For the love of books: David Olusoga
October is Black History Month. And for that reason, I’m going to kick off my first #fortheloveofbooks blog of the month by talking about an author who has really inspired me to push myself to research and find out more about British history. What has struck me from reading his books, is that there is so much about our world that I don’t know. And a lot of the information that I have found out by reading his books, is information that lots of people don’t know.
To put all of this into context, I started researching black British history when I was approached by Clive Davies at Focus Education. We discussed the idea that there was very little out there to support Primary schools with teaching this aspect of history properly, and the National Curriculum unfortunately didn’t do any favours in this respect either. So David Olusoga is where I started looking. I first read his ‘Black and British – A Short Essential History’ to get an overview (this is what made me realise that I literally knew nothing) and went on from there. What I slowly realised is that the publication I was writing just got bigger and bigger. There are so many opportunities for including black British history in the Primary curriculum and I wanted to do it justice – it is important. But anyhow, this wasn’t supposed to become any sort of sales pitch. I actually just want to share the great books that David Olusoga has written in order to educate both adults and children on the events that have shaped our history, and black people are a huge part of this and should be represented in our curriculum.
Black and British
So whilst my blog is aimed at sharing children’s books that are useful in the classroom, I wanted to take a moment to share ‘Black and British – A Forgotten History’. It’s obviously not a children’s book, and there is some pretty heavy stuff in there, but it’s important. And it’s important because people don’t know it, and they should. We need to start to appreciate that our ‘Britain’ has always been a diverse place. This myth that some people believe that to be ‘British’ is to be white, is simply wrong. If we all did a DNA test to look at our ancestry, we would find out that we are all from all over the world. Now I’m not saying that Olusoga sets out to necessarily get everyone to complete a DNA test, but what he shares in this book is important information that should encourage us to realise that black people are a huge part of our culture, and this myth that black people only existed in our country as a result of the ‘Windrush generation’ is complete nonsense.
What I also love about this book, is how he has taken this information and then reinvented it in a format for young adults and young children. His ‘A Short, Essential History’ as I said, is where my journey with all of this began. It sets out all of the aspects of black British history in manageable chunks. It addresses all of the time periods that are studied across the Primary curriculum with regard to Britain, and so much more. As an example, he talks about how in Roman Britain, there is so much evidence of black people being present. The Aurelian Moors were a group of Roman soldiers who were stationed on Hadrian’s Wall and we know this because there is evidence in the form of an inscription. The remains of Ivory Bangle Lady provide us with evidence of how people black and white heritage were living within communities of Britain during these times. The other significant thing to note about the Romans, is that whilst they had slaves, they did not discriminate between black or white – it was more about Roman or not. These slaves were also paid, and whilst this won’t have been a considerable amount, they had the opportunity to earn or buy their freedom, whoever they were. This is not a privilege black African slaves were afforded during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Roman slaves were also treated well and looked after as they were a symbol of status, again, something else which was not comparable to the way British and other European slave traders behaved when you consider the conditions on enslaver ships and working conditions on plantations. Simply reading this book changed my perspective on an awful lot of things, and I want to share as much of that information with people as I can.
An Illustrated History
So on top of these books, Olusoga has then gone a step further, and produced a wonderfully illustrated book that brings a vast amount of this history to life for Primary aged children. He introduces them to aspects of British life that aren’t included in the National Curriculum. Aside from the Romans I’ve already mentioned, he introduces us to John Blanke, who was a black Tudor trumpeter in the court of Henry VIII. He writes about key figures such as Ignatius Sancho, the first black person to vote in a British general election. What is also really significant is the way he shows how so many aspects of world history are linked directly to Britain, particularly when we are talking about black history. The links we have to the American Revolution and the part black people played in that cannot be overlooked when studying these aspects of our curriculum. He also introduces us to key abolitionists such as Olaudah Equiano. He demonstrates how there were black people within high society during Victorian times – Sarah Forbes Bonetta became a bit of a celebrity in Britain, both African and British, and became a friend of Queen Victoria who also became grandmother to Sarah’s daughter.
In a really visual way, Olusoga presents to children what we have failed to do up until now – present black history as a part of British history. He demonstrates some really challenging concepts, such as the scramble for Africa, and approaches the misguided links that were made between science and racism. He also broaches some of the tougher history to read about, like the murder of Charles Wooton after he had been a sailor in the British navy during the First World War. Some of the knowledge that Olusoga is passing on is awful and sad, and some of it difficult to listen to, but that doesn’t make it any less important and I would encourage teachers across the country to use books like this to show children our true history so that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.
I’m writing this in part because it is a fantastic book. I’m also writing this, in part, because it is Black History Month. What I would like to do, is encourage teachers and curriculum developers, who have the ability to decide what we show our children in schools, to take the brave step to embed black British history within your curricula. It’s not something that we should spend a week, or a month on. It’s something that we should be ensuring is part of the fabric of what we teach. Our country is diverse. Our curriculum should be too. I think David Olusoga’s writing is fantastic and informative, and he has made it accessible for all. We should take advantage of this and use this knowledge to do something good with it for our children’s futures. And if you want any support with developing your curriculum to be more diverse, please don’t hesitate to get in touch – we can learn more together!