Mojatu Magazine Nottingham M038

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UK Drill Music Lessons & Actions

BLM Views & Actions Pg 4 – 13

Walking or running What’s Better?

Our Covid-19 work

Photos & stories Pg 19 – 38

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Editor’s Welcome During most difficult times of the lockdown, Mojatu Foundation, Fearless Youth Association (FYA), Inspire to Succeed and our other partners have ben reaching families and people who were desperately in need. Our colleagues and volunteers having been distributing food and other provisions to vulnerable and underprivileged persons within the city of Nottingham. We were able to help hundreds of families from different walks of life in the midst of uncertainties and high risks of contracting the virus just to a smile on their faces and lower the amount of stress and isolation.

During the month of Ramadan, we provided “Iftar” (evening meals) to the Muslim community. Ramadan is a month of sharing and caring and with the lockdown, many worshippers were unable to access some basic needs as a result of unemployment, mobility and income. Regular weekend meals were prepared and delivered to the doorsteps of those fasting. Refugees and other minority groups were also targeted during the charity distribution.

All of the efforts would not have been possible without our generous partners. Tesco continues to be a leading philanthropist and their efforts have been phenomenal. We would also like to thank all those who have contributed either in cash or kind during this difficult time in feeding other families.

Profound thanks and gratitude go out to the staff of the mentioned organisations and volunteers for without your commitment and dedication, we would not have achieved much. Please continue to stay safe and keep the social distancing while we weather through the storm of COVID-19.

HAKUNA MATATA Managing editor Pa@mojatu.com

Editorial Group Editor: Frank Kamau – frank@mojatu.com Managing Editor: Pa Modou Faal Graphic Design / Photos: Robert Borbely Contributors: Pa Modou Faal | Angela Wathoni | Natalie Fahy | Allissa V.Richardson | Disability Rights UK | Natalie Fahy | Jaya Gordon-Moore | Christopher Morgan | Laura McCartan | Elder Andrew Singo | Cecily Mwaniki | Salome Njogu | Annice Thomas | Edrissa Touray | Wendy Olayiwola | Marcelle Mateki Akita | Jane Chertoff | Christina Marie Noel Sales & Marketing / Community Engagement: Abdoulie Jah - jah@mojatu.com Kevin Price - kevin.price@mojatu.com

Contents Black Lives Matter What we can learn from UK Drill Music.................. 4-5 Black Lives Matter Gaining Momentum................. 6-7

Community Refugee Week 2020.........................................................14 Marriage is God-Ordained for Life....................... 15-17 Our Covid-19 Work 596 Meals for Ramadhan ....................................... 19-21 Quotes from our volunteers ................................. 22-23 The WE in Pandemic .......................................................26 Staying Safe and healthy ..............................................28 Impact of Covid 19 among BAME ...................... 31-33

Arts & Culture Six lockdown books.........................................................38

Health & Food Mental Health Awareness Week..................................39 Walking or running................................................... 40-41

Business & Finance Covid 19 is devastating Somalia Remmittance ....42

Education & Career White Priviledge Against Black............................. 44-45

Cover

Jaya Gordon Moore

Mojatu Media Disclaimer The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publishers. Every effort has been made to ensure that the contents of this magazine are accurate but the publisher cannot take responsibility for errors, omissions, nor can we accept responsibility for the advertisements or editorial contributions.

Edwin Ubah - eddy@mojatu.com Accounts: John Gordon - accounts@mojatu.com Admin: Penny Cooper - penny@mojatu.com News & Comments: news@mojatu.com Getting the magazine Online @ www.mojatu.com/magazines Subscription @ £24 per year including postage subs@mojatu.com Address: Mojatu 167 Alfreton Road, Nottingham, NG7 3JR T: 0115 8457 009 | 0751 6962 992 Facebook: www.facebook.com/mojatu Twitter: www.twitter.com/mojatumedia Printers: Mojatu Media

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Black Lives Matter

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WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM UK DRILL MUSIC ABOUT BRITAIN’S RACIAL DIVIDE? By Jaya Gordon-Moore Writing in the early 1900’s, Sociologist W.E.B Du Bois suggested that the problem in the 20th Century was ‘the problem of the color line’, arguing that although black people had been freed from slavery, they were still held back by ongoing economic, social and political exclusion that continued racial conflict. Fast forward to today in the UK, and we can see the same issue is still prevalent.

UK Drill Music is infamously known in British media as the epitome of the ‘black on black knife crime and gang violence problem’ in the UK. What many of these critiques fail to point out is what rapper Headie One expresses quite frankly in his 2018 single, Of Course ‘I’m a product of my environment… So my music course it’s violent’. Is Drill’s nihilistic, violent, and raw themes really able to glorify criminal activity if it is the reality of their experiences? By just googling UK Drill music, you are bombarded with images of young black males, hoods up, faces usually covered, standing in a group in a gritty urban location. The one thing that these images fail to show, is the longstanding racial socioeconomic inequality that impacts young black people from deprived areas in Britain the most. To be black in Britain, you are faced with both a lack of social and economic opportunities.

Neoliberalism (best defined as a modification of liberalism based on free market capitalism) has been the forefront of modern British politics, encouraging the privatisation and deregulation of public services, marketisation of public schools through league tables, and fierce austerity cuts, leading to the closure of thousands of youth clubs, libraries, and children centres across the UK. All of this has had a disproportionate impact on socioeconomically deprived young people from BAME backgrounds, who are one of the most excluded and deprived groups in Britain.

A recent UN report (2019) showed that due to hostile immigration policies and austerity racially motivated hate crime, racial profiling and socio-economic inequalities have rose across BAME communities in the UK, ‘reinforcing racial subordination’. Austerity measures have reduced living standards in black and Asian households by around 11%. Furthermore, black men are more likely to be unemployed, and subject to crime and poverty. This all becomes part of a spiral that is almost impossible to break out of, as black youth find it harder and harder to climb up the social ladder, excluding them from authentic representation across employment, public services, and other institutions.

‘Bro wanna make some money, there’s no job there to help him out… They don’t wanna help him out, so he hit the trap and he’s in jail now… Guy just tryna survive, make sure that God put food in their mouth’ – Skengdo, From South Looking into the lyrics of Drill songs, we can see this subordination, ‘there’s no job there… just tryna survive’. Here Skengdo expresses the pressure that forces young black people into illegitimate lifestyles.

With more privatisation, Britain has become more individualised, encouraging self-reliance and less state intervention, and so dependency has been defined as failure. Individuals like these young black males in impoverished environments feel they have no choice but to turn to illegitimate means to make money. This Is no surprise considering in 2015, 1 in 8 of the working age population were from a BAME background - yet BAME individuals only make up 10% of the workforce and hold only 6% of top management positions in the UK. How are they meant to believe they can reach these positions and break out of their current situations if they do not see anyone like themselves there?

Whilst austerity cuts have impacted BAME groups more, they have been simultaneously disproportionately targeted by the Criminal Justice System. Young black men are more likely to be stopped and searched than any other ethnic group. Dating back to colonialism, black men have always been misrepresented in the western imagination as wild, criminal and animalistic, justifying the mass exploitation and discrimination of black people across centuries. This continued into popular culture and media through racially charged anti-black images such as blackface. Ethnic signifiers become a dominant means for us to make cognitive assumptions about eachother in which we frame and interpret our experience, continuing to determine the value and status of young black males.

Various media channels tend to pathologize knife crime and gang violence, labelling it as a black problem. As we are in a society that has always misrepresented what it means to be black, it is hard not to dismiss the surface level critiques of UK Drill music by popular media channels. We must tell the full story.

Hip Hop is a great example of a black music genre in the past that rose during the US Reagan era (19811989), a neoliberal agenda that enforced less state interventions through the reduction of welfare

Nottingham connected services, defining them as the root of the issue. As a consequence, working class African Americans continued to experience persistent poverty. Reduced funding across schools and child services increased destitution in ghettos the growth of Black and Latino gang power. Hip Hop became an outlet and tool for street gangs to compete creatively instead of violently.

Hip Hop, like Blues music, was the ‘voice of the alienated and oppressed’, as Afrocentricity was established as a central theme in Hip Hop, focusing on the history and struggle of black lives.

However like lots of other aspects of black culture, once commodified, Hip Hop became known as less of a cultural practice, and more about cars, women, parties, and crime. On the one hand commentators argue the genre is distasteful, indulging in the hypersexualisation and objectification of women, corrupting young people’s morals and values. Others argue that the sound is a reflection of what its really like to grow up in impoverished neighbourhoods as black in the USA, a form of empowerment and a place for the black experience to be voiced to evoke change. Some go as far to call Hip Hop, like the civil rights movement, as an embodiment of the protest aesthetic, pointing out several events in its past where rappers have fought for political justice such as The Million Man March. However, many of these ventures have been left out of the limelight.

With this in mind, we can see that UK Drill music has had similar publicity. The genre has been targeted as a moral panic, dismissing structural and root causes of knife crime and gang violence, scapegoating young black artists, echoing previous moral panics around black people throughout history. For example, in the 1970’s when mugging in the UK became synonymous with black youth, racializing crime by exclusively targeting them. After various stabbings and shootings linked to UK Drill, the criminal justice system introduced several strategies to tackle the genre. For example, Drill duo Skengdo X AM were sentenced to 9 months in prison and suspended for two years for breaching an order that prohibited them from performing specific songs. In one interview successful rap duo Krept and Konan argue that outlawing the music will only force people back into criminality, ‘before music, there was just jails, gangs, and getting arrested’.

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‘Stereotyping… we all know he can’t stand my blackness… No they can’t stand my blackness, see a black yute and they all think stabbings. You don’t even know this guy, he wears a tracksuit so you think he’s rapping, I got 9 months suspended for rapping, still can’t believe that happened’ – Skengdo, From South

But does UK Drill music have the same potential to elevate change by being a platform for black youth to voice their struggle? The genre Is still very new and so relatively difficult to tell. But with the right emphasis, and the right approach, the genre undoubtedly has positive potential. In order for these artists to break out of the cycle, they need pathways and opportunities.

The pressures of living in impoverished environments can lead to feelings of hopelessness, stress and anxiety, contributing significantly to poor mental wellbeing. It is really important that we do not deter these artists from expressing themselves. Creating music allows them not only works therapeutically in helping youth to share their story, but also offers them the potential of a music career. Countless young black musician in the UK have managed to transform their lives through their talent – many have even helped improve their childhood neighbourhoods and communities with their claim to fame too. Such as world-wide successful Grime artist from Croydon Stormzy, who after the recent Black Lives Matter Movement across the world has recently pledged £10 million over the next ten years to UK organisations, charities and movements that fight racial inequality, just reform and black empowerment.

Although this is only part of the picture of the racial divide in the UK Drill music is a useful tool in several ways. Not only is it giving artists a voice, a sense of empowerment, but giving policymakers, youth services, and other institutions and organisations an insight into the level of discontent and the thoughts and feelings of black youth today. The genre has become extremely popular in the last two years, as UK Drill songs have managed to reach the official UK Charts. There is clearly a market and an interest in this subculture. Instead of criminalising it, widening the gap of understanding between young people and the rest of society, we need to work to understand it. As stated, before we must tell the full story. And to do so, we must look deeper into the phenomenon.

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Black Lives Matter

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BLACK LIVES MATTER GAINING MOMENTUM

Following unprecedented protests worldwide in support of the struggle by black and brown people, the demand for the toppling of structural, institutional and personal racism, marginalisation, police brutality and any form of identity as in statues depicting supporters or perpetrators of horror and pain through slavery, colonialism among other forms of crime against the black and brown race, have been the backbone of political, racial and social discourses.

Recent acts of Police brutality in the US leading to the death of George Floyd in the hands of the police, have sparked a chain of demonstrations spearheaded

by Black and Brown, and some White civil rights activists calling for an end to an unfair and uneven system marred by racial deprivation and profiling, injustice and rogue societies where people of colour are underprivileged. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is gaining momentum and received significant support from all races across the globe. The month of June has registered massive protests within the US and Europe where statues celebrating slave traders, racist and oppressors have been targeted; some brought down. London and Bristol have been the centre of attention during the BLM protest in England.

In London confrontation between the police and protesters ensued while police in Bristol stood by and watch protesters bringing down the statue of Edward Colston. Here are some of the most prominent statues that have so far been brought down or targeted: Edward Colston The first statue to fall was the one depicting the known slave-trader Edward Colston in Bristol, a man responsible for the kidnapping of over 84,000 African men, women and children. He ran a company that enslaved Africans in UK and the Americas. He was also responsible for the deaths of over 19,000 Africans who were thrown from the cargo to the sea. On Sunday June 7th, Black Lives Matter protestors toppled the

statue before rolling it into the canal. A petition to remove it had garnered more than 11,000 signatures but to no avail. It is argued that the likes of Colston who benefited immensely from the enslavement of Africans do not deserve the honour of a statue. This should be reserved for those who bring about positive change and who fight for peace, equality and social unity. The Bristol West MP, Thangam Debbonaire, said the city should not be honouring people who benefited from slavery while Bristol mayor, Marvin Rees, said though the removal of the Colston Statue will bring diverse opinion, as the statue itself has done for many years, it is however important to listen to those who found the statue to represent an affront to humanity.

Robert Baden-Powell

The statue of the founder of the Scouts Robert Baden-Powell has been targeted by protesters for removal. Baden-Powell was a staunch supporter of Hitler with fascist beliefs. According to a former Bournemouth parliamentary candidate, he was quite a strong, outspoken racist. Baden-Powell was said to have contributed in many atrocities against black African among which include the hanging of Africans in 1890s in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. A photo of the hanging of Zimbabweans was prized by British officer in 'Rhodesia', then Zimbabwe, Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the 'Boy Scouts' and 'Girl Guides', that he kept in a scrapbook entitling it 'The Christmas Tree'. To ensure the same fate doesn’t meet some of the statues in the capital, London mayor Sadiq Khan has already removed one statue depicting a slave trader.

In London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals have confirmed that they will take down two statues linked to slavery in response to the protests. Their statues are of hospital founder Thomas Guy, who had shares in the South Sea Company which was involved with the

Nottingham connected slave trade, and Robert Clayton who was president of the hospital in the 1600s and was connected to the Royal African Company, which transported slaves across the Atlantic Ocean. The Guy’s and Thomas’ NHS Foundation and King’s College issued a joint statement saying they recognise the public hurt and anger that is generated by the symbolism of public statues of historical figures associated with the slave trade in some way and they have therefore decided to remove statues of Robert Clayton and Thomas Guy from public view. The statement further stressed that they have a duty to address the legacy of colonialism, racism and slavery in their work.

There have also been petitions and protests to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes, from Oriel College at the University of Oxford. In an 1877 Oxford university paper, Rhode wrote about how he believed white Englishmen were superior and how Africa was “inhabited by the most despicable specimen of human being”, so “the more of the world we [Englishmen] inhabit the better it is for the human race”.

Christopher Columbus, US Across the US, Black Lives Matter protestors have defaced and pulled down statues dedicated to slave traders and imperialists. Statues depicting Christopher Columbus, who enslaved, colonised and wiped out much of indigenous population of Latin America, have been among those repeatedly targeted.

‘The Christmas Tree’ photo treasured

by Baden-Powell after he betrayed and hanged Bulawayo chief in ‘Rhodesia’.

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King Leopold II, Belgium Elsewhere in the world, statues of King Leopold II have been removed in Belgium. Described as one of the most brutal colonisers of Africa in the 1800s, modern estimates suggest that over 10 million Congolese died extreme brutality under his rule. His actions led to the first use of the term “crimes against humanity”, coined

by George Washington Williams after the abolition of slavery.

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Media &wDigital Skills

NOTTINGHAM: THE CITY THAT CELEBRATES THOSE WHO FOUGHT SLAVE TRADE Creating a Multimedia Website

By Natalie Fahy

Curled from NottinghamshireLive We have always been proud to be a bit different in Nottingham. We are the city of rebels after all - our icon and most famous statue is the legend who took from the rich and gave to the poor.

While other cities are hitting the headlines this week for their memorials to relics of the slave trade, Nottingham stands apart. Slave auctions happened here, most notably in Goose Gate and the Broadmarsh area, but thankfully there is no trace of this today. In fact, Nottingham is the place where slave George Africanus felt drawn to, where he came and made his home, had a family and became the city's 'first black entrepreneur'. It was this city that made him feel he could break free of his past and build a successful life for himself.

for his father's hosiery business, eventually taking managerial control upon his father's retirement.

By 1860, he owned the London and Nottingham branches of the business and became very wealthy as it grew into the largest of its kind in the world.

But it was his belief in the abolition of slavery that sets him apart from many others of that time. He became treasurer of a fund to support escaped American slave Josiah Henson, reportedly inviting him to dine with him every day when he visited London. A bust of Samuel Morley has stood in the Arboretum in Nottingham since 1928. The city did once have a full-size statue of him outside the Theatre Royal, but it was deemed a hindrance to traffic flow and moved to its new location. Unfortunately, it fell off the back of the lorry during the move and broke, leaving just the head and shoulders.

In today’s web-orientated world there is a huge demand for people skilled in web design and

have and a long way websites to go and a so lot do to people learn in He had originally arrived Wolverhampton from We have development.

Almost all in organisations and professions require and But perhaps we are starting from a Sierra Leone in as abusiness. slave in Gaining the Nottingham. of influence or 1766, those working doing own skills of creating and maintaining multimedia household of Benjamin Molineux. As an adult, he better place than many other cities in the UK - and website is a highly marketable skill. moved to Nottingham, a city which was familiar to the that is something we should be thankful for. But the Molineux family. Around 1793, shortly after marrying removal of statues isn’t just happening in the UK. You willEsther, learn:George started up his employment Protestors across the world have removed statues his wife dedicated to the slave trade and imperialism.

• IdentifyRegister different features and structures agency, Africanus' of website Servants.purposes, The business was familywebsite home on Chandlers • run from Planthe a basic (5 pages) fromLane. a specified brief / for specific industry Now a plaque to commemorate his life nearsettings • there is Create a website based on given brief his St Mary's Churchyard the Search Engine Optimisation etc) • grave inTest website created –(sponsored Navigation,byLinks, Nottingham Evening Post) and a tram is also named • him. There Use at one plaque Content after is least a second in Management Victoria Street,System - Joomla or WordPress which was unveiled in 2014..

This course will give you the knowledge and tools to create, manage and run a great business or

professional willfor getNottingham. access to Joomla But that is notwebsite. where itYou ends It is / WordPress premium features. also a source of pride for the inhabitants that we have a statue dedicated to the MP, political radical Information and woollen manufacturer Samuel Morley. Key Morley, a Liberal and supporter of William Gladstone, was elected for Nottingham in 1865. Described 30MP Hours Free as a Access to Hosting, political radical and statesman-type figure, Morley Domain Name & Flexible famous to be caricatured Level 1 (3 Credits) was sufficiently in Vanity premium Joomla & Fair. The youngest son of John Morley, he worked 14+

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Black Lives Matter

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NOTTINGHAM DISABLED MAN STARVED TO DEATH AFTER DWP WRONGLY STOPPED HIS BENEFITS

By Disability Rights UK A disabled man starved to death after the DWP wrongly stopped his out-of-work benefits, leaving him without any income, the Disability News Service (DNS) has reported.

Errol Graham weighed just four-and-a-half stone when his body was found by bailiffs who had knocked down his front door to evict him. He had just a couple of outof-date tins of fish left in his flat. DWP civil servants had failed to seek further medical evidence from his GP, just as in many other tragic cases that have sparked repeated calls for an independent inquiry into links between the deaths of claimants and the actions and failings of the DWP. Assistant coroner Dr Elizabeth Didcock, who heard the inquest, was told that the DWP stopped Graham’s ESA entitlement – and backdated that decision to the previous month – after making two unsuccessful visits to his home to ask why he had not attended a face-to-face work capability assessment (WCA) on 31 August 2017. The inquest heard that it was standard DWP procedure to go ahead with stopping the benefits of a claimant marked on the system as vulnerable after two failed safeguarding visits.

The DWP somehow managed to stop an ESA payment that had been due to be credited to his bank account on 17 October, the same day it made the second unsuccessful safeguarding visit. Its own rules state that it should make both safeguarding visits before stopping the benefits of a vulnerable claimant. Because Graham lost his ESA entitlement, his housing benefit was also stopped. His family says he had also been found ineligible for personal independence payment (PIP). Deprived of all financial support, experiencing significant mental distress and unable or unwilling to seek help, he slowly starved to death. He was 57. His body was discovered on 20 June 2018 when bailiffs arrived at his Nottingham council flat to evict him for non-payment of rent. His benefits had been stopped even though he had been receiving incapacity benefit, and then ESA, for many years as a result of enduring mental distress that had led to him being sectioned.

He had also told the DWP on an ESA form three years earlier that he could not cope with “unexpected changes”, adding: “Upsets my life completely. Feel under threat and upset…” He added: “Cannot deal with social situations. Keep myself to myself. Do not engage with strangers. Have no social life. Feel anxiety and panic in new situations.” The assistant coroner said: “There simply is not sufficient evidence as to how he was functioning, however, it is likely that his mental health was poor at this time – he does not appear to be having contact with other people, and he did not seek

help from his GP or support agencies as he had done previously.” She concluded in the narrative verdict, delivered last June, that the “safety net that should surround vulnerable people like Errol in our society had holes within it”. She said: “He needed the DWP to obtain more evidence [from his GP] at the time his ESA was stopped, to make a more informed decision about him, particularly following the failed safeguarding visits.”

She said that a consultant psychiatrist had told the inquest “that Errol was vulnerable to life stressors” and that it was “likely that this loss of income, and housing, were the final and devastating stressors, that had a significant effect on his mental health”. But she decided not to write a regulation 28 report demanding changes to DWP’s safeguarding procedures to “prevent future deaths” because the department insisted that it was already completing a review of its safeguarding, which was supposed to finish last autumn.

The DWP had promised her it would “listen to clients and to those representing them, and… ensure that the DWP was focused on support and safety for vulnerable people”. Dr Didcock insisted that this commitment “must be converted into robust policy and guidance for DWP staff” and that the DWP must ensure that “all evidence that can reasonably be gathered is put together about a client, before a benefit is ceased”.

Disability News Service also highlights that the death of Errol Graham closely mirrors other tragedies caused by the DWP’s repeated refusal to make significant improvements to its safeguarding policies and practices.Ken Butler DRUK’s Welfare Rights and Policy Adviser said: “The tragic and unnecessary death of Errol Graham again shows that the DWP is failing in its safeguarding responsibilities towards vulnerable disabled people. “Its safeguarding policy is not publicly available which is a scandal. How many other disabled people have had their benefits wrongly stopped?

“The DWP promised the assistant coroner that it would “listen to clients and to those representing them, and… ensure that the DWP was focused on support and safety for vulnerable people”. “While this is to be welcomed, why has it taken a decade and the deaths of disabled people for it to commit to this? “As a minimum, the DWP needs to make public its current safeguarding policy so it can be better held to account for failings in the meantime. “But it should immediately halt all benefit sanctions against disabled people – as recommended by the all-party Work and Pensions Committee in 2018.”

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10 Black Lives Matter

WHY CELL PHONE VIDEOS OF BLACK PEOPLE’S DEATHS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED SACRED, LIKE LYNCHING PHOTOGRAPHS - By Allissa V. Richardson As Ahmaud Arbery fell to the ground, the sound of the gunshot that took his life echoed loudly throughout his Georgia neighborhood. The video shows Arbery jogging down the street and the McMichaels blocking his path with their vehicle. First, a scuffle. Then, gunshots at pointblank range from Travis McMichael’s weapon. I peered at Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, who confronted Arbery in their suburban community.

I knew that the McMichaels told authorities that they suspected Arbery of robbing a nearby home in the neighbourhood. They were performing a citizen’s arrest, they said. My eyes travelled to the towering trees onscreen, which might have been the last things that Arbery saw.

How many of those same trees, I wondered, had witnessed similar lynchings? And how many of those lynchings had been photographed, to offer a final blow of humiliation to the dying?

It may be jarring to see that word – lynching – used to describe Arbery’s Feb. 23, 2020, killing. But many black people have shared with me that his death – followed in rapid succession by Breonna Taylor’s and now George Floyd’s officer-involved murders – hearkens back to a long tradition of killing black people without repercussion.

