed to inform, stimulate, educate and inspire. It has a clear purpose to engender a sense of community spirit as well as provide valuable learning and insights to atrocities that happen both locally and globally.
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7. Don’t worry if writing is not your forte If you have a good idea, contact us. If we like it, you don’t necessarily have to write it up into an editorial conribution yourself. We can interview you over the phone or take bullet-pointed information and create the contribution ourselves.
Black Victorians
When did Black People Get here? Black people have lived in Britain for many centuries, certainly from the times of the Roman invasions and perhaps before. Until immigration following the Second World War, and they did not live in separate communities. These factors mean that their history in Britain has largely been subsumed in wider studies of racial prejudice, the British slave trade, slavery itself or abolition, on which a great deal has been written. There seem to be three distinct phases in writing about the history of Black people in Britain: the first covered the period up to the 1960s, the second the 30-odd years up to the 1990s and the last from that time up to the present day.
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M. Dorothy George seems to have been the first modern historian to mention the presence of Black people in London in the 18th century. London Life in the Eighteenth Century (London,1925) contained six pages on the subject. There seems to be no other scholarly works dealing with Black people in Britain until 1948, when Kenneth Little became the first to look at the history of Black people in Britain as a distinct group. There is a chapter containing a brief history of Black people in Britain from 1600 AD to 1948, which contained a section on the development of English racial attitudes. He seems to be the first to explore the
development of racial prejudice The history of black people in Britain certainly goes back a long way - well before the reign of Queen Victoria. There were Black people in Britain in Roman times, and there has been a continuous Black presence here since 1555. For Shakespeare’s London audiences, black faces would have been a familiar sight. The eighteenth century saw a great expansion in Britain’s Black population. After the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713, British slavers dominated the infamous Atlantic slave trade. Some slaves were landed and sold at London, Liverpool or Bristol, but many Black people were brought as domestic servants by returning sea captains, colonial administrators and plantation owners. For the English aristocracy and the newly rich, a Black page or handmaiden was an asset to be shown off as evidence of exotic wealth, so in the 18th century Black people were ironically more evident in the art and writing of the time than they were to be in the early Victorian period.
DID YOU KNOW? 1. The human race is of African origin. The oldest known skeletal remains of anatomically modern humans (or homo sapiens sapiens) were excavated at sites in East Africa. Human remains were discovered at Omo in Ethiopia that were dated at 195,000 years old, the oldest known in the world. 2. Skeletons of pre-humans have been found in Africa that date back between 4 and 5 million years. The oldest known ancestral type of humanity is thought to have been the australopithecus ramidus, who lived at least 4.4 million years ago.
By the 1760s, the Black population had grown to somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000; Granville Sharp estimated the number of black servants in London alone at 20,000, in a city of 676,250 people. Many had attained freedom - or run away from their masters. In 1772, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield’s historic decision in the case of runaway John Somerset ruled that a slave could not be deported from Britain against his or her will. This was the beginning of the end of slavery in Britain itself, and an encouragement to Black people and to abolitionist campaigners. The abolition of slavery was confirmed in 1806 by an Act of Parliament. As the 18th century drew to a close, Britain’s Black population was well established, breaking free from slavery - but usually very poor, sometimes destitute. The first-generation immigrants were overwhelmingly male, supplemented by arrivals of Black sailors, plus 4,000 Black refugees who had fought for George III against the American Revolution. Black
3. Africans were the first to organise fishing expeditions 90,000 years ago. At Katanda, a region in northeastern Zaïre (now Congo), was recovered a finely wrought series of harpoon points, all elaborately polished and barbed. Also uncovered was a tool, equally well crafted, believed to be a dagger. The discoveries suggested the existence of an early aquatic or fishing based culture.
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Image above is from- Birmingham University
people integrated and intermarried into poor white urban populations, and entered the nineteenth century sharing in the misery and historical anonymity of the British poor.
