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As Britain celebrates its own anniversary of the abolition of slavery, the Franche-Comté region, usually frequented for its food, fresh air and family holiday options, remembers its own pioneers in a dedicated “slavery route”. The route includes The Black Heritage House in Champagney-Haute-Saône and the Château De Joux Toussaint Louverture near Pontarlier. The route has become a “must” for visitors selecting from the many cultural and heritage attractions available for excursions in the region.
The Black Heritage House’s location in Champagney commemorates the first protest against slavery by the town’s residents, an appeal made directly to King Louis XVI on the 19th March 1789. The exhibits in the house document the slavery and the town’s part in the struggle for its abolition, providing a moving insight into Champagney’s cultural heritage.
The Chateau de Joux pays tribute to Toussaint Louverture, the former slave from Santo Domingo who is widely recognised as the first black symbol of the struggle against slavery, and as the Father of the first Black Republic of Haiti. The castle, nestled high in the Jura Mountains, served as Louverture’s prison. Today visitors can tour the imposing monument and learn more about the man who became a leading figure in the route to emancipation.
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The official “slavery route” also includes sites in the Rhineland. The Schoelcher Museum and the Maison Abbé Grégoire document key moments in the road to abolition.
The Franche-Comté region offers visitors a wealth of cultural and historical attractions, and is easily accessible by train and plane from the UK.
Keith Vaz MP, Chair of Labour's Ethnic Minority Taskforce, commenting on the actions of Cllr Brian Gordon who 'blacked-up' as Nelson Mandela, said:
"This sort of behaviour is shocking and completely unacceptable.
"It is deeply depressing not only that Cllr Brian Gordon blackened his face in an attempt to dress up as Nelson Mandela, but also because the leader of Barnet Council, Mike Freer - a Tory parliamentary candidate - could not understand that people might find Cllr Gordon's behaviour offensive.
"Today we find out that yet again, Tory Central Office has distanced itself from racism in the party by refusing to comment. It's less than a month since they behaved the same way over the Patrick Mercer affair. Only when the pressure mounted did they act.
"The actions of Cllr Gordon and Mr Mercer reveal the true nature of the Tory party. It will take much more than warm words and PR from David Cameron to bring about real change in his party."
UK Skills has appointed Yvonne Thompson CBE, chair of the African Caribbean Business Network (ACBN), as an Ambassador for the National Training Awards.
Yvonne Thompson also chairs the DTI’s Ethnic Minority Business Forum and the London Central Learning and Skills Council. She is a founder and president of the European Federation of Black Women Business Owners (EFBWBO).
The National Training Awards recognise and celebrate the organisations and people who create success through training and personal development. The awards are run on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills by UK Skills, a not for profit organisation which champions vocational skills and learning for work.
UK Skills’ Chief Executive Jacqui Henderson CBE said: “I’m delighted to have Yvonne joining our Ambassadors’ network. We know that she will encourage people to enter the awards with their inspiring stories of how training has helped them, their business or their community to succeed. We are keen to ensure that every part of our community can be recognised within the National Training Awards”
Yvonne Thompson said: “As a National Training Awards Ambassador I look forward to spreading the message about the awards and encouraging people to have their training successes recognised in this way. I also want to encourage people to invest in training. Training helps individuals achieve their goals, it can make businesses more efficient and it helps communities to help themselves.”
A free business breakfast to explain more about the awards is being run in central London on 3rd April in conjunction with the ACBN and EFBWBO. For more details, or to reserve a place, please phone 020 7978 9488 or email info@efbwbonet.
Entries for this year’s National Training Awards close on 26th April. For more information visit www.nationaltrainingawards.com.
AFRICANS AND CARIBBEANS ‘ALIENATED’ BY WESTMINSTER ABBEY SERVICE, SAY CHURCH LEADERS
Christian leaders have said the Church of England has a lesson to learn from a Westminster Abbey Abolition service which alienated a number of the people it intended to represent.