Perhaps even more traumatizing is the ease with which some of these deaths can be viewed online. In my new book, “Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest #Journalism,” I call for Americans to stop viewing footage of black people dying so casually.

man appears at the bottom of the frame, pointing upward to the black men’s hanged bodies. The image inspired Abel Meeropol to write the poem “Strange Fruit,” which was later turned into a song that blues singer Billie Holiday sang around the world.

Twenty-five years later, the 1955 photos of Emmett Till’s maimed body became a new generation’s cultural touchstone. The 14-year-old black boy was beaten, shot and thrown into a local river by white men after a white woman accused him of whistling at her; later admitting that she lied. Throughout the 1900s, and until today, police brutality against black people has been immortalized by the media too.

Americans have watched government officials open firehoses on young civil rights protesters, unleash German shepherds and wield billy clubs against peaceful marchers, and shoot and tase today’s black men, women and children.

When I conducted the interviews for my book, many black people told me that they carry this historical reel of violence against their ancestors in their heads. That’s why, for them, watching modern versions of these hate crimes is too painful to bear. Still, there are other groups of black people who believe that the videos do serve a purpose, to educate the masses about race relations in the U.S and around the world. I believe these tragic videos can serve both purposes, but it will take effort.

In the early 1900s, when the news of a lynching was fresh, some of the nation’s first civil rights organizations circulated any available images of the lynching widely, to raise awareness of the atrocity.

Instead, cell phone videos of vigilante violence and fatal police encounters should be viewed like lynching photographs – with solemn reserve and careful circulation. To understand this shift in viewing context, I believe it is useful to explore how people became so comfortable viewing black people’s dying moments in the first place.

They did this by publishing the images in black magazines and newspapers. After that image reached peak circulation, it was typically removed from public view and placed into a “shadow archive,” within a newsroom, library or museum. Reducing the circulation of the image was intended to make the public’s gaze more sombre and respectful.

Every major era of domestic terror against African Americans – slavery, lynching and police brutality – has an accompanying iconic photograph. The most familiar image of slavery is the 1863 picture of “Whipped Peter,” whose back bears an intricate cross-section of scars. Famous images of lynchings include the 1930 photograph of the mob who murdered Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. A wild-eyed white

The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, known popularly as the NAACP, often used this technique. In 1916, for example, the group published a horrific photograph of Jesse Washington, a 17-year-old boy who was hanged and burned in Waco, Texas, in its flagship magazine, “The Crisis.” Memberships in the civil rights organization skyrocketed as a result. Blacks and whites wanted

Nottingham connected to know how to help. The NAACP used the money to push for anti-lynching legislation. It purchased a series of costly full-page ads in The New York Times to lobby leading politicians.

Though the NAACP endures today, neither its website nor its Instagram page bears casual images of lynching victims.

Even when the organization issued a statement about the Arbery killing, it refrained from reposting the chilling video within its missive. That restraint shows a degree of respect that not all news outlets and social media users have used.

In my view, cell phone videos of black people being killed should be given this same consideration. Just as past generations of activists used these images briefly – and only in the context of social justice efforts – so, too, should today’s imagery retreat from view quickly.

The suspects in Arbery’s killing have been arrested. The Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyd’s death have been fired, arrested and are undergoing trial. The videos of their deaths have served the purpose of attracting public outrage.

Likening the fatal footage of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd to lynching photographs invites us to treat them more thoughtfully.

We can respect these images.

We can handle them with care. In the quiet, final frames, we can share their last moments with them, if we choose to. We do not let them die alone. We do not let them disappear into the hush of knowing trees.

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Berkshire connected

Community

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REFUGEE WEEK GLOBAL MULTI-MEDIA EXHIBITION By Laura McCartan “Push. Swim. Come on. Loneliness as I kicked, knowing that this was all on me. Her life. Everything was down to what I would do in the next few minutes.” Testimony from Brendan Woodhouse, British Firefighter and member of team imprisoned in Italy for SAR work.

Refugee Rescue Invites you to a virtual multimedia exhibition featuring 20 artists from around the world and showcasing stories from maritime search and rescue for Refugee Week, June 15th – 21st.

deal, and a global protest against systemic racism and oppression, people continue to cross the sea to seek asylum on the shores of Europe. This is the same unjust system that affects the lives of 70 million displaced persons around the globe; “More than ever before, fear grips your pounding heart, the terrible fear of losing your children. Yet, you still want to get your children on the boat.” Testimony from an asylum seeker currently waiting to have their claim heard in The Aegean Islands.

This is an art exhibit and multimedia experience outlining the current situation in the Aegean and asking viewers to educate themselves, reconnect with the people forced to risk their lives at sea and the few individuals left to protect them. Refugee Rescue is the last remaining professional and humanitarian search and rescue organization working on the North Shore of Lesvos. For the past five years, as a grassroots NGO we have worked at the forefront of humanitarian aid, responding to distress calls and rescuing refugees at sea. www.refugeerescue.org

We host this exhibit for Refugee Week 2020 to present a hyper-local representation of the feelings, thoughts, sights and sounds of maritime search and rescue and confront the racially charged myths about refugees.

Through this exhibit we encourage you to question your assumptions about the “Refugee Crisis” -- to imagine how it feels to be involved in search and rescue and why it is absolutely necessary that regardless of the color of someone’s skin, or the country of their origin, all life is protected at sea.

Since 2015, images of people arriving on Europe’s shores in flimsy dinghies have largely faded from the media’s attention. The world has grown accustomed to violence towards refugees, who must risk their lives at sea in search of safety. For Refugee Week, we ask you to remember that the Mediterranean remains the world’s deadliest border, having claimed 20,000 lives since 2014 and demonstrating the true human cost of European border policies.

Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, a crumbling EU-Turkey

Through the stories of search as rescue we ask, if we ignore this basic right to life, and criminalize protecting the most vulnerable in our society -- what will we have left?

Artists featured in the exhibit include Mark Titchner, Rama Dua and Gommie.

Full programme: programme

https://www.refugeerescue.org/

For more information please contact comms@ refugeerecsue.org

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MARRIAGE IS GOD-ORDAINED FOR LIFE

By Elder Andrew Singo

Marriage is a gift of God to mankind and every society and culture has a way of solemnizing it. Before the emergence of religious bodies and national laws marriage was a domain of families concerned.

However, in modern societies marriage is ratified with a certificate of marriage issued by the government or its agencies and it is a legal document. While in the past marriage was entered as a norm for every man and woman, the modern trend of marriage is based more on expression of love and choice rather than societal expectation.

People get married for different reasons. Last year I witnessed more than eight marriages including that of our son. The art and science of marriage combines all subjects that involve human biology and human behaviour. There are thousands of people who spend their lifetime studying marriage for a living. Thousands more work on marriages in the fields of psychology and counselling and make a living out of it. There is no space for me to talk about thousands of divorce specialists who make extra comfortable living because of marriage.

Marriage is not a human idea but God’s. It was not meant to be as complex as we have made it and if you want your marriage to work smoothly, have a good consultation with the marriage giver. To my newlywed friends, I would like to share with you a few simple tips about marriage. I am not a doctor therapist or psychologist but I have been in marriage long enough to be able to say a few things.

Cambridge dictionary defines marriage as a “legally accepted relationship between a man and a woman in which they live as husband and wife… or the official ceremony that results in this”. According to the Bible, marriage is one-flesh whole-life union between one man and one woman. Marriage covers all areas of life; physically, mentally, and spiritually, embracing moral, sexual, emotional, economic, and everything else required for making two human beings live harmoniously. Genesis 2:24 sums it up by saying that “therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”. It is from this point that the two becomes a unit, which may result in the bearing of children.

Over the years, the attitude towards marriage as a way of life has gradually shifted because of the human’s inability to showcase the true reality of marriage. Many young people appear to believe that being single is perfectly normal and it’s an appropriate way to live.

Others believe that living together and raising a family is a new way of life that does not put pressure on the couple to commit for the rest of their lives. Marriage offers family values such as responsibility, honest, patience, generosity, empathy; love and respect, which still carry a high importance. For your marriage to work, do the following 1. Put your marriage at the top of your priority list.

Here I assume that your life is centred in God and therefore I do not need to tell you about God as a priority in your life. Don’t sacrifice your marriage for your children. When our children were young, my wife and I agreed to not put our children between us in a way that they will separate us. We put them on our sides where we can all reach them. Why? Because at the end of the years of their life with us they will go and make their own living elsewhere and the two of us will remain. If we let them come between us, now that they are gone we could have scratch each other’s eyes out. When you make your marriage the top of the list, you will have time to do other valuable things because your children will do well and better such that you will not spend much time in managing them.

2. Spend time together doing different things. Play, read, cook, go walking, and have time to worship together. Your relationship is a thrilling adventure; it is a story unfolding so keep it exciting because it is not a destination. The certificate of marriage is the only certificate you receive before you graduate.

Celebrate your achievement regularly even if the

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thing achieved is small. Have things that you repeat celebrating on monthly, yearly or any period you set yourselves as they will keep reminding you where you came from. Every year my family has the last Sunday of July as a family day. We celebrate our family – we eat, play or do anything just for fun.

Playful time for couple is extra important for building a bank of positive emotions.

you get married in the first place. What is it that you liked about your wife or husband? If it was the physicality of the person grow with it because both of you will keep changing and asses the expectations you had and instead allow them to be who they are and unconditionally love them for whom they are.

If it was some sort of a thrilling activity, don’t stop it keep doing it whatever the age and weather.

3. Replenish your stock with new products. Remember that you are not growing younger after marriage.

Your needs will keep evolving. Whatever you stored for when you get married will probably become obsolete in year one. Your needs change and will keep changing. It’s like you are driving a car. You need a different gear as you increase speed. Keep enquiring from your partner what things you need to do differently. For example: it might be your partner needs more help with ironing, or more help in the kitchen. It may be some change in your sex life. Not every day now but may be three times a week. If you discuss and come up with a list of probably there or four things each you keep each other happy by sticking to the agreement.

7. I like and appreciate when my wife complements me for something and I try to do the same. I see how her face lightens up and the smile that come with it and it makes me want to complement her more. Remember, every sincere acknowledgement or complement you give or make goes into emotional reserve bank. It becomes an investment that will help you in rainy times because for sure one day it will rain and maybe it will be a storm. Every couple goes through a rough patch at some point in life and the emotional bank notes will help you to go through those turbulent storms in your marital boat. Every sincere and genuine compliment, encouragement, and empathy you give to your partner increases her /his self-worth, selfconfidence and self-esteem. Your partner feels valued and cherished. On top of that, the friendship between you is edified and a happy moment and atmosphere is created for both of you. The complement giver develops a positive mental focus instead of a negative one and in such they become emotionally happier and in life more productive.

4. Love is the basis of your marriage relationship. Don’t keep record of wrongs and don’t refrain from doing things to your partner because she or he stopped doing things for you. It might work for a while until when one makes a mistake and one becomes a different person, opening a tape recorder non-stop like radio heart playing old music. Give your partner mercy and grace when they are in the wrong and bless them with a prayer. When you pray for those who agitate you, God improves their behaviour and you become safe and the mercy, grace and blessing come back to you. What you do to one another has power to elevate or demoralise the other person. It is simple life logic. A polite answer turn away wrath 5. . Express your feelings. When your partner does something injurious to your feelings don’t use silence as a weapon. Not talking about what happened will not make it un-happen. It is done it is done. When you talk about it relieves both of you from the pain caused. One from guilty and the other from the wound. By expressing your feelings you avoid blaming and the actor avoids feelings of being judged silently as they express the reasons for their actions and asking for forgiveness. Be tolerant and accepting as love covers the multitude of sins.

6. Match your expectations and the reality of life. You can do this by remembering the reasons that made

God wants every marriage to be a reflection of heaven on earth because marriage exists for His glory as He is ultimate and the most important reality. The human being and the marriage exist for only one purpose: To magnify the greatness of God, His truth, His beauty and His worth in the worthless world. Marriage has become a rival to God because men and women have failed to follow the order that God established from the beginning. Every marriage should magnify God in people’s mind by showing the reality of His greatness.

“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and His greatness in unsearchable”. You want your marriage to work well, follow the order of priority beginning with God. You and your marriage are there to display the greatness and glory of God. Your marriage is a glass window where people look to see the beauty of God.

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despite the challenges. you will carry on & eventually succeed however if you have a negative attitude the business may be a failure.

Mr & Mrs Neil Singo

Mr & Mrs Dennis Kamau

Mr & Mrs Cliff Ongaro

Your wife, husband & children will respond positively if your attitude & behaviour towards them is good.

If I want respect in my house or at work, I must show the same respect & love to them. So, in marriage like in business we have to sit down & take stock, know where things are going wrong & rectify the mistake if necessary. If the wife/husband is bad, then something is wrong with the management style & the husband /wife needs to communicate in earnest & find out what’s going on. The change must come in you. Your approach must totally change from that of blame to that of teamwork, praise even when there is nothing to praise. Let’s learn to accept our mistakes. Time is of essence in marriage you need to give your marriage the first priority. At work we have meetings, training, updates sometimes daily, do you have such a structure in your house/home? The culture of blame only helps to break the family & end up in broken relationships.

Who is the winner when you lose your children, wife or husband? The devil smiles. Is that the correct direction you want your marriage to lead?

Men/ women marriage is a sacrifice & we should avoid STRESSING EACH OTHER. Your body cannot afford to be stressed at work & at home. The result can be dangerous to your health as your immune system get compromised.

No one else will bring the change in the house except you 2 or one of you to change themselves.

These are plain facts. You both need to change positively to make your marriage work. It will require God’s hand & lots of prayers together, determination & hard work.

Next week I will address men.

Mr & Mrs Kako Mavalla Piece Of Advice From Elder Peterson Sentenga.

My people in marriage, please allow me to share my views in this journey of marriage. You all know me & the passion I have when it comes to marriage. I’m addressing marriage issues & not targeting anyone.

“What fails most marriages is the attitude, the perception one has about his spouse. We all have challenges in our marriages, but we have to work on our attitude.

That principle also works in business & whatever else we do. If your attitude towards business is positive

Be blessed let’s continue to pray for our marriages.

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Mean Parents-Aspire to be one

By Cecily Mwaniki

Parenting is a career that no one ever trained in but luckily comes with experience. The bottom line is, every parent means good and wants the best for their children.

This however is interpreted differently by the children as they are growing up. The parents on the other hand are convinced that someday when they are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent, they will say the following as said to a group of young people by one successful man in his late twenties---every parent should read this to their children:

Your parent loved you enough to make you pay for the bubble gum you had taken and tell the clerk, ‘’I stole this yesterday and want to pay for it’’.

Your parent loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that should have taken fifteen minutes.

Your parent loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must learn that their parents are not perfect.

Your parents loved you enough to ask where you were going, with whom, and what time you would be home.

Your parents loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh, they almost broke my heart.

Your parent loved you enough to be silent and let you discover that your best friend was a creep.

But most of all your parents loved you enough ---to say NO when they knew you would hate them for it.

Those were the most difficult battles of all. Your parents are glad they win them, because in the end you will win too. And some day you will have children and when your children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates parents, you will tell them this. ‘’Are your parents mean enough’’?

I know mine were, the young man continued. Perhaps you also feel you have the meanest parents in the whole world. While other kids eat candy for breakfast, you have to have cereal, eggs and toast or even none. When others have a Pepsi and a chocolate for lunch, you have to eat sandwiches. And you perhaps think your parents fix you for dinner that is different from what other kids have too.

My parents insisted on knowing where we were always. You would think we were convicts in a prison.

They had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with

them. They insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour; we would be gone an hour or less. We were ashamed to admit it, but they had the nerve to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work. We had to wash dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think they would lie awake at night thinking of more things for us to do. They always insisted on us telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. By the time we were teenagers; they could read our minds and had eyes in the back of her head. Then life was really tough.

My parents wouldn’t let our friends just honk the horn when they drove up. They had to come up to the door so they could see them. While everyone else could date when they were 12 or 13, we had to wait until we were 16. Because of our parents, we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced. None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other’s property or ever arrested for any crime.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated, honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean parents just like our parents were. I think the problem with the world today is that it does not have enough mean parents.

The question is, as a parent, would you love your children so much so that you are mean to them? It is tough but the best gift you can ever give to them—bitter as they grow up but sweet when they are grown. I encourage you to be mean to your children. The results will be that they will be successful before they are thirty years of age. www.CMnetwork.co.uk www.utulivu.co.uk

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596 MEALS FOR FAMILIES ACROSS NOTTINGHAM

By GAIN Diaspora

On Saturday 25th April, to mark and honour the beginning of the Holy Month of Ramadan, we worked to provide over 590 hot meals to families across Nottingham.

The project is led by our partners GAIN Diaspora and the food is distributed to both Muslim and non-Muslim families and needy individuals. It will go on for the next four weeks. Working with as many different and diverse communities as we can, we delivered food to groups in need across Nottingham, including refugees, asylum seekers, the destitute and those unable or untitled to access government support, provisions or funding.

For the next the four Saturdays, we will continue to provide hot meals to make sure communities are supported in these indeterminate and uncertain times. We see it as essential that all communities across Nottingham come together to help each other, spreading positivity and maintaining cultural solidarity.

Abdoulie Jah, from GAIN Diaspora has said, “There are families with children and loved ones who not only are suffering financially everyday but are often going without and lacking the everyday essentials they need. If we can feed one person then that is one less hungry person to worry about. We all need to do our bit together and we will all come out of this together.”

Across the globe local expressions of solidarity appear to be spreading as society takes it upon themselves to act on behalf of others in need. This epoch calls on us to share our recourses and step into mutual aid. It is also important that everyone gets food that is suitable and ideal for them. Asking people to eat what they are not used to is often a difficult choice and many of people find themselves bound to make these choices.

One of the 100 recipients was Aisha, a mother who lives with her husband, 2 kids and 2 relatives in the same household. Aisha said that: “We are very grateful of these meals. Though they say beggars should not be choosers, the food we have been receiving is sometimes not cultural appropriate as we never know if it is Halal or not. It is also high in sugar, salts and sometimes one is uncertain of the ingredients. Don’t get me wrong, we are not ungrateful but it is vital that we all get healthy and appropriate meals especially at this time when we cannot go out and do our own search and networking to seek help for these quality meals” Food is a sensitive issue, especially for most ethnic minorities who perceive food in a holistic manner –

personal, spiritual, political and social. Eating, tasting and smelling those foods one is used to makes people feel whole and links them to their roots and history.

“Many of us are miles away from our communities, friends and roots. A taste and smell of those traditional dishes and the foods we love is a great source of nostalgia. It is a way for us to embrace our immigrant side of identity.” said Aladdin, a Sudanese asylum seeker who received the first batch of meals.

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THANK YOU’S FROM OUR SERVICE USERS 1.

I would to take this opportunity to say big thank you for supporting us by doing a food parcel we are really appreciate it xx. Owen

4.

Thanks, So much. We received food delivery. Thank You. Thomas

7.

Thanks, So much joy. For food deliveries we received. May God bless you and your Team. Big Thanks.

9.

I just want to say, am happy to register with you as I helped me and my kids’ lot. It allows us to have the basics food home at this critical and difficult time we are going through. Your service is helpful and keep us home and safe. We liked it

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2.

Thank you for the food. Kieran

I think your team are doing a very great support to humanity. A very big well done to everyone

12. We are very grateful of these meals. These meals help us get through week by week. Thanks very much

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3.

Thank you very much for the bag of food. God bless you. Janet

My sincerely thank you to the

Mojatu for answering a call when I needed support. You have helped me during this lockdown period. Thanks, a lot.

In these difficult times, either a little or a lot is a help. Thank you very much to all who belong to this solidarity team. God bless you.

10. Thanks a lot for the food and stationery. We are teaching the kids to draw, and they are really enjoying it

11. I was so grateful for what they have done to me nay God bless them thanks.

13. Many of us are miles away from our communities, friends and roots. A taste and smell of those traditional dishes and the foods we love is a great source of nostalgia. It is a way for us to embrace our immigrant side of identity”.

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MESSAGES FROM OUR VOLUNTEERS I volunteer with Mojatu because i am very fortunate.

I count my blessings. I was a primary school teacher in Nottingham for many years until I retired and I know from experience that life can be very tough for many families in this city. The American civil rights leader, Rvd Jesse Jackson once said something like this...” When times are hard we can either turn on one another or turn to one another.” During this pandemic, it’s definitely time to turn to one another.

Pete Strauss

We have made over 50 deliveries for Mojatu and all the people we have met have been most grateful for the food. Some have enjoyed having someone to talk to face to face and we have become familiar, friendly faces to them Andy “I’ve loved being able to actively help in Nottingham all the way from London - I have been working remotely doing admin but have made plenty of friends along the way!”

Helly It is a blessing to be useful. If there’s something that we can do to help others, we want to do that and we will continue doing it. Just get in touch”.

Asman A Mahmoud Volunteering for the Mojatu Foundation during a global pandemic has enabled us to feel a sense of purpose and responsibility to help out the community. The sense of community within Nottingham is shown through the Mojatu Foundation which is caring, understanding and welcoming. We have volunteered since March by helping out with weekly deliveries and visiting over 50 families. It’s been so much fun to interact with and get to know the families on our route. We are proud to live, work and study in Nottingham and grateful that our youth and health has allowed us to help people who need it the most. Despite being a very dark time for a lot of people, we hope that our actions have contributed to a sense of hope and happiness for the community.

We know that our hard work is appreciated by everybody at Mojatu.

Love Swan & Iona

I started volunteering with Mojatu with my partner as we thought it was important now more than ever to support those in need. We’ve both really enjoyed meeting people across the city including the brilliant Mojatu team and are grateful to feel more connected with our local community than ever!

Lucy

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THE WE IN PANDEMIC By Angela Wathoni Everyday millions of people get up and go out into the world to work for what they consume, to build a future for themselves, to fend for their loved one.

They take pride in the fact that they can provide for not just themselves but for their children. We all do what we can to better our lives.

Nobody expects to get sick and not be able to work again, no one expects to get into an accident and not be able to use your hands or legs. Still of nobody expects a war to ensue and stop our lives on its tracks.

Yet Covid-19 happened.

Quarantine was set, boarders got closed, people were sent home. Staying alive became everyone's first priority. Expectations were we would be fine, but we didn’t know for how long. Those of us who used to get daily wages suddenly had nothing.

Pulling resources together was the only way we could ensure that we protect our communities, taking care of each other whilst staying safe from this virus. After putting the word out in Nottingham we got many volunteers helping to reach those that were greatly affected by the pandemic. Even more people came out to give what they could, because this was all of us against a virus.

Self became second to others, every day we got people bringing food, basic amenities, cars to transport stuff and human resources. We set out every day to doorsteps of people who needed us, giving physically and emotionally. Leaving families feeling cared for, sharing encouraging word and leaving smiles on their faces. Putting ourselves out there to conserve our community.

Everybody is important, everybody is needed. We are our neighbours’ keepers.

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21ST CENTURY 2.0 By Salome Njogu I remember a time I used to call myself an entrepreneur, a consultant, a freelancer...

Unfortunately, now that I look back, I was just a young girl hustling her way through life.

These are my words a month after I lost my job! Do you really want to hear about it, coz it's a lot of Corona Virus a.k.a COVID-19 talk.

Fast forward, I had been raving about starting an alcohol delivery business in my area, being Eastern and Northern bypass. To be honest we don't get a lot of delivery services for food and alcohol these sides.

Many who deliver here are usually "big" deliveries, electronics and such.

So unlike people living all around the CBD we have to leave our houses and go to the nearest wines and spirit.

Which is not so near considering the mess the previous governor left with many business owners. So I went for it, bought my first lot and started encouraging people to buy good vibes for a good time... that sounds wrong but you get my point.

Unlike previous years of my 'entrepreneurship' journey this time it's different. (that's what she said).. this time I am thinking of how this venture can be lucrative for a foreseeable future not just for a quick dime.

This time i have accountability strategies, goals to achieve, timelines, marketing strategy. In short anything I have learnt in my line of work is being used. And the biggest lesson I learnt was to have more than one income stream, a culture we have not cultivated in Kenya.

