News

‘The Best Black History Conference Ever’

In Memory of Marika Sherwood (1937 – 2025)

By Audrey Dewjee, 26^th February 2025

Marika Sherwood on a visit to Budapest in 2009 © Rosie Sherwood

My first introduction to Marika Sherwood was at a 2-day conference held in Nottingham in 1993. I attended along with two friends, my husband and our 5-year-old son.

During a recent phone conversation with Lucy MacKeith, another pioneer of Black History research, Lucy asked me, ‘Do you remember the best Black History conference ever?’ and I knew exactly which one she was referring to. The conference took place on the weekend of 16^th and 17^th October 1993 and it truly deserves to be remembered. It was organised by the Association for the Study of African, Caribbean and Asian Culture and History in Britain or ASACACHIB (thankfully, this long title was subsequently changed to BASA, the Black and Asian Studies Association) and, according to Hakim Adi’s report on the conference in ASACACHIB Newsletter No. 8, ‘Marika Sherwood singlehandedly organised the event.’

At the time I hadn’t yet joined ASACACHIB, so I was largely unaware of who were its members, but I remember meeting Marika, Hakim Adi and Sean Creighton in Nottingham.

The Conference, dedicated to the memory of Peter Blackman^[1]Peter Blackman (1909-1993) https://irr.org.uk/article/restoring-peter-blackman/ who had died the previous August, was entitled ‘Black Peoples in Britain: Local Histories’. A mix of academic and community speakers made presentations on the history of a wide variety of locations including Wellingborough, Northampton, Bute Town (Cardiff), Devon, Kent, Bristol, Nottingham, Liverpool, Tyneside, Birmingham, and several different areas of London.

Lucy MacKeith was one of the presenters. Her topic, ‘Black Peoples in Devon – 17^th to 19^th Centuries’ was wide ranging. It included local connections with the trade in enslaved Africans and sugar production, as well as stories of Africans who turned up in the county such as Olaudah Equiano, and Peter Courpon, servant of a French Officer who was a prisoner-of-war. Peter married a local girl in Moretonhampstead in 1807. Ten years later, Lucy published a book about her findings entitled, ‘Local Black History: A Beginning in Devon. (2003)’.^[2]You can read the book online at https://www.tellingourstoriesdevon.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2003/01/Local-Black-History-a-beginning-in-Devon.pdf

Two presentations at the conference particularly stuck in my memory. In the first, ‘In Search of Mr. McKenzie,’ Isha McKenzie-Mavinga and Thelma Perkins described their search for information about the life of their father about whom they knew very little. As the sisters had grown up in children’s homes with only white companions and carers, their search also involved a discovery of their Black History and heritage. Attendees were able to buy their resulting book.

In the second, speakers from Butetown History Project, Cardiff, were part of a presentation on ‘Black History as a Community Resource.’ Mrs. Watkins gave a brief but vivid talk about her childhood in Butetown, also known as ‘Tiger Bay.’ She remembered with affection how children of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds went to school together, played together and celebrated each other’s religious festivals. Her talk was complemented by Neil Sinclair reading an extract from his newly published book, ‘The Tiger Bay Story’.

Pip Jones spoke about Africans in Bristol in the 18^th century, and her work along with Rita Yousef also resulted in a book, published in 1994. (See below for a full list of all the speakers and the titles of their presentations.)

Several of the papers given at the conference were subsequently published in BASA Newsletters. ‘The Nigerian Progress Union’ by Hakim Adi appeared in Newsletter 9 (April 1994); ‘Black People in Canning Town and Custom House between the Wars’ by Howard Bloch in issue 14 (January 1996); ‘Africanus: a 19 th century freeholder of Nottingham’ by Helen Gray in issue 19 (October 1997); ‘Liverpool’s Black Population During World War II’ by Carlton Wilson in issue 20 (January 1998); ‘The Arabs of Tyneside: a disappearing community’ by Dick Lawless in issue 21 (April 1998); and ‘Black people in Kent since 1600’ by David Killingray in Newsletter 22 (September 1998).

