Pre ‘Windrush’ Chronicles

Pre ‘Windrush’ Chronicles: Introduction by Dr Errol Francis, Artistic Director and CEO, Culture&

Westminster Tournament Roll, 1511. Illuminated manuscript, College of Arms, London.

22 June was ‘Windrush Day’. It came about because of the 2017 Home Office scandal when 100s of British Caribbean citizens were wrongly denied their legal right to remain in the UK. The phrase ‘Windrush Generation’ is now shorthand for those who came after the arrival of the ship HMT Empire Windrush, at Tilbury in June 1948, with 492 migrants.

It’s now received wisdom that the arrival of Windrush represents the beginning of the Black UK presence but this is only true if we play a numbers game.

The SS Ormonde docked in Liverpool in March 1947, carrying 108 Caribbean passengers. The Almanzora, with about 200 Caribbeans arrived at Southampton in December, 1947.

Culture& takes an even longer view. This week we celebrate the history of Black people in Britain.

The first recorded African community living in Britain were the ‘Aurelian Moors’ stationed at Hadrian’s Wall, between AD 253 and 258. Based at the fortress of Aballava, they defended the Roman Empire’s northern border.

Septimius Severus (145 – 211), the first of the four African Roman Emperors, significantly shaped Roman Britain through major military campaigns in Caledonia (modern Scotland).

John Blanke (fl. 1501 – 1511) was a musician of African descent in early Tudor times. It’s thought he came to England in 1501 and served in the courts of King Henry VII and VIII.

Olaudah Equiano (1745 – 1797) was a writer from modern day Nigeria. Enslaved as a child, he ended up in London after buying his freedom and played a pivotal role in the abolition of slavery.

Princess Omoba Aina (aka Sara Forbes Bonetta, 1843 – 1880) was goddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was a Yoruba princess from West Africa, orphaned by war before being ‘gifted’ to a British naval officer and becoming a ward of the Queen.

Butetown in Cardiff, aka Tiger Bay, is one of the UK’s first multicultural communities. By the outbreak WW1, it was home to people from over 50 countries, including Somalia and Yemen.

John Ystumllyn (1738 – 1786) was one of the first Black gardeners in Britain and the earliest well-recorded black person in Wales. John’s story is significant for it expands the history of horticulture and gardening in the UK.

This week we remember all these pioneers who enriched British cultural life.

Roman Emperor, Septimius Severus, 145 – 211

Elena Onwochei-Garcia, Septimius Severus, 2021. © English Heritage.

Severus, a prominent Roman emperor, played a significant role in the history of Roman Britain, and the wider Empire during the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries. Born in Leptis Magna in 145 CE, a prosperous city in the Roman province of Africa, Severus was the first emperor born outside of Italy, and the first to have non-Roman ancestors.[1]

After ascending to the imperial throne in 193 CE, Severus turned his attention to the challenges in Britain.[2] The province had been plagued by unrest, and Severus sought to restore stability and consolidate Roman control. In 208 CE, he embarked on a grand military campaign, leading an army of approximately 40,000 soldiers to Britain.[3]

The emperor’s forces engaged in numerous battles, facing harsh conditions and fierce opposition.[4] Although Severus achieved some victories, he was unable to fully subdue the northern tribes in the Scottish Highlands.[5] Instead, he chose to consolidate the gains he had made, negotiating diplomatic solutions and securing alliances with select tribes.[6]

Bronze head of Septimius Severus, from Asia Minor, c. 195–211, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

Septimius Severus’ presence in Britain had a profound impact on the province’s social and economic fabric. Cultural romanisation continued to progress, as the influx of soldiers, officials, merchants, and farmers brought Roman customs, architecture, and urbanisation to the island.[7] Major urban centers like Londinium (modern-day London) and Eboracum (York) flourished, with the construction of public buildings, infrastructure, and markets.

However, Severus faced health issues during his time in Britain, and his condition deteriorated. Recognising the gravity of his illness, he prepared for his succession and retired to Eboracum (York). It was there, in 211 CE, that Septimius Severus passed away, and his sons Caracalla and Geta were proclaimed Co-emperors.[8]

The impact of his reign and subsequent Roman rule in Britain can still be seen in the surviving structures, artifacts, and cultural remnants that continue to be discovered and studied by historians today. Meanwhile, his birthplace in Leptis Magna stands as a testament to the remarkable journey of a provincial Roman who became one of the empire’s most influential emperors.