All in all, the lessons are many, the directions are diverse, the will is strong and the future is full of possibilities.

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STAYING SAFE & HEALTHY FROM COVID-19 VIRUS Coughs and spluttering everywhere Contagious droplets we don’t want to share Young and old and in the between This virus is rampant and very keen Beware, beware of Covid- 19 It takes a virus to spread everywhere Before we show the elderly we care The evidence is clear on the supermarket shelves That humanity in crisis only thinks of themselves Hygiene is a personal responsibility Our hands are ours, it should be down to me!

Washing our hands is not something new Our researchers and scientists have better things to do The world is shocked by Covid -19 A pandemic this generation has never seen Every colour, race, rich or poor The virus can enter your own front door Money and investments cannot buy you health Covid -19 can’t be blackmailed with wealth

Covid-19 is a global emergency Caring for yourself and others is the key The pandemic has caused us to surely think About the basics of life and our humanitarian link Let’s not be selfish in our quest to survive Common sense and kindness will keep us alive.

Tribute to the NHS Staff Staff and volunteers of the NHS Your all hero’s and nothing but the very best You give your all both night and day Your work ethic and compassion Are not reflected in your pay Thank you for the sacrifice you tirelessly make No sleep, no food, no time for tea breaks Thank you NHS staff and volunteers Your dedication and skills Caused Great Britain to shed grateful tears Written by Annice Thomas COVID-19 March 2020

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COVID-19 PANDEMIC – THE EXHIBITION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SCHOOLS TO HOMES

By Edrissa Touray The continuing menace of an invisible enemy that respects no geographical boundary or social class and yet magnifies societal inequalities, creates adaptive efficiencies in us and reveal our philanthropic instincts as human beings.

The devastation caused by the pandemic is historic in the measure of death, economic loss, social adjustments, and psychological trauma with an untold impact on lives and livelihoods. As the society gets weary in the wake of governments enforced regulatory measures in the interest of public health, the recent relaxation of some of the measures are welcomed and a signal that lives can get back to normal.

This could also be taken without any accusation of misconstruing to hint to a ‘new normal’ in which we must all learn to live with the risk of the disease and the inevitability that some will sadly succumb to it. It is increasingly deemed vital for economic activities to resume as even the world’s leading economies are caught unprepared for its continuing devastating impact.

The death toll in the UK particularly the disproportionality of the BAME victims raised lot of questions about the prevailing economic and social inequalities we are confronted with. The reasons for this could be multidimensional, perhaps a discussion theme for another occasion. However, social inequality is not the only characteristic of our society that has been crystallised, there are many positive attributes that needs to be highlighted.

The heroism of frontline health (NHS) workers, key workers of all walks of life, the political leadership and economic support for citizens through businesses, the adherence of the society to existing public health measures and the show of humanity in reaching out to the less able and needy within our communities are a source of great reassurance in humanity.

As a classroom practitioner and a parent, I would like to draw your attention to the role of one of the frontline institutions – schools, in the ongoing battle against the pandemic. Just as many public organisations and businesses, schools in the UK have swiftly adopted to the challenge by ensuring a steady supply of home study packs and online teacher monitored learner

activities for their pupils. The role though for schools transcend academic attainment for pupils. Schools provide safe space for several vulnerable children, a guaranteed regular meal for some children, space for peer and social interaction, emotional warmth and a reliable bond of trust, dependability, assurance, and consistency from adults.

Just like many children at home, the adults in the schools have all lost an integral part with empty classrooms and playgrounds due to COVID-19 pandemic.

For parents, the impact of the pandemic is not only financial anxiety and insecurity but also the challenge of grappling with children’s social and learning needs at home. Issues of parental academic abilities, learning interests and low self-efficacy levels amongst parents creates a social realisation of the roles of schools in homes.

The expert knowledge of teachers in responding to all the academic inquiries in homes and the lack of respite in some homes in parental arbitrations in sibling rivalries is a chilling awakening to the everyday duties of adults at schools.

For parent of a lone child, the forlorn looks on his/her lonely face and the sea of boredom that surrounds them at home reminds parents of the world of liveliness on days of school run. Schools and adults at schools, are truly, our society’s superheroes.

To remain active combatants in the face of this invisible enemy, schools remain open for keyworkers’ children. Staffs, just like other frontline soldiers, exposes themselves and their families to risks by caring for these children in a national concerted effort against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through the benevolence of their teachers and SENDCOs (Special Education Need Coordinators), schools have instituted telephone calls home to speak to parents and their pupils. This is a source of strength for many parents and a moral booster for the children.

The void of schools felt at home in the course of the pandemic is monumental and should be enough reason for parents to appreciate the roles of adults at schools and seek ways to involve and engage in the education of their children when normal or the ‘new normal’ resumption begins at schools.

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SNEINTON MARKET SHINING RAY OF HOPE AND JOY AMID PANDEMIC As the country continues with the lockdown to keep everyone safe, Sneinton Market team, traders and customers are making a real difference in Nottingham. This was more so as the temperatures hit 23 degrees on Saturday.

Going around the market yesterday, the traders and buyers were all beaming with joy as they saw familiar faces and the wonderful array of items for sale. A variety of stalls, all social distancing, included Abeyo (Ethiopian cuisine), Bike repairs, Kevin’s (bread), Functionalchemy (soaps), Psychadelic (Cider and branded masks) It was such a nice feeling to be able to see people coming to buy what they needed and at the same time social distancing.

Sneinton market is however a shadow of itself as those traders not offering essential items are not allowed to open while others can only sell essential items.

“I could not sell my spoons and other carvings as they are not considered essential. These will have to wait until the pandemic is over”, said Dean of Functionalchemy.

“I came out today to buy supplies as I was running low but did not know the market was open. The market is a true treat! The gorgeous day, beautiful sunshine and all the smiling faces are making me so happy!”

“I am not sure what week of lockdown we are on, but

working from home, online meetings and herding the little ones through home schooling is beginning to feel like the new normal. But getting out here today with the little ones is nostalgic. Sneinton market is a great opportunity to interact and feel alive again and a way to shape a new normal”.

Kevin Price, the organiser of the market said, “We have been running the market every Saturday for the past six weeks. We have not missed a weekend since the lockdown as we are an essential service. As you can see, many people are here to buy essentials, see people and feel alive” “I walked here from Mapperley and as I strolled down Woodborough road, everybody seemed to be seeking a piece of the sunshine. With temperature above 20 degrees, which is not common in England, this was the perfect chance for people to come out and enjoy the sunshine. It was great to see people catching the sun with convertible cars, t-shirts, dresses, and shorts.

At the market, I met friends I have not seen in weeks due to the lockdown with whom we shared stories, experiences and laughter” “Once a week, I walk to my mum's house and have a brief conversation through the window, then past my sister’s house and wave to her, my nephews and nieces before heading to the Sneinton market on my way home. This saves me from the monotonous negative media stories on effects and impacts of coronavirus.

Sneinton market adds to my joy and delight”.

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IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON BLACK, ASIAN AND MINORITY ETHNIC (BAME) STAFF AND RISK REDUCTION FRAMEWORK IN THE NHS Date of publication: 13 May 2020 The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) has responded to the urgent issue of the high and disproportionate numbers of deaths of BAME staff due to Covid-19, by producing initial guidance on risk mitigation for urgent implementation across all mental health care organisations in the UK. Concerns have recently been raised in the UK due to disproportionately higher rates of COVID-19 in black and minority ethnic health populations (BAME) compared to white populations. This has been particularly apparent amongst health care staff in the UK. The NHS is estimated to employ approximately 1.2-1.5 million staff. Among all staff employed by the NHS, BAME account for approximately 21%, of which approximately 20% among nursing and support staff and 44% among medical staff. In a recent analysis of staff deaths, of the 106 included cases, 98 had patient facing roles, seven did not and this was unclear for one.

In 89 cases, the individual had been working during the pandemic.

The characteristics of the cases are presented in the Table. The affected BAME healthcare staff affected were a heterogeneous group. Among the doctors, the specialties were surgery (five cases), general practice (four), emergency medicine and medicine (each two), and one each from histopathology, geriatrics, neurorehabilitation, paediatrics, and psychiatry. There were no anaesthetists or intensivists identified. Among the nursing staff, specialty was not always mentioned, but none were described as intensive care nurses. The relative ages, proportions of either sex and of ethnicity among the main groups of staff are shown in Table Overall in view of the number and heterogeneity of the staff affected, it is difficult to infer further from the data.

Table - Age, gender and ethnicity of those who died from COVID-19 in health and social care staff groups*For comparison, the approximate % of BAME the NHS workforce is included in the final row.

In addition, an emerging finding from systematic

reviews and data from the UK is indicating that particular comorbidities such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease and diabetes are more prevalent in people with severe COVID-19. These comorbidities are also more prevalent in BAME populations and may explain the increased risk of morbidity and mortality in this group. Public Health England has issued guidance, which is updated regularly, to ensure implementation of measures to reduce the risk of community based and nosocomial contagion. These measures involve both behavioural instruction and the level of personal protective equipment (PPE) to be worn in different clinical environments. We first of all wish to ensure that the entire NHS workforce adheres to latest PHE recommendations to reduce the risk of acquiring COVID-19. PHE’s original guidance also identified 3 factors used to guide managers in supporting conversations with staff about increased vulnerability; age >70year, selected underlying health conditions and pregnancy. Health conditions further divided into those ‘extremely vulnerable’ to COVID-19 for whom ‘shielding’ is currently required and those at ‘increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19’, requiring stringent social distancing (based on conditions previously identified as requiring an annual flu jab).

Ethnicity was not identified originally as a risk factor and is now to be included on basis of recent clinical evidence, particularly ICU admissions data and healthcare staff fatalities. As far as we know, evidence for ethnicity as an independent risk factor remains uncertain. NHS employers guidance was issued recently for “extremely vulnerable” and “at risk” categories. The guidance reiterated that preserving and protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of staff is critical for the NHS and to ensure they are mentally and physically healthy and protect their colleagues, patients and their families. The guidance has already made recommendations for staff who are at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Due to the early warning signs of a disparity in outcomes, the NHS has committed to ensure the development of a systematic application of a risk reduction framework in order to guide employers as to how best protect our workforce.

In this paper we provide a COVID-19 Risk Reduction Framework for healthcare staff. The framework may help employers to supplement risk assessment of their staff, particularly of high risk and vulnerable groups to ensure staff safety. This Risk Reduction Framework needs to be used in conjunction with the NHS employers Guidance and can be used as an aid to decision making and may be incorporated into existing risk templates which are already in use in many health care settings.

32 Mojatu Covid-19 Support Work Method A consensus group was set up which included a multidisciplinary group of primary and specialist care clinicians, members of equality and inclusions, NHS leadership, public health specialists, occupational health specialists, trust leads and researchers. In view of the unavailability of robust data, the group made consensus recommendations based on the currently published literature and that could help to initiate further research and inform immediate public health and policy decisions to protect and save health care staff. The key aim was to develop a pragmatic simple Risk Reduction Framework that can be implemented in a healthcare setting (Figure).

The Framework is based on the best available evidence, which is limited, however, in view of the serious and disproportionate impact of COVID-19, there is an urgent need to put in place immediate mitigations to try and minimise further serious consequences.

How to use the Risk Reduction Framework Employers have a duty of care requiring them, as far as reasonably practicable, to secure the health, safety and welfare of their employees. This includes an equitable approach to effective risk management and risk reduction of potential workplace hazards, for all staff regardless of ethnicity and diversity: Workplace assessment of potential exposure to SARSCoV-2 in the workplace, followed by application of an appropriate hierarchy of control measures, including elimination if possible, and reduction by hygiene measures, safe systems of work, including review of use of AGP procedures, selection and correct use of PPE, including necessary training and fit testing.

Workforce assessment to identify those individuals with potentially increased vulnerability to infection or adverse outcomes from COVID-19. Earlier guidance has already identified three categories of vulnerability, specific long-term health conditions, sex, older age and pregnancy.

Recent evidence suggests that ethnicity, specifically a BAME background and obesity may also be associated with increased vulnerability, particularly in the presence of these risk factors.