Perhaps the remaining papers from this conference are archived somewhere. It would be great if all the papers could be published together online, along with an article from Newsletter 11 (January 1995) by Linda Hodgson on ‘Black People in pre-Twentieth Century Cumbria’, as arecord of all the fantastic work that had been done around the country by 1993.

Anna Davin, in a long review published in History Workshop Journal, reported that,

[The conference] brought together, some two hundred teachers, students, local historians, activists and a few academics who were of all ages between teens and sixties, and of various origins….Many speakers, from both platform and floor, stressed the need to bring black history into the classroom…

As at all the best conferences, discussions extended into every break and beyond. At the back of the hall on display panels you could study background material related to the talks: rare photographs (of John Archer’s wedding, for instance), programmes and documents from important occasions like the London Pan-African Conference of 1900; maps with pins where traces of the Black Presence had been identified; the mock-up for the Wellingborough life-history pamphlet; Tiger Bay photographs and so on. There were also excellent bookstalls.^[3]History Workshop Journal, vol 13, issue 1, Spring 1994, pp.246-250.

There were three bookstalls – provided by Sean Creighton of Agenda Services, George Fisher of Ragga-Muffins, and the wonderful Raddle Bookshop that was based in Berners Street, Leicester.^[4]There is a great blog about Raddle Bookshop at https://akinsankofa.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/raddle-books/ Having the bookstalls present enabled participants to take away resources to add to their growing knowledge. My friends and I bought as many books as we could afford.

Marika put together the wonderful variety of presentations covering many areas of the country and brought together enthusiasts from many different fields. She selected a brilliant partner in Nottingham – Len Garrison, whose input helped to make the weekend even more special. At the time Len was director of ACFF (the Association of Caribbean Families and Friends) based at their Education Cultural and Study Centre at 28 Beaconsfield Road, Hyson Green. The Association hosted a dinner for conference participants on the Saturday evening. The food was delicious and the entertainment provided by members of ACFF was memorable. This joyful event was much enjoyed by all who attended (including my young son) and it added greatly to the success of the weekend.

At the end of the conference on the Sunday, attendees were invited to visit an exhibition, The Black Presence in Nottingham, at Nottingham Castle, which was jointly curated by Len Garrison, ACFF and the Castle Museum. The Black Cultural Archives now situated in Windrush Square, Brixton was Len’s brainchild. I remember the previous iteration of the BCA in the 1980s when it was housed in a building in Coldharbour Lane. The upstairs room had shelves all around the walls stacked with files and files of information, mostly collected by Len. Len well knew the importance of Black History and how badly knowledge of it was needed by young people at the time, so it is unsurprising that when he was based in Nottingham he should have delved into the city’s history, persuaded the Castle Museum to put on this exhibition and even managed to obtain local authority funding for the production of a substantial catalogue to accompany it.

The visit to the exhibition made a perfect ending to the feast of Black History we had enjoyed.

The Black Presence in Nottingham Exhibition Catalogue

This was the first conference organised by BASA. More followed in different parts of the country. A couple of years later, I took out a subscription to the ASACACHIB (later BASA) Newsletter which was published three times a year. The arrival of this little magazine was always eagerly looked forward to, as it contained much important information – long and short articles and book reviews, notifications of forthcoming events and, to me, most exciting of all, little snippets of information from parish records and archives about Black and Asian people located in all parts of the British Isles over the previous 500 years.

The BASA newsletter ran to 63 issues, the last 3 of which are available to download from the BASA website, or read online. Details of the contents of all issues are also given on this link: https://www.blackandasianstudies.org/newsletter_newsletter-html

Covers of BASA Newsletters from 1995 to 2010

Marika Sherwood played an extremely important role in the research and dissemination of British Black History. Via conferences and the BASA newsletter, she brought together enthusiasts young and old, academic and non-academic, of all ethnic backgrounds, and gave them platforms where they could exchange ideas on equal terms.

Her own research was hugely important and wide-ranging and it included British Asian as well as Black British History – for example her in-depth research on Lascar seafarers. This dual focus was important because there has always been less public interest and less publicity given to the history of Asians in Britain. Marika was conscious that children of Asian ancestry were as much in need of access to their history as children of African ancestry.

