The History Hotline

The daughter of the Alake of Abeokuta, a King in the southern region of Nigeria. Omo-Oba Adenrele Ademola arrived in Britain in 1935 and started her training as a midwife. She balanced her role as a princess with the demands of her professional nursing career. Balancing royal social events in Britain with a nursing career that spanned 30 years. However, records of her life bear little significance...

This episode is about Queen Nanny of the Maroons (c. 1686 – c. 1755). The Maroons were a group of formerly enslaved Africans, featuring in many Caribbean islands, forming separate communities and antagonising the colonisers on the island. They consistently resisted Spanish and then British colonialism and fought a guerrilla war over many years against British. Queen Nanny legacy is that of a milit...

This episode we will be looking at instances of Black women resisting, in the context of women's current struggles to come to voice and be heard. Using Stella Dadzie's 'A Kick in the Belly' we'll discuss the women that resisted British and Portuguese colonialism, transatlantic slave ship rebellions and the military prowess of African women in the 17th and 18th Century.

The Grandmother of Black feminist movements in Britain. This episode we discuss OWAAD, its roots, aims, achievements and legacy. We also look at the book born out of the movement: 'The Heart of the Race' (1985) and discuss the importance of Black women writing their own historical narratives.

As we jump into Women's History Month (March 2021) we are thinking about the trailblazing British-Jamaican Mary Seacole. The doctress, healer and nurse who travelled across the world from the Caribbean to the Crimea to heal wounded soldiers on the battlefield. We'll be exploring her legacy and the way in which history often excludes Black women from its records. To donate to Sistah-Space: https://...

This week I am joined by Orisha, creator of The Reader's Collection. We discuss African American literature and the portrayal of 'Blackness' across several texts by authors and poets such as: Maya Angelou, Ralph Ellison, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison and James Baldwin. Our conversation goes from the representation of Black masculinity and fatherhood to the portrayal of women and how Black authors...

Ira Aldridge often remembered as a Black Briton was an American born actor that moved to Britain aged 17 to peruse his dreams of acting. He took to theatre stages across Europe wowing audiences. He is most widely known for his role of Othello but he took on a range of roles across many genres. Whilst the critics were hostile, audiences loved him. His acting career highlighting 19th Century expecta...

In this episode we going back to WWII, over 2 million US service personnel passed through the British isles during WWII. Whilst the American's acclimatised to the British way of life, their mannerisms and personalities. The British welcomed them and their contribution to the war effort, but also welcomed the racial prejudice, colour bar and Jim Crow laws they were so fond of... especially in the S...

On the 12th February 1965, Malcolm X visited the infamous Marshall Street in Smethwick, Birmingham. Invited by the Indian Worker's Association to come and see witness the forced segregation in the areas pubs and other social settings. Marshall Street, was the street that was meant to be kept for 'whites only'. Faced with growing racial tension over immigration, a the conservative led council with...

In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of The New Cross Fire on 18th January 1981... This week's episode will look at the fire and place it into the context of race relations in Britain in the 1980s. The fire led to the tragic deaths of 14 young Black people, after a fire broke out at 439 New Cross Road during the early hours of a 16th birthday party. Whilst inquests have ruled the fires cause u...

This week we'll be exploring the Christmas breakfast staple in any Jamaican household and Jamaica's national dish: Ackee and Saltfish. Its improbable history takes us on a journey along the triangular trade route, from West Africa to Northern Europe and finally the tropic climates of Jamaica. The dish embodies the nation full of 'pieces that don’t seem to fit together,' but somehow work.

This week we're looking at the Brockwell Three, the creation of Black Sac and the collective protests against another incidence of police injustice, upheld by the legal system. We'll be exploring this within the context of the racial injustice system in the US with reference to Brandon Bernard and the impact of this on how we view capital punishment.

In line with Victorian standards of beauty, the idealised artistic muse, was white and pale skinned. But Jamaican Fanny Eaton (c.1835-1924) was one of the most influential muses to the Pre-Raphaelites during the 19th Century. Eaton came to Britain as a child only a few years after the abolition of slavery in the British colonies and went on to model for some of the most influential artists of the...

Following on from the third instalment from Steve McQueen's Small Axe series: Red, White and Blue. This episode continues the story of Leroy Logan, a Black police officer, who made it his mission to fight racial inequality from within. We'll explore the policing of Black communities, the racism he faced, and his work fighting for racial equality. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000pzmb/smal...

The history of immigration, exploring the acts dating back to 1905. We also have a special guest Hannah Gaffey recent Cambridge masters graduate who has conducted research on the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in Britain. We explore the systemic and historical failings of the home office and how politics, the media and public opinion influence immigration policy.

In the aftermath of WWI, many ex-servicemen were left without work in many of the major port cities. We'll explore how this led to race riots in cities such as Cardiff, Glasgow and: Liverpool and look at the treatment Black ex-servicemen received after the war. TW: Violence, Lynching, Murder.

During World War One Black officers in the British armed forces faced a system with prejudice at its core. We'll be highlighting the stories of three servicemen: David Louis Clemetson, George Bemand and Walter Tull, who were all at some point thought to be the first Black officer in the forces. Their stories in some ways run parallel but also highlight, how societies defined race and your personal...

Learie Constantine, MBE was a West Indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Trinidad's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UK's first black peer. This week we'll be looking at his landmark case in British race relations against the Imperial London Hotel.

On this weeks episode we will be reacting to Kemi Badenoch's (MP and Minister for Equalities) speech at the parliamentary Black History Month debate. Exploring BLM, white privilege, critical race theory and the way they exist within society today. We'll also be briefly looking at the way these things are taught in schools and how they should be taught... and the consequences of that.

This week will be shifting our focus to Nigeria and contextualising the current End SARS protests within the colonial history of the country. We'll be exploring the links with colonialism and corruption, which continues to plague countries within the continent of Africa. We will also be hearing from Nigerians across the diaspora about what the movement means to them and what we can do to help furt...

As the Presidential campaign rages on in the US, and debates of who can identify as 'Black' rage on we'll be discussing the social construction of race. This episode will take us on a global journey of how race has been classified in different parts of the world, from Caribbean slave societies to the American South and ending up in Modern Britain.

Britain had Black Panthers? Who were they? What did they stand for? This week's episode is about the British Black Panthers, we'll be exploring their influences, their politics and what they managed to achieve as a community organisation.

Why is it important to celebrate Black History Month? What should those celebrations look like? How does that impact the teaching of Black History throughout the rest of the year? This episode is asking and answering questions about Black History Month in Britain, and tapping into some of the key debates surrounding its existence.

This week's episode is centred around Beryl Gilroy who was one of Britain's first Black Headteachers. We contextualise her story based on her autobiography Black Teacher (1976) by studying the way Britain remembers Black women in the pages of their history books.

Today we're looking at Educationally Subnormal (ESN) schools that were opened in Britain in the 1960s and the impact they had on Black children. We're also exploring the impact and importance of Bernard Coard's 'How the West Indian Child is made Educationally Subnormal in the British School System?' and studying the legacy of the supplementary school.