PODCAST. If you think you know about black history - listen to this.
An adventurous trip
When I noticed the podcast “In Search of Black History” in the Audible catalogue a few months back I was very excited. ‘Cause honestly I don’t know much about the historical background of people of African descent, but I really want to. So instantly I downloaded the 8 episodes and started listening and I must say that after the c. 6 hours had come to an end, I had not only been taken on adventurous trips around the world visiting people, places, and different time periods too, no, I had also become a whole lot - a whole lot! - wiser in this field.
So, if you are somewhat like me as in ‘you know close to nothing about this subject’, then this podcast is for you. However…it is also for you who t h i n k you have a huge insight in this field, ‘cause the whole point of this production is to present to us the parts of black history that don’t fit with what traditionally has been taught in this area.
Leave what you (think you) know outside the door
From the very beginning our ‘tour guide’ - the American playwright, author, and critic, Bonnie Greer - gives us her idea of what ‘history’ is. History, she says, is not static, it is a process, a point of view. Most often, however, it is only very few people that are being invited to join the table when ‘history’ is being written - including the history of black people. And because of that, she says, there are large chunks of it that are still hidden from us.
But this is about to change.
“In this series”, Greer points out, “I’m going to show you the hidden, the laid aside, the unheard, the vanquished, the erased. Whatever you have taken for granted as being black history, you can leave that outside the door. In this series, you are going to hear things you have probably never heard before. My goal? That is to blindside you.”
Now, that’s what I call an introduction! A promise to get a look inside black history that not many people in this world know anything about. Ms. Greer certainly caught my attention - and perhaps yours too? If you’re in for it just jump on board and I’ll show you some of the people and places Bonnie Greer introduces in the “In Search of Black History” podcast.
A thriving kingdom ruled by black female queens
So, in the “Black History” podcast we are taken from the earliest days of modern humanity, c. 300.000 ago, and all the way up to the present moment. On the way, we meet a good handful of interesting black people, for example, the ones who back in time inhabited the Kushite Kingdom.
The Kushite Kingdom? Yes, the Kushite Kingdom! This kingdom, we are told, was placed on the piece of land we today know as Sudan. It existed from c. 600 BC to 300 AD and apparently black female queens were in charge during the whole period. