Now that we've got the agenda confirmed, I'm looking forward to What's Happening in Black British History? IV (#WHBBH4) all the more!

It's going to be at Watershed, Bristol on Thursday 7th April. A whole day talking about Black British History! We've got sessions on:
1. Engaging with Archives: from the personal to the political, resistance and healing. 
 
2. Women in Black British History: artists, abolitionists and Black Power activists.

3.Local Black British Histories: exploring the Black British Histories of the South West, from Bristol and Bath, to Devon, Dorset and South Wales. 

You can read the full programme on the Black British History website here, or below. 

I really hope you want to join us! If you do, please register for your place online here. Tickets are £20/ £10 concessions.

Hope to see you next month! 

Plenty is happening in Black British History- according to the Mail on Sunday, the OCR GCSE course ‘Migration To Britain c. 1000 to c. 2010’ which we heralded at WHBBH3 has been condemned as ‘pro-immigration propaganda’. The #RhodesMustFall campaign in Oxford is provoking widespread debate about Britain’s colonial legacy, as well as the significance of our public monuments; and a new BBC Two History series ‘A Black History of Britain’, presented by David Olusoga, is planning to erect over twenty specially designed ‘BBC Black History plaques’ to record and celebrate people and events that are pivotal to this history.
 
Following the success of our previous events in London and Liverpool, we would like to invite you to the fourth of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies’ Black British History Workshops at Watershed, Bristol, on Thursday 7th April 2016. The Bristol workshop will be co-sponsored by the University of the West of England (UWE) and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies.
 
The aim of the series is to foster a creative dialogue between researchers, educationalists (mainstream and supplementary), artists and writers, archivists and curators, and policy makers. It seeks to identify and promote innovative new research into the history of people of African origin or descent in the UK, and facilitate discussion of the latest developments in the dissemination of Black British history in a wide variety of settings including the media, the classroom and lecture hall, and museums and galleries, thus providing an opportunity to share good practice.

​At this fourth workshop, we would like to open the floor to presentations on any aspect of Black British History. As we will be in Bristol, local and regional or family histories from Bristol and the South-West would also be welcome.
 
The workshop will be divided into three panels, followed by a round-table discussion. Each panel will consist of three presentations lasting for 15-20 minutes.

We would be delighted to hear from researchers, educationalists, artists, writers, archivists and curators or others interested in offering a presentation. Please submit a title and a brief description of your presentation either in writing (in which case, of no more than 300 words) or in some other form (for example a clip or podcast) to Dr. Miranda Kaufmann at miranda.kaufmann@sas.ac.uk by 26th February 2016.
 
In addition, we would be happy to consider proposals for a complete panel. The panel should have a coherent unifying theme, and the proposal should include the abstracts of three related presentations and the names and affiliations of the presenters. We would also be interested in providing A-level students, undergraduates or graduate students with an opportunity to give presentations on projects relating to Black British History.
 
The day will run from 11am to 6.00pm, followed by a Reception. There will be a registration fee of £20 (£10 for students/unwaged) to cover the costs of lunch and refreshments. A limited number of travel bursaries will be available to independent speakers on application. Requests to register should be sent to olga.jimenez@sas.ac.uk.

If you only go to one event this Black History Month, make it #WHBBH3! We've got an great line-up of engaging, informed speakers who will spend the day discussing how to challenge the conventional narratives, the practicalities of teaching Black British History, and giving us some new perspectives on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Then, our expert panel will provide an opportunity to reflect on the day's discussions, before we finish off the day with a Drinks Reception. 

Just to whet your appetite a little more, here's a preview of what's in store:

We're delighted that pioneering activist and publisher Eric Huntley has agreed to deliver our keynote speech! The contribution he and his late wife Jessica have made to Black British culture is currently being celebrated in an acclaimed exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery, London - No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990.

We'll begin by challenging some conventional narratives. What stories do we tell our children about the past? Novelist Catherine Johnson will talk about how her fiction tells the greater truth that black people 'have always been here'. Ryan Hanley will take us beyond Equiano to explore the work of some of his lesser-known contemporaries. Then David Killingray will make some suggestions as to how the latest research can inform a new narrative of Black British History. 

A new GCSE course on migration will provide fresh opportunities for Teaching Black British History. Martin Spafford, who helped develop the course, will report on what's on offer. Then we'll hear from Dema Wonga, of Narrative Eye and Abdul Mohamud & Robin Whitburn of Justice2History about their experiences of bringing Black British History into the classroom, and the importance of an inclusive curriculum. 

