The Penshurst Double Portrait

The Penshurst Double Portrait 

English School, 

17th Century 

H152 x W112cm (approx.) 

Penshurst Place, Kent

After nearly twenty years exploring the Black presence in Renaissance art, this double portrait stands out as the most astonishing and compelling painting I have ever  seen. To have been invited in at the very beginning of uncovering the identities of both sitters makes it even more extraordinary for me.

It hung  in the West Solar dining room at Penshurst Place, Kent home to the Sidney family since 1552, where its earliest recorded listing is dated 1743, and its entry in the list of paintings hanging in the dining room describes it as: Probably Charles Louis Stuart (1617–1680), later Elector Palatine, with his page. English School.

The West Solar dining room at Penshurst Place, Kent

The painting remains a mystery. We do not know who the artist is, why it was painted, or even with any certainty who the sitters are. The identity of the Black figure is entirely unknown, while the white figure, though named on the column, has now been shown not to be the person depicted. There are, however, clues within the painting. But first, let me explain my involvement.

I was first introduced to this painting two years ago, following one of my Image of the Black tours, and was immediately struck by this exceptional dual portrait: both figures -Black and white - presented at equal scale and with equal presence. I was asked to hold back from writing about it while the folk at Penshurst decided how best to introduce it to the world.

Baron’s Hall at Penshurst Place, Kent

I am delighted to report that what is now known as The Penshurst Double Portrait has been formally launched into the art historical world. I had the pleasure of speaking at the launch on 27 March, held in the magnificent fourteenth-century Baron’s Hall at Penshurst Place, with its sixteenth-century minstrel’s gallery—precisely the kind of space where court trumpeters such as John Blanke, the Black trumpeter to the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII, might be imagined to have played. However, Blanke himself could not have performed there, as he is last recorded at Henry VIII’s court in 1512. Yet he would almost certainly, have performed in the same room as Sir William Sidney (c1482–1554), courtier to Henry VIII and Edward VI, and the first Sidney owner of Penshurst. For more on John Blanke, see The John Blanke Project.

I spoke about the importance of this work in understanding and acknowledging the Black presence in Renaissance art and society, the event marked the beginning of a significant new initiative: The Two Boys Project a collaboration between Penshurst Place, the National Portrait Gallery, Historic Houses, and the Idlewild Trust.

The event was later featured on ITV Meridian News that evening and later on BBC Radio Kent, and BBC Local News Kent  each included interviews with me on the significance of the work. 

The composition of the sitters is striking. A dual portrait of a white elite figure and a Black attendant, yet both are presented at equal scale. This is rare - perhaps unique - in 17th-century European painting. Typically, Black figures, whether male or female, appear as marginal, subordinate attendants: reduced in size, placed lower in the composition, often positioned at the edge, looking up in admiration or service to the white sitter

Titian (circa 1520 - 1525)

Portrait of Laura de' Dianti 

H119cm W93cm

Heinz Kisters Collection, Switzerland

This convention can be traced back to 16th century Venice with works such as Titian’s Portrait of Laura Dianti (c.1520), where the small Black page is diminished in scale and pushed to the margins, functioning as a marker of status rather than as an individual presence. Similar marginal figures appear in English portraiture, for example in works by Anthony van Dyck. and William Dobson. 

Anthony van Dyck  (1634)
Princess Henrietta of Lorraine Attended by a Page
H213.4 x W127 cm

William Dobson (Pre 1646)
John Byron, 1st Baron Byron
H142cm x W120cm
Tabley House, Manchester University

In The Penshurst Dual Portrait , by contrast, the two figures occupy the same pictorial space, at the same scale. This is truly exceptional. That near life-size scale of the painting makes this even more remarkable. In European art of this period, there are only two comparable contexts in which a Black figure appears at equal scale to a white figure. The first is the Black King in the Adoration of the Magi, as seen in perhaps thousands of works produced at the time by such artists as Jan Gossaert or Paolo Veronese. The second is the figure of Saint Maurice, not as celebrated as the Black King never the less can be seen in hundereds of paintings from the period by artists including Matthias Grünewald and Hans Baldung.

Jan Goseart (circa 1510-15)
Adoration of the Kings
H 180cm W  163cm
National Gallery, London

Matthias Grünewald: (circa 1520 – 1524)
Meeting of St Erasmus and St Maurice
H 229 cm W 176cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Outside these religious contexts, such representation is extraordinarily rare. To encounter a Black figure presented at equal scale, in a secular, life-size portrait of this period, is therefore astonishing. 