Sources:
1. Birley, Anthony. Septimius Severus: The African Emperor, 1. London: Routledge, 2015.
2. Collingwood, R. G., and Myres John Nowell Linton. Roman Britain and the English settlements. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.
3. Hanson, William S. “Roman Campaigns North of the Forth-Clyde Isthmus: The Evidence of the Temporary Camps.” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 109 (1980): 140–50.
4. “Vol. Ixp239 Epitome of Book LXXVII – 13:1.” Cassius Dio – Epitome of Book 77. Accessed July 10, 2023. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/77*.html.
5. Ibid
6. Ibid
7. MacKendrick, P. L. “Roman Colonization.” Phoenix 6, no. 4 (1952): 139. https://doi.org/10.2307/1086829.
8. Rohrbacher, David, and David Magie. “19.” Essay. In Historia Augusta. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022.

Court Trumpeter John Blanke (fl. 1501 – 1511)

Westminster Tournament Roll, 1511. Illuminated manuscript, College of Arms, London.

John Blanke was a court trumpeter of African descent, who is present in the British historical record from 1507.[1] (Although Historic Royal Palaces believe that he may have arrived in England in 1501).[2] Born in the late 15th century, Blanke likely arrived in England as part of retinue of Catherine of Aragon, when she sailed from Spain for her first marriage to Henry VIII’s brother Arthur. It is not known whether Blanke was born in Spain, or on the African continent itself, though the relatively large African diaspora in Spain at the time make either birthplace plausible.[3]

It is certain that Blanke was a well renowned musician, in 1507 he was paid as a trumpeter in the household of King Henry VII.[4] His role involved performing at various court events and ceremonies with the aim of adding lustre and grandeur to royal events, in an era where the monarch was widely believed to have been anointed by God. Blanke’s skills as a musician likely captivated the court, and his prominence continued during the reign of King Henry VIII. He remained an active musician at the court and participated in significant events such as the celebrations for the birth of Henry VIII’s son, Prince Henry, in 1511, and tournaments, as depicted in the image above.[5]

John Blanke’s Petition to the King © The National Archives

The surviving records offer glimpses of Blanke’s life and achievements. For instance, an account from 1512 reveals payments made to “John Blanke, the Black Trumpeter” for his services.[6] Additionally, a royal warrant dated the same year mentions Blanke as one of the musicians receiving livery from the court as a wedding gift.[7] The second image shows a petition he made to the king for an increase in wages to 16p a day, just under three times as much as a skilled labourer, and a very respectable wage.[8]

It is important to note that John Blanke was not the only person of African descent in Tudor England, though records about them, as with all people but royalty at the time are limited. However, it is known that by the end of her reign, Queen Elizabeth I issued a number of proclamations requesting the removal of ‘Blackamoores’ which suggests a significant or noticeable population of Black people in the country at the time. A transcript of the Queen’s draft proclamation of 1601 can be found in the National Archives.[9] Therefore, Blanke’s story represents a glimpse into a broader narrative of diversity and cultural exchange during this period and challenges our collective imagining of what late medieval/Tudor England would have looked like.

Sources:

1. “John Blanke: A Black Musician at the Tudor Court.” Historic Royal Palaces. Accessed July 5, 2023. https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/john-blanke/#gs.28ref4.
2. Ibid
3. “John Blanke: A Black Musician at the Tudor Court.” Historic Royal Palaces. Accessed July 5, 2023. https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/john-blanke/#gs.28ref4.
4. Kaufmann, Miranda. “Blanke, John (Fl. 1507–1512), Royal Trumpeter.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, April 8, 2021. https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e 107145;jsessionid=EBF332A3415615185143A30C7CAE4B8B.
5. “The Historian Who First Identified John Blanke.” The John Blanke Project. Accessed July 6, 2023. https://www.johnblanke.com/sydney-anglo.html.
6. “John Blanke.” Historic Royal Palaces. Accessed July 6, 2023. https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/john-blanke/#gs.2a2na8.
7. Bello-Taylor, Maya. “John Blanke the Royal Trumpeter John Blanke the Royal Trumpeter.” IBHM, October 11, 2021. https://www.ibhm-uk.org/post/john-blanke-the-royal-trumpeter.
8. “Black Londoners Through Time: John Blanke.” Museum of London. Accessed July 6, 2023. https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/families/black-londoners-through-time/john-blanke.
9. British Library, Draft proclamation on the expulsion of ‘Negroes and Blackamoors’, 1601. Accessed 11 July 2023. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/draft-proclamation-on-the-expulsion-of-negroes-and-blackamoors-1601

