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| Britain’s black activists – you are not alone, not in the present or the past | Britain’s black activists – you are not alone, not in the present or the past |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| Between Martin Luther King quotes and Nina Simone lyrics, searching for evidence of the black British legacy can feel like a fruitless task. While key players from the US civil rights struggle are household names, challenge the person sitting next to you to name a member of the British Black Panthers or an organiser of the fifth Pan-African Congress. You’re likely to come up empty-handed. | Between Martin Luther King quotes and Nina Simone lyrics, searching for evidence of the black British legacy can feel like a fruitless task. While key players from the US civil rights struggle are household names, challenge the person sitting next to you to name a member of the British Black Panthers or an organiser of the fifth Pan-African Congress. You’re likely to come up empty-handed. |
| In the UK at the moment, children of the Windrush still fight for citizenship as we face fascist movements (which seem only to be gathering steam), and ever-rising hostility towards migrants. Frustratingly, anti-migration sentiment is often upheld by an ahistorical narrative that sees in the imagination of what Britain is an erasure of people of colour from Britain past or present. | In the UK at the moment, children of the Windrush still fight for citizenship as we face fascist movements (which seem only to be gathering steam), and ever-rising hostility towards migrants. Frustratingly, anti-migration sentiment is often upheld by an ahistorical narrative that sees in the imagination of what Britain is an erasure of people of colour from Britain past or present. |
| I came to realise that I was, as the saying goes, walking in the footsteps of giants | I came to realise that I was, as the saying goes, walking in the footsteps of giants |
| Black History Month (BHM) was founded at a time when the roles black and Asian peoples played in Britain’s history was even less known than it is today. By making black presence visible, BHM broke open new conversations. And while it was never the cure for a curriculum that fails to produce any meaningful understanding of colonialism, slavery and the independence movements of the global south, now more than ever we cannot afford to lose it. | Black History Month (BHM) was founded at a time when the roles black and Asian peoples played in Britain’s history was even less known than it is today. By making black presence visible, BHM broke open new conversations. And while it was never the cure for a curriculum that fails to produce any meaningful understanding of colonialism, slavery and the independence movements of the global south, now more than ever we cannot afford to lose it. |
| Councils rebranding Black History Month as a way to celebrate all ethnicities are shirking their responsibility to educate their constituents on the histories that have shaped this country, and doing a disservice to the struggles that made it possible at all. Continuing in the legacy of the members of local government who founded it 31 years ago, we should be expanding our knowledge of black British histories, celebrating tales of anti-racism at home, to draw out a path that new generations can continue marching on. | Councils rebranding Black History Month as a way to celebrate all ethnicities are shirking their responsibility to educate their constituents on the histories that have shaped this country, and doing a disservice to the struggles that made it possible at all. Continuing in the legacy of the members of local government who founded it 31 years ago, we should be expanding our knowledge of black British histories, celebrating tales of anti-racism at home, to draw out a path that new generations can continue marching on. |
| For those who want to make change it can often feel isolating, bellowing into a vacuum, with no resonance felt in so many of the rooms you walk into. From the youth workers defying austerity to support at-risk young people, to the activists trapped in never-ending meetings, we can remain so easily disconnected – from one another and a wider movement. With nothing canonised or cross-pollinated, new generations start from zero. The need to connect our contemporary struggles and interlink them with those of generations before keeps growing. | For those who want to make change it can often feel isolating, bellowing into a vacuum, with no resonance felt in so many of the rooms you walk into. From the youth workers defying austerity to support at-risk young people, to the activists trapped in never-ending meetings, we can remain so easily disconnected – from one another and a wider movement. With nothing canonised or cross-pollinated, new generations start from zero. The need to connect our contemporary struggles and interlink them with those of generations before keeps growing. |
| As an activist who became politically engaged during a time of a burgeoning anti-racism narrative in activism, I was inspired by groups like Black Dissidents and platforms such as Media Diversified. I was enraptured by the newness of it all, while the voice in the back of my head kept saying “someone’s done this before us”. And they had. Burrowing through the documents at the George Padmore Institute and Black Cultural Archives, I came to realise that I was, as the saying goes, walking in the footsteps of giants. | As an activist who became politically engaged during a time of a burgeoning anti-racism narrative in activism, I was inspired by groups like Black Dissidents and platforms such as Media Diversified. I was enraptured by the newness of it all, while the voice in the back of my head kept saying “someone’s done this before us”. And they had. Burrowing through the documents at the George Padmore Institute and Black Cultural Archives, I came to realise that I was, as the saying goes, walking in the footsteps of giants. |