That was my initial visual reading of The Dual Portrait composition. As to who the sitters are and what we can begin to understand about them - this is what I was to learn from the other presentations and discussions at the launch of The Two Boys Project

 What’s the role of National Portrait Gallery  ?

A copy of The Dual Portrait has been made and the original is now at the National Portrait Gallery, where it is being cleaned, stabilised, and closely analysed to better understand when, where, and how it was made. 

The first stage will be its conservation - removing dirt, mould, and layers of yellowed varnish to reveal hopefully a clearer, more defined image, closer to perhaps how it would have been seen some 400 years ago. This will be followed by technical analysis: microscopic examination of pigments and paint layers, alongside infrared and X-ray imaging to an attempt uncover how the work was constructed and what alterations if any have been undertaken over time. 

A life-sized replica will be on display at Penshurst Place, as part of a new exhibition named Who Are the Two Boys? In which the public are invited to help solve the mystery, while the original is being examined at the National Portrait Gallery. Currently the plan is to have the restored painting on display at the National Portrait Gallery in late September 2026 until March 2028, when it will return to Penshurst.

Who is the artist?

We do not know who the artist was. Nevertheless, I would suggest that they had direct familiarity with Black people and therefore knew how to paint Black figures from life. Such is the veracity of this Black figure when I posted this on social media one of my Black friends commented QUOTE You gotta let the NPG [National Portrait Gallery] know,  if nothing else to let them know how real this image is. It could well be an ancestor, a relation or a friend. UNQUOTE

Who are the sitters?

There is clearly an expression of wealth and status in this painting. The aristocratic sitter on the left is fashionably dressed in a pointed doublet, decorated with points (metal-tipped ribbons), and soft boots; the African attendant beside him is similarly well presented, dressed in rich livery and holding a cloak and a sword.

The inscription on the column on the right of the white sitter suggests it is PRINCE RUPERT, that he is thirteen years and four months old (AETATIS SVAE – IN THE YEAR OF HIS AGE), and includes a symbol that may refer to the astrological sign Taurus. However, the inscription identifying the sitter cannot be correct, because Prince Rupert was born in 1619. 

Also, is there perhaps some significance to the prominence of the boy’s golden spur? In 1626 a number of young men were created Knights of the Bath as part of the ceremonies for the coronation of King Charles I.

What is depicted?

The portrait may capture the sitters on the point of departure for a hunting expedition. The short sword held by the attendant is the type used to dispatch wounded deer, while the background—where another Black figure appears alongside a dog—suggests the hunt already unfolding.

That’s as much as we now know the public are now invited help solve the mystery of the work along with National Portrait Gallery.

Why does the analysis of this painting, and the recovery of the Black sitter’s identity alongside the white sitter, matter so much today?

For centuries, the Black presence in Western European portraits of elites with their Black attendants has been neglected - ignored, hidden in plain sight within both the paintings and their written descriptions. Today, that neglect is being challenged. Portraits once named solely after the dominant white sitter, with no reference to the Black attendant, are being reconsidered and consequently renamed. The Black figure once unnamed, unrecognised their presence is now acknowledged. The National Portrait Gallery has played its part in this shift in recent times in renaming to include phrases such as “with page,” marking an important step towards recognition. 

Unknown artist (c1711)

Sir John Chardin with an unknown male attendant

H135cm x W 135cm

National Portrait Gallery

For example, the National Portrait Gallery portrait of Sir John Chardin (1643–1713) illustrates this shift clearly. In the Wayback Machine entry of 13 August 2020, the work was simply titled Sir John Chardin. Two years later, when its National Portrait Gallery. webpage was next captured on 19 December 2022, it had been retitled Sir John Chardin with an unknown male attendant. I believe the National Portrait Gallery’s change, and those across many other galleries, were accelerated by the murder of George Floyd on 25 May 2020 and the global impact of the Black Lives Matter movement that followed as most paintings from the period in our national collection which included a peripherlal, marginal Black figure have had there titles updated to include some reference to the Black figure's presence .

Why is this renaming significant ?

Paraphrasing Marcel Duchamp, a title works like an invisible layer, shaping how we read a painting. Renaming a work offers another way of seeing—and in some cases, that shift brings the Black figure into view, moving from mere presence to identification, as names, histories and lives are put back into the image.

