Making History

By Jennifer Hall

Initiative unearths 800-year-old references to black Britons

A community-led initiative striving to reverse historic discrimination, celebrate cultural diversity and enhance the lives of individuals and communities in Northamptonshire, has been rewarded for its ground-breaking achievements.

The Northamptonshire Black History project won the 2005 CILIP/LiS Libraries Change Lives Award for its achievements in documenting the experience of black people living in the county over the past 800 years. Volunteers and four core staff have unearthed 660 references stretching from the 12th century to the present-day, through scouring parish records and analysing gravestones.

PRECEDENT

Presenting the accolade, poet Benjamin Zephaniah said the project had set a precedent for the black community elsewhere to follow.

“The Northamptonshire Black History Project is a great example of what the world needs now. If we leave it to the people in power to write our history we should not complain when we are portrayed negatively, but if we begin to record and write our own history we may then have a clearer vision of our future.”

The project’s achievements include the collation of over 600 references, the creation of an oral history archive of over 185 interviews with ethnic people currently living in the area and the introduction of innovative learning for young people by bringing black history alive in the classroom of 20 local schools.

The community-led and based project has successfully engaged and involved local people in its activities.

Project director Carolyn Abel said the award proved the power of a common cause. “It is not often that grass-root organisations like ours, particularly black groups, receive awards for excellent work, often undertaken in a voluntary capacity. It just shows what a common passion can do for bringing people together.”

The project aims to bring together three distinct activities: historical research, community archiving and oral history interviews, to involve people from a range of communities and age groups in collating their histories.

HIDDEN

In its three-year remit, the project has discovered that black people were present in Northamptonshire for over 500 years, with the earliest record dating to 1205.

Abel stressed the need to ensure that black history doesn’t continue to remain hidden: “It is important to challenge the notion that black people have only been living in Britain since the Second World War; indeed black people were part of the Roman army that conquered and settled in Britain.”

First Published: 05 May 2005 in The Voice








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