IN THE GRIP OF CHANGE

This event celebrated the launch of 'Black Britain and Nelson Mandela', an exploration of Nelson Mandela's legacy on Black intellectual thought on race and social justice in Britain. Hosted in collaboration with Senate House Library and SOAS Library, it brought together a panel of distinguished speakers to discuss the book's themes, insights, and significance. The speakers for the evening included: Christopher Roy Zembe Gregory Alake Nadia Joseph Sireita Mullings Prof. Gus John (moderator) About the speakers: Christopher Roy Zembe is a Lecturer in History at De Montfort University. His research interests are, colonial and post-colonial histories and the African diaspora. His published work consists of: a book entitled "Zimbabwean Communities in Britain Imperial and Post-Colonial Identities and Legacies"; a Chapter entitled "Quest for a Cohesive Diaspora African Community: Reliving Historic Experiences by Black Zimbabweans in Britain" in a book on ‘New Perspectives on Black British History’; and an article in the Journal of Migration History entitled "Migrating with Colonial and Post-Colonial Memories: Dynamics of Racial Interactions within Zimbabwe's Minority Communities in Britain". Gregory Alake's academic interest and specialist area focuses around the South Africa TRC with papers in “Instead of TRC Amnesty, would a different approach have delivered a better future for South Africa?, Role of International Law and Institutions in managing and preventing conflicts – How effective are these bodies? Public Service Procurement – the health and local authority experience”. Greg Alake is a procurement specialist with over 30 years’ experience in Health services, Local Authority and Higher Education. He was formerly Head of Procurement at University College London, Contracts Manager at Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Contract Advisor at Goldsmiths, University of London and most recently as the Senior Category Manager for Mid Essex NHS Trust. Nadia Joseph has been involved in South African politics personally and professionally. The daughter of veterans of the liberation struggle, she herself worked for the Anti-Apartheid Movement in London and remains an active campaigner around issues of social justice. Nadia’s role as Research and Content Lead for The Liliesleaf Trust UK is to deliver a major pilot-programme of engagement in the heritage of the Movement Against Apartheid (MAA) as part of a National Lottery Heritage funded project. The wider aim is to expand the reach and impact of the overall TLTU programme and help prepare for a successful launch at the Centre of Memory and Learning (CML). This will be located at the newly designed former headquarters of the African National Congress (ANC) at 28 Penton Street, Islington. This site is of significance to Nadia as it was at the heart of the exiled liberation movement in the UK in which her parents played key roles. Nadia also works on a freelance basis as an educator through an initiative Education Through Culture, as well as a writer, editor and in the trade union movement. Sireita Mullings-Lawrence is a visual sociologist and artist who completed a BA in Art, Design and Education at the University of the West Indies (Mona) and Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts, where she majored in photography and graphic design in Jamaica. She later returned to the UK to study an MSc in Multimedia at the University of Westminster. It was during this period she began working as a community arts practitioner locally and internationally. Sireita draws upon the arts as a tool that renders the subjective realities which characterise the often-misunderstood positions of young people. Theoretically her work draws upon postcolonial studies, race and representation and she uses participatory and visual research methods pivoted on themes of digital creativity, youth, class, gender, social enterprise, social exclusion, inclusion, belonging, migration, education, safety and danger. Prof. Gus John is a Grenadian-born writer, education campaigner, consultant, lecturer and researcher, who moved to the UK in 1964. He has worked in the fields of education policy, management and international development. As a social analyst he specialises in social audits, change management, policy formulation and review, and programme evaluation and development. Since the 1960s he has been active in issues of education and schooling in Britain's inner cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and London, and was the first black Director of Education and Leisure Services in Britain.

Each year, the Friends of Senate House Library host the Holden Lecture, which focuses on one of the Library’s unique scholarly collections. For the 2024 Holden Lecture, Professor Alison Donnell will consider how, in the age of V.S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott, women writers became the lost voices of the Caribbean. About the speaker Alison Donnell is Head of the School of Humanities and Professor of Modern Literatures in English at the University of Bristol. She has published widely on Anglophone Caribbean literature, with significant contributions to the fields of literary history and culture, recovery research of women authors, and Caribbean literary archives. She was Principal Investigator of the Leverhulme Trust funded Caribbean Literary Heritage project, which has produced an open access digital resource www.caribbeanliteraryheritage.com, and General Editor of Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1800-2020 (3 volumes) published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. She also works on Caribbean gender and queer studies. Her latest monograph Creolized Sexualities: Undoing Heteronormativity in the literary imagination of the Anglo-Caribbean was published in Rutgers’ Critical Caribbean Series in 2022. An A-Z of Neglected Writers of the English-speaking Caribbean will be published by Papillote Press in 2025. Professor Donnell delivered the National Library of Jamaica’s Annual Distinguished Lecture, on Animating the Archives of Una Marson in 2016, the 15th Annual Edward Baugh lecture at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, on ‘The Missing Mid-Century West Indian Woman Writer and another quarrel with history’ in 2022, and the University of Guyana’s Edgar Mittelholzer Memorial Lecture of 2024 on ‘Recovering Edwina Melville’.