Writer and Abolitionist, Olaudah Equiano, 1745 – 1797

Olaudah Equiano (‘Gustavus Vassa’) by Daniel Orme, published by Olaudah Equiano (‘Gustavus Vassa’), after W. Denton, stipple engraving, published 1 March 1789, © National Portrait Gallery, London

Olaudah Equiano (c 1745-97) played a significant role in the abolition movement in London, with his works frequently quoted during the proceedings of the parliamentary inquiry into the slave trade. His memoir, ‘Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself’ (1789), was one of the earliest-known examples of published writing by an African writer to be widely read in England. The memoir vividly described the horrors of the slave trade; its popularity led to 9 editions being published and its translation into Dutch, German, and Russian during his lifetime.According to his memoir, Equiano was kidnapped in modern day Nigeria when he was 11 and sold to the slave traders. He travelled through the infamous transatlantic Middle Passage and was sold several times between masters. Equiano saved up over 3 years to buy his freedom when his master made it an option, paying £40 – almost a year’s salary for a teacher then. After buying his emancipation, to avoid re-enslavement, Equiano eventually moved to London, where in the 1780s he became involved in the abolitionist movement.

During a time when the British general public is developing a rising literacy rate, and writing is considered to be a more legitimate form than oral cultural expressions, Equiano used his sophisticated literary skills to speak for those who could not and disrupt the racist hierarchy between White people and their perceived Other.

Through appealing to Enlightenment and Christian virtues that were widely accepted by the public, Equiano sought to persuade the public that the injustice and animosity of the slave trade makes it unacceptable in a civilised society. Equiano’s works construct Englishness as a porous cultural identity that could be attained, thus challenging the equation of Englishness to Whiteness, an idea that continues to be prevalent in British society today, as exemplified by the Windrush scandal.

In 2009 a tablet memorialising Equiano was installed at London’s St. Margaret’s Church, where he was baptised in 1759.

Sources:

Andrews, W. “slave narrative”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Apr. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/art/slave-narrative. Accessed 7 July 2023.

Barreto, J. “Decolonial Thinking and the Quest for Decolonising Human Rights.” Asian Journal of Social Science 46, no. 4/5 (2018): 484–502. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26567261.

Equiano, O. “The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African”, second edition, (1794). Norwich: London : Printed and sold for the Author, by T. Wilkins, etc, [1789].

Gunn, J. (2008). Literacy and the Humanizing Project in Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative and Ottobah Cugoano’s Thoughts and Sentiments.

Paul, Ronald. “‘I Whitened My Face, That They Might Not Know Me’: Race and Identity in Olaudah Equiano’s Slave Narrative.” Journal of Black Studies 39, no. 6 (2009): 848–64. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40282603.

Stitt, Jocelyn. “Olaudah Equiano, Englishness, and the Negotiation of Raced Gender,” 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.ark5583.0014.005

Watkins, Lelania Ottoboni, “Writing Space, Righting Place: Language as a Heterotopic Space in Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative.” Thesis, Georgia State University, 2012. doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/3489851

Princess Omoba Aina (AKA Sarah Forbes Bonetta), 1843 – 1880

Camille Silvy, ‘Sarah Forbes Bonetta’, 1862 © National Portrait Gallery

Princess Omoba Aina (AKA Sarah Forbes Bonetta), in a fashionable Victorian wedding gown, looks confidently at the viewer. She is photographed by Camille Silvy, celebrity French photographer of the day. Silvy, commissioned by Queen Victoria, was accustomed to photographing royalty but the story of how this African princess came to be associated with British royals is an insight into attitudes to race and assimilation in Victorian Britain.

