News — British

Some of the world’s greatest cultural and historical treasures are housed in London’s British Museum, and a significant number of them were taken during Britain’s centuries-long imperial rule. In recent years, many of the countries missing their cultural heritage have been asking for some of these items back. Benin City in Nigeria is one of those places. They've been calling for the return of the Benin Bronzes, hundreds of artifacts looted in 1897 when British soldiers embarked a punitive expedition to Benin. Many are now housed in the British Museum. And it's just the beginning. As the world reckons with the damage inflicted during Europe’s colonial global takeover, the calls for these items to be returned are getting louder and louder. (Shared via Vox)

In 1908 four black men formed the California Colony and Home Promoting Association. The Association purchased 20 acres along the Santa Fe rail line from the Pacific Farming Company, at a railway stop called Solita. They divided this land into individual parcels to form the first town in California to be founded, financed, and governed by blacks. Soon after the town was founded the name was changed to Allensworth in honor of the association’s president Allen Allensworth, retired chaplain of the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment. With the success of its agricultural development and business enterprises, the town quickly grew.

By the year 1914 the town would not only have a schoolhouse it would become California’s first African American school district. It became a judicial district, had a Baptist church, a hotel, and a library that would be made part of the Tulare County free library system. The year 1914 also brought a number of setbacks to the town. First, much of the town’s economic base was lost when the Santa Fe Railroad moved its rail stop from Allensworth to Alpaugh. In September, during a trip to Monrovia, California, Colonel Allensworth was crossing the street when he was struck and killed by a motorcycle. The town refuses to die. The downtown area is now preserved as Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park where thousands of visitors come from all over California to partake in the special events held at the park during the year. The area outside of the state park is also still inhabited.

The Mangrove Nine Trial was Britain’s most influential Black Power trial.  In Britain, descendants from the Caribbean, Africa, or South Asia, who were mainly immigrants from former British colonies, were considered to be “black.”  The London police and the British Home Office, responsible for immigration, security, and law and order, orchestrated the arrest and trial of nine black leaders in 1970 to discredit London’s growing Black Power movement.

The Mangrove trial focused on the police harassment of the Mangrove restaurant in west London’s Notting Hill area, which was owned by Frank Crichlow, a Trinidad-born community activist.  The restaurant was the heart of the Caribbean community and was also popular with white and black celebrities. Because Crichlow was a Black Power activist, police raided his restaurant twelve times between January 1969 and July 1970, calling the Mangrove a den of drugs, despite not finding any evidence.

In response to this intense police harassment, Crichlow filed a complaint to the Race Relations Board, accusing the police of racial discrimination.  His employee, Darcus Howe, a Trinidad-born Black Power activist, encouraged Critchlow to work with the British Black Panthers (BBP) in London to organize a demonstration against police harassment of the Mangrove.

On August 9, 1970, 150 protesters marched to local police stations and were met by 200 police who initiated the violence that ensued.  Nine protest leaders were arrested and charged with incitement to riot:  Crichlow; Howe, who later became a BBP member; Althea Jones-Lecointe, head of the BBP; Barbara Beese, BBP member; Rupert Boyce; Rhodan Gordon; Anthony Innis; Rothwell Kentish; and Godfrey Millett.

Initially the court dismissed the charges because the statements of twelve officers were ruled to be inadmissible because they equated black radicalism with criminal intent.  However, the Director of Public Prosecutions reinstated the charges and the defendants were rearrested.

The nine defendants used a radical legal strategy in the subsequent trial.  Howe and Jones-Lecointe defended themselves arguing that this was a political trial.  The radical lawyer Ian McDonald represented Beese and coordinated the defense of Howe and Jones-Lecointe with the other defendants’ lawyers.

Howe and McDonald argued for the right to an all-black jury under the Magna Carta’s “jury of peers” clause.  McDonald cited case law allowing Welsh miners to have an all-Welsh jury that led to the practice of selecting juries from the defendant’s neighborhood.  The conservative judge rejected these arguments.  During jury selection, the defense dismissed sixty-three potential jurors, ensuring that there were only two blacks on the twelve-person jury.

