London Socialist Historians Group
5th October
Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266
Socialist Historians mark Black History Month with a look at what the Tories leave out of history
The London Socialist Historians Group which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical, University London marked the start of Black History Month on Monday 4th October
Marika Sherwood spoke on ‘George Orwell told us that ‘the most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their own history’. What has been obliterated from ‘our’ history here in the UK and in what used to be our colonies?’
Marika Sherwood is one of the most well-known historians working in the area of black history in the UK. She was one of the founders in 1991 of the Black and Asian Studies Association.
Her 2007 book After Abolition, Britain and the Slave Trade since 1807 is an important contribution to black history.
Marika told the seminar that when she first started teaching in London schools in the mid-1960s there were no resources available for either students or teachers to learn about black history. While the situation has improved, with landmark books like Peter Fryer’s Staying Power, there is still a lot to be done.
She gave the example of the reparations paid to slave owners after slavery was abolished in the UK in the early nineteenth century. This money, many millions in 2021 terms had helped to finance the development of a good deal of British industry. The slaves themselves got nothing. While there is detail on some of this now, a significant amount of historical research is still required to fully understand how much of modern Britain has its roots in the slave trade.
The historians say that as part of the Tories Culture Wars the real history of black and minority ethnic people in the UK is increasingly whitewashed. However historians continue to do serious and important research to discover and recover this important part of Britain’s imperial history and resistance to it.
Marika Sherwood said:
I think I raised some issues that ought to interest many people…. I think we need a massive campaign for the government or release ALL papers on Black activists. And if some have been destroyed, then we should have access to the list of files destroyed. And who made this decision and when.
Link to recording
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/fE5I0SnZXy_bBqPRMm2_UXZpPOhh8IdtUm7zMvormhPoKhnl7oeqkz5tbvsouTNG.2TLh0Ky_PkML6Lwy Passcode: z#Fg#G5&
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