On Marika’s passing we have lost a giant of British Black and Asian History. I hope remembrance of her life will encourage others to try and replicate her enthusiasm and aim to emulate her contribution.

For me, Marika’s memory will always be tied up with ‘the best Black History conference ever’ that took place in Nottingham in 1993.

Conference Programme:

References[+]

References
↑1	Peter Blackman (1909-1993) https://irr.org.uk/article/restoring-peter-blackman/
↑2	You can read the book online at https://www.tellingourstoriesdevon.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2003/01/Local-Black-History-a-beginning-in-Devon.pdf
↑3	History Workshop Journal, vol 13, issue 1, Spring 1994, pp.246-250.
↑4	There is a great blog about Raddle Bookshop at https://akinsankofa.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/raddle-books/

Equiano unveiled

How time flies! We were reminded at the ceremony in central London to unveil a plaque commemorating Olaudah Equiano, that our research in 2018 contributed in a small way to identifying his final resting place. A ceremony at the American Church in Goodge Street, London, on 15^th June 2024 was attended by many of the ‘great and good’ and somehow we snuck in too! Hosted by Reverend Jennifer Mills-Knutsen on behalf of the church and Arthur Torrington of the Equiano Society, there was poetry from Nairobi Thompson and readings from Equiano’s ‘Interesting Narrative’ by actor, Burt Caesar.

For us, the story began with a visit to the London Metropolitan Archives where we were able to examine the register of burials at the non-conformist chapel in Goodge Street for the years 1796-1808. The name Gustavus Vassa (as Equiano was known for most of his adult life) was there, showing his burial on 6^th April 1797.

Ever since then, Arthur Torrington has been working with the church and Camden Local Authority to have a plaque put in place to commemorate the site of Equiano’s burial (the burial ground has long since been paved over and only a few traces of its original function survive).

After the speeches we assembled outside for the blessing and unveiling.

‘Searcher of hearts, God of Providence,
bless this memorial of your servant Olaudah Equiano, Gustavus Vassa,
that this acknowledgement of his original resting place in death
would inspire those who live today.’

The plaque is prominently placed, turn left out of Goodge Street station and you can’t miss it.

Six years is a long time but congratulations to Arthur and the Equiano Society for persevering and getting the job done!

Sean Creighton – 17th July 1947 to 15th May 2024

Some who subscribe to this blog will be aware of Sean Creighton and also, sadly, that he died recently. For those who weren’t aware, Sean was a community activist and stalwart of the local history scene, particularly in London, where he lived latterly, and in the North-East.

We first met Sean when he hosted a local history walk around some of the local sites associated with our favourite composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The wealth of research that had gone into the walk was very evident and Sean was an engaging guide, happy to share his knowledge. We enjoyed a pint or two in a convenient hostelry afterwards.

After that, we met Sean many times at events where he regularly ran a book stall. He was a publisher too and several of his books and pamphlets jostle for space on our bookshelves. He was a great organiser (one comment at his funeral was that, thanks to his passion and commitment, ‘Sean was the secretary of every group going’) and he graciously invited us to speak at the Norbury Literary Festival (of which he was a driving force) last year on the topic of ‘Writing Black History.’ There are many who knew Sean better than us but it was a privilege to be invited to his house for a birthday gathering last year, his last as it turned out, and to have known him.

His funeral was a fitting tribute, there was standing room only at Lambeth crematorium, with others watching a livestream.

There were tributes from family and friends. One comment that would resonate with those who knew Sean was that, had he lived a few more weeks, he would doubtless have penned a paper on 5^th July on how the Labour Government needed to do better!

Perhaps funerals shouldn’t have ‘highlights’ but Tayo Aluko gave a powerful and moving rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill, here is Paul Robeson’s version (without Tayo’s added verse about Sean):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Kxq9uFDes

The central message of the song is certainly one that sums up Sean’s outlook…

‘Organise!’

The Royal Academy, London: Entangled Pasts 1768 to now

This exhibition brings together several of our favourite paintings under one roof. As the mini guide says:

‘Entangled Pasts explores connections between art associated with the Royal Academy and Britain’s colonial histories.’