Discover some new perspectives on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries! Jeffrey Green will chronicle and critique the lives of some Victorian Africans: a servant, an aristocrat, and a murderer.  Jan Marsh of the National Portrait Gallery will provide a visual perspective on Black British History, and comment on the ways museums and galleries have sought to present it. Advolly Richmond will explore the botanical legacy of  Anglo-African missionary Thomas Birch Freeman.

Speakers Abdul Mohamud and Martin Spafford will be joined on the final panel by historian Sean Creighton, Paul Reid, Director of the Black Cultural Archives, and, well, me. I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about.

If you like the sound of all that, then book your place now!

​The full programme and event details are available on the Institute of Commonwealth Studies website. 

Hope to see you there!

The third ‘What’s Happening in Black British History?' workshop (#WHBBH3) is scheduled to take place in Senate House, University of London, on Thursday, 29 October 2015. See below for the Call for Papers, or click here to download a PDF version.

Following the success of our two previous events in London and Liverpool, we would like to invite you to the third of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies’ Black British History Workshops at Senate House, London, on Thursday 29 October 2015.

The aim of the series is to foster a creative dialogue between researchers, educationalists (mainstream and supplementary), archivists and curators, and policy makers. It seeks to identify and promote innovative new research into the history of people of African origin or descent in the UK.

Researchers and archivists will provide an introduction to the ever-growing body of resources available.

We will also discuss the latest developments in the dissemination of Black British history in a wide variety of settings including the media, the classroom and lecture hall, and museums and galleries, thus providing an opportunity to share good practice.

In our third workshop we would like to explore the following themes: What kinds of new approaches to teaching Black British History might help to foster a greater interest in the field?  

   - Do current teaching approaches focus excessively on the promotion of Black British heroes/role models from history?

   - Has enough attention been paid to gender in Black British History, including the role of women and members of the LGBTQ communities?

   - To what extent does Black British History need to take into account the conscious or unconscious exclusion of people of African origin or descent from the historical record?

The workshop will be divided into three panels, followed by a round-table discussion. Each panel will consist of three presentations lasting for 15-20 minutes.

We would be delighted to hear from researchers, educationalists, archivists and curators or others interested in offering a presentation. Please submit a title and a brief description of your presentation either in writing (in which case, of no more than 300 words) or in some other form (for example a clip or podcast) with an indication of which panel you envisage contributing to, to Dr. Miranda Kaufmann at mirandackaufmann@gmail.com by 31 August 2015.

The day will run from 11am to 6.00pm, followed by a Reception.

There will be a registration fee of £20 (£5 for students/unwaged) to cover the costs of lunch and refreshments. Registration will be open on Tuesday 1st of September.

Back in 2013, I was compelled to blog when Tim Bevan, producer of the 1998 film Elizabeth, told Juliet Gardiner on Radio 4 that if a black actor had been cast “in our Elizabeth movie, you wouldn't have been able to prove that, at all.” As regular readers will know, there is indeed proof. Records survive from 1574 and 1575 showing the Queen ordering clothes for a 'lytle Blackamoore' from her tailor. Further to this, a painting known as Elizabeth I at Kenilworth shows her being entertained by a small troupe of black musicians. 

But despite evidence of some 200 Africans living in Tudor England, from Hull to Truro, we do not find it represented in popular presentations of the period, such as Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Tudors, The Other Boleyn Girl, Wolf Hall, to name but a few.

Strangely enough, a better representation comes from an unexpected source: a 2007 episode of Doctor Who!
The Shakespeare Code starred David Tennant as the Doctor, and Freema Agyeman as his companion Martha Jones. Agyeman is half Iranian and half Ghanaian, and this meant the writer, Gareth Roberts, had to consider how this would play out when she time travels to Elizabethan England. When Martha realises she has just arrived in London in 1599, she has the following exchange with the Doctor:

MARTHA
Oh, but hold on. Am I all right?  I’m not gonna get carted off as a slave, am I? 

THE DOCTOR
Why would they do that? 

MARTHA
Not exactly white, in case you haven’t noticed. 

THE DOCTOR
I’m not even human. Just walk about like you own the place.  Works for me. Besides, you’d be surprised. Elizabethan England, not so different from your time. 