Joshua Reynolds (1782)

Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Harrington and Marcus Richard Fitzroy Thomas

Yale Center for British Art

For example, Joshua Reynolds’s full-length portrait of Charles Stanhope has been exhibited under several different titles:

• 1782: Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington (artist’s studio)

• 1783: Portrait of a Gentleman (Royal Academy exhibition)

• 2014: Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington, and a Servant (Yale Center for British Art)

• 2022: Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington, and Marcus Richard Fitzroy Thomas (Yale Center for British Art)

That most recent renaming, following work by Victoria Hepburn, transforms the work into a dual portrait and adds life to the marginalised ‘servant’ figure. ( For more on the renaming listen to The BP2 Podcast Episode 7 Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington ( 1783) by Sir Joshua Reynolds)

attributed to Lenthall, c.1692

Peregrine Tyam and Mary Lawley

Claydon House , Buckinghamshire

Jean-Baptiste van Loo, 1739,

Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork, and His Wife Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington, with Three Children and James Cumberlidge

Chatsworth, Derbyshire

Other examples of Black “attendants” and “pages” being acknowledged by name in a portrait’s title, following the work of art historians, include Hannah Lees’s research on the 1692 portrait attributed to Lenthall at Claydon House in Buckinghamshire  now titled Peregrine Tyam and Mary Lawley. Similarly, Ed Town’s work has led to Jean-Baptiste van Loo’s 1739 portrait of Richard Boyle and his family being fully retitled to recognise their Black attendant, whose life has also been researched: Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694–1753), his daughters Charlotte (1731–1754) and Dorothy (1724–1742), his wife Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington (1699–1758), and James Cumberlidge (1727/28–1788).

What we are seeing here is a shift - from anonymity to identity. These figures are no longer simply “attendants” or “pages,” but individuals with names, histories, and lives that can be traced and told. In naming them, we see they are worthy of recognition as a distinct personality we begin to restore both their presence and their humanity within the painting.

David Martin, 1778

Lady Elizabeth Murray and her cousin 

Dido Elizabeth Belle

Scone Palace, Scotland

Belle (2013 film)

Perhaps the most celebrated dual portrait of a Black and a white sitter from the 17th and 18th centuries is David Martin’s c.1793 work at Scone Palace in Scotland. At the turn of the last century it was known as Lady Elizabeth Finch-Hatton with a Negress Attendant. Today, thanks to the work of Paula Byrne, it is titled Lady Elizabeth Finch-Hatton and her cousin Dido Elizabeth Belle. Byrne’s research went on to inspire the film Belle (2013), directed by Amma Asante.

And  so to conclude, the film based on the life of Dido Belle offers a glimpse of what The Two Boys Project might become: perhaps, in time, a film celebrating the life of the Black figure and his relationship to the white sitter  - The Penhurst Boys -  shaped by the findings of the National Portrait Gallery and others involved in the project. I, for one, look forward to attending its premiere in London’s West End!

graphic created with ChatGPT

Black British History Scandal on the way to British Musuem....

The British Museum

One day in 1932, C. L. R. James was on his way to the British Museum, in Bloomsbury, when he saw the ‘magnificent figure’ of Paul Robeson, the singer, actor and scholar, walking towards him. They stopped to talk. James regarded Robeson as ‘a man not only of great gentleness but of great command: he was never upset about anything’. On this day, however, clearly bothered, he asked James whether he had heard the gossip 'about a coloured singer and a member of the British Royal Family’. 'It's not me, James', Robeson declared passionately. 'It's not me.' To Robeson's indignation, his friend laughed: 'What is there to laugh at? I don't see anything to laugh at.' James explained that, as a Negro from the United States' living in England, there was no disgrace in being linked to a member of the British Royal Family'. Hence his reaction: I laugh because you seem so upset about it. That is very funny.' Robeson was unmoved. 'They got the wrong Nigger in the woodpile, this time James', he protested. 'It's not me - Hutch (Leslie 'Hutch' Hutchinson) maybe - but not me!'

Donald J. Robeson Agonistes. In: Lusty N, Murphet J, eds. Modernism and Masculinity. Cambridge University Press; 2014:141-158.

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The royal gigolo: Edwina Mountbatten sued over claims of an affair with black singer Paul Robeson. But the truth was even more outrageous…

https://dizwhite.com/downton-abbeys-jazz-singer-inspired-by-scandal/

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A Personal Moment at the Imperial War Museum

Yesterday I visited the Imperial War Museum London to research its entry for my Guide to Black London. I didn’t expect to find something that felt quite so personal.

