Black Lives Matter Demo in Perivale Park This Weekend

Marking the international day for remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition

Debbi Allen is on left holding the banner and Balwinder Rana is on the right

West London Black Lives Matter together with West London Stand Up To Racism will be holding a demonstration in Perivale Park this Sunday (23 August).

It will take place opposite the Perivale Tube Station at 12:45pm and will commemorate Sankofa Day.

This is the international day for the remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition, held annually on 23 August. The date was designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) for this purpose in 1998.

It relates to the events that took place on the night of the 22 to 23 August 1791, when men and women who had taken from Africa and sold into slavery in Santo Domingue (now known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic), rose up and won their freedom. The revolution was led by an enslaved African who came to be known as General Toussaint L’Ouverture.

It saw Haiti become the first independent state of Latin America and the Caribbean after they defeated three European superpowers (Britain, France and Spain); and the only state in the world established as a result of a successful slave revolt. That uprising played a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade and greatly impacted the establishment of universal human rights.

Debbi Allen, organiser of the event, who is also co-convenor for the West London Stand Up To Racism, said, “We would not be protesting today about Black Lives Matter if the transatlantic slave trade had not taken place in the first place. That is the root cause which led to millions of people being captured from Africa and forcibly transported to the plantations in the Americas where they suffered utmost brutality at the hands of the slavers.

“Black people’s exploitation and oppression has continued, in one form and another, ever since, leading to the brutal murder of George Floyd. We need to teach our children the history and horrors of slavery as well as the black people’s history in Africa where ancient cities, kingdoms and empires existed before anything comparable in the west.

“We also need to teach how the slaves fought for their freedom at every step with revolts taking place in almost every colony and the largest and most successful being in Haiti. Thus we want to bring together all the communities to learn from each other and to appreciate each other’s culture. I, myself, a black woman whose parents came from Jamaica and mother worked as a nurse in the NHS, am trying to teach my children and I think for that Sankofa Day is the best opportunity.”

The organisers say that it willbe a family friendly and a socially distanced day with speeches about the importance of the day, poetry readings as well as live music and dancing.

Perivale ward councillor, Munir Ahmed, has expressed his support and MP for Ealing North, James Murray, has been invited.

August 19, 2020