Project T.R.U.T.H
Telling Restoring Understanding our Tapestry & History
Project T.R.U.T.H (Telling Restoring Understanding our Tapestry and History) report that was commissioned by Bristol City Council and the Bristol Legacy Steering Group, produced by Black South West Network in partnership with Afrikan ConneXions Consortium as a result of more than two years’ work by the council’s Legacy Steering Group (LSG) Project TRUTH subgroup.
The Legacy Steering Group was founded in 2019 and consists of city partners, individuals and organisations, is convened by the Culture Department of Bristol City Council and is Chaired by Deputy Mayor for Communities, Cllr Asher Craig. The purpose of the steering group is to provide advice and strategic direction to Bristol City Council concerning the legacy of the Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Africans (TTEA) and associated projects and programmes.
A six-month consultation process last year involved a range of engagement including a weekly show on Ujima Radio, an online survey in early 2021, and eight focus groups undertaken throughout the spring of 2021. To find out more about the project, please click HERE. For the report press release, click HERE.
Tune in to Ujima 98fm Wednesdays 11am or listen back, or listen to all things Project Truth available episodes below.
Did you join us Facebook Live for Telling our T.R.U.T.H FB live with project steering group 'Statues, monuments or more systemic change?' In this Facebook Live we found out more about Project TRUTH, and why it is important that citizens of Afrikan heritage in Bristol to completed our survey to determine actions going forwards regarding recognising our legacy in the city. You can watch it HERE and Facebook Page.
Project TRUTH Launch Event summary
by Cleo Lake
Project TRUTH officially launched on January 28th via Zoom, attracting a sizeable sign up and good level of attendance and engagement. Whilst the project is Bristol focused, this and other strands of work is attracting a national audience, Attendees included a small number of those from outside of Bristol wanting to be part of our process. The perception is that Bristol is doing pioneering work, which through the formation of the Legacy Steering Group who is commissioning Project TRUTH, began pre Colston statue topple yet that event has brought a fresher urgency and focus.
Following an introduction and ancestral meditation led by Sister Jendayi Serwah member of the Legacy Steering Group representing Afrikan Connexions Consortium, the launch was opened by 21 year old Bristol versifier Malizah, who set an encouraging and confident tone for the event beginning with her quote:
‘Subservient beings cannot experience the fullness of freeness, so self reparations must begin. Rebel unapologetically. Be in the fullness of you. I will not be at a loss, whilst I wait for someone else to recognise what has been taken. I will not be at a loss whilst I wait for the system of oppression to give me back what I have lost, or whilst being in the process of taking back, what I aim to take back.’
Malzah’s performance was followed by guest speaker Sister Esther Stanford-Xosei from the Maangamizi Education Trust who made a 30 minute presentation entitled
‘Beyond consultative data-gathering, how Bristol’s Afrikan Heritage Communities can build real community power to effect and secure the reparatory justice changes you wish to see.’ With a focus on concepts like the right to memory, community collective gains above that of the individual, the tapestry of our stories, our history, our contemporary experience and the necessity to tell our stories as part of a healing process and in relation to MET initiatives ‘I Am Witness’. The necessary preparation of complying contemporary evidence of our experiences as Afrikan heritage communities. There was an emphasis on not expecting other institutions or individuals to do all the work for us following whatever recommendations may come out of Project TRUTH but a need to have an ongoing process of readying towards a healing destination ‘sewn together’ by the community itself, based on the West Afrikan Adinkra symbol of pempamsie.
The presentation inspired lots of discussion in the break out rooms which focused on 2 questions that expanded on the recently devised project survey questions :
1. How do you feel the longer term issues of the impact of the legacies of enslavement should be addressed in the city?
2. How can we ensure that any recommendations going forward are led and owned by people of Afrikan heritage?
Most feedback centred on education (mainstream failures, the need for the revival of supplementary provision), unity and a self determined community.
The event concluded with another compelling excerpt by Malizah, and a sign posting towards the survey, weekly radio show on Ujima (Wednesdays 11am) and the up coming focus groups. The Zoom chat function was also well utilised in the evening and quotes from the chat have gone on to inform an accompanying poster campaign.
It was a good launch and the timing of the project couldn’t have been better as it runs coincidentally alongside a growing understanding and action relating to holistic Afrikan reparations that has seen two large meetings and other smaller briefing take place over the last few weeks in readiness for an atonement and reparations motion that makes its way to Bristol City Council on March 2nd. Sister Esther is a leading reparations campaigner and made the point herself in relation to the various initiatives being made in Bristol, including project TRUTH, that as a city Bristol was ‘way way ahead than any other’.
As the lead consultant I am committed to ensuring that we keep that energy and focus to maintain the positive engagement and interaction not just in terms of getting the data needed for the recommendations, but using the project as a community enabler and part of the pempamsie process.