During the fifty-five-day trial Jones-Lecointe described police persecution of Notting Hill’s black community.  Howe exposed inconsistencies in police testimony, and a police officer had to leave the courtroom when he was seen signaling to prosecution witnesses as they testified.  Meanwhile, outside the courtroom, the BBP organized pickets and distributed flyers to win popular support. Ultimately the jury acquitted all nine on the charge of rioting.

When Judge Edward Clarke stated that there was evidence of racial hatred on both sides, this was the first time a British court judge acknowledged racial discrimination and wrongdoing by the London police.  The Mangrove Nine gathered broad public support for the fight against police racism in Britain and showed that the fight for racial justice could be won.

The Mangrove Nine Trial was Britain’s most influential Black Power trial.  In Britain, descendants from the Caribbean, Africa, or South Asia, who were mainly immigrants from former British colonies, were considered to be “black.”  The London police and the British Home Office, responsible for immigration, security, and law and order, orchestrated the arrest and trial of nine black leaders in 1970 to discredit London’s growing Black Power movement.

The Mangrove trial focused on the police harassment of the Mangrove restaurant in west London’s Notting Hill area, which was owned by Frank Crichlow, a Trinidad-born community activist.  The restaurant was the heart of the Caribbean community and was also popular with white and black celebrities. Because Crichlow was a Black Power activist, police raided his restaurant twelve times between January 1969 and July 1970, calling the Mangrove a den of drugs, despite not finding any evidence.

In response to this intense police harassment, Crichlow filed a complaint to the Race Relations Board, accusing the police of racial discrimination.  His employee, Darcus Howe, a Trinidad-born Black Power activist, encouraged Critchlow to work with the British Black Panthers (BBP) in London to organize a demonstration against police harassment of the Mangrove.

On August 9, 1970, 150 protesters marched to local police stations and were met by 200 police who initiated the violence that ensued.  Nine protest leaders were arrested and charged with incitement to riot:  Crichlow; Howe, who later became a BBP member; Althea Jones-Lecointe, head of the BBP; Barbara Beese, BBP member; Rupert Boyce; Rhodan Gordon; Anthony Innis; Rothwell Kentish; and Godfrey Millett.

Initially the court dismissed the charges because the statements of twelve officers were ruled to be inadmissible because they equated black radicalism with criminal intent.  However, the Director of Public Prosecutions reinstated the charges and the defendants were rearrested.

The nine defendants used a radical legal strategy in the subsequent trial.  Howe and Jones-Lecointe defended themselves arguing that this was a political trial.  The radical lawyer Ian McDonald represented Beese and coordinated the defense of Howe and Jones-Lecointe with the other defendants’ lawyers.

Howe and McDonald argued for the right to an all-black jury under the Magna Carta’s “jury of peers” clause.  McDonald cited case law allowing Welsh miners to have an all-Welsh jury that led to the practice of selecting juries from the defendant’s neighborhood.  The conservative judge rejected these arguments.  During jury selection, the defense dismissed sixty-three potential jurors, ensuring that there were only two blacks on the twelve-person jury.

During the fifty-five-day trial Jones-Lecointe described police persecution of Notting Hill’s black community.  Howe exposed inconsistencies in police testimony, and a police officer had to leave the courtroom when he was seen signaling to prosecution witnesses as they testified.  Meanwhile, outside the courtroom, the BBP organized pickets and distributed flyers to win popular support. Ultimately the jury acquitted all nine on the charge of rioting.

When Judge Edward Clarke stated that there was evidence of racial hatred on both sides, this was the first time a British court judge acknowledged racial discrimination and wrongdoing by the London police.  The Mangrove Nine gathered broad public support for the fight against police racism in Britain and showed that the fight for racial justice could be won.

George Town, located on the island of Grand Cayman, is the capital city of the Cayman Islands, British West Indies. There has been no archaeological evidence of an indigenous presence in the Cayman Islands before the arrival of the Europeans. The first European sighting of the Cayman Islands was by Christopher Columbus on his fourth and final voyage in 1503. He named the three islands, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, “Las Tortugas” after the many tortoises he and his men found there. Subsequent Spanish explorers renamed them the Caymanas, after a species of crocodile inhabiting the island.

The Spanish Crown made no efforts to settle the region, and the islands were not thoroughly explored until 1585, when English sea captain Sir Francis Drake arrived. In 1670, the Treaty of Madrid officially transferred possession of the Cayman Islands to Great Britain, and for nearly three centuries the Islands were administered as a dependency of Jamaica, the largest British colony in the West Indies.

Around 1700, George Town became the first permanent settlement on Grand Cayman. Slavery was introduced in 1734 but enslaved Africans were limited in number comparison to other West Indian colonies that had developed extensive rice and sugar plantations. Today people of African ancestry comprise 20% of the islands’ population. In 1831, the Legislative Assembly that now governs Cayman was established in George Town and granted authority over local issues.

For the next century, the Cayman Islands remained a small, mostly self-sufficient outpost of the British Empire. Most of the local economy depended on sailing and fishing. When Jamaica gained independence in 1962, the Cayman Islands chose to remain a colony of the British Crown, a status they hold today. Also, today, George Town’s economy is dependent on finance and tourism with 600 banking companies located within the small city of 40,200 which holds 61% of the Islands’ 65,542 inhabitants.

The finance sector has made George Town and the Cayman Islands internationally famous. The islands rank six internationally in terms of banking assets and George Town has branches of 40 of the world’s 50 largest banks. The town is also a center for worldwide insurance, accounting, and law firms. Financial services represent 55% of the Cayman Islands’ total economy, 40% of all government revenue, and 36% of all employment. Over 100,000 overseas firms have offices in the Cayman Islands.

Grand Cayman is the largest of the three islands, at approximately 22 miles long and up to eight miles at its widest point. It comprises 76% of the entire territory’s land mass and holds 97% of the islands’ population. There are six districts in the territory, and five districts, Georgetown, Bodden Town, West Bay, East End and North Side located on Grand Cayman.

The population of George Town is one of the most diverse in the world with more than one hundred different nationalities 67% of the population calling the community home. Besides Caymanians, Jamaicans 28% and Filipinos, 14% are the largest groups. George Town is a popular port of call for cruise ships bringing tourists to the beaches as well as to the Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville franchise and the Guy Harvey Art Studio, among other sights.

All Caymanian children are entitled to free primary and secondary education but there are also various churches and private institutions that offer educational services from kindergarten to college level. A fleet of share taxis are the major mode of public transportation in George Town.

The Battle of Isandlwana, January 22, 1879, was the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War and would prove to be a significant and unexpected victory for the Zulu in a war which they ultimately lost to the British.

Since the British arrival in South Africa at the beginning of the 19th Century, Zululand had proved a troublesome nation in their efforts to control the region. During the first three decades of the century the British made no attempt to challenge Shaka, the founder of the Zulu Empire, and his immediate successors. From the 1840s through the 1860s however, British (and Boer) power gradually increased as Zulu military control grew weaker. By the 1870s the Zulu Empire threatened British expansion into the diamond and gold-rich interior. In 1878 the British High Commissioner of Southern Africa, Sir Bartle Frere, provoked a war with the Zulu, hoping for a sharp, short attack leading to the destruction of Zulu military power.

On December 11, 1878 Frere sent an ultimatum to Zulu King Cetshwayo, ordering him either to dismantle the military system of his nation or else face war with the British Empire. Cetshwayo had long made efforts to avoid outright war with the British; however he found it impossible to comply with this request and, just as Frere had anticipated, he refused to disband his army and instead prepared for war against the British.

