When I was a member of its Committee and for a
while its Secretary, BASA (Black & Asian Studies Association) was unable to get funding to digitise all the
material that had been assembled from parish and other records about the black
presence in Britain over the centuries. Former BASA Committee member Kathy
Chater was able to develop her own database for the work culminating in her
book Untold Histories. Black
People in England and Wales During the Period of the British Slave Trade, C.
1660-1807. However, this
database is not publicly accessible. Another former BASA member Miranda
Kaufmann, author of Black Tudors,
informed the G. Aylmer Seminar held on 1 June that she was seeking funding to
create a database of the material she had collected. This here interconnected
projects illustrate the problem involved in ensuring that specialist material on
Black and Asian history in Britain held
in archives is publicly available.
Has there been progress over the last 30 years
The Seminar Diversity amongst the documents? The representation of BAME communities within the UK's archives was
introduced by Professor Hakim Adi (a founder of BASA) reviewing BASA and his involvement over
nearly 30 years in trying to change the way archives work to make the material they hold on Black
& Asian History publicly accessible. He was pessimistic about whether
serious progress had been made, especially in terms of encouraging the training
and employment of more Black & Asian archivists.
I am not convinced that
he is entirely right. His analysis did not mention the importance of the 2007
work on the bi-centenary of the end of Britain’s official involvement in the slave
trade, and the way that many funded projects concentrated on the black presence
and role. Former BASA members are at the heart of many projects and initiatives
that have been undertaken since its demise.
The limits of the attraction of archive work
My starting off point is
that most people do not have the
inclination to research in archives, but want the findings of other people’s researches
– whether talks, publications, videos, plays, etc. The sheer amount of original
research work that academics, independent historians, and community projects
have generated shows how successful they have been in mining the archives. David
Olusoga’s BBC TV series and book Black
and Britain would not have been possible without this richness. The amount
of material accessible on the internet grows year by year.
I felt that most of the
other talks at the Seminar were illustrations of the way in which considerable
advances have been made by archive organisations and community projects,
despite the many practical problems they face such as funding, much material
not being catalogued, changes in personnel.
The transformatory role of the internet
Every individual who makes a contribution through research
and dissemination does so within the limits of their own work, family commitments
health crises etc.
The internet, email and Facebook transformed what
I have been about to do in terms of
sharing information and discussing issues whether through specialist emails
lists, my History & Social Action and Norbury Watch blogs, the Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor Network website, and my contributions to Croydon Citizen.
Much money has been put into digitising archival and
project material. One of the major problems with the digital world is the sheer
quantity of material and sites, the overload of information that comes into our
computers, laptops, notebooks and smart phones. It is impossible to keep up
with everything. We can only be aware of a small proportion of what is relevant
to our own interests. This of course only applies to those who feel comfortable
in the digital world, as opposed to those who experience the digital divide in
its many facets.
The complexity of academia
Because of my history interests I have many links
with academics both pre-and post internet. The academic world has many hidden
and semi-hidden research eco-systems, which occasionally interconnect with
communities through projects. Sometimes that might be because academics become
involved in Heritage Lottery funded projects, which all require a community
engagement component. Most people will not know about the multi-million pound
Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Connected Communities programme.
The AHRC Connected Communities Programme
It is designed to help understand the changing
nature of communities in their historical and cultural contexts and the role of
communities in sustaining and enhancing quality of life. It addresses a number
of core themes including: health
and wellbeing; creative
and digital communities; civil society
and social innovation; environment
and sustainability; heritage; diversity
and dissent; and participatory
arts. It aims to achieve new insights into community and new ways of
researching community that put arts and humanities at the heart of research and
connect academic and community expertise.
There have been over 280 project awards working
with 400 community partners and organisations. My British Black History readers
will know about the black presence in rural communities project led by Suzanne
Seymour at the University of Nottingham.
Digital resources
One of the most interesting projects is YARN which helps community groups
produce their own heritage digital resources. http://www.digitalheritage.leeds.ac.uk
It has created the Pararchive project open access
portal for community storytelling.
In my experience one of the best projects outside
the ARHC funding regime is the Legacies of British Slave-ownership based at UCL
with its massive and growing database base, and its close liaison with
independent and local historians and groups to jointly enrich the content that
is freely accessible to all.
There are also numerous websites and blogs
associated with local history projects, and in the case of the work I was
involved in on slavery and abolition on Tyneside in 2007 and popular politics
in the North East 2010-13 the combined database at ppp.nelh.net, which I edit.
To be continued
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