David Olusoga, a host on TV's Civilisations, certainly brought in a Hay crowd, and it’s one familiar with his work. He told Amol Rajan, BBC’s media editor, that he wrote Black and British: A Forgotten History because he wasn’t “…seeing the histories that I cared about”. Growing up in Newcastle, Olusoga was taught about the industrial revolution and the cotton mills, but not where cotton came from.
“1.8 million Africans are central to the British story,” he said. “We are telling a partial history.” Olusoga pointed to this tragedy, but said there are also stories of resistance and strength.
Olusoga said that he loved Britain, and it was for this reason he wanted to look at its history. He pointed to figures such as Rosa Parks who were vital to the American civil rights movement, but added that Britain also had its heroes: for example Dr. Paul Stephenson who led his own bus boycott in Bristol in 1955 to combat racial discrimination. Yet he remains relatively unknown.
If you missed this, you may enjoy event 152, 'How Democracy Ends' featuring one of the UK’s leading professors of politics, David Runciman, interviewed by Sarfraz Manzoor on Monday 28 May at 4pm.