[In this post, David Kwao Fianko-Williams, one of our project participants, shares some personal reflections on the workshop series of the Decolonising Memory: Digital Bodies in Movement Project which ran from November 2021 to May 2022]
6th November 2021
Memory and Transatlantic Enslavement
The session today, has made me ponder about memory and its intrinsic fluidity. As Dr Jessica Moody quoted from Toni Morrison’s, The site of memory. Memory is like “water”, and “emotional memory [is like] ‘flooding’”. These words really resonated with me as memory should be free and ever flowing like “water”, not controlled, distorted, or sanitised. Which is why it is important that we collectively work together to decolonise our thought processes regarding this history. So that our memories of this history are in truth, un-sanitised, reflecting the historical realities of the histories of transatlantic enslavement.
18th November 2021
Researching accommodation colonialism
I was at a study centre researching the ‘Goldney family’ and its ties to transatlantic enslavement for a workshop. As I researched the family, the more I was able to get a convincing picture of their involvement with enslavement. Finding damning evidence that proved that the family profited from the ‘Woodes Rogers’ voyage’, which captured enslaved people.
Looking at my research, I began to feel increasingly angry and uncomfortable since the Goldney family is memorialised all over Bristol. From ‘Goldney House’ to the ‘Goldney Grotto’ .The name ‘Goldney’ is in numerous buildings and places.
The family name is also memorialised in a hall of residence called ‘Goldney Hall’. Which I find extremely repulsive, as students are expected to live, sleep and study at a place named after a family that has profited and benefitted over the suffering of enslaved people.
It is absolutely disgusting that there has not been a name change for this accommodation, offering lots of questions about the coloniality of buildings in Bristol.
For instance, looking at ‘Goldney Hall’, why should students have to deal with this? Why should they have to live in places like ‘Goldney’ and ‘Wills Hall’? Named after vile individuals who actively and inhumanely participated and profited, from the suffering and destruction of people.
Why is this not removed?
More generally with buildings and places in Bristol, why is it that we are performative in how we look at decolonising accommodations, buildings, and places? Why are we not looking at the bigger picture, remaining persistently short sighted in decolonial change?
We cannot say we are getting to it, nor should we purposefully act slow or performative. We must take this seriously, actively uncovering the histories of enslavement in Bristol and their connections to the built environment.
December Workshop (Photo credit: Jessica Moody)
4th December 2021
The entrenchment of colonialism: The Bristol walking tour with Dr Edson Burton
The tour with Dr Edson Burton was powerful, as it allowed me to observe how entrenched enslavement is within Bristol’s buildings and architecture. For instance, the old Vic and its racist minstrel history to the very inhumanity and suffering that built Queen Square.
Everywhere, and everything, is funded by colonialism and imperialism.
Queen Square (Photo credit: Isha Vibhakar)
During the tour, something stood out to me, which was how unaware I was at how deep enslavement is within Bristol’s architecture. I did not know how far it impacted the built environment, and how so many buildings were made with pain and suffering.
What I picked up also is the mundanity of it all – people walking through and around Bristol, possibly unaware of the human suffering they are walking in too. Presuming as if places in Bristol do not contain vile histories of torture and barbarism.
Indeed, I find that the tour, allowed me to realise that Bristol is a bustling city filled with many (not all) unalerted Bristolians and travellers of this history. The disgusting reality of this, as well is that this is all over the world, many people are unaware of the history of barbarity they interact with.
Bristol is only a microsome of this.
Bristol Old Vic Theatre (Photo Credit: Isha Vibhakar)
After the tour, I felt emotionally bombarded, disorientated with what I witnessed. Kwesi Johnson, pieced my emotions best, recalling Bristol to be a city that “industrialises the dead”. Such powerful words, as human suffering, barbarity, and torture are baked within the walls, establishments, and institutions of Bristol. A reality that is also all over the world.
8th January 2022
Decolonising minds
What is prevented and removed, is colonial.
Today in a session with Paul Eme who discussed decolonisation and the mind, a quote from Carter Woodson, stood out to me, which said: “when you control a human’s thinking you do not have to worry about their actions”.
I found this to be particularly evoking, as thinking and actions can have coloniality attached to it, emphasising the extensions of empire.
For example, it is to no surprise, as Eme stated, that centuries of Black history are still heavily obscured, like the stories and histories of Black empowerment. Which are not discussed, prevented, unremembered, and untaught.
Which is why it is so important that we undo:
Undo sanitised narratives of transatlantic enslavement,
Undo the obscurement of truth
And undo colonial lies.
So that there can be reparative justice, and a surge of empowerment amongst Black communities.
7th May
The final workshop: An amazing experience
The last workshop was so moving.
The dances in the session which culminated into the final performance, echoed the sentiments that I have been discussing about throughout my reflections. Which are to decolonise the mind, memory, our surroundings, and the world. As the dances reflected themes such as empowerment and cleansing.
The music that was played added another dimension to the wonderful performances, making it truly immersive. Replicating the exact sentiments, I have been explaining in my reflections through sound.
At the end of the session, I could not help but think of what a wonderful and powerful experience it has been working in such a respectful communal space.
It has truly been incredible to have learnt and participated with such amazing people. If I could describe my experience, it would be two words – truly amazing!
I could not help but think of the poem, Still I Rise,
by Maya Angelou, as a way of ending this reflection. As it expresses my thoughts and feelings of decolonisation to a complete tee.
The end with its repetition, really hits me:
“I rise
I rise
I rise.”
Which is an exact sentiment of how I feel about decolonisation.
Rising from clouds of colonialism, we can now all see, we are now all awake.
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David Kwao Fianko-Williams is a History student at the University of Bristol, and is passionate about Decolonisation and social change.