Managers should seek to identify locally, in their team or service, those staff who may have increased vulnerability. Age and ethnicity of staff will already be known to managers but not necessarily any underlying health situation. In normal circumstances it is not

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appropriate for managers to seek health information from staff beyond functional capabilities.

However, in the current situation health assessment by Occupational Health of all staff involved in this exercise will not be practicable and enquiry by managers of the presence of any underlying health condition would not be unreasonable, subject to caution about sensitivity and confidentiality.

It should not necessarily be assumed that staff, even with identified vulnerabilities, working in areas with the highest concentration of COVID-19 patients, such as ICU, will be at the greatest risk. This depends upon the extent to which the risk of exposure is controlled by the measures above, including appropriate PPE. It is important to consider all aspects including the workforce, workplace and the individual. There is a need for supportive conversations between staff and managers which take into account staff concerns and preferences allowing effective decision making about deployment. This should include adjustments in the workplace if appropriate.

Some staff, including those who have underlying health conditions or particular concerns and anxieties about their health or work may require further assessment, advice and support through Occupational Health to facilitate decision making and risk reduction.

A Practical Route to Risk Reduction The COVID-19 Risk Assessment Framework may help managers to make an assessment of workplace and personnel factors which should be considered as part of risk management and reduction.

We recommend the assessment is completed by a line manager, supervisor, designated senior manager or health and safety representative, in a one to one consultation with their staff in a sensitive manner, taking into consideration staff mental well-being.

Employers need to ensure that cultural factors are also taken into consideration so that staff have the confidence to openly discuss and resolve their concerns.

The framework complements existing guidance and takes into account emerging evidence that co-morbidities combined with ethnicity may be associated with increased vulnerability to COVID-19.

The framework assumes that community exposure is lower than in hospital settings, but this may not be the case, for example if PPE is incorrectly used. Key considerations to be taken into account when making the assessment includes staff location:

Mojatu Covid-19 Support Work • • •

Primary care or community based?

Hospital based?

In an environment where Aerosol Generating Procedures (AGPs) are performed?

Individual assessment Four factors need to be considered: 1. Age Those aged over 70 have already been identified

by PHE as ‘clinically vulnerable’ and should take particular care to minimise contact with others outside their own household. Most will already be working remotely. The Framework also identifies that risks of severe COVID-19 increase with age and that adverse outcomes occur at an earlier age in BAME populations.

2. Sex Data globally and from UK are emerging that COVID-19 disproportionately affects men with UK data showing approximately 60% of people admitted to hospital being male. In addition, this same data also showed that female sex was associated with a 20% lower mortality.

3. Underlying health conditions ‘Clinically extremely vulnerable’ People with health conditions in this group, identified by PHE, should have already received a letter about this or will have been contacted6 by their GP. They have been advised that shielding is required but the staff can still continue alternative duties from home. Some may be able to work from their shielded environment if practicable. ‘Clinically vulnerable’ people are those with underlying health conditions, or comorbidities which place them at increased risk.

Emerging evidence suggests that particular conditions: hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic kidney disease are especially important risk factors, and these risk factors are increased in those of BAME population. Obesity has now also emerged as an independent risk factor for COVID-19 hospitalisation in the UK setting.

4. Ethnicity BAME populations appear to be associated with increased risks, particularly in those with comorbidities who are presenting with adverse outcomes at a younger age.

5. Pregnancy Existing guidance identifies that pregnant women over 28 weeks should be regarded as at increased risk and recommended to stay at home.

For pregnant women with underlying health conditions at any stage of pregnancy a more precautionary approach is required, and ethnicity should be included in the consideration and discussion between healthcare staff and managers.

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Where pregnancy is under 28 weeks gestation working in a patient facing environment should be on the basis that the risk assessment supports this.

Reducing workplace risk The Risk Reduction Framework may help employers ensure appropriate adjustments are made to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 in high risk NHS staff. Employers will need to take into considerations local circumstances and other structural factors when making decisions in consultation with their staff.

This may include redeployment of those deemed at highest risk of adverse outcomes such as redeployment to lower risk environments. In the acute sector, as the NHS begins to focus on the development of green (COVID-19 negative clinical pathways) and blue (potential COVID-19 patient pathways) pathways, organisations will find that potential redeployment opportunities to green pathways will exist either within or across organisations and therefore where an organisation cannot redeploy staff within an organisation, it should consider redeployment across the health system.

In primary care, roles which are not directly patient facing are emerging and could be used as redeployment opportunities, or measures such as avoiding direct contact in hot hubs might be appropriate precautions.

In the community, higher levels of testing within nursing homes and community settings will identify areas of lower occupational risk.

Managers may also consider referral to occupational health for further assessment of risk factors related to underlying health conditions and their management and for psychological support.

Staff should also be able to access occupational health, on a self-referral basis. Occupational Health services should include an accredited specialist in occupational medicine.

There is an urgent need for a greater level of understanding as to why workers, and indeed patients including those from a BAME background, appear to have a disproportionately increased morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 infection.

A significant research and audit programme is also currently underway. This is the first attempt to create such a Risk Reduction Framework with currently available evidence and the Tool will be reviewed and updated in light of any evidence. It is however important to acknowledge is this area is continuously evolving and this framework provides a baseline but remains fluid.

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34 category

AT HOME

SHOULDN’T MEAN AT RISK

OF DOMESTIC ABUSE #YOUARENOTALONE

If you are controlled or physically, sexually, economically or emotionally abused by a partner, ex-partner or family member, this is domestic abuse. Household isolation rules do not apply.

Police and support services remain available.

If you are in immediate danger, or suspect someone else is, call 999.

If you are unable to talk, call 999, listen to the operator and then either press 55 on a mobile, when prompted, or wait on a landline to be connected to the police, who will be able to help.

If you’re worried you, or someone you know, may be experiencing domestic abuse: The Freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline run by Refuge offers support for women: 0808 2000 247

The free Respect Men’s Advice Line offers support for men: 0808 801 0327 Galop’s free National LGBTQ+ Domestic Abuse Helpline offers support for LGBTQ+ people: 0800 999 5428 The free Respect Phoneline offers support for men and women who are harming their partners and families: 0808 802 4040 The free NSPCC helpline offers support for anyone worried about a child: 0808 800 5000

Find more support, online and text relay services at gov.uk/domestic-abuse

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VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE REMINDED #YouAreNotAlone

By Wendy Olayiwola

Government campaign reminds us that help and support remains available for victims of domestic abuse and their children The government is reminding victims of domestic abuse that police response and support services remain available for victims and their children during the coronavirus pandemic through the ongoing #YouAreNotAlone initiative.

Domestic abuse includes physical, psychological, sexual, emotional and economic abuse and can be carried out not only by a partner or ex-partner, but also a family member. Whoever the perpetrator and whatever form the domestic abuse takes, all domestic abuse is a crime.

The campaign reassures victims of domestic abuse that they can still leave home to seek help during the COVID-19 pandemic, if this is possible. Anyone in immediate danger should call 999 and the police will respond. Anyone who is worried that they, or someone they know, may be experiencing domestic abuse can find support at gov.uk/domestic-abuse or by calling the freephone 24-hour national domestic abuse helpline being provided by Refuge on 0808 2000 247.

For victims of domestic abuse who are concerned about their immigration status, the message is the same, you are not alone, police response and support services remain available for victims and their children.

Wendy Olayiwola FRSA President, Nigerian Nurses Charitable Association UK (NNCA UK) said “At the moment we are being asked to stay home as much as possible to keep ourselves and others safe, but we know that for some people home isn’t necessarily the safe haven it should be.

“If you are living with someone who is hurting you, threatening you or doing anything that makes you feel scared, then it is really important you take action immediately. No one should have to deal with domestic abuse alone and there is no shame in seeking help.

While it may seem a very difficult step to take, there is support out there for you. We’re supporting the Government’s #YouAreNotAlone campaign and we urge anyone who is worried about domestic abuse to seek support now.”

Find more support at gov.uk/domestic-abuse or call one of the following helplines: o The Freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline run by Refuge for victims in England: 0808 2000 247 o The 24-hour Live Fear Free helpline for domestic abuse victims in Wales: 0808 80 10 800 or text 078600 77 333. o The Men’s Advice line offers support for male victims of domestic abuse: 0808 801 0327. o The National Honour-Based Abuse helpline run

by Karma Nirvana offers support to victims of “honour”-based abuse and forced marriage: 0800 5999 247. o The national FGM helpline, run by the NSPCC, offers guidance and support if you are concerned that someone has experienced, or may experience, FGM: 0800 028 3550. o The National LGBTQ+ helpline offers support for LGTBQ+ victims: 0800 999 5428

36 Mojatu Covid-19 Support Work

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CORONAVIRUS: BAME DEATHS URGENTLY NEED TO BE UNDERSTOOD, INCLUDING ANY POTENTIAL GENETIC COMPONENT

By Ana Valdes The difference in COVID-19 death rates between white people and black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in the UK is shocking.

One recent report found that, between the beginning of February and the end of April 2020, black people in England were 71% more likely than white people to die from COVID-19 while Asians were 62% more likely.

From the start of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been an attempt to use science to explain the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on different groups through the prism of race. This disparity has led to an inquiry by Public Health England and funding for urgent academic research into the issue. Data from the UK and the US suggests that people categorised as black, Hispanic (Latino) and south Asian are more likely to die from the disease. The way this issue is often discussed, but also the response of some scientists, would suggest that there may be some biological reason for the higher death rates based on genetic differences between these groups and their white counterparts. However, there are clear links between people’s racial groups, their socioeconomic status, what happens to them once they are infected and the outcome of their infection.

There are many social reasons why ethnic minorities may generally be more vulnerable to disease, including a greater chance of malnutrition, more exposure to pollution due to where they live, or greater likelihood of working in less healthy environments. Inequality and poverty also play a role in the fact that BAME people are more likely to suffer conditions that we know are linked to a greater chance of dying from COVID-19, such as

diabetes and heart disease. But that won’t change the fact that the generally worse health among BAME groups in western societies is strongly linked to socioeconomic factors that are known to play a very significant role in this pandemic.

Initial data suggests that BAME healthcare workers are more likely to die from COVID-19 than their white colleagues. British Medical Association research has found that BAME doctors are twice as likely as white doctors to feel pressured into working with inadequate PPE when they are at risk of infection. And they are twice as likely not to feel confident enough to raise concerns about workplace safety. However, all these established facts alone do not seem to explain why the risks of COVID-19 vary between different ethnic groups and are lowest among white people.

But the reality is there is no evidence that the genes used to divide people into races are linked to how our immune system responds to viral infections. There are certain genetic mutations that can be found among specific ethnic groups that can play a role in the body’s immune response. But because of the loose definition of race (primarily based on genes for skin colour) and recent population movements, these should be seen as unreliable indicators when it comes to susceptibility to viral infections.

You only have to look at how the statistics are gathered to understand how these issues are confused. The research reveals that data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics that has been used to highlight the disparate death rates separates Indians from Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, and yet groups all Africans (including

black Caribbeans). This makes no sense in terms of race, ethnicity or genetics. The data also shows those males categorised as black are over 4.6 times more likely to die than their white counterparts from the virus. They are followed by Pakistanis/Bangladeshis (just over four times more likely to die), and then Chinese and Indians (just over 2.5 times).

This problem arises even with recent analysis that purportedly show people from ethnic minorities are no more likely to die once you consider the effects of other illnesses and deprivation. Meanwhile, in the US the groups most disproportionately affected are African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos. All these groups come from very different population groups. We’ve also seen high death rates in Brazil, China and Italy, all of whom have very different populations using the classical definition of race. The idea that COVID-19 discriminates along traditional racial lines is created by these statistics and fails to adequately portray what’s really going on. These kinds of assumptions ignore the fact that there is as much genetic variation within racialised groups as there is between the whole human population.

There are some medical conditions with a higher prevalence in some racialised groups, such as sickle cell anaemia, and differences in how some groups respond to certain drugs. But these are traits linked to single genes and all transcend the traditional definitions of race. Such “monogenetic” traits affect a very small subset of many populations, such as some southern Europeans and south Asians who also have a predisposition to sickle cell anaemia. Death from COVID-19 is also linked to pre-existing

Mojatu Covid-19 Support Work conditions that appear in higher levels in black and south Asian groups, such as diabetes. The argument that this may provide a genetic underpinning is only partly supported by the limited evidence that links genetics to diabetes. The way people’s immune systems work depends on genetic factors, not just environmental and social ones.

