Black histories aren’t all urban: tales from the West Country

From slavery to African American WW2 GIs, Louisa Adjoa Parker delves into black histories from South West England

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Denial, shame and the Armenian Genocide

by Robert Kazandjian The identity I was constructing for myself collapsed around my L.A-Gear-clad feet when I was six or seven. My friend Kirilos arrived from Sudan, and joined our school. The teacher, encouraged by my proud declarations of Egyptian heritage, told me to speak ‘your language’ with him. ‘Parev, inch’pes es?’ (Hello, how are… Read More

How should we teach children about contested histories?

by Farah Elahi  In recent years, there have been numerous campaigns for the inclusion of marginalised histories in the national curriculum. These campaigns have been successful in retaining key black British figures such as Mary Seacole and Olaudah Equiano in history lessons. However, inclusion is not enough. We must go further, ensuring that these stories… Read More

Claudia Roden: the Egyptian cook in exile who brought hummus to the UK

by Henna Zamurd-Butt  This article is based on a lecture delivered by Claudia Roden at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London on 8th February 2017 as part of the university’s Centenary celebrations. There are some cooks who wordlessly lift their inspirations from cultures near and far, and others captivated by the alchemy… Read More

A Belly Full of Stories: exploring the history of Caribbean food in the UK

by Henna Zamurd-Butt When Riaz Phillips, founder of Tezeta Press, tried to look into the history behind the food of one of the UK’s most prominent and influential diaspora communities all he could find, from the British Library to the Black Cultural Archives were tantalising but passing references to Caribbean eateries. So he spent over… Read More

“But, do you think Empire was really all that bad?”

by Maya Goodfellow  “But, do you really think Empire was really all that bad?” Everyone in our corner of the pub went silent as one of our course mates brazenly put this question to our Indian professor. “It was an absolute catastrophe – all we got out of it was the railways, and even that… Read More

The Koh-i-Noor diamond and why British Historians must be de-colonised

by Marcus Stow  India would like some of the British Empire’s spoils back, and have made it known with a campaign to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond, worth £105m and currently set in the Queen Mother’s crown. It’s not of course a unique situation, as campaigns for the return of the Parthenon Marbles and other loot… Read More

Racism? Apparently, it’s not their fault

by Shane Thomas   In case you missed it, Ben Affleck was in the news recently. No, not because of the Batman vs. Superman trailer[1]. It was revealed that while being featured on the PBS programme Finding Your Roots (a show similar to the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?), Affleck requested the show omit… Read More