In her early life, Aina was an Egbado princess in Oke Odan, Nigeria, orphaned by inter-tribal warfare in 1848. She escaped death but was captured as a child slave in the court of notorious proponent of slavery, King Ghezo of Dahomey (now Benin).

Heather Agyepong, from her 2015 series ‘Too Many Blackamoors’

In 1850, Captain Frederick Forbes sailed from England on HMS Bonetta on a mission to persuade King Ghezo to cease the lucrative trade in enslaved Africans which Britain banned in its colonies in 1833. As was customary, Forbes received gifts on arrival including a ‘captive girl’. Accounts vary on whether he accepted Aina as a gift fearing that rejection would result in her certain death, or whether he was so captivated by her intelligence and charm that he bargained for her and she was then offered as a gift “from the King of the Blacks to the Queen of the Whites’. For Aina, whatever the truth, – she lost her name and was baptised after the captain and his ship.

Queen Victoria, impressed by her command of English, decided to provide her with an education, becoming her ward and godmother. Aina flourished academically, spending time with middle class families and missionaries in England and Sierra Leone. At 18 she was introduced to African businessman James Pinson Labulo Davies, then 33. Though initially rejecting his proposal, their subsequent marriage was approved by the Queen and was lauded as a triumph of royal philanthropy.

Today we reclaim the name Aina, lost 173 years ago.

Sources:

Church Missionary Society (1881). 1881 The Church Missionary Gleaner. [online] Internet Archive. Available at: https://archive.org/details/1881TheChurchMissionaryGleaner/page/n25/mode/2up?q=Sarah+Forbes+bonetta[Accessed 26 Jun. 2023].

English Heritage. (2020). New portrait of Queen Victoria’s African goddaughter goes on display at Osborne. [online] Available at: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about-us/search-news/pr-sarah-forbes-bonetta/[Accessed 27 Jun. 2023].

English Heritage. (n.d.). Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria’s African Protégée. [online] Available at: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/osborne/history-and-stories/sarah-forbes-bonetta/ [Accessed 26 Jun. 2023].

Seymour, E. (2020). Princess Omoba Aina of Africa, Brighton’s Forgotten Royal . A Travel Blog of Curiosities. Available at: https://www.ellieandco.co.uk/2020/11/princess-omoba-aina-africa-brighton-forgotten-royal-celebrity.html[Accessed 27 Jun. 2023].

Walter Dean Myers (1999). At Her majesty’s Request: An African Princess in Victorian England. New York: Scholastic Press

John Ystumllyn, Gardener, 1738 – 1786

Portrait of John Ystumllyn (d. 1786), dated to 11 May 1754.

John Ystumllyn (c.1738-1786) was one of the first Black gardeners in Britain and the earliest well-recorded Black person in Wales. John’s story is important for diversifying the history of horticulture and gardening in the UK, a history inseparable from imperialist campaigns. His life trajectory parallels the flora and fauna that have traversed the oceans because of the British Empire’s expansion.

The structure of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans meant that, despite its growing scale (according to the SlaveVoyages.org, Great Britain trafficked over 33,000 enslaved persons a year around the end of the eighteenth century; often 20-30% of people perished on the journey), unlike the profits generated from their exploitation, the enslaved were typically forcibly taken to colonial territories except to work as servants to the aristocracy in Europe as exotic emblems of their owners’ taste.

John Ystumllyn (his real name is lost in history) was said to have been abducted when he was eight years old to be ‘gifted’ to the upper-class Wynn family. After arriving in Wales, John eventually learnt to speak Welsh and English, and was recognised for his great talent in horticulture and outstanding crafting skills while working on the Ystumllyn estate, where he was reportedly paid a pittance. In his portrait painted in 1754, John, then aged around 16, wore a typical working man’s outfit – a waistcoat and a neckband.

Although it is recorded that John was a well-loved and respected member of the community, some locals engaged in acts of racist taunting at his expense such as blackface.

John later fell in love with and married the maid Margaret Gruffydd in 1768. Their eldest son became a huntsman at the Glynllifon estate – a very high-status occupation; some of their descendants proceeded to live in the area into the 21st Century.

“John Ystumllyn, 1754”, dated to not before 1786, © Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales

In 2021, a new tea rose with beautiful golden colour was named after John Ystumllyn and planted in Buckingham Palace’s rose garden in 2022. The John Ystumllyn rose becomes the first rose in the UK to be named after a person of colour.Commemorating John Ystumllyn, poet Alex Wharton writes in The Gardener (2021):

“I’ll turn soil for her,

Show her that darkness

Isn’t emptiness but

endless giving.

Flowers are birthed here.

Food and life.

I hope the sun pours

light upon our skin. And we

melt into each other,

into everything. Maybe the trees

will speak, as they sometimes do.

Whispers from the shade –

Run, run away.”

Sources:

Cadw.gov.wales. “John Ystumllyn (c.1738-1786).” Cadw. Accessed July 7, 2023. https://cadw.gov.wales/learn/wales-rich-and-diverse-heritage/creative-responses/john-ystumllyn-c1738-1786.

Edwards, Paul, and James Walvin. “Contemporary Accounts of Popular Black Personalities.” Black Personalities in the Era of the Slave Trade, 1983, 163–237. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04043-8_7.

Friends of Friendless Churches. “John Ystumllyn: From Africa to Ynyscynhaearn.” Friends of Friendless Churches, October 5, 2022. https://friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/story/john-ystumllyn/.

Green, Andrew. “John Ystumllyn: An African in 18th Century Eifionydd.” gwallter, August 27, 2017. https://gwallter.com/books/john-ystumllyn-an-african-in-18th-century-eifionydd.html.

SlaveVoyages, Accessed July 7, 2023. https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates.

The Black Boy Inn. “John Ystumllyn’s Rose.” The Black Boy Inn, November 5, 2020. https://www.black-boy-inn.com/rose-john-ystumllyn/.

The Black Boy Inn. “The Story of John Ystumllyn: Black Boy Inn.” The Black Boy Inn, November 5, 2020. https://www.black-boy-inn.com/the-story-of-john-ystumllyn/.

Tiger Bay (Bae Teigr in Welsh), Butetown, Cardiff

Couple dancing in one of Tiger Bays clubs, 1950s. (Image: Bert Hardy, People’s Collection Wales)

Tiger Bay (Bae Teigr in Welsh) was the local name for Butetown, Cardiff’s docklands area. Home to the oldest multi-ethnic community in Wales, and one of the UK’s longest-established Somali diasporas, we remember Butetown as an area that redefined what it means to be Welsh.

Cardiff dock workers, early 1900s. (Image: Wales Online)

Through the 1800s, the burgeoning coal trade led to the expansion of Cardiff’s docks, skyrocketing the Welsh economy. This celebrated industrial history is also a migratory history, with the port drawing seafarers from across the globe, and many settling to service its docks. By the outbreak of WW1, Tiger Bay had grown into a thriving, cosmopolitan area of over 50 nationalities, including Somali, Yemeni and Caribbean migrant groups making the area their home, with many marrying local Welsh women and starting new families. Communities lived and worked alongside each other, bringing their diverse cultures, in what has been hailed an inspiring example of social cohesion.

Wedding of Mohammed Hassan and Katie Link, c. 1920. (Image: Senedd Cymru/ Welsh Parliament)

By the 1960s, exports from the docks ceased, leading to the gradual dereliction of the Butetown area. To make way for commercial redevelopment, much of its ethnically diverse population was displaced. In 1987, Tiger Bay was rebranded as Cardiff Bay, criticised for promoting a ‘new sanitised image’ that represents not only the erasure of a name, but the vibrant histories it holds.

Sources:

The Heritage and Cultural Exchange (2023) Tiger Bay and the World [website]. Available at: https://www.tigerbay.org.uk/home [accessed 5 July 2023]

Hitt, C. (2020) ‘History that really matters in Tiger Bay’, Wales Online. Available at: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/news-opinion/history-really-matters-tiger-bay-18372569 [accessed 5 July 2023]

People’s Collection Wales (2020). African and Caribbean Communities in Wales [digital archive]. Available at: https://www.peoplescollection.wales/collections/1541586 [accessed 5 July 2023]

Senedd Cymru/ Welsh Parliament (2023) Tiger Bay and the Docks: 1880s – 1950s. Available at: https://senedd.wales/visit/exhibitions/tiger-bay-and-the-docks-1880s-1950s/ [accessed 5 July 2023]