The mini guide handed to visitors and free audio guide draw out the associations and the full catalogue contains an excellent introductory essay. You can buy the catalogue from the RA shop, it is pricey (as these things always are) but it is beautifully illustrated and gives a real flavour of the exhibition:

https://shop.royalacademy.org.uk/entangled-pasts-1768-now-art-colonialism-and-change

To whet your appetite here are just a few of the paintings on display.

Ignatius Sancho is believed to have been the first Black man to vote in a British Parliamentary election and in 1768 Thomas Gainsborough painted this portrait of him.

Sancho was a man of letters, as was Ottobah Cugoano and a selection of his manuscripts was on display:

Better still, the exhibition also includes the only known image of Cugoano, an etching on paper (now attributed to Thomas Rowlandson) dating from c1784 or c1790. Cugoano was employed for a time as a servant by Richard and Maria Cosway and this depicts him in that role.

‘The Head of a Negro‘ by John Singleton Copley was painted in 1777/78 and the subject matter is extremely unusual, at this time biblical scenes or paintings of great battles were the general order of the day. Although Copley had been the owner of enslaved people, this man, whose name, regrettably, is not recorded, is painted with evident respect for his humanity:

These images were previously known to us but a lot of others were not, including this one, a detail taken from a painting by Zoffany, ‘Colonel Blair and his Family and an Indian Ayah’. The catalogue of the exhibition points out that the girl looks too young to be an Ayah (nanny) and is more likely to have been the daughter of an Ayah or an illegitimate daughter of Colonel Blair. We are grateful to Audrey Dewjee for pointing out that Zoffany was in India in 1786 when this was painted.

There are many, many more exhibits to enjoy but we will finish with, Dido Elizabeth Belle, who in many ways was the inspiration that led us to start this site in 2015/16. It was painted in 1779 by David Martin, the previous attribution to Zoffany is now believed to be wrong. To think we travelled to Scone Palace, Perth to see this painting! Our visit was in 2014, before its importance was fully recognised by its owners and we found it hung in a rather obscure corner of a guest bedroom.

The exhibition is on until 28^th April and, if you are in London and can spare the time, we can thoroughly recommend it.

International Women’s Day 2023

There are too few stories about women on the Historycal Roots website. We correct the balance slightly with our latest article by John Ellis which is about Charlotte Gardiner, a black woman who was hanged in 1780 for her part in the Gordon riots. Charlotte did not speak in her own defence when she appeared at the Old Bailey and so we have only the prosecution’s side of the story and this inevitably shows her in a less than favourable light.

Nevertheless, the black presence at major events in British history, which is so often overlooked, is worth recording even where that presence was at inglorious events like the Gordon riots.

As this is International Women’s Day it is appropriate to celebrate some of the stories on our site that feature women. There are links below to a small selection of stories that we have featured over the years, if you missed them when they were published (and even if you didn’t) they are well worth exploring!

First, the new article:

https://www.historycalroots.com/charlotte-gardiner-a…/

And now some articles you may have seen before:

All women whose contribution should be celebrated.

Cheryl Butler – A new contributor to Historycal Roots

It is a pleasure to welcome Cheryl Butler as a new contributor to Historycal Roots. Cheryl is particularly knowledgeable about the history of Southampton and this is how she was introduced when she gave a TED talk in 2019:

She is a historian, writer, and former Head of Culture at Eastleigh where she worked on projects including Vital Villages, Legible Cities and the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire Culture and Quality Place group. Honorary Fellow of the University of Winchester and Fellow of the Royal Historical Association and has written extensively on the history of Southampton and is an editor for the Southampton Records and member of the Southampton Tourist Guides Association.

Her talk was about Southampton’s history in general (not specifically its black history) and you can see it here:

https://www.ted.com/talks/cheryl_butler_a_city_s_history_and_memory

But she has also written about Southampton’s black history:

Telling other histories: Early Black History in Southampton c1500-1900

Currently unavailable on Amazon, you should be able to order a copy from your favourite local book shop, using isbn 978-0-9557488-6-8 or by e-mailing a_sannah(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)hotmail.co.uk.