In the Second World War Galleries, in the Witnesses to War section, I came across Thomas Andi.

Thomas Andi was a Nigerian seaman in the British Merchant Navy — a civilian working on ships transporting commercial goods during wartime. On 18 December 1940, German raiders attacked his ship in the Atlantic. He was captured and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany.

Displayed in the gallery is his thermos flask and a log book filled with photographs of fellow prisoners — small, human fragments of endurance and solidarity. The caption explains that 5,720 merchant seamen were captured during the war. Thomas was one of them.

Standing there, I felt an unexpected jolt of connection.

Michael N. Ohajuru (1924-1995)
Pier Head Liverpool

My father - Michael N. Ohajuru - was also a merchant seaman during the war. I still have his National Union of Seamen membership contribution card. He enrolled on 29 September 1943, in the Catering Department. He told me stories of being part of convoys across the Atlantic, just like Thomas but Dad's ships were never attacked and he survived the War.

Michael N. Ohajuru : National Union of Seaman Card

Seeing Thomas Andi’s story in the museum — publicly acknowledged, carefully preserved — reminded me how wide and varied the Black presence in Britain’s wartime history truly was. These were not marginal figures. They were part of the machinery, the risk, the sacrifice.

For me, the display wasn’t just historical research.

It was family.

Doom Scrolling found the Three Kings in Venuzula

 

Andry José Hernández Romero, who is gay, told US agents he was fleeing persecution stemming from his sexual orientation and political views

Andry José Hernández Romero participating in Capacho’s Three Kings celebration

While doom scrolliouing for more information on the wrongly deported Venezuelan make up artist Andry José Hernández Romero. I came across him as one of the three king in an article in the Guardian This led me to this excellent article in USA Today with the headline 

Three Kings Day or Epiphany? What these two holidays celebrate and have in common

A good article with an excellent video showing many different versions of the there kings.

Marika Sherwood (1937-2025): A Pioneer and Mentor of Black British History Who Changed Lives

Marika Sherwood
(8 November 1937 – 17 February 2025)

I was very sad to read this morning of  the passing of Marika Sherwood, a true giant of Black British history who touched my life in profound ways. I first met Marika through the Black and Asian Studies Association now the BASA mailing list  , where she organized inspiring meetings on all aspects of Black history and cultures at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in Senate House. It was through her natural gift for connecting people that I met Miranda Kaufmann when exploring my interest in Black Tudors and John Blanke – a connection that would prove invaluable to my work.

What I'll remember most about Marika was her incredible generosity with her knowledge. She was never too busy to offer guidance, share insights, or point me in the right direction as my work in Black British history developed. I felt particularly honoured when she contributed to my John Blanke Project, fills me with pride – having one of the pioneers of Black British history engage with my work meant a lot.

Reading Marika's Paper in Bangor (2022)

In recent years, though her mobility was limited, her mind remained razor-sharp. I had the privilege of being her voice at the WHBBH conference, reading out her meticulously researched paper. Even then, her scholarly excellence shone through every word.

Her groundbreaking work on Black women's history continues to inspire my research today. Long before it became a popular area of study, Marika recognized this crucial gap in our historical understanding. She approached it with her characteristic brilliance, asking probing questions that opened up new avenues of research.

I will deeply miss her presence– our conversations, her guidance, and her unwavering support. While her loss leaves a void in our field, I carry forward the lessons she taught me, grateful for every moment I had to learn from this remarkable woman who helped shape not just Black British history, but my own journey as a historian.

Thanks to  Abdul Alkalimat / Gerald Mcworter for  allowing me to add examples of Marika's scholarship and activism: 

Lectures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrafYov45S0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBddTi7BJjA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baQQq_PTUss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT1ZZPYVoI4

Interviews
https://millennialsarekillingcapitalism.libsyn.com/researching-nkrumah-with-marika-sherwood
https://www.johnblanke.com/marika-sherwood.html
https://philpapers.org/rec/SHETCT

Articles
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/6-author/marika-sherwood/
https://www.historytoday.com/author/marika-sherwood
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/entities/publication/0130d99e-34b7-458b-8f4f-ca9107e5e795

Books
https://www.racearchive.org.uk/marika-sherwood-kwame-nkrumah-and-the-pan-african-congress-archive/
http://www.savannahpress.co.uk/

Black and Asian Studies Association
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEdxy_az-B4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJxlyupu0N0
https://www.blackandasianstudies.org/

Honor
https://www.chi.ac.uk/news/distinguished-historian-and-activist-marika-sherwood-given-honorary-award-from-university-of-chichester/

 

Why I call out the use of the term M*X*D R**E

Deep breath… The term ‘m*x*d-r**e’ should be assigned to the ethnic language dustbin, alongside terms like N****R, C**N, W*G, G****W*G, R*D, Y*LL*W, N*G*O, B***K*E, C****R*D, and H*LF-C*ST.