| Particularly inspired by the role of artist-activists, from the storytelling of dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson to the visual artistry of Lubaina Himid, I became fixated on their practice. Creativity and cultural production felt like a bedrock of survival for black histories of social change. Art that inherently resists and challenges is an essential part of how we progress. Creating spaces for this kind of art to flourish, writing furiously about the contemporaries who felt like the Himids and Kwesi Johnsons of our era, and growing more creative with my own activism, I began to hone a practice that could make the change I’d been inspired by. | Particularly inspired by the role of artist-activists, from the storytelling of dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson to the visual artistry of Lubaina Himid, I became fixated on their practice. Creativity and cultural production felt like a bedrock of survival for black histories of social change. Art that inherently resists and challenges is an essential part of how we progress. Creating spaces for this kind of art to flourish, writing furiously about the contemporaries who felt like the Himids and Kwesi Johnsons of our era, and growing more creative with my own activism, I began to hone a practice that could make the change I’d been inspired by. |
| I didn’t realise for some time that what I was looking for was a map. A way to navigate the past and present, connect the dots between space and time to make clear which paths lead where, and foster a joined together sense of what black and brown arts activism is, has been and is doing. | I didn’t realise for some time that what I was looking for was a map. A way to navigate the past and present, connect the dots between space and time to make clear which paths lead where, and foster a joined together sense of what black and brown arts activism is, has been and is doing. |
| A cross word: Turner prize winner Lubaina Himid's Guardian headline mashups | A cross word: Turner prize winner Lubaina Himid's Guardian headline mashups |
| Earlier this year, the Stuart Hall Foundation came together to do exactly this, digitally and through live events, mapping the work of cultural resistance from the generations that came before, and shining a light on contemporary cultural producers. | Earlier this year, the Stuart Hall Foundation came together to do exactly this, digitally and through live events, mapping the work of cultural resistance from the generations that came before, and shining a light on contemporary cultural producers. |
| The Black Cultural Activism Map link orients itself around legendary black and brown creative resistors from across the UK, such as David A Bailey, Maria Amidu, Gilane Tawadros and Julian Henriques, who have produced some deeply narrative-shifting work, constantly reshaping the landscape of arts institutions in Britain. Simultaneously, soundscapes by all-black women choirs and visual collages of modern reparations movements emerge as newer contributions to the map, rooted in and further looking toward a new era of arts activism. | The Black Cultural Activism Map link orients itself around legendary black and brown creative resistors from across the UK, such as David A Bailey, Maria Amidu, Gilane Tawadros and Julian Henriques, who have produced some deeply narrative-shifting work, constantly reshaping the landscape of arts institutions in Britain. Simultaneously, soundscapes by all-black women choirs and visual collages of modern reparations movements emerge as newer contributions to the map, rooted in and further looking toward a new era of arts activism. |
| Taking archiving one step further, the Black Cultural Activism Map has the potential to circumvent the unease that comes with swimming in new waters and working in isolation. The process redresses the imbalance of who or what enters and exists in the public imagination of Britain, just as Black History Month did before it. Offering a path to all those who would like to know where they’ve been and where they are going, we are gently ushered to go, ready to roll the dice. | Taking archiving one step further, the Black Cultural Activism Map has the potential to circumvent the unease that comes with swimming in new waters and working in isolation. The process redresses the imbalance of who or what enters and exists in the public imagination of Britain, just as Black History Month did before it. Offering a path to all those who would like to know where they’ve been and where they are going, we are gently ushered to go, ready to roll the dice. |
| Black Cultural Activism Map launches 13 October at Platform theatre in King’s Cross, London | Black Cultural Activism Map launches 13 October at Platform theatre in King’s Cross, London |
| • Zahra Dalilah is a writer and activist | • Zahra Dalilah is a writer and activist |
| Activism | Activism |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| Black History Month | Black History Month |
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| Lubaina Himid | Lubaina Himid |
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