There are effectively two parts to our immune systems. One is the part that produces antibodies, called the “adaptive immune system”.

When our body has never seen a virus before, it can take several days for it to produce them, which is why some people get sick in the first place. We also have an “innate immune system” that acts before our body has had time to make antibodies. This system is strong in children and young people, but not very good after the age of 65. This is likely to be one reason why older people are at higher risk of dying of COVIDv-19.

However, the ONS figures confirm that genes predisposing people to diabetes cannot be the same as those that predispose to COVID-19.

Otherwise, Indians would be affected as much as Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, who belong to the same genome-wide association group. Any genetic differences that may predispose you to

diabetes are heavily influenced by environmental factors. There isn’t a “diabetes gene” linking the varying groups which are affected COVID-19. But the prevalence of these so-called “lifestyle” diseases in racialised groups is strongly linked to social factors. Other evidence suggests higher death rates from COVID-19 including among racialised groups might be linked to higher levels of a cell surface receptor molecule known as ACE2. But this can result from taking drugs for diabetes and hypertension, which takes us back to the point about the social causes of such diseases.

According to scientific researches, women can have a more effective innate immune response to other viruses such as HIV than men, and that oestrogen, the female hormone, enhances this type of immune response. Women are also less likely to die from COVID-19 than men. The research also reveals that human populations from different parts of the planet have had to adapt to different types of infections. Ethnic differences in the risk to other respiratory viral diseases have been linked to genetic variation, and these variants are different in BAME groups and white people in these same pathways. However, the role

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of ethnicity in genetic susceptibility to viral diseases is still controversial.

In the absence of any genetic link between racial groups and susceptibility to the virus, we are left with the reality, which seems more difficult to accept, that these groups are suffering more from how our societies are organised.

There is no clear evidence that higher levels of conditions such as type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and weakened immune systems in disadvantaged communities are because of inherent genetic predispositions.

But there is evidence they are the result of structural racism. All these underlying problems can be directly connected to the food and exercise you have access to, the level of education, employment, housing, healthcare, economic and political power within these communities.

The evidence suggests that this coronavirus does not discriminate but highlights existing discriminations.

The continued prevalence of ideas about race today – despite the lack of any scientific basis – shows how these ideas can mutate to provide justification for the power structures that have ordered our society since the 18th century.

Edited by Pa Modou Faal

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38 Arts & Culture

Six Perfect Pre And Post Lockdown Books

By Marcelle Mateki Akita

It has been a couple of weeks since the world stopped and reconsidered its operation which meant that our everyday lives have dramatically changed. New ways of communication, information flow, trading were introduced – where possible – to maintain the social innervation to the fullest.

Despite many aspects in our lives have changed some other activities got less and less attention as there were no alternatives for them.

Abi Daré’s The Girl With The Louding Voice introduces the life of a Nigerian fourteen year old wife who despite her hopeless situation finds motivation to get education and to speak up for herself. The story shows her route to find happiness and wealth, while helping other girls coming from similar backgrounds and possibilities.

Among these activities there is one, whose product could have definitely made our lockdown a bit more fun, the physical book launch events. The product itself is the released books of course, but because their launch did not get as much attention as it should have, their popularity did not grow exponentially. As now some governments decided to open up their shops, educational institutions and even hold festivals to reintroduce the normal daily habits, it is now time to get some insight of these newly published but less known books by African authors.

The memoir of Esuantsiwa Jane Goldsmith The Space Between Black and White addresses the isolation and difficulties of being mixed-raced person in Britain. Studying racial politics, she became committed to fight injustice wherever she travelled, and support women through Women’s lib and Black Power movement. Her life story of becoming the first Black woman president of Leicester University Students’ Union and her path to find the truth about her heritage is not just moving but inspiring.

First, there is Minna Salami’s newest work Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone where she introduces the ideology of radical Black feminism in the modern context where our world is dominated by privilege and power. It shows a different approach to see our lives and to reconsider our actions from a perspective that is widely unknown and ignored.

Jesse McCarthy the main character of Paul Mendez’s Rainbow Milk grew up in a Jehova’s Witness family who then moved to London alone for a better life. In London he feels disempowered by the experienced racial injustice and turns to sex work to generate his income. The book honestly explores how race, class, freedom, sexuality and religion shape a person’s life and even destiny.

Following to Irene Sabatini’s An Act of Defiance where the Winner of the 2010 Orange Award for New Writers upfolds the political violence, power and crises in the Zimbabwean society. She tells the story through a young woman who fights for justice and love but faces numerous obstacles and attacks which shapes her idea of the society and political presence.

Lastly, the Songs We Learn from Trees: An Anthology of Ethiopian Amharic Poetry is the first of its kind as anthology of Ethiopian poetry in English have not existed before. This publication includes all aspects of Ethiopian poetry from religious works through flowering poems to warrior boasts, to show what it means to be an Ethiopian today. https://africanarguments.org/2020/06/04/six-lockdownafrican-books-you-might-have-missed/

Nottingham connected

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MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK

by Angela Wathoni

Fearless Youth Association (FYA) in partnership with FMB Radio and Farmeco Community Care explored mental health discussions for mental health awareness week 2020.

MHA Episode 1: FROM A Listen at: https://fmbradio.

Anna Nagy and Nikoletta Mayer CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE, WHY IS podbean.com/e/lets-talk-mentaltackle the topic of depression, MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS SO health-in-the-21st-century/ specifically during lockdown or IMPORTANT? after moving abroad and what helped them coming out of the MHA Episode 3: Life In A Foreign void of bad thoughts.

Country.

Fearless Youth Association (FYA) in partnership with FMB Radio explore mental health discussions for mental health awareness week 2020.

Listen at: https://fmbradio. podbean.com/e/ mentalhealthcreativity/ MHA Episode 2: LET’S TALK MENTAL HEALTH IN THE 21ST CENTURY.

Salome Njogu and Mugwe Njuguna given us an understanding of what mental health is and how different actions and beliefs have made them what they are today.

Listen at: https://fmbradio. podbean.com/e/mha-how-canyour-mental-health-be-influencedby-the-country-you-live-in/ Ann Waruga and Rejoice Bubala talk about life in a foreign country.

Both from Africa, they share with us what its like to go to a different continent and how life has changed for them since enrolling for University. They also provide some solutions that have helped improve their wellbeing.

Listen at: https://fmbradio. podbean.com/e/mha-life-in-aforeign-country/ MHA Episode 4: HOW CAN YOUR MENTAL HEALTH BE INFLUENCED BY THE COUNTRY YOU LIVE IN?

MHA Episode 5: MENTAL HEALTH PODCAST WITH DAVID ROSE AND TIM SAYERS.

With the week coming to an end of mental health week, we at Farmeco explored more about mental health and wellbeing and we were graced by a Farmeco shareholder, Tim Sayers who enlightened us more about mental wellbeing.

Listen at: https://farmeco.podbean. com/e/mental-health-podcastwith-david-rose-and-tim-sayers/

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40 Health & Food

WHICH IS BETTER FOR YOUR HEALTH: WALKING OR RUNNING?

By Jane Chertoff Overview Walking and running are both excellent forms of cardiovascular exercise. Neither is necessarily “better” than the other. The choice that’s best for you depends entirely on your fitness and health goals.

If you’re looking to burn more calories or lose weight fast, running is a better choice. But walking can also offer numerous benefits for your health, including helping you maintain a healthy weight.

Benefits of cardio Walking and running are both aerobic cardiovascular, or “cardio” exercise. Some of the health benefits of cardio include:

• • • • • •

helps you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight increases stamina boosts immune system helps prevent or manage chronic conditions strengthens your heart can extend your life

Cardiovascular exercise is also good for your mental

health. One study found that just 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise three times a week reduces anxiety and depression. It can also improve your mood and self-esteem.

Researchers from the study also say that it’s not necessary to exercise for 30 straight minutes to experience these benefits. Walking for 10 minutes at a time three times a day resulted in the same mental health boost.

Is walking better than running?

Walking can provide a lot of the same benefits of running. But running burns nearly double the number of calories as walking.

For example, for someone who’s 160 pounds, running at 5 miles per hour (mph) burns 606 calories. Walking briskly for the Qsame amount of time at 3.5 mph burns just 314 calories.

You need to burn approximately 3,500 calories to lose one pound. If your goal is to lose weight, running is a better choice than walking.

If you’re new to exercise or aren’t able to run, walking

Nottingham connected can still help you get in shape. Walking is accessible for nearly all fitness levels. It can boost your heart and give you more energy overall.

Walking vs. running for weight loss Speed and power walking vs. running Speed walking is walking at a brisk pace, usually 3 mph or greater. Your heart rate is elevated during speed walking. You can burn more calories this way than walking at your usual pace.

Power walking is usually considered from 3 mph to 5 mph, but some power walkers reach speeds of 7 to 10 mph. Power walking burns a similar number of calories as running. For example, power walking at 4.5 mph for one hour would burn the same as jogging at 4.5 mph for one hour.

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Over time, running may lead to common overuse injuries such as:

• • •

stress fractures shin splints ITB friction syndrome

In fact, runners have a much higher risk for exerciserelated injury than walkers. Walkers have an approximate 1 to 5 percent injury risk, while runners have a 20 to 70 percent chance.

If you’re a runner, you can take steps to stay injuryfree. Don’t increase your mileage too quickly and try to cross-train several times a week. Or, try walking instead. Walking offers many of the health benefits of running without the same risks for injury.

Takeaway

For an effective workout, try pace training. Increase your speed for two minutes at a time, then slow back down. Speed walking doesn’t burn as many calories as running, but it can be an effective workout to elevate your heart rate, boost your mood, and improve your aerobic fitness level.

Both walking and running are excellent forms of cardiovascular exercise. Aim to get at least 150 minutes of moderate cardio exercise each week for your health.

Walking with a weighted vest

If you’re new to running, start with a program where you alternate between walking and running, such as Couch to 5K. Always check with your doctor before beginning a new exercise routine.

Walking with a weighted vest may increase the number of calories you burn. To stay safe, wear a vest that’s no more than 5 to 10 percent of your body weight.

If you’re looking for an alternative way to lose weight or tone your muscles, try interval walking instead.

Pick up the speed for a certain amount of time before slowing down. Or alternatively, try walking with light dumbbells in each hand.

Incline walking vs. running Incline walking involves walking uphill. It can burn a similar number of calories as running. You burn more calories at an incline than just walking on a flat surface.

Look for a hilly area or walk on an incline on the treadmill. Increase the incline by 5, 10, or 15 percent at a time to practice incline walking. If you’re new to incline walking, you can start gradually and work up to a 15 percent incline.

Benefits vs. risks Running is a great way to get in shape and lose weight.

But it’s a high-impact exercise. High-impact workouts can be harder on your body than low-impact exercises like walking.

Walking is a smart choice if you’re new to exercise and hoping to get in shape. If you’re looking to lose weight or burn more calories, try running.

42 Business & Finance

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COVID-19 IS DEVASTATING SOMALIA’S REMITTANCE FINANCIAL LIFELINE Briefing for UK Government This briefing is based on research by the Anti-Tribalism Movement on how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted remittances from the United Kingdom to Somalia. It calls for urgent action by UK Government to address the highlighted concerns. Before Covid-19 an average of £320.19 per person was remitted falling to an average of £144.58 per person during the COVID-19 pandemic. Average of 3.5 people in Somalia are reliant on remittance and nearly 80% say dependents can no longer by essential items, 68% said dependents can no longer afford health care while 55% said they can no longer afford children’s education. 1 in every 5 self-employed Somalis are planning to apply for the government income scheme while only 44% of affected Somalis are aware of the UK government income support schemes for employed and selfemployed people In order to get a better sense of the scale and nuances of the problem in the UK, we carried out research with Somalis across the country. The aim is to understand the impact of Covid-19 amongst British Somalis in terms of income and remittances, and to get an idea of how this may in turn affect Somalia.

In normal times, migrants and minority communities regularly remit money to vulnerable households in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. These global remittances, estimated at $554 billion in 2019, provide a financial lifeline for millions of people by contributing significantly to nutrition, higher education, healthcare, and financial security to reduce pressure to participate in exploitative practices such as child labour.