Why?

I was prompted to write this now as saddened to hear two Black commentators, whose views I greatly value, repeatedly use the term. One even referred to themselves as being m*x*d-r**e. 

It is a racist term because it implies the existence of a ‘pure’ race or races. This idea takes us straight to the origins of racism, where humanity was divided into races, each defined by physical, intellectual, and emotional characteristics. These were then ranked based on skin colour, with the so-called white race given the most favorable traits and the black race the least—perceived as the most ugly, stupid, and childish. All that was deemed good and chaste was attributed to the white race, while all that was bad and carnal was assigned to the black race.

The use of m*x*d-r**e harks back to 18th-century Europe and the Enlightenment, where the concept of race was formalized. David Hume, the Scottish philosopher and historian (1711–1776), famously stated:

“I am apt to suspect the negroes and in general all other species of men (for there are four or five different kinds) to be naturally inferior to the whites.”

Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish biologist and physician (1707–1778), divided humans into four races, placing black people at the bottom:

• Homo Europaeus (WHITE): Gentle, inventive, and governed by laws
• Homo Americanus (REDDISH): Choleric, upright, and free
• Homo Asiaticus (TAWNY): Melancholic, strict, and greedy
• Homo Africanus (BLACK): Crafty, lazy, and careless

Edward Long, in his deeply racist text justifying slavery and white supremacy, History of Jamaica, took the idea further believing blacks were a separate species: 

"For my own part, I think there are extremely potent reasons for believing, that the White and the Negroe are two distinct species."

He went on to describe black people in dehumanizing terms:

"Instead of hair, black people had ‘a covering of wool, like the bestial fleece.’ Their bodies were infested with black lice. Their ‘bestial or fetid smell’ was so strong that ‘it continues in places where they have been near a quarter of an hour.’ They had no plan or system of morality. They were barbarous to their children. Black men had no taste but for women, and eating and drinking to excess; no wish but to be idle. In Africa, ‘their roads . . . are mere sheep-paths, twice as long as they need be, and almost impassable.’ All authors said that blacks were ‘the vilest of the human kind.’"

This is why I avoid the term m*x*d-r**e and often call others out for using it.

There are other ways of acknowledging difference through  culture, ancestry or heritage to name three possible differences from one human to another – race is not one to my mind as it is a fabrication, a construct, based on the idea of white supremacy. There is no pure race upon which this term can be based—it has no scientific foundation. It is the language of racists. It is the language of eugenics. I would urge that its use be consigned to the ethnic language dustbin where it belongs.

Francis Williams Portrait - Prof Fara Dabhiowala master class on the Black presence in 18th century art

William Williams (c1760) Francis Williams

Deep breath… Prof Fara Dabhiowala analysis of the V&A’s 1760 portrait of Francis Williams by William Williams is simply the best analysis of a work of art I have ever seen or read – a master class  -  period! You can see it here....

 Black Genius: Science, Race, and the Extraordinary Portrait of Francis Williams 

by Prof Fara Dabhiowala

The portrait was introduced into V& A’s collection in the 1920s when a Black presence in a painting in its collection wasn’t as valued as it is today. The work was bought for its depiction of 18thC mahogany chair and table, the Black figure was totally ignored, of absolutely no consequence, at that time. I was minded of the portrait of Toussaint Louverture which came into the V&A’s collection 1833 to be displayed as part of a number of prints depicting French Regal Military and other costumes. Here again the Black central figure - Haitian revolutionary leader, Toussaint Louverture - was seen as of no importance. How times have changed!