Katei Kirby, Chief Executive of the African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance and Joel Edwards, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance, who were included in the service, welcomed it as a landmark, necessary state event.
But they added that it missed the opportunity to deeply reflect the sentiments of the African and Caribbean communities.
Toyin Agbetu, 39, a campaigner for African-British human rights organisation Ligali, shouted “this is an insult to us,” as worshippers – including the Queen and Prime Minister – read a section of liturgy confessing their sins.
The Revs Kirby and Edwards said that although they disagreed with the form of protest, they thought the lack of a formal state apology meant many of the worshippers, black and white, would have identified with the sentiments expressed.
Rev Kirby said: “A significant number of Africans and Caribbeans who attended the service share the view that it was an important and appropriate event to have, but feel quite strongly that there was insufficient opportunity for inclusion and due recognition of the impact of the slave trade on our history and heritage.”
She added that the pain of the legacy of slavery is still very real in many African and Caribbean communities, and more needs to be done by all Christians and all political parties to hear and heal that pain.
“The language used throughout the liturgy could – and in my view should – have been part of that process, but sadly in some places, it was not, and gave rise to the feelings of alienation and misrepresentation that were voiced by the protester in the service,” she said.
“I hope that valuable lessons will be learnt for the future.”
Rev Edwards said the event could have found a way to more effectively harmonise the liturgy with the pain felt today by those who are still waiting for an act of apology from the state.
“The Church of England needs to learn how to be the Church for England,” he said.
“There should have been some space to depart from the script and speak the unscripted language of the heart.
“The protest was a master-stroke of opportunism, but, as we experienced a beautifully choreographed act of worship, it was an important reminder that pain cannot be choreographed,” he said.
The Ghosts of Songs: A Retrospective of the Black Audio Film Collective
Saturday 28 April - Sunday 24 June 2007
The first major touring exhibition of the seminal and multi-award winning media group, The Black Audio Film Collective is presented at Arnolfini this April.
Inaugurated in 1983 and dissolved in 1998, the seven - person Black Audio Film Collective is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential artist groups to emerge from Britain in recent years.
The Ghosts of Songs is the first retrospective to explore this important group's entire body of work. Curated and produced by Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar of The Otolith Group, it reveals the Collective as dynamic, articulate artists, dedicated to engaging with the past, present and future of memory, media and the moving image.
From their base in East London, John Akomfrah, Lina Gopaul, Avril Johnson, Reece Auguiste, Trevor Mathison, David Lawson and Edward George produced award winning film, photography, slide tape, video, installation, posters and interventions, much of which had never been exhibited in Britain before the current tour. Their first film Handsworth Songs, which chronicled the tragic aftermath of the 1985 race riots in Handsworth, Birmingham, won seven international awards in 1987; their second film Testament, about an exiled Ghanaian politician returning to his country 20 years after the 1966 coup, premiered at the Semaine de la Critique at Cannes International Film Festival in 1988; these and subsequent works such as Who Needs A Heart (1991) and The Last Angel of History (1995) staked a claim for a new kind of moving image work that was resolutely experimental and confidently internationalist. Themes of race, memory and colonial history, run throughout all of their deeply poetic and assuredly political works.
The exhibition has been specially designed in conjunction with architect David Adjaye to show the films Handsworth Songs, Signs of Empire, Twilight City and Seven Songs for Malcolm X. A rolling programme of some of the groups other major film and video works will be presented alongside in Arnolfini's Dark Studio.
In addition, Black Audio Film Collective's installation The Black Room will be re-staged for the first time since 1996 and completely revised for a contemporary audience by the artists.
Archival material and documents, which situate the groups' practice in the social, historical, economic and geographical context of a changing Britain will also be presented, including posters and promotional materials, as well as a new interactive website.
