Author: roots1937

The David Olusoga fan club (otherwise known as the Historycal Roots team) were out in force at the National Portrait Gallery in London recently for his talk ‘Through the Glass Darkly: Black History and Portraiture’. David can be relied on to give an interesting talk and this session, in spite of his admission that he is a historian rather than an art historian, was no exception.

Focusing on the Georgian period, he used a small number of paintings to illustrate his talk about the doubtful status of Black people in that period. He opened with two relatively well known portraits: one of Equiano (although David suggested it may actually be of a young Ignatius Sancho) and one that is definitely of Sancho. Black figures in other paintings of the period are invariably anonymous and peripheral, in the painting to signify the wealth and status of the painting’s main subject. The black figures are often ‘exotically’ (and inappropriately) costumed, shown holding exotic fruits and painted with a pearl earring to enhance the contrast with their Black skin.

Estimates of the number of Black people in the UK (mainly London) during this period vary widely from 3,000 up to 60,000 and the lack of hard evidence about their lives is clearly frustrating for historians. Much of the evidence that does exist comes from adverts placed concerning people who had run away from their masters. They were frequently accused of theft on two counts: they had ‘stolen’ their own body which was owned by their master; and they had stolen the slave collar worn to help identify them if they ran away.  It wasn’t until the famous Somerset case of 1772 that the legal position was clarified to make it clear that, oversimplifying somewhat, a Black man could not be a slave on UK soil.

The question and answer session after the talk was also interesting. Clearly we can’t repeat it all here but, in connection with how Black history is taught in schools, David recalled a school visit he had made as a child to a cotton mill in Lancashire. The entire process of spinning raw cotton into yarn and the subsequent sale and distribution of cloth (a mainstay of the UK economy at the time) was explained in minute detail. but there was no reference to the system of slave labour by which the cotton was produced. David made the point that at some stage omitting to tell a key part of the story is equivalent to a lie. Seen in this light the omission of Black people from history begins to look less like an accident and more like a deliberate strategy.

Afterwards there was a book signing. Although we already have signed copies of his books this didn’t stop us having a chat!

This was the intriguing title for a workshop facilitated by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. Certainly the title was intriguing enough to entice all three members of the Historycal Roots team to the University of London recently.

The advertised presence of David Olusoga as the keynote speaker was undoubtedly part of the attraction. If there is such a thing as a ‘celebrity historian’ (and we think there is) then David is almost certainly one of them. Unfortunately, thanks to the vagaries of the British transport system, he was unable to make it – a big disappointment.

To their credit, the organisers improvised a session with several of the authors who were present on the issues involved in getting a history book published. Whilst not fully compensating for David Olusoga’s absence it was nevertheless a worthwhile session.

Jyota Mheta from the BBC gave some interesting behind the scenes background to the making of ‘Black and British: Forgotten History’. He described it as ‘a landmark series’ and it’s difficult to disagree. All four episodes are still available on YouTube and they definitely repay repeated viewing. Episode 1 is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQYsewXjNlU

Another attraction of the day was the session on ‘What do young people see happening in Black British History?’ with students from the BRIT school in Croydon. The BRIT school is best known for alumni such as Adele and not somewhere you might normally associate with the study of history so it was interesting to hear the students’ enthusiastic discussion of a range of historical topics – very refreshing.

The youngsters were followed by three authors talking about their work. The most accessible was probably Miranda Kaufman who spoke about her book ‘Black Tudors – The Untold Story’. According to the blurb this ‘reveals the absorbing stories of some of the Africans who lived free in Tudor England’, Miranda did a good job of living up to the hype.

An interesting Christmas present for someone perhaps?

The ticket price included a drinks reception in the University’s Senate House which was an undeniably pleasant way to round off an interesting day.

At Historycal Roots we like to think of ourselves as ‘championing’ the work of Chineke! Who or what is (are?) Chineke! you may very well ask?

Anyone who attends concerts of so called ‘classical’ music will know that the orchestras are invariably, almost exclusively, made up of White musicians. A Black face on stage is a rarity. Audiences generally tend to reflect this. Even at the popular BBC Prom concerts the number of BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) faces in the audience can usually be counted on the fingers of both hands (sometimes only one hand might be needed).

Chineke! is an orchestra made up almost entirely of BME players. We have been to three of their concerts; twice at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank and once at the Royal Albert Hall when they appeared during this year’s Proms programme. We were sorry that their concert at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall didn’t coincide with one of our visits to that city – especially as they performed a piece by our beloved Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

What is very noticeable about a Chineke! concert is that, as well as the very different appearance of the orchestra, the audience is also predominantly BME and, incidentally, much younger than usual for a classical concert.

This was so noticeable that we felt moved to write to ‘Gramophone’ magazine. Our letter obviously stuck a chord as it was chosen as ‘Letter of the Month’.

Do keep an eye open for any Chineke! concerts in your area, even if you aren’t particularly ‘into’ classical music the Chineke! experience may surprise you.

Generally at Historycal Roots we aim to bring forgotten Black history to light, last night it felt a little bit more like we were involved in making it. That is probably an exaggeration but attending ‘Prelude – Voices Of Black Opera’ did feel a bit like history in the making.

Our involvement with VOBO came about by accident when it turned out that our neighbour from only three doors away is the leading light in The Black British Classical Foundation (this is London where actually speaking to your neighbours is a bit of a rarity!). We were pleased to play a (very) small part in helping Vincent Osborne with the organisation of the concert at the prestigious St John’s, Smith Square.

The concert featured arias and duets from a number of well known operas by the likes of Verdi and Puccini and closed with several negro spirituals. One of the encore pieces (I regret I didn’t catch what it was) was really, spine tingly beautiful. Anyone who likes opera would have loved this event, the singing was magnificent throughout.

You can find out more about Vincent’s work at https://www.bbcf.uk