“If you know nothing about your history then where are you heading to?”

In honour of Black History Month, this week’s instalment is an ode to historian David Olusoga, who in 2016 released a docuseries with the BBC titled Black and British: A Forgotten History.

If you haven’t seen it already, then I highly recommend because what Olusoga does in this four-part series, is give us the history lesson that we never had. One that covers migration, religion, the conflict between Black and British identity, the rise in racism and more.

We see him travel from the UK to the Caribbean and on to various African countries, delicately sharing the forgotten stories of our British and African ancestors; his narration mapping out their journeys as his feet carry him to the places where they once stood.

We’re often taught a whitewashed version of our history; one which typically excludes those who are Black and British. However, by sharing the forgotten tales of our past, Olusoga gives this British Other a sense of belonging. He also shows that while we are a group that has seen and known pain, by acknowledging our past, we are able to experience healing.

It’s a beautiful thing. Though, of course, before we get to the hidden beauty there is immeasurable grief to overcome.

Now, I won’t ruin it by sharing all of Olusoga’s series facts; however, there is one topic I’d be remiss to ignore. For, what would a post on Black British history be if it didn’t acknowledge the raging elephant in the room?

The transatlantic slave trade.

And so, with that, class is now in session.

Transatlantic travel wasn’t always about slavery. Instead, it was once about establishing diplomatic trade agreements, where European nations, such as France, Portugal and Britain, travelled to the African continent in the hope of acquiring a share of its resources in gold, ivory and silver.

However, the civil relationship between the two continents quickly soured, as the wandering hands of Europe yearned not only for Africa’s riches, but its people too.

In 1562, and English naval commander Sir John Hawkins, set sail for the continent and on his way captured a Portuguese ship filled with 300 enslaved Africans, who he then went on to sell in South America. In doing so, not only did he make a huge fortune, but he showed the British that the trade in human beings was just a profitable as the trade in gold.

Dark, I know. Though the morbidity of Hawkins actions did not deter, rather they encouraged others to join in the trade as well.

There were various companies that formed; however, the most “successful” of them all was the Royal African Company (RAC), governed by James, Duke of York (later King James II), who sold more Africans into slavery than any other British company.

Those whom they enslaved were often kept in fortresses; one of which was built in the 17^th century on Bunce Island in the Sierra Leone river. Within these walls men, women and children were branded, imprisoned, bought and sold.

It was a merciless and yet highly profitable moment for Britain. However, the RAC had a monopoly on British trade in West Africa and therefore, prevented independent parties from profiting off the slave trade.

As a result, independent traders felt that the transatlantic slave trade was going against the traditional English value of freedom. Thus, they argued that by refusing them their freedom to become slave traders, the king and parliament were curtailing their rights; their protest articulating the belief that it was almost a sacred English birth right to have access to the trade in enslaved human beings. 

Ironic, I know. Even more so that the argument of freedom successfully shattered the royal monopoly and turned Britain into the biggest slave trading nation in the world.

It’s a very twisted triumphant moment in Britain’s history, because while money from the trade was fuelling the industrial revolution and transforming British colonies, over 40,000 Africans were being sold into slavery each year.

Speaking of British colonies, let’s talk about of Virginia in the 1660s.

“Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a Negro woman should be slave or free, be it therefore enacted and declared by this present Grand Assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother”

– Virginia Slave Laws

As the number of Black Africans in America increased, the colonies solidified their slave status in law; defining it as lifelong and hereditary, but, they didn’t stop there. At the end of the 1660s they passed an act that stated: “if any slave shall resist his master and then they are punished or corrected by their master and, by the extremity of the correction, that slave should chance to die, that his death shall not be a felony”. 

Another wild moment in British history because the Virginia slave laws not only cemented racism within society, they made it legal to murder Black people too; each act silently standing strong in the US today despite the abolishment of slavery in 1865.

Though, by now we should all know that America is not alone in this. For these unspoken racial laws are deeply rooted within our British past and more troubling, our present too.

But interestingly enough, we haven’t always been racist. In fact, Classic professor Mary Beard notes that in the Roman era, Emperors were not necessarily Caucasian. There were North African Roman Emperors too, where the first recorded African community in Britain was in the 3^rd century AD in Burgh by Sands, where they guarded a Roman fort.

She adds, that whilst the Romans did express prejudice towards foreigners, there’s no indication to suggest that skin colour was ever used as a marker to determine one’s place in society.

Thus, racism, as we know it today, was not a thing in Roman times.

Now, how’s that for forgotten history?

“Culture is important. Any country that neglects culture is like building a house upon the sand” 

The thing about our forgotten history is that though it carries a lot of brutality and suffering, it also has times that fill you with pride. Heart-warming moments when the British fight for the Black community and stand up against racism. Like in WWII when the American army came to the UK, enacting Jim Crow laws within their military and despite this, many Welsh families took in Black soldiers; promising to protect and look after them like their own.

Cinematic moments, like when King Karma III of Bechuanaland, in the fight against Cecil Rhodes’s invasion, travelled to Britain and campaigned for his country; winning over the British people and, in time, Queen Victoria. Thus, saving the now Botswana from her colonial downfall.

And understated moments, like in Georgian Britain, when Francis Barber, a Jamaican born slave, was brought to England and instead of living the life of a slave, was raised as the child of Dr Samuel Johnson.

So many moments and we’ve been made to forget them all, but it’s time we remember.

“We cannot afford to not remember the suffering that went on here. We cannot afford to not remember the people who died here. We have a duty to remember the good, the bad and the ugly and this is one of the ugliest aspects of our history, our joint history. We need to remember. We cannot forget these people.”

– Heritage Commissioner Isatu Smith

So, as the UK’s 33^rd Black History Month slowly comes to an end, may our thirst for knowledge continue. May this not be the end of our acknowledgment of Black history until the 34^th year. Instead, may this month serve as the first in which we choose to fully integrate Black history into our understanding of British history.

After all, we shouldn’t need a special month to celebrate it, we should just always acknowledge it.

And on that note; class is dismissed. *Sips Tea*

Black and British: A Forgotten History – Streaming now on BBC iPlayer

(Feature image from ExpressDigest)