On the 22nd January 1879 the British invaded Zululand. Their army was composed of nearly 1,800 troops, made up of both British and African men from the neighbouring British colony of Natal. Although they faced a force of roughly 20,000 Zulu warriors, the British felt assured of their victory due to superior military resources. However, the battle which ensued would prove to be an embarrassing defeat for the British as they were out-manoeuvred by Cetshwayo’s men. By the end of the battle the British had lost around 1,300 of their force of 1,800 while the Zulus suffered a relatively light loss of around 1,000 men.

The Zulus’ triumph, however, would not last long. In order to preserve the Imperial image of power and prestige and to avoid the Zulu victory inspiring other nations to revolt against British colonial rule, they launched a nine-month counteroffensive that would engage at least 17,000 British troops, the largest Army they sent to Africa. Britain would emerge victorious in this Anglo-Zulu War after their forces captured Cetshwayo on August 28, 1879, forcing him to agree to the dismantling of the Zulu Empire into 13 small states. Eight years later, on May 9, 1887, all of these states were annexed by the British. The Battle of Isandlwana, however, would remain an important landmark in the history of Africa as an example of defiance against European Imperialism.

From next year, officials in Nigeria and the British Museum will take part in an archaeological dig to look for royal treasures in the former African kingdom of Benin. The excavation, described as the “most extensive ever undertaken” in Benin City, will begin at a site adjacent to the palace of the Oba, Benin’s traditional ruler, AFP reported.
Nigeria has said it will build a new museum at that site to exhibit looted Benin Bronzes currently displayed in American and European museums. The 10,000-square-foot museum — the Edo Museum of West African Art –is being designed by the trailblazing Ghanaian-British architect, David Adjaye and is due to open in Benin City in four years.

Benin City was the capital of Benin Kingdom, one of the most highly developed states in Africa, when it was ransacked and burnt down in 1897 by British forces. Its destruction in what became known as the Benin Expedition of 1897 led to the fall of the once successful and well-recognized Benin Kingdom located in what is now southern Nigeria.

In a move to leave its colonial past behind, the Barbados government is now all set to remove the statue of Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson from the National Heroes Square in the heart of the capital, Bridgetown.

The statue, which has stood in the city for over 200 years, will be removed on November 16, 2020, on International Day of Tolerance, a year before dropping Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State. 

Announcing the decision which he described as “a step towards the healing of the Nation”, John King, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Culture, said, “This is indeed an ultimate statement of confidence in who we are as a people and what we are capable of achieving.”

“As we amend the Constitution to have a Barbadian Head of State, and as a symbol of the maturity of our democracy, it is imperative that we reexamine notable elements of our colonial past. Cabinet’s decision to remove the statue is part of this process as we seek to promote national identity as part of a modern Barbados.”

The recent wave of black consciousness that swept over the western world attracted calls for lingering symbols of slavery and colonialism to be removed across the world. An online petition calling for the removal of the statue led by former journalist Alex Downes garnered thousands of signatures in Barbados.

“In a country where approx. 95 percent of the population is also black, why do we continue to proudly force ourselves to relive the traumas our people have faced by having this statue stand in Heroes Square?” Downes questioned.

The 30-year old Barbadian further called on the Government of Barbados to replace the statue with a symbol of unity which acknowledges the true work of the country’s heroes.

The statue of Nelson – a British Navy officer — was erected over two centuries ago in honor of his victory against French forces in the Valley of Trafalgar. However, Nelson’s staunch support for the Transatlantic Slave Trade has attracted tremendous criticism in recent times.

According to a letter penned by Nelson to his friend, Simon Taylor — a British plantation owner  in Jamaica — in regard to slavery, he remarked: “I have ever been and shall die a firm friend to our present colonial system…neither in the field or in the Senate shall their interest be infringed whilst I have an arm to fight in their defense, or a tongue to launch my voice against the damnable and cursed doctrine of Wilberforce and his hypocritical allies.”

Apart from Barbados, many people across the globe support the symbolic act of reclaiming dignity and exposing long-celebrated racists. Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago have strongly called for the removal of statues of Christopher Columbus.