Those who receive remittances find it easier to ‘access credit, repay debts… and smooth out fluctuations in overall household expenditures. In fragile states, remittance income is also used for humanitarian activities, peace building and strengthening national institutions. The Covid-19 pandemic and resultant economic disruption have devastated this financial lifeline. The incomes of millions around the world have been drastically reduced or wiped out, with minorities and migrants hit hardest as they tend to be in the most insecure jobs. In addition, Somali Money Transfer Operators (MTOs) in the UK face a particular set of challenges.

Many Somali MTOs with reach across all of Somalia, rather than just a few regions of the country, cannot accept remittances online as they cannot open UK bank accounts. This has been the case since 2013, when banks closed Somali MTO accounts in response to fears of terrorism funding and weak finance regulatory

infrastructure in Somalia. However, both concerns are being addressed by the Somali government: AlShabaab’s influence has been curtailed, and new federal government legislation is helping control money laundering and terrorist financing. The International Monetary Fund, African Development Bank and World Bank recently waived debts of around $2bn in recognition of the progress made by the Somali Government in financial regulation. The absence of banking facilities makes it difficult for UK Somalis to make online remittances, so most go into a branch to remit. However, lockdown measures have led to most branches closing.

So, the few UK Somalis who can still remit cannot do so easily, and humanitarian funds raised by the diaspora cannot find their way to where they are needed.

Alarmingly, global remittances in 2020 are expected to fall by 20% to $445bn, possibly the largest fall in recent history. Somalia is particularly heavily reliant on remittances. In normal times, by conservative estimates, the Somali diaspora sends home somewhere between USD 1.3bn and 2bn each year in the form of personal remittances. This is roughly a third of Somalia’s GDP and more than the international aid the country receives. The Somali diaspora of over 1.2 million people is clustered in countries with high Covid-19 fatalities including the UK, US, Sweden, Netherlands and Italy.

As the economies of these countries suffer, the volume of remittances to Somalia drops, possibly already by as much as 50% in certain corridors. This is catastrophic at any time but particularly so in a year where the country is reeling from severe drought, massive floods, and the largest locust invasion in decades. This follows years of violence, drought and flooding which have left more than five million Somalis reliant on humanitarian aid.

The UK’s International Development Secretary recently said that Covid-19 is a health, humanitarian, and economic crisis which could ‘undo 30 years of international development work.’ Since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, ATM has witnessed significant distress in the UK Somali community. There are many triggers: minority communities’ higher vulnerability to Covid-19, higher poverty and lower financial resilience, and higher risk of job losses.

But a very big feature in the anxiety landscape is the interruption of their ability to send money to Somalia. The Somali community takes its obligation to family ‘back home’ very seriously and anything that disrupts their ability to take care of dependents causes overwhelming anxiety, fear and worry.

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44 Education & Career

WHITE PRIVILEGE AGAINST BLACK AND BROWN REPRESSION

By Christina Marie Noel I recognize the word “privilege” can make some people feel uncomfortable. However, as White people living in the United States, we all benefit from a certain level of privilege. Examples of this privilege include: We are privileged in that we don’t have to fear for our lives when we interact with the police.

We are privileged in that we don’t have to fear for our children’s lives when they walk or run down the street.

My friend recently shared a heart-breaking article exploring a mother’s fear of her child being perceived as a threat because of his skin colour.

We are privileged in that our cultural names are less likely to influence whether we’re given the opportunity to interview for certain jobs. According to this study since 1989, whites receive on average 36% more callbacks than African Americans, and 24% more callbacks than Latinos.

We are privileged because assumptions and opinions about us are not based on the colour of our skin.

A research study by Harrison and Thomas suggest that skin colour is regarded more highly than one’s educational background and prior work experience.

The term “White privilege” is nuanced, and it is not meant to say that successful white people do not work hard or earn their accomplishments. Rather, we have an advantage throughout our lives because we are white.

I especially appreciate the following quote from this Teaching Tolerance article that explores the term and its true meaning: “White privilege is not just the power to find what you need in a convenience store or to move through the world without your race defining your interactions. It’s not just the subconscious comfort of seeing a world that serves you as normal. It’s also the power to remain silent in the face of racial inequity.

It’s the power to weigh the need for protest or confrontation against the discomfort or inconvenience of speaking up. It’s getting to choose when and where you want to take a stand. It’s knowing that you and your humanity are safe.” It is important to become aware of the fact that inequality is deeply entrenched throughout our systems, and these systems operate to our advantage.

To change these systems, we must consciously choose to take action.

Recognize Unconscious Bias I distinctly remember sitting in my first college class focused on exploring the history of racism when my teacher stood up and declared, “Every single one of us in this classroom is racist.” It was an uncomfortable moment. Up until that point, I would have vehemently denied that I was in any way racist. However, the teacher was correct.

Bias is a reality and, according to this 2004 study by Dasgupta, research suggests that bias affects our behaviour. Thankfully, our bias can be malleable, based on the results of a research study conducted in 2013 by Dasgupta and Greenwald. Given this, it’s important to become aware of the ways in which we are unconsciously biased.

• • • • •

Ask yourself: How do you perceive other races or cultures?

What assumptions might you be making about other people subconsciously?

How might your beliefs affect the decisions you make?

Racialequitytools.org pulled together this comprehensive list of resources focused on implicit bias Resources to fight racism and bias from the nonprofit organization RespectAbility

By proactively working to recognize our biases, we can be more conscious about the decisions we make.

Learn About the History of Systemic Racism and Its Impact on Society Today. “Race is a social construct”; this article by Ta-Nehisi Coates for the Atlantic explores the nuances of what this actually means. Scientifically, it is estimated that we are 99.9% genetically the same as a human race, according to the National Genome Institute of Research.

The only reasons various races look different is based on where our ancestors lived and the weather they had to endure, which their outer appearance adjusted to.

Racism was created as a tool to divide us and to justify the treatment of certain people as “other.” By taking the time to understand the history of racism, you will gain a better understanding of how we got to where we are today. The United States’ history, when written by white people, began when Christopher Columbus “discovered” North America—even though it was already inhabited by Indigenous people.

Nottingham connected Our capitalistic society greatly benefitted from the wealth created by slavery.

For Black Americans, even after slavery was abolished, segregation and systemic racism led to housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and the creation of the school-to-prison pipeline.

In addition to taking multiple college classes that explored the complex, multi-cultural history of racism, I attended a training hosted by the Racial Equity Institute (REI) that provided an eye-opening history of racism and systemic inequality. REI believes it is important to first understand racism before you can begin to dismantle it.

Become an Ally To effect systemic change, we all must ultimately become anti-racist allies. When I first became interested in understanding diversity, equity, and inclusion, I initially felt unsure of my role as a white person in the work to dismantle racism. If no one has invited you to join the fight yet, please consider this your official invitation to become an ally.

While we did not personally create the systems that led to systemic racism, it’s up to all of us to work together to correct our systems that support white supremacy.

As I have worked to become a better ally, I’ve begun to ask myself questions about the systems in which I live, and I serve: • • • • • •

Do the organizations I work in and with reflect the diversity of my community, at all levels of the organization?

Is my organization’s culture one that is currently capable of being inclusive to all people?

When my organization hires for new roles, do we interview a diverse set of candidates?

Do I, as an individual, have a personal network that is diverse (keeping in mind that employee referrals are the top source for hires)?

Whenever I host events, do I make sure we have a diverse set of speakers?

By asking these questions I have become more conscious in the decisions I make as a leader.

As a white woman, I also recognize that I have been made aware of a unique form of privilege. Amy Cooper isn’t the only recent example of a white woman who has used her privilege to try to harm people of Colour.

You might recall that in 2018, a white woman called the police at a Starbucks and had two black men arrested.

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This incident led Starbucks to close its 8,000 stores to educate employees about racial bias. Soon after the Starbucks incident, I read this article that explores the weary weaponizing of white women’s tears. It’s a challenging read, but an important one. I shared the article with my network with the hope that it might help others become more self-aware. Beyond the small steps I’ve taken over many years, I know that I still have a lot of listening, learning, and reading to do to continue to become a better ally and to fully grasp what roles I can play to support the work that is needed to dismantle White supremacy, colonialism, and the patriarchy.

While this article focuses heavily on the racism experienced by Black Americans, it’s also important to note that racism impacts all People of Colour in our country — from the persecution of Muslim people since the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the overt acts of racism that Asian Americans are experiencing in light of the pandemic.

If you are a parent, raise your children to not fear people of colour and to understand racism. Here’s an article with a plethora of resources to help parents raise antiracist children. I am confident that there are many additional resources available to help people on this journey, and it would be fantastic if you can share any resources that you recommend in the response section below.

Once you embark on the path to becoming an ally, it’s important to know that you will likely make mistakes. I fully own that I’m a work in progress. I’ve started to write articles similar to this one in the past and never ended up finalizing them. If I’m being completely honest, a large part of my hesitation to write about racism has stemmed from the fear of somehow “getting it wrong.”

I was afraid I might offend someone, use the wrong language, or accidentally be disrespectful in some way.

Rationally, I recognize that I need to set aside my own fears and needs when the reality is that systemic racism is claiming people’s lives. Rationally, I want to do everything in my power to ensure that all people are treated equally. But as humans, we aren’t rational.

I want to be fully transparent about my fears because I suspect that fear gets in the way for many of us.

Don’t let fear be an excuse for inaction. Start where you are and have the humility to learn how to do better one step at a time. Do the research. Make time to listen and learn. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or shy from challenging conversations. Be bold enough to speak up. Through our collective action, we can create systemic change.

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Nottingham connected Female Genital Mutilation category

FGM – FACTS, HELP & ACTIONS

47

Facts

• FGM is any procedure that intentionally alter or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

• FGM has been illegal in England and Wales since 1985.

• FGM is a form of child abuse and violence against women and girls.

• It is an offence to fail to protect a girl from the risk of FGM. • FGM is Non-Islamic, against the teachings of Islam and brings Islam into disrepute.

• FGM is putting the health of our daughters, sisters, mothers and wives at great risk.

• FGM affects girls and women both physically, emotionally and psychologically.

• Over 200 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM. • 10,000 girls aged under 15 who have migrated to England and Wales are likely to have undergone FGM. Taking Th • In Nottingham, about 85 new cases were recorded through NHS in 2016/17.

Taking The City To the Fa Taking The City To the Farm

Help

Are you concerned a girl or woman is at risk or need support?

• Are you from an affected community in Nottingham wanting to make a difference: • Join the Community FGM Steering Group: Contact us • For emotional & peer support for survivors in Nottingham, join the FGM Survivor’s club: Contact us Free • Refer survivors needing medical attention to FGM medical specialist in Nottingham: Contact us Sessions: Free Refugee • Drop in sessions at Mojatu Offices 167 Alfreton Road, Nottingham, NG7 3JR: ContactSeeker us Sessions: Free FGM helpline Refugees & Asylum • Call 0808 028 350 for a 24/7 anonymous or email: fgmhelp@nspcc.org.uk Tuesdays Seekers Welcome Sessions: • Call Nottingham City Council Children and Families Direct: 0115 876 4800 Saturdays Certifica Tuesdays • Ring the police on 999 if FGM has just happened or about to happen Saturdays Certificates Offered ADOP Tuesdays Activities include: Saturdays ADOPT A TREE include:Fruit Harvesting Actions Activities Fruit Harvesting Tree Management Activities To help end FGM and support survivors, join oneinclude: of our campaigns or projects Tree ManagementWeeding for Pumpkin Fruit Harvesting • FGM Survivors Club • Volunteer with us Feeding the animals Weeding for Pumpkins & Maize Form Tree Management • FGM Steering Group • ‘Adopt a tree’ project https://go Feeding the animals Pumpkins & Maize • FGM Global Faith Ambassador Weeding• for Donate to support our work Form online @ • FGM Global Young Ambassador Feeding •the Fundraise our work oodland 9sz animals to support https://goo.gl/WyH

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African Proverb

Need for diversity: In the U.K. only 0.2% of journalists are Black compared to 3% of the population and 0.4% are Muslim compared to 4.8% of the population.

Source: https://bit.ly/3ihSgH2

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