At this point, two African women walk past them. In a few moments, this scene makes two important points:

1) There was a black presence in Elizabethan London 
2) The Africans in Elizabethan London were not treated as slaves

These are two points I try to convey in my work. Africans can be found in the parish registers, tax returns, court records and letters of Elizabethan London. There was no law of slavery in England. Furthermore, Africans were paid wages, baptised, married, allowed to testify in court: all indicators of freedom. In 1587, Portuguese physician Hector Nunes admitted to the Court of Requests that he had: ‘no remedie…by the course of the Common Law of this realme... to compell’ an 'Ethiopian' who 'utterly refuseth to tarry and serve' him 'to serve him duringe his life.'

Far from being carted off as a slave, Martha finds herself being courted by Shakespeare himself. 

When Shakespeare first meets Martha, he asks the Doctor 'who is your delicious blackamoor lady?' Martha is not impressed with being referred to as a 'blackamoor'.  'Oops.' says Shakespeare, 'Isn’t that a word we use nowadays?' 'Blackamoor' was in fact the most common word used to describe Africans in Tudor England. About 40% of the references I found used the word. Martha is no more impressed by the other alternatives Shakespeare posits: 'An Ethiop girl? A swarth? A Queen of Afric...' This nicely dramatises the fact that the Elizabethans would not have considered such terms offensive in the way we might now. 

This being Doctor Who, our heroes must then save the world from some aliens disguised as witches. But in the closing moments, the script makes another interesting reference. Shakespeare bids farewell to Martha: 'Martha, let me say goodbye to you in a new verse. A sonnet for my Dark Lady. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate...' The quote is from Sonnet 18, rather than one of the Dark Lady sonnets (127-154), but the suggestion is nonetheless raised that Shakespeare was inspired to write these poems by an African woman. This has been the subject of much scholarly debate-while some insist the lady merely had dark hair, others suggest that the sonnets should be renamed the “Black woman sonnets”. The idea that the Dark Lady was of African origin also makes a cameo appearance in Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000). In Chapter 11: The Miseducation of Irie Jones, Irie asks her teacher Mrs. Roody if the “dark lady” is “black”. Mrs Rooney replies:

          No dear, she's dark. She's not black in the modern sense. There weren't any… well, Afro-Carri-bee-yans in                   England at that time, dear. That's a more modern phenomenon, as I'm sure you know. But this was the 1600s.           I mean I can't be sure, but it does seem terribly unlikely, unless she was a slave of some kind, and he's unlikely           to have written a series of sonnets to a lord and then a slave, is he? 

A miseducation indeed! As the Doctor could have told Irie's teacher, 'you’d be surprised. Elizabethan England, not so different from your time.' 



You can watch The Shakespeare Code online here. 

The next "What's Happening in Black British History?" event will soon be upon us, so now's the time to buy your seat for what looks to be an ever bigger, better, and more fruitful event than WHBBH1!

What’s Happening in Black British History? II will take place on Thursday, 19th February at the Leggate Hall, University of Liverpool. The workshop agenda is available to download here. An extended version including abstracts for each talk is available here.

Like the WHBBH1 event hosted in London in October 2014, presentations at WHBBH2 will cover a wide range of topics - from Sport to Culture, WW1 soldiers to West End sound systems - so there’s sure to be something for everyone.

You can book online here - EarlyBird tickets are priced from £5 

I for one am counting down the days...

Hope to see you there, it's going to be great!

Happy New Year to all my readers! 

2014 was a great year for Black British History: I'm sure 2015 will be even better.

You can help make this happen, by getting involved in the second What’s Happening in Black British History? event, #WHBBH2, which will be held at the University of Liverpool, on Thursday 19th February 2015.

We're particularly looking for presentation ideas on one of the following themes (but don't hesitate to blow us out of the water with something different but brilliant!):

• Gender, particularly histories of Black British women and the LGBT community

• Education, with a particular emphasis on how to improve the coverage of black British history in schools, colleges and universities. Presentations from those actively involved in creating teaching resources would be particularly welcome

• Sport, as a microcosm of the broader politics of race and the construction of black identities

• Creative and Cultural Interpretations of Black British History, considering how these histories can be communicated in Art, Literature & Music

• Emancipation, examining the agency of Black people in challenging physical and mental slavery and oppression.

• Local History, and specifically the history of Liverpool. 

The full Call for Papers can be downloaded here. 

The deadline for submissions is 10th January: that is, this Saturday! 

All we need is 300 words or a blog or video explaining what you want to say. 

Please also feel free to circulate the CFP to others who might want to get involved.