Although we have not featured Southampton on Historycal Roots before it makes sense that it would have long had a black community of note. As a port, there were seamen, and where there were seamen there were black seamen. It was also home to wealthy individuals with extensive interests in the East Indies and the Caribbean, individuals some of whom most likely employed black servants.

Cheryl’s article for us focuses on one individual who makes a fleeting appearance in Southampton’s history. Very little is known of John Jackson before he was taken prisoner as a deserter and nothing is known of what became of him although we can be pretty sure his punishment would have been gruesome.

Cheryl’s article is here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/john-jackson-of-the-31st-regiment-of-foot/

A storm at Harewood

My initial reason for visiting Harewood House was to see the exhibition about the life of Bertie Robinson that I have written about elsewhere, but I was lucky enough to get a ticket for a black history walk around the house and grounds.

My tour guides were none other than Pablo Fanque and his charming wife Susannah. This was quite something as Pablo died in 1871 and Susannah pre-deceased him in 1848. Pablo (actually Joe Williams, founder of Heritage Corner) and Susannah (Vanessa Mudd) took us on a whirlwind tour of black history that encompassed Egypt, the three west African trading empires of Ghana, Songhai and Mali and much more besides, before returning us to York and Harewood.

When I was working I used to feel that if I learnt one thing on any course I attended it had not been a complete waste of time. This walk certainly passed the ‘one thing’ test with plenty of room to spare.

I will focus here on one story that was new to me (apologies to those who are familiar with it). It concerns ‘ivory bangle lady‘. whose remains were discovered during an excavation in York in 1901. She gains her name from one of the bangles she was wearing. One of her bangles was made of jet, a stone that can be found in Yorkshire, but the bangle fashioned from ivory clearly had a more exotic origin.

It was evident that she was a wealthy woman from the jewelry and other items buried with her. It also seems likely that when she died (in her twenties) in the second half of the 4th century AD she was a Christian as a message carved in bone was found in her grave: “Hail, sister, may you live in God”.

A reconstruction of the face of ‘ivory bangle lady’

Scientific advances since 1901 mean that far more is now known about her. She has been identified as of mixed heritage with at least one parent from north Africa. Applying the same scientific techniques to the remains of others in the same burial ground suggests that maybe 10% of the population of Roman York were of similar heritage. Perhaps you were aware of that but, for me, it was a revelation.

There are several interesting articles on the internet about this remarkable lady, this is just one of them: https://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/collections/collections-highlights/ivory-bangle-lady/

Returning to Pablo Fanque (real name William Darby), I had heard his story before but it was good to hear again about his remarkable life. The fact that he was born in Norwich in 1810 surprised me when I first heard about it but since then I have become more and more aware that the black presence was not restricted to major cities like London, Liverpool and Bristol but could be found in the countryside too. The evidence for this wider black presence can be seen not just in references in newspapers but in paintings and illustrations that date at least as far back as 1658 and may feature in a future post.

Pablo Fanque was a circus impresario and the walk took its name from a great storm that engulfed Pablo’s circus during a show at Harewood. The dramatic description of the storm reminded me of an event I attended recently where we were caught in a flimsy gazebo during a downpour of epic proportions.

Sadly, Susannah died when she was hit by falling beams when a gallery collapsed in the building where the circus was performing but Pablo soldiered on.

My one disappointment?Anyone familiar with the Beatles song Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite might reasonably have expected to see a bear, sadly no bears were in evidence! Apart from that, top marks to Joe and Vanessa for an entertaining and informative walk.

If you are in the Leeds area it would be well worth going on a future Heritage Corner walk and you can find out more here: https://heritagecornerleeds.com/

Season’s Greetings from Historycal Roots

Although we have not had many opportunities to meet up in person this year, thank you for being with us in spirit during 2020.

We hope you are all taking time to look after your health and well-being.

Seasonal Greetings and best wishes for 2021.

The Historycal Roots team

A Plaque for Equiano

The Equiano Society has been instrumental in getting a plaque placed at 37 Tottenham Street, London W1. Equiano lived here while working on his ‘Interesting Narrative’.