Book: Searching for my Slave Roots by Malik Al Nasir
This is the only book I was compelled to buy and lug home during the excellent Birmingham Literature Festival this year. Indeed, I was second in line to get it autographed and thank the author.
The book came about due to the author's search for late 19th-century Scottish footballer Andrew Watson. Upon chancing across his image, both he and his mother thought he had a striking resemblance to him after seeing an image when his grave was only uncovered in 2021. And this led him to find his own slave roots.
Watson played with the Scotland team when they were consistently beating England. I learn that the Scots developed the ‘passing and running game’ in direct contrast to the English game of ‘every man to himself’.
I am not disappointed, despite the heavy reading.
It was on a documentary a few years back that I learned that when the UK government invited Caribbean Nurses to help staff the NHS, they did not expect them to stay. Enoch Powell was the Health Minister who invited them over. A mere 5 years later, they wanted them out again.
I’d never known that the term ‘bucks’ for dollars is derogatory. It has only just occurred to me that much of Africa would have been Islamic due to the majority Muslim populations. These people were highly literate in multiple languages, not just Arabic. In fact, ‘the level of literacy in Africa at the start of colonialism was far in excess of that of the general populace of Europe.’
We know vast sums of money have been paid by the tax payer as a consequence of slavery. The cost of Haiti's independence from France was 150m francs (17bn euros). Then there’s the £20m compensation paid to the slave owners that today would be £17b. This was well publicised in 2015 when the loan to cover that cost was finally paid off. (I wish I had thought about that fact a few years back when I was delivering money workshops in schools and a young lad asked me why the UK was in debt).
The people (who may surprise you) who were slave owners or involved in the trade:
Benjamin Franklin
John Gladstone (the big £17 billion payout was masterminded by him and executed through his son, William, the Prime Minister)
Many church leaders (there is much in this book about converting Muslims to Christians to make slaves more malleable)
St Nicholas Church in Liverpool is noted as still having its Priest appointed by the Gladstone family today, such is the link between slave owners and the church.
There are multiple instances of the church directly profiting from slavery.
I can see why the author stopped being a Christian.
A truly impressive amount of research makes this book not only compelling but vital.