Toussaint Louverture (V&A collection)

Prof Fara Dabhiowala brilliant analysis gives us the tools, the ideas, the thinking that helps us reconsider and reflect on that difference. And for me it was his brilliant scholarship and excellent communication skills they really resonated with me on so many levels. His wonderful analytic deconstruction, paired with his charming wit, was a masterclass—making so many essential, important, mostly hidden, connections made manifest. I especially appreciated how he named and dated Johnson's dictionary. I've watched the video several times and will continue to do so. I really urge you too to watch Prof Fara Dabhiowala master class in the Black presence in 18th century art.

I’ve spent this year’s Black History Month presenting on Lloyds involvement and its response to its part  in the 18thC transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans to other city insurance firms. I have been keen to stress that there is no personal guilt or shame involved – that was then , this is now. The essential issue is how do we make manifest we our different from the 18th scientific racist beliefs with its dehumanisation of and brutality to Black bodies. That difference represents who we are today. This change is how we see these pictures , just like Lloyds response to its historical involvement in transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans they make real how we have changed - that was then -- the Williams and Loverture portraits were all about furniture and uniform, Lloyds did not acknowledge it role in enslavement - this is now ...we we think and act differently.

 

Black British History at the British Musuem Reading Room

Reading Room at the British Museum 

I was delighted to find that the Reading Room at the British Museum was open. It’s been closed for several years now, so I couldn’t believe I had the chance to step inside and see the great dome once again. This place holds deep significance for me, particularly when it comes to Black British history. It was here, in 1912, that Marcus Garvey gained access, thanks to a ticket given to him by Duse Mohamed Ali, a property owner who could secure such a pass. Garvey had been working for Ali on The African Times and Orient Review, and it was here where Garvey spent time studying.

One of the books he read was Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington, at the time a bestseller and motivational guide that championed self-help, education, hard work, and self-reliance as the keys to success for Black people. It was Washington’s embodiment of the American Dream—work hard, and you’ll succeed. Garvey, absorbing these ideas, found inspiration in the possibilities education and self-reliance could offer.

Washington’s message, that Black people should uplift themselves from within their own communities because no one else would do it for them, resonated deeply with Garvey. This became a cornerstone of Garvey’s vision, leading him to form the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The very word “improvement” in its name could be traced back to Washington’s ideals of hard work, self-reliance, and education.

Standing in the Reading Room that day, now part of the British Library, I felt an overwhelming sense of awe. This space had literally changed the course of Black history. To be there, where Garvey himself , with the support of Duse Mohamed Ali once studied the works of Booker T. Washington to develop the ideas to create a better world for Black folk, was a great experience, Garvey's historic presence  challenging what Malcolm X  said, “if you want to hide something from Black people, put it in a book.”

Black English Folk Music & The Sorrow Songs

 I didn’t think there was such a thing as Black English folk music, but now, thanks to Angeline Morrison and The Sorrow Songs, I think differently. Black English folk music is very much a thing, a very relevant thing.

Back in the 1980s, I stopped considering Black folk as part of the English folk tradition, given their black-faced Morris dancers, which its practitioners claimed had nothing to do with racism, Jim Crow, or minstrelsy. For me, English folk music was the trope of grown bearded white men in Aran sweaters with their fingers in their ears singing folk songs and sea shanties.

My ideas changed following an invitation by the author J T Williams to attend the book launch of Mary L. Shannon’s Billy Waters Is Dancing: Or How a Black Sailor Found Fame in Regency Britain. Billy Waters was formerly a slave who gained his freedom by joining the Royal Navy, where he lost a leg, eventually earning his living and some notoriety as a fiddle-playing beggar and singer on the streets of London. He died in 1823. I knew of Billy Waters from producing an eponymous podcast for the Black Presence in British Portraiture.  I plan to write a review of the book but for now I've been diverted thru discovering Black English folk. The event was packed with over 200 people, and there was music.

The Sorrow Songs Band

It was that music – the band and songs they played – that made me appreciate that there could be such a thing as Black English folk music.

Angeline Morrison’s Jump Billy, specially written for the Billy Waters Is Dancing launch, was played by The Sorrow Songs Band: Vocals - Angeline Morrison, Violin - Hamilton Gross, Banjo - Clarke Camilleri, Concertina - Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, and conversations with those musicians afterward completely changed my thinking on Black English folk music in particular and contemporary English folk music in general.

The Black presence could be seen in the band’s name, taken from the title of Angeline Morrison’s award-winning 2022 album The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of the Black British Experience. An article in The Guardian on its release whichcompletely passed me by, despite being a subscriber and daily reader.