AS you know the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade was commorated on Tuesday 27th March 2007, at Westminister Cathedral in London. The event which was organised by SET ALL FREE (www.setallfree.net) a u.k charity was attended by HRH - THE QUEEN & PRINCE PHILLIP, The Prime Minister TONY BLAIR and other dignatories(including William Wilberforces greatgreat etc granddaughter!) & televised live by the BBC. (BBC1 ) The service lasted just over an hour but was "interrupted" by a lone protestor - Nigerian Toyin Agbetu - founder of LIGALI - (www.ligali.org ) who was overcome by emotions & spoke out urging Mr Blair to apologise for the atrocities which were endured by our forefathers.
Radio One DJ Trevor Nelson steps out of the club and into the boardroom to fulfil his childhood dream as a businessman. On the top floor of More London, Trevor Nelson was photographed as a businessman, for The Children’s Society’s ‘When I Grow Up’ photographic exhibition.
Over 20 Actors and Directors from Africa will be present at this event from the 20th to 22nd of April 2007 at the cineworld cinemas.After-Party follows at the RDS same day 20th of April from 9pm Films from across Africa will be showing over the 3days of the event.
A YOUNG mum had the Mother's Day from hell when a racist attack left her face too badly scratched and bruised for her to leave the house.
Ann-Marie Gordon, 27, had been in Clapham celebrating a friend's birthday when she was attacked and racially abused.
She and a friend had left The White House bar in the early hours of Sunday and were walking down nearby St Alphonsus Road when a young, white man shouted at her from the other side of the road.
Hairdresser Ms Gordon said: "This man started shouting stuff. He said, 'You black bitch'. I confronted him and he said, 'You better f**k off before I get my sister'."
Two women then arrived and Ms Gordon says she was pushed to the floor, beaten and scratched on her face.
The mum-of-one said: "My face is scratched to pieces. It's like a wild animal did it. I haven't been able to leave the house."
Ms Gordon was unable to meet her mum and dad for a Mother's Day meal in a restaurant later that day. She was treated at Mayday Hospital in Croydon on Monday.
"My three-year-old son Daejon was really upset," Ms Gordon said. He said, 'What happened to your face,Mummy?'. I had to explain it to him and he's handled it very well.
"You just don't expect something like that in Clapham, everyone has said so." Her mobile phone was also stolen during the assault.
Ms Gordon, who works at Willie Smarts hairdressing salon in The Pavement, Clapham, and lives in West Croydon, is hoping to return to work on Tuesday.
Police are treating the incident as racially motivated. No arrests have been made.
The suspects are a man and two women, aged from their late teens to mid-20s. Call Lambeth police's community safety unit on 020 8721 3644 with information.
Speaking in Birmingham yesterday about the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade Liberal Democrat Leader Menzies Campbell said:
“Birmingham, like so many other industrial cities benefited from the trade in human beings. The extent to which our nation profited from this exploitation should be a source of shame, and this year we must celebrate the people who worked to abolish the slave trade and remember those who died and suffered at its hands.
“But slavery still exists in the UK and we must oppose and tackle all forms of modern day slavery wherever we find it.”
Currently in the UK: · At least 5,000 children are being forced to work as sex slaves (1) · Over 4,000 trafficked women are working as prostitutes (2) · About 10,000 gangmasters are working across various industrial sectors (3)
Addressing how modern day slavery should be tackled, Menzies Campbell said:
“Slavery is a crime that has a devastating effect on the lives of individuals, and contributes to the overall harm caused by organised crime.
“I am pleased that the Government is signing up to the European Convention Against Trafficking in Human Beings which the Liberal Democrats first called for in June 2006. This convention now needs to be ratified.
“It is essential that the UK does whatever is necessary to develop effective enforcement. Since the 2004 Asylum and Immigration Act there has not been a single prosecution brought for trafficking for labour exploitation.
“Our part in the slave trade was despicable and it is shameful that slavery is so prominent in the modern world.”
Welcome to Black Net Uk the central source for Content, Local and International News, Articles, Gossip, Information and Campaigns. Total user powered content: Every article on Black Net is submitted by users who discover, share and promote content that's important to you and the African and Caribbean Community from Britain and around the world. 
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