BLACK HISTORY MONTH
MULTICULTURAL EVENT 1 OCTOBER Packing the Storey’s Field Centre with food, activities and entertainment from around the world, this shindig promises to be a melting pot of cultures spanning Poland to Ghana. Book tickets through the Women’s Voices for Africa Facebook page. Marking the Month OCTOBER IS CRAMMED WITH EVENTS AND CELEBRATIONS IN HONOUR OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH – HERE’S A HANDFUL
IN THE OPEN Uncomfortable Cambridge tours take a frank look at the city’s past
paragons of virtue,” adds Leah. “We have to allow people to be complicated.” Looking at absences as well as presences, one of the stops is the missing Demerara Bell, removed in 2019 from St Catherine’s College after the Legacies of Enslavement inquiry found it came from a plantation in Guiana. “It opens up questions of: what should we put in its place? And what should we do with the bell?” says Leah. While the university’s connection to the slave trade is entrenched, the city has also given rise to distinguished abolitionists who fuelled the movement in East Anglia. Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce were graduates of St John’s College; meanwhile, resident Olaudah Equiano (who, after buying his freedom from slavery, eventually settled in Cambridge) was instrumental. Other alumni include Lt David Louis Clemetson, one of the only black officers to serve in the British Army during World War II, Errollyn Wallen, the first black female composer whose work was played at the Proms, Naomie Harris, Diane Abbott, Zadie Smith and many more. “The reason why I joined the society was because when you come to a space like Cambridge, there’s a sense of alienation – in the architecture, in the culture, the imposing nature of the infrastructure, the low representation of people who look like me,” says Rumbidzai. “The work of the Black Cantabs does something very significant for me, and people who look like me, in terms of showing how we’ve been present in this space for generations.” However, while time has moved on, the culture hasn’t hugely changed. “Submissions to a recently launched essay prize named after George Bridgetower revealed that the racism, marginalisation and exclusion experienced by Crummell and others remain quite similar to our contemporary experiences,” comments Rumbidzai. “As the Black Cantabs, we ask what it is about this place that stubbornly refuses to transform, what it is that sustains these cultures? How do we get them to transform?”
BLACK SHEEP 6 OCTOBER 2022
An autobiographical show about the pursuit of love in all its forms, follow Livia Kojo Alour’s story at the Cambridge Junction. PATRICK VERNON OBE ON WINDRUSH 17 OCTOBER Zoom into this event with the eminent political activist Patrick Vernon to hear his insights into the Windrush scandal – free to attend via Eventbrite. CAMBRIDGE AFRICAN NETWORK CELEBRATIONS 29 OCTOBER A full day of festivities. Find stalls, interactive arts and crafts, fitness activities, food, music and dancing at this event in the Storey’s Field Centre.
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