by the Right Hon. The Lord David Alton of Liverpool November 19th marked the Centenary Anniversary of the Great Congo Demonstration when , one hundred year ago, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Christian leaders, along with many Peers and fifty Members of Parliament assembled at the Royal Albert Hall to protest against the abuses by ...

This queen of Zazzua, a province of Nigeria now known as Zaria, was born around 1533 during the reign of Sarkin (king) Zazzau Nohir. She was probably his granddaughter. Zazzua was one of a number of Hausa city-states which dominated the trans-Saharan trade after the collapse of the Songhai empire to the west. Zaria's wealth ...

Dame Kelly Holmes, DBE MBE (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British middle distance athlete. She specialised in the 800 metres and 1500 metres events and won a gold medal for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She set British records in numerous events and still holds the records over the ...

Francis Barber was a servant and companion to the writer Samuel Johnson.? Francis Barber was born in Jamaica around 1735. He came to Britain with a planter from the island. For one year he went to school in the small village of Barton nr Darlington in Yorkshire England. Then, as he got older he entered the ...

Cy Grant was born in Guyana, Central America. He came to Britain in 1941 to join the Royal air Force and was a commissioned office by 1943. He later became a Prisoner of War and later a TV personality. Cy Grant was born in Guyana, Central America. He came to Britain in 1941 to join ...

Olaudah Equiano, later to be known as (Gustavus Vassa) was born in what is today, Nigeria. Kidnapped from his African village at the age of eleven, and sold to a Virginia planter. He was later bought by a British naval Officer, Captain Pascal, as a present for his cousins in London. Equiano bought his freedom after ten ...

Vincent Bunting was born in Panama in June 1918 and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. He became a fighter pilot and joined No 611 Squadron in December 1942. After being promoted to Warrant Officer, Bunting served with No 132 Squadron flying Spitfires. In October 1944 he was transferred to No 154 Squadron. Whilst leaded ...

The first world war 1914-1918 saw a significant number of Africans arrive in Britain to fight. The second and larger wave of Afro-Caribbean's arrived in Britain during the course of the Second World war 1939-1945. In all, Several thousand workers migrated as volunteers fight in the RAF and other branches of the armed forces, ...

Not many people in Britain today are aware that during World War II, there were over 400 air crew from the Caribbean who flew with the RAF - about 70 receiving commissions, 103 decorations for distinguished service, and over a hundred who gave their lives fighting for the 'mother country.' Group Captain Larry Osbourne, the first ...

Walter Tull was born in Folkestone on 28th April 1888. His father was a carpenter from Barbados who had moved to Folkestone and married a local woman. By the age of nine, Walter had lost both his parents, and when he was 10 he and his brother Edward were sent to a Methodist orphanage in ...

A Tale of a Forgotten People By Vava Tampa Outside public eyes in a remote corner of Africa and literally under the world's radar screen, a country is sinking in a river of blood! Mothers crying! Fathers and sons trading hot metals! Neighbours, in alliance with local armed groups, seething through the thick dense forest to ...

Walter Tull was born at 16 Allendale Street, Folkstone in April 1888. His father was a joiner from St Thomas Parish in Barbados and came to Britain in 1876. He married a local girl from Folkestone in 1880 and together they had six children. In 1897, Walter and his siblings were orphaned when ...

It appears that John Blanke, an African trumpeter, was a regular musician at the courts of both Henry VII and Henry VIII. Musicians' payments were noted in the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber, who was responsible for paying the wages. There are several payments recorded to a 'John Blanke, the blacke trumpeter'. This trumpeter ...

Like many West European nations, Germany established colonies in Africa in the late 1800s in what later became Togo, Cameroon, Namibia, and Tanzania.

Sailors from Africa, the West Indies and India have contributed to the life on board British ships during times of both peace and war

A former Royal Marine who claims he suffered violent racial abuse while a member of the forces was barred by the High Court from suing the Ministry of Defence for pounds 750,000 damages yesterday. Deputy judge John Griffith Williams ruled that Mark Parchment had left it too long to bring an action after he went on ...

A black soldier was subjected to brutal racism, including physical assaults in which his room-mates tried to scrub him "clean and white", it was alleged last night. The Army said it has received allegations from Rifleman Clive Walker of the Royal Green Jackets that he suffered racial abuse and assaults at the hands of a number ...