This is a story that appeared in my research for the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum to celebrate the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade back in 2007. The bare bones of the story are that Samuel Gist was an orphan from Bristol who was educated at one of the city’s charity schools … Continue reading
Yet another death this year, though at the ripe age of 104 was hardly unexpected. He is now little known, but as the author of the best seller To Sir With Love he shot to fame when it was filmed, starring Sydney Poitier in 1967 and the title song by Lulu shot up the charts. … Continue reading
This is from the brilliant new book Tribe – On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger. I have heard a lot of stories about the problems of well meaning westerners going to poor countries to ‘do good’ but this is the most disturbing and damning of their attempts to force western behaviour onto others, and … Continue reading
Here’s a strange tale from the latest Current Archaeology A miniature coffin housed by the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, has been found to contain the youngest example of a human foetus embalmed and buried in ancient Egyptian culture. The cedar coffin, thought to date from c664 – 525 BC, was excavated in Giza in 1907 and … Continue reading
Most of our history involves man on man action, but here’s a great piece on an African man who stood up to men in her own region, as well as the Portuguese. A reminder that not all Africans were victims back then. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/portuguese-slave-traders-were-no-match-for-angolan-queen-nzinga-mbandi?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=atlas-page