In his book “Staying Power: the history of Black People in Britain” Peter Fryer gives an extensive profile of the lives of four black people who played an important part in British public life in the nineteenth century:
Research efforts during the early nineteenth century, based on documented details of ‘prisoners’ transported to Tasmania. The Maritime trade continued to bring an influx of Somali and other African sailors to London, Liverpool, and Bristol. From 1840s owards, the Bute Town area of Cardiff gained a similar population who worked around the docks as the South Wales coal trade flourished. This trend continued throughout the 19th century. From 1870, a Somali and Yemni community developed in South Shields in County Durham, in a dockside area known as ‘Arab Quarter’.
William Cuffay (1788 – 1870) – a labour leader and prominent activist in the Chartist movement who was convicted of insurrection and transported to Tasmania. Mary Seacole (1805 – 1881) – the Jamaican-born nursing heroine of the Crimean War. Ira Aldridge (1807 – 1867) – the American born actor, who rose to fame on the British stage. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (18751912), born in Croydon, a composer who wove Black musical themes into the classical repertoire much as Dvorak did for Czech folk music
The most visible black people in Victorian society were performers . The Fisk Jubilee Singers, Black American Students, who toured in Britain 18741875 to raise money for Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Source: Extracted and adapted from Kathleen Chater’s Black British History, Images of Black Victorians http://www.casbah.ac.uk/cats/archive/235/MHPAA0002. htm
Black people also made their presence felt in academia and the church. William Wells Brown, visiting England in 1852 noted that one could encounter a dozen black college students within an hour’s walk in central London. African clergy came to Britain for theological training, chiefly under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society.
Black Victorians
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FACT Africans pioneered basic arithmetic 25,000 years ago. The Ishango bone is a tool handle with notches carved into it found in the Ishango region of Zaïre (now called Congo) near Lake Edward. The bone tool was originally thought to have been over 8,000 years old, but a more sensitive recent dating has given dates of 25,000 years old. On the tool are 3 rows of notches. Row 1 shows three notches carved next to six, four carved next to eight, ten carved next to two fives and finally a seven. The 3 and 6, 4 and 8, and 10 and 5, represent the process of doubling. Row 2 shows eleven notches carved next to twenty-one notches, and nineteen notches carved next to nine notches. This represents 10 + 1, 20 + 1, 20 - 1 and 10 - 1. Finally, Row 3 shows eleven notches, thirteen notches, seventeen notches and nineteen notches. 11, 13, 17 and 19 are the prime numbers between 10 and 20.
STOP
HUMAN TRAFFICKING (Sectors of Labour Trafficking)
Source: www.blackhistorystudies.com 9
Day laborers Rice mills Fisheries Services Forced marriages Surrogacy Child soldiers Beggars/porters Child athletes Organ donations
FURIOUS WITH YOUR ARTICLE ON FORCED MARRIAGE! Dear Editor,
Origins & History of Gospel Music "Gospel is first and foremost a direct descendent of spirituals. What Thomas Dorsey and his friends kept as the defining attributes of gospel music the call-and-response format, ample room for improvisation, rhythm, frequent use of the flatted seventh and third in melodies - remain true even today. The elements introduced by later musical forms, such as close harmonies (barbershop quartets), a sense of professionalism (jubilee quartets), showmanship (minstrelsy), the regular use of an aab rhyming scheme, and a pronounce beat (the blues) all endure, but are tacked on the spine of the original spirituals, which are for the most part irrevocably linked to their African forebears". Some people would say gospel music is any religious song, however scholars would interpret the term as referring to music that is written and performed to express either a personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as (in terms of the varying music styles) to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music. 10
Regarding your article on forced marriage, I don’t like it because there is a prejudiced, biased underlying theme. Due to the common stereotype of forced marriage being the epitome of Asian culture, I thought the purpose of BlackBright News was to challenge and awaken peoples’ consciousness on any stereotypes they may hold, and I feel as though this article reinforced that stereotype. Had the article been an informative piece such as ‘arranged marriages are x, forced marriages are y’, it would have created a different experience for the reader, though this was not the case. The original writer tries to do this in the beginning but it is clear to me, through the way they describe certain scenarios that they don’t have a sound understanding of the different marriage processes. “An arranged marriage is where the parents… arrange a suitor”. This is too general; anyone can arrange a suitor. Traditionally in certain cultures, the parents put forth their recommendations as they are the ones responsible for their child, but a potential spouse doesn’t necessarily always have to come from them. “..Their child has some input.”
Correction, their child has all the input. The entire marriage rests on whether the child says yes or no. Let me be clear, I am not criticising the writer for not possessing a sound understanding of the different marriage processes. What I am criticising is that they wrote on a topic that they have no real knowledge. Lacking knowledge is one thing but to then spread prejudice by writing about it, is another. There are many, many cultures that practice forced marriages, so the fact that the writer singles out Asians for practising it doesn’t necessarily offend me because they are perhaps trying to make this issue relevant to the reader. The Asian community probably practice forced marriages more than any other ethnic minority group in the UK, so maybe that’s why the writer focusses on them. Yet in doing so, the writer does not appear to empathise with the Asian culture. When dealing with another culture, it is absolutely crucial to look at things from that culture’s perspective – if this primary factor is not taken into consideration, one will automatically become biased and develop a sense of ethnocentrism. This writer is eurocentric and is essentially looking down on the Asian culture. “Forced marriages impact children aged 16-25 years old”. If taken out of cultural context, to the average Westerner ’16-25’ sounds a young age to get married, so it makes the whole situation seem even worse. As mentioned, one cannot comment on another culture unless they see things from that cultures’ perspective. For traditional Asians 16-25 is a normal age to get married. The writer seems to follow subconscious guidelines of what is deemed ‘sensible marriage’ in their culture (16 being too young) and is comparing is to Asian norms and is being implicitly critical. If not, then why was age even mentioned? Or more specifically, that “84% are under 25”. There are no other statistics such as different ethnicities or gender of all the victims. Why age? Because Asians traditionally get married off younger and this ‘abnormal’ practice perfectly fits in with another horror of forced marriage – that the victim is stripped of their youth. On the contrary, age plays no role in forced marriages. If it were any other type of Asian marriage, the statistics would probably be 84% too because that 16-25 age bracket for marriage is the cultural norm. 11
are either decided or conducted collectively as a group. So instead of taking care of one’s own self (individualist) it is deemed more important to take care of fellow members. The people who call the shots, so to speak, are those who are seen as important members of the group and therefore possess power (e.g. parents, teachers, etc.) which thus creates power relations and these people are to be respected at all times. Over here it’s ‘cool’ to answer back to the teacher; it’s ‘cool’ to be rebellious, however, in an Indian classroom for example, answering back/being rude to the teacher is seen as something extremely dishonourable. A teacher is to be respected like a mother.
An prominent misconception in both the original and improved article is the notion that forced marriages, mainly or only affect girls. That is so untrue. For every girl who is forced into marriage, there is usually a boy getting forced alongside her. Think about it, if she’s not in love with him, why would he possibly be in love with her? The mainstream media intentionally focusses on the female side of the story for a very special reason – and that is because in doing so, it further promotes the Asian culture to be backward, oppressive and misogynistic.
Speaking of parents (I don’t know if you’ve noticed this) but Asians children generally tend to do as they are told and rarely answer back to their parents. In a traditional household, to answer back/be rude/disobey one’s parents is deemed an extremely disrespectful and shameful act. Elders are always to be respected, even when they are in the wrong (such as the case with force marriage).
The British mainstream media often depict Asian men as chauvinistic bullies, who use intimidation and other scare/guilt tactics to keep their women on a leash. The media do this by producing articles/shows which illustrate grizzly Asian men and oppressed, timid Asian women who desire to be ‘freed’. All I can say is that there are plenty of ‘free’ Asian women, so if it were really that bad, would there not be an ‘honour killing’ everyday? In short, the media lies. But they don’t lie by simply ‘lying’…no! no! no! They lie by taking something particular with something else particular, so you put the two and two together and you come to that conclusion.
This ties in with what Western academics refer to as the concept of ‘face’ or status. When an Asian adolescent is disobedient, not only does this upset the parent greatly, but the parent also ‘looks bad’ (loses ‘face’) in front of other Asian parents because the other parents will be critical of them for producing a child who did the most absolute, unthinkable crime (i.e. broke the Golden Rule.) So in essence, that is a brief summary of how having a rebellious child generally brings ‘shame’ on the family because it makes both the parent and the child lose face, which in turn makes the whole family lose face. I suppose with all the time, effort and hard work that goes into raising a child, to give the parents, respect and obedience is the least a child can do.
The point I am to make is that forced marriag e has little to do with male chauvinism – as the article implies. The media have misled non-Asians to believe that every Asian crime committed against a woman is due to misogyny, it’s not! The media hardly mention how forced marriages affect men as well, because the Asian culture has already been written off as a backward and maledriven one. The truth is, forced marriages occur in the Asian culture because of power relations and the unconditional respect the child has for their parent. (This goes back to ‘seeing things from the others’ perspective’.) The Asian culture is collectivist and most things
Although, unfortunately, Forced Marriage exists, forced marriages are not as common as they once were, and it is not only important for us to support the victims, but also equally important
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DO YOU RECOGNISE THESE FACES?
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collection of artefacts, oral histories, paintings and photographs, providing a cultural reference for the latest generation of British Jamaicans. Lorna Holder, managing director of Full Spectrum Productions, said: “By identifying and seeking out hidden histories of Jamaican contributions to the culture and economy of Britain, this project will establish a legacy that future generations can explore and expand upon.” The collection will go on display at the Oxo Gallery, in Southwark, before touring New Art Exchange, in Nottingham, and The Drum, in Birmingham, in 2015. Sue Bowers, head of Heritage Lottery Fund London, said: “This fascinating project will unearth valuable information about the history of Jamaicans living in London, and across the UK, whilst bringing alive our understanding of five decades of their influence on British culture. It will give many opportunities for people of all ages to get involved, helping to preserve stories of this distinctive cultural identity for the future.”
Jermaine Haughton, Voice Writer JAMAICA’S INFLUENCE on Britain’s culture and economy will be explored and celebrated as part of a quarter of a million pound project. The two-year ‘Hidden Histories’ initiative, based in Camden, north London, will trace the history of the Caribbean island and examine how it has added to the UK’s language, music, education, and cuisine.
Across high schools The project’s findings will be used in secondary schools in the London boroughs of large Jamaican populations - Brent, Camden, Lambeth and Southwark - to inform subjects on the national curriculum.
It has been backed by a £254,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project will culminate in an exhibition - organised by Full Spectrum Productions - charting the history of Jamaica from as far back as Oliver Cromwell’s capture of the island from the Spaniards in 1655, through to the development of Jamaican communities in Britain’s major cities following the arrival of the Windrush in 1948. Visitors will be able to explore the hidden histories of Jamaica and Britain through a rare
For example, pupils will learn about the contributions of Jamaican sculptor Fowokan George Kelly to art and design in the UK, in particular how his piece ‘Meditations Beneath Duppy Cherry Tree’ explored the nature of myths and legends. 14
DO YOU REGOGNISE THE FACES ON PAGE 13? (If not, Google their names and read about the influence they had on our history. 1. David Buffini 2. John Hanson 3. David Ajayi 4. Dr Solomon Fuller 5. Patricia Batha 6. Macon Bollen Allen 7. Daniel Williams 8. Rebecca Lee Crumpler 9. Charlotte Ray 10. Bessie Coleman
WHO ARE THE PILLARS OF LUTON’S BLACK COMMUNITY? Please Write in and Let us Know!
AKEBA
Prosperity & Success
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