The workshop “Comic Book Your Heritage!” invited attendees to explore and celebrate their cultural heritage through the art of comic storytelling. Part one of the workshop included a discussion about the comics, which appear in the Senate House Library exhibition - In the Grip of Change: The Caribbean and its British Diaspora - and their broader connection to the historical use of comics in the Caribbean. This discussion was led by comic writer, Colleen Douglas, whose own work has been influenced by a long tradition of comics as a form of communication, educational, and cultural transmission in Guyana. In part two, attendees learned how to transform their heritage stories into a visually captivating collaborative comic under the guidance of illustrator, Salina Jane. As part of this exercise, they were invited to bring along one or two small objects that they felt connect them to their heritage to inspire their comic book illustration. Colleen Douglas is a Guyana-born, British comic book writer and creator. She is Curation Editor on ‘Shook! Vol 2 Songs of the Dark Sirens’, the sequel to the ground-breaking ‘Shook! A Black Horror Anthology’ released by Penguin Random House in Jan 2024. She is the first Black Women to be published by Caliber Comics in its 35-year history. A prolific writer, her current work ‘SILK COTTON’ (The Caribbean Supernaturals Mythology) for Leviathan Labs was an immediate success selling out when first released in 2022. It was later released in English by Rosarium Publishing in July 2024 and can be found in bookshops everywhere. She holds a PhD in Ancient Monetary Systems, was Editor in Chief for Amigo Comics and has a special love for all things supernatural, cosmic, esoteric, and weird. ‘Shook! Vol 2 Songs of the Dark Sirens’ will be released on 28th October 2025 from Dark Horse via Penguin Random House. Salina Jane is a British artist, illustrator and printmaker of Indo-Guyanese descent making work about the experience of her family’s journey from India through indentured labour to Guyana coming to the UK in the 1950s as part of the Windrush generation. This has included working in close partnership on the curation of ‘Indo + Caribbean: The Creation of a Culture’ (May-Nov 2023) for the Museum of London Docklands. She is a visual storyteller exploring themes of identity, culture, heritage, migration, and the double diaspora experience through drawing and in her teaching. She works from her studio in Croydon and teaches across the UK and online.

"Education: The Black British Experience (Then and Now)” delved into the significant historical and contemporary challenges faced by Black British students in the education system. This event explored the practice of wrongly labeling black children as ‘educationally subnormal’ in the 1960s and 1970s. It reflected on the emergence of supplementary schools as a vital response to these challenges and the key role they played in providing culturally relevant education and support. Our speakers brought us up to date on ongoing disparities and aimed to fostered a constructive dialogue around strategies for future success, emphasising the importance of community and parental involvement, advocacy and innovative educational practices. We hope this vital conversation contributed to conversations around the empowerment of future generations and the desire for an educational system that brings out the best in all students. Speakers Professor Gus John (co-founder of CEN) Maisie Barrett (ESN school survivor, author, and activist) Dr Nkasi Stoll (Researcher, mental health, and well-being of Black students in Universities) Dionne Campbell-Mark (Advocacy Manger and Parent Co-ordinator, CEN) Professor Gus John is a writer, education campaigner, community activist and life-long Pan-Africanist, a learning facilitator, and management consultant. He co-founded the first Black Supplementary School in Oxford (Cowley and Blackbird Leys) in 1966 and Birmingham (Handsworth) in 1968. He was Britain’s first Black Director of Education and Leisure Services. John chaired the Black Parents Movement (Manchester) and co-founded with Gerry German, the Communities Empowerment Network (CEN). He is author of several books including The Crisis Facing Black Children in the British School System (2003), Taking A Stand: On Education, Race, Social Action and Civil Unrest, 1980-2005 (2006) and more recently Don’t Salvage the Empire Windrush (2023). Maisie Barrett is a passionate author, advocate, and community leader dedicated to justice, equality, and the power of storytelling. Featured in Steve McQueen’s documentary “Subnormal: A British Scandal,” She overcame systemic racism in the British education system. Her experiences inspired her to write Subnormal: How I was failed by the British Education System and Colonial Family (2023) and A Windrush Story: What If? (2025), a fantasy scenario exploring how her life might have been different if she had received proper educational support. Despite early setbacks, Barrett earned four university degrees. She is also a prominent figure in the campaign to secure acknowledgment, apologies, and compensation from the government for the systemic racial injustices faced by the children of her generation. Barrett’s book will be available for purchase and signature on the day of the event. Dr Nkasi Stoll is a qualitative researcher who specialises in understanding and tackling race, health and education inequalities. She completed her PhD in Psychology at King's College London, which focused on exploring the racialised experiences and institutional factors that impact Black undergraduate and postgraduate students' mental health and wellbeing. She has experience working on research studies and within clinical services to improve the lives of children, young people and their families who present with mental health struggles. She is also the co-founder of Black People Talk, a not-for-profit, that runs peer wellbeing support programmes for Black university students. Dionne Campbell-Mark is an Advocacy Manager and Parent Co-ordinator for the Community Empowerment Network (CEN). Campbell-Mark worked for over twenty-years in the the civil service Department for Communities and Local Government, where she gained experience in project management and policy. She took redundancy in order to support her child’s education, complete a diploma in counselling and train as a teaching assistant. Her concern with education was taken a step further when she became Chair of the George Mitchell School’s Local Governing Board. Her experience in the education sector has enabled her to develop strategies for success. This event was chaired by Dr Juanita Cox. Cox is Black British History Community Engagement Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) and co-curator of the Senate House Library exhibition In the Grip of Change: The Caribbean and its British Diaspora. She was Research Fellow on the three-year AHRC funded ‘The Windrush Scandal in a Transnational and Commonwealth Context’ project and the earlier scoping project, ‘Nationality, Identity and Belonging: An Oral History of the Windrush Generation and their Relationship to the British State, 1948-2018’. Her publications include When Home is a Hostile Environment: Voices of the Windrush Generation and their Descendants (2024). She also has a passion for Caribbean literature and is currently the leading authority on the life and work of Edgar Mittelholzer (1909-1965) and editor of the compendium, Creole Chips and Other Writing (2018). She is a trustee on the board of the Oral History Society, co-founder of the ground-breaking series, Guyana SPEAKS and on the editorial board of Black Histories: Dialogues.

