IDPAD Mid decade summit: Bristol's One City approach

Olaiya, H. B. Adediran

Abstract

“The Western world was created off slavery, yet history talks about the explorer’s bravery, (…) For over hundred years they had free labour (…) the forever grateful people, tried to destroy their minds” (Hoo, 2011, p.18).

History teaches us that Bristol notoriously developed and prospered as a trading port, trafficking enslaved human beings within the British Isles, and later from the 16th century as a major cog in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The city is less well known for its role in abolitionist and anti-racist movements, although Frederick Douglass, who campaigned here against slavery, in the mid - 19th century, visited it. In the 20th century, the Bristol Bus Boycott took place in 1965, as the local bus company refused to employ Black people; and in 1980, the St Paul’s riots occurred against a backdrop of urban social conflict and discrimination as a result of Afrophobia/Afriphobia. Today, people of African descent account for approximately 6% of Bristol’s population, but remain more disadvantaged in education and employment, than in England and Wales as a whole, (CODE, 2017, p.1). Our under-representation in public sector workforces and leadership reflects wider inequality in the urbanism’s employment patterns; e.g., there are less than thirty Black teachers in the city's schools, although Black youth comprise approximately 30% of Bristol’s student population. These breaches of the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) have therefore inspired me to advocate the International Decade for People of African Descent (IDPAD), since 2015. I employ Black Emancipatory Action Research (BEAR) theoretical and methodological approach to interpretivism combined with functional and methodological pragmatism, for community participation and community empowerment of the African diaspora (Akom, 2011); with my methodological aim being to create knowledge for understanding with impact.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Mid Decade Summit
• Start Date: Nov 13, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 23, 2020
• Keywords: International Decade for people of African Descent Sustainable Development Goals place-based leadership Bristol
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/4703281
• Publisher URL: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/idpad-mid-decade-summit-bristols-one-city-approach-olaiya-m-a-/