It describes Angeline as bringing to light the overlooked history of Black British people through original folk songs, blending traditional instruments and a cappella singing. She captivates her audience with her quiet intensity, offering a stark contrast to the conventional, jovial folk performances I was more familiar with. In it Angeline talks about aiming to fill the gaps in the British folk canon by sharing stories of Black ancestors, influenced by her own heritage and experiences, which Angeline makes viscerally real through her soft, melodic voice in the most hauntingly beautiful way in The Sorrow Songs.

Angeline Morrison The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of the Black British Experience,
Topic Records (2022)

I have been listening to it repeatedly since I downloaded it last week. It opens with the deeply sad and moving Unknown African Boy (d1830), written from the perspective of the mother of an unknown Black boy, about eight years old, whose body was found and listed among cargo like palm oil, elephant tusks, silver dollars, and gold dust, and is buried in St Martin's churchyard, Isles of Scilly. The album goes on to tell the tales of many Black Britons, some known to me, such as Ignatius Sancho, John Ystumllyn (I have the rose named after him in my garden), Charles Wooton, and Mary Seacole. Others were new to me: Moll O’Bedlam (with her ‘mad hair’ who died in prison); Fanny Johnson (a servant whose hand was kept by the family she worked for); Evaristo Muchovela (buried in the same grave as his master). All making manifest the complexity and diversity of the Black presence in British history

From its name and cover the album connects with the Black and the Black British Experience. Its name  is taken from the closing chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois' 1903 The Souls of Black Folk, Chapter XIV: Of the Sorrow Songs, where Du Bois reflects on the significance of Negro spirituals, or Sorrow Songs as he calls them, as expressions of the Black slave's soul and experience. Exactly what Angeline does for Black Britons through her compositions, reflecting on and empathizing with the lived experiences of Black folk over the centuries. While its cover features the image of an angelic little Black May Queen taken from a World War Two Colonial Office propaganda film now in the BFI collection Springtime in an English Village (1944). There is a beautifully illustrated downloadable annotated lyric book with pictures and stories behind all the songs on The Sorrow Songs.

The album’s songs and lyric book make an informative, emotional, and very accessible introduction to the history of Black people in England. Together, they make  The Sorrow Songs an excellent companion to any of the texts written on Black British history: David Olusoga’s Black and British: A Forgotten History, Hakim Adi’s African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History, The Oxford Companion to Black British History, and Peter Fryer’s seminal Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain.

Angeline Morrison and The Sorrow Songs made Black English folk music real for me, which I will now continue to follow. I unreservedly recommend the album to those who want to experience Black English folk music and some very real Black British history through music.

FOOTNOTE (24th June 2024)

By coincidence on the same day I published this post the Daily Telegraph had the following article :

It's behind a paywall however you can read it here as well as the comments which are sadly so predictable.

One of the first indications of the African slave trade during the Renaissance in Europe?

 

Annibale Carracci Portrait of an African Woman  circa ca1560

From the Louvre Abu Dhabi Collection has the note :

Although fragmentary, this portrait is striking for the directness of the woman’s gaze. She is richly dressed in the style fashionable at the Medici court in the 1560s. This portrait is one of the first indications of the African slave trade during the Renaissance in Europe.

"one of the first indications of the African slave trade during the Renaissance in Europe." hmmm...

I'd welcome a chat with who ever wrote that to discuss:

1 What is the evidence of slavery in the image ? 

2 What pictures they compare it with to make this one of the first? 

I could/would challenge both.

From Open University Starter Pack in 2004 to Honorary Doctorate in 2024

Open University Honorary Doctorate (DUniv)

Barbican Centre, London

22nd March 2024

Michael I. Ohajuru 

 

DUniv (Open University,2024), FRSA (2022), Senior Fellow Institute of Commonwealth Studies (2017), BA (Hons) (Open University, 2008), BSc (Hons) (Leeds University, 1974)

Images awaiting further study.....

 https://museedunouveaumonde.larochelle.fr/au-dela-de-la-visite/autour-des-expositions/une/entrez-dans-lhistoire-317  

https://boydellandbrewer.com/blog/medieval-history-and-literature/confronting-the-changeling-saint-bartholomews-darkest-timeline/

Confronting the Changeling: Saint Bartholomew’s Darkest Timeline - Boydell and Brewer The Medieval Changeling by Rose A Sawyer provides the most thorough examination of medieval changeling discourse to date. boydellandbrewer.com