This multisensory immersive event was an exploration of life on 18th-century Caribbean plantations as depicted in two Caribbean neo-slave poems by Professor David Dabydeen and Grace Nichols, and the artist and researcher Dr Renée Landell. Through a series of interpretative paintings, performance and discussion, visitors will be transported to a plantation scene and invited to discuss with the speakers the relationship between humans, nature, and animals as well as the spatialization of violence from past to present day. Launching the paintings of Dr Landell with a performance by Dr Michelle Yaa Asantewa, visitors will be invited to explore the artist’s work in a themed space in the Woburn Suite, Senate House. This will be followed by a discussion with acclaimed Guyanese writers and the artist, and a drinks reception in the Montague Lounge.

In 2021, Barbados became a republic. It was the first independent Caribbean country to make the transition from monarchy to republic since Trinidad and Tobago in 1976 (Dominica had become independent as a republic in 1978). Despite expectations that the example of Barbados might lead to other Caribbean countries making a similar constitutional journey, none has yet followed and there remain eight so-called ‘Commonwealth Realms’ in the region which retain King Charles III as their sovereign. Why have Caribbean countries been so slow to adopt republican constitutions? Why did most of them become independent Commonwealth Realms in the first place and what are the political and symbolic implications of retaining that status? And what developments are we likely to witness in the next few years? Philip Murphy, author of Monarchy and the End of Empire (2013), shed light on all these questions in his lecture.

With successive restrictions applied to immigration laws and the creation of “hostile environment” immigration policies, thousands of undocumented people were denied their legal right to British citizenship. Many of those affected were part of the ‘Windrush generation’, Caribbean-born migrants who travelled to the UK between the end of the 2nd World War and the 1970s. Despite their entitlement to live in the UK, many lost their jobs and access to public services and benefits. Some were detained or deported. These injustices became known as the Windrush Scandal, which was first publicly reported in 2017. In 2018 the UK government acknowledged the Scandal and committed to righting the wrongs and compensate those harmed by it. Lawyers and law firms have since worked on behalf of those affected by the scandal to support their claims to their legal rights. This panel discussion will examine the history of the Windrush Scandal in a Caribbean and transnational context. They will explore changing immigration and nationality legislation and how lawyers have worked on behalf of the ‘Windrush’ scandal victims to establish their legal claims. As the first of thirty recommendations in the Wendy Williams Windrush Lessons Learned Review(Opens in new window)(Opens in new window) talks about the harm done to members of the African Caribbean community, panellists will reflect on what can be done to repair the damage. A ‘Windrush Act’ briefing document, produced by WD Legal, will be shared with registrants for their review. Panellists ● Anthony Brown, Co-founder of Windrush Defenders Legal C.I.C. ● Grace Brown, Joint Head of Garden Court Chambers ● Devyani Prabhat, Professor in Law at University of Bristol Law School ● Audrey Macklin, Professor and Rebecca Cook Chair in Human Rights Law, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto (Discussant) Chair: Marilyn Clarke, Head Librarian, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies