What's Happening in Black British History? A Conversation

Delighted to be part of the team – Dr Miranda Kaufmann & Prof Philip Murphy – organizing a workshop for the Institute of Commonwealth Studies – What’s Happening in Black British History ? A Conversation. We’re using its mnemonic WHBBH as the hastag on Twitter.

The vision is that the WHBBH in University London’s Senate House  Oct 30th should be the  first of a series of conferences – one a term – moving around the country. Cities proposed so far are Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham ie those cities with a significant black presence.

My personal vision for WHBBH workshops is that they will consistently present a Black British History that is more than slavery, immigration and colonialisation and goes back in time long before the arrival of the Windrush in 1948. A history that makes connections between the past and the present, as I believe any history that fails to make connections with now is irrelevant, to be real history must find those connections, making  links between then and now – essentially the reasons why I write this blog.

We’ve adopted Sara Forbes Bonetta the god daughter of  Queen Victoria as our logo as it represents many of the ideas of WHBBH - her back story and image are a surprise to many and her ancestor can be traced to the present.