Abingdon News No.55

14 July 2020 Abingdon News Black Lives Matter and the Abingdon School History curriculum BLM emerged as an organised movement in 2013, following the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012 by police in the USA, and it favours non-violent civil disobedience, principally against police brutality towards African-American people. It is worth remembering, however, that the overall Black Lives Matter movement is a decentralised network that attracts support from a vast range of groups. Since the murder of George Floyd on 25 May 2020, awareness of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has rocketed on a global level. This includes sister movements in the UK. Interestingly, in 2017 the UK government published an independent report into the treatment of, and outcomes for, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals in the criminal justice system. Many, or most, of the recommendations are yet to be actioned. So this particular issue rumbles on, and the recommendations in that report are as yet unattended to. While the BLM protests have rightly drawn attention to the issue of police brutality towards black people in America, the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on black and Asian communities has simultaneously shone a light on the broader, grave inequalities that are woven deep into the fabric of UK society and its institutions (as well as those of other nations). As images of protestors taking to the streets during a pandemic adorned our televisions in June, a national, and international, debate about systemic inequalities that hinder the chances of BAME communities was reignited. One strand of the debate made front-page news when statues were either torn down, or taken down, across European cities. These included that of Edward Colston, in Bristol, King Leopold II in Antwerp and many Confederate statues in the USA. The movement to move the statue of Cecil Rhodes outside Oriel College, Oxford University, into a museum also gathers pace; this is yet another contested issue. Apparent acts of ‘retaliation’ have since been perpetrated in the following weeks, with black actor Alfred Fagon’s statue in Bristol being covered in a corrosive substance and two headstones marking the grave of a man born into slavery were smashed, with a chalked message nearby declaring: ‘Now look what you made me do. Stop protesting...put Colston’s statue back or things will really heat up.” Of course, the protests will not stop. And in a country where free speech is treasured, they should not and perhaps will not stop. Nor will the national conversation about statues, what history is, what school history is for and how school history curriculums should be shaped. History departments across the country are continuously engaged in good, intellectually rigorous dialogue about how to construct a curriculum. There are many constraints placed upon history teachers at the national level: the fact it is not a compulsory subject to GCSE and limited timetable space are just two of them. Black history is already integrated into the Abingdon school curriculum, notably in the Second Year and the Third Year. We look at African kingdoms pre-colonisation, black Tudors, the important role of Equiano and other black abolitionists in the move to abolish the slave trade and the crucial role of black soldiers in both World Wars. Should we do ‘more’? Yes, but the questions are ‘how?’ and ‘why?’, rather than solely ‘what?’ Colonialism as a concept triggers deep emotional and intellectually valid responses across the political spectrum. For many, the ‘great age of imperialism’ precipitated phenomenal advances and it is seen as an era synonymous with engines of progress, notably commerce and free trade. However, it is also vital to reveal the damaging effects of colonialism including its legacy on race relations and the way in which 18th and 19th century slavery created racial hierarchies. The argument that ‘slavery has been around for centuries, so what is the fuss?’ is facile. The term ‘slave’, of course, finds its origins in the word Slav, a term that has a contested etymology but is associated today with peoples of eastern Europe. It would be a leap to contend that Muslim-Slavic relations shape race relations in, say, modern Spain were we to look back on the legacy of Muslim rule in Al-Andalus. The position of black people in the UK is a live issue with a complex and directly relevant recent history. However, by focusing exclusively on issues of exploitation and subjugation we do a disservice to black history. That is why engaging with organisations such as Justice2History and AfricanKingdoms. co.uk is important - teaching pre-colonial African histories, for instance, tackles the myth that African histories are the history of slavery, primitive cultures and backwardness. Furthermore, many African societies showed dynamism and initiative during colonial times. The narrative is not one simply shrouded in hapless victimhood and oppression. In addition, although exploitation is a consistent theme in colonial history, there are other strands to many empires across history - we could include the Mughal Empire here (which pupils study in the Second Year at Abingdon) - and exploring these tackles the reductionist analysis that empires are exclusively a history of exploitation. Teaching black history properly means we are delivering an intellectually rigorous curriculum that is true to the historian’s craft . by Nicholas Knowland, Head of History Shutterstock