Here's Philip, Michael and I explaining why we're doing this at the beginning of the first #WHBBH:

We often bemoan the fact that Black British History isn't being taught enough in schools. But how many of us really understand the constraints and pressures facing teachers? Meet my favourite educational expert: my sister, Augusta Kaufmann, who is Head of History and Lead Teacher for Years 5 & 6 at a large state primary school. She came to the excellent UCL LBS's Putting the Black in the Union Jack? Black British History in Education event with me a few weeks ago, and afterwards we got talking about her exciting new ideas about how to get Black British History into classrooms...

Hello Augusta, thanks for agreeing to be interviewed for my blog! Tell us a bit about how History is taught in your school?
There isn't nearly as much history taught in my school as I would like! The truth is that due to the pressures of SATs the vast majority of time is spent on English and Maths.

How would you define Black British History?
I'd rather not separate Black British History from British History. Black people have lived in Britain for at least the last 500 years therefore we all share the same history. Unfortunately, there are just not enough of the "Black" histories told.

Why do you think it's important for children to learn about Black British History?
I think knowing your history helps you to understand who you are. It also helps you to understand others around you. If the only thing you've ever been taught about your history is negative stories about slavery etc., then it won't give you a very positive opinion or outlook. Children today don't have enough positivity around them. They desperately need stories of heroes from the past that can inspire them.

What kind of backgrounds do the children in your school come from? Do you think Black British History is only important for BAME pupils, or is it for everyone? 
Luckily, I have no idea what BAME pupils are! I think it is important for everyone to hear about everybody's history as it is through increased understanding that we begin to accept each other. Children in my class come from all over the world. Roughly half of them are white British but the other half comes from every country you could think of. I have 13 different first languages in my class this year!

Is this something they need to learn at Key Stage 2 (Ages 7-9), or can it be left till Secondary School?
I have heard that a child forms a picture of themselves and who they are between the ages of 7-9. Therefore if you wait until later, you will have 'missed' some children who have already decided that their place in the world is negative. Young children are like sponges, desperate to soak up knowledge. However, they have little filter at that age and so if they are constantly fed negativity they will subconsciously take that forward in their lives.

What do you think is stopping teachers from teaching Black British History?
For some it is lack of knowledge, for others it is lack of desire and other priorities. However, for all it is certainly a lack of time or not knowing how to use the time they have.

Do you have any specific ideas about how we can get Black British History into Primary Schools now, without waiting for the Government to change the Curriculum?
I would suggest teaching History through Literacy (which accounts for two-thirds of our teaching time). It is very simple to teach Literacy though links to a key text. If this text was set in a historical period and featured inspirational heroes then two objectives could be met concurrently. I've written a Literacy exercise using a passage from Jupiter Williams by S.I. Martin, to show the sort of thing I mean. We need story books and schemes of work linking to the new Literacy curriculum, and materials for Powerpoint or Activinspire (modern day blackboards!) so that no time is required to use the resources. 

What can historians, archivists, museums and other experts in Black British History do to help teachers bring the subject into their classrooms?
Consult teachers as to what they would like to know or need from you and keep lines of communication open. Best of all: come and see us! Children like nothing more than having 'real' people in to talk to them! Let us handle objects and open up discussions.  Show us the information you have. Share it with us in a child friendly, accessible format so we can use it immediately!

Thanks Augusta- it's good to have some practical suggestions to think about. I hope I get to visit your school again soon!

Augusta has written a sample Literacy exercise using a passage from S.I. Martin's novel Jupiter Williams. Click here to read the passage and see the questions- let us know what you think, add your own questions/ send us your answers in the comments section below. 

There was a buzz at the Senate House headquarters of the School of Advanced Study (SAS) on 30 October, as over one hundred people gathered in Chancellor’s Hall to spend the day discussing, ‘What’s Happening in Black British History?’

The event has since been described as ‘exciting, informative, culturally enriching’, ‘impressively attended, very buoyant and well-informed’. It has also been praised for its ‘sense of warmth and informality within academic discourses’ and ‘clear rigour without elitism’.

Attendees included pioneers of the subject who have been writing about Black British History for more than 30 years, young academics forging new paths, teachers, students, artist Ebun Culwin, and representatives of public bodies such as English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The workshop was the first in a series designed to develop the conversation about Black British History. It was organised by Michael Ohajuru and myself at the invitation of Professor Philip Murphy, director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Deputy Dean of SAS. Future events are planned for 2015 in venues outside London during February and May half terms, and we aim to establish a national network of Black British History researchers and communicators.

The day showcased new directions in research, exciting developments in the archives, and innovative approaches to spreading the word. You can see the programme for the day here. The fact that we had over 30 paper proposals for the nine slots available to present at the workshop, shows the strength and depth of research in this field.

Why do we need to have this conversation now? It is thirty years since Peter Fryer’s Staying Power charted the history of Black People in Britain, taking the story back to Roman times with the paradigm-shifting opening line: ‘There were Africans in Britain before the English came here’. Yet, despite his work, and that of the many scholars that have stood on his shoulders, the present immigration debate seems to be conducted by people entirely ignorant of this history.

We have just come to the end of another Black History Month– the twenty-eight since it was established here in 1987. But it’s increasingly hard to spot the History in Black History Month. And the history we do get is often limited to the last century, or dominated by American narratives of slavery and civil rights. We know about the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, but not the one in Bristol. Samuel King powerfully skewered the inadequacy of the Black History currently on offer in the classroom in his performance of What I Wasn’t Taught in School during the lunch break.

The conversation on 30 October took place in the context of growing popular interest in the subject, from Hollywood’s Belle (2014) to the large crowds that gathered to celebrate the launch of the Black Cultural Archives when it opened in Brixton in July. The initiatives presented on the day – from innovative research and digging in the archives, to efforts to place this history on our screens and in our classrooms – were inspiring. Even more so was the spirit of collaboration and co-production exemplified by projects such as Abdul Mohamud and Robin Whitburn’s Justice2History and Milton Brown and Paul Ward’s work in Huddersfield.

There was a wealth of interest and knowledge among those who attended, and many important questions and areas to explore further were identified. We hope to build on these as we continue the conversation in the future.

The whole day was filmed, and the videos will appear here in due course. Anyone interested in joining our national network of Black British History researchers and communicators should sign up to the Database, and continue the Conversation on Twitter @BlackBritHist #WHBBH and Facebook Black British History.


This blog originally appeared on SAS Blogs (School of Advanced Study, University of London) on 18 November 2014. 

A week today, on Thursday 30th October, I'll be part of the crowd heading to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Senate House, University of London to spend the day discussing "What's Happening in Black British History?" With some brilliant speakers and a lot of people already signed up to attend, it looks like it's going to be a really dynamic day!

I've put together a slideshow of related images, all with links, so do explore/ suggest what else I should add! 

This will be the first in a series of workshops I'm co-organising with Michael Ohajuru,  exploring the the history of peoples of African origin and descent in Britain. Future events are planned for February and May half-terms in 2015, and we aim to establish a national network of Black British History researchers and communicators. 

Why do we need to have this conversation now? We're coming to the end of the 28th Black History Month held in the UK since the first one in 1987. But much of the History on offer is American, or limited to the last century. We know about the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, but not the one in Bristol. 

It's thirty years since Peter Fryer’s Staying Power charted the history of Black People in Britain, taking the story back to Roman times with the paradigm-shifting opening line: "There were Africans in Britain before the English came here". Yet, with UKIP gaining in popularity, immigration is still a hotly contested topic, while slavery and colonialism continue to dominate popular perceptions of Black British History. 

Despite the disappointing result of attempts to date to get more Black History into the new National Curriculum, exciting new research is being carried out in the field of Black British History. In my own field, where Fryer's book only devoted a few pages to Africans in Britain pre-1700, there are now three books covering the Tudor period alone: by Imtiaz Habib (2008), Onyeka (2013), and my own (forthcoming, 2016). The fact that we had over 30 paper proposals for the nine slots available to present at the workshop shows the strength and depth of research in this field. 

Popular interest in the subject can be seen from Hollywood, with the advent of Belle (2014) to the large crowds that gathered to celebrate the launch of the Black Cultural Archives when it opened in Brixton in July. Much work has been done in the field by individual researchers, archivists, curators and projects across the country. But, much more needs to be done to spread the word about Black British History across Britain’s classrooms, museums and newspapers. That's what this conversation will be about. 

With a great line-up of speakers, all actively involved in researching and communicating Black British History, the event will showcase new directions in research, exciting developments in the archives, and innovative approaches to spreading the word! You can see the programme for the day here. 

There are just a few places still available, so register now to come join and the conversation! 
 
You can also join in via our Facebook and Twitter pages- #WHBBH!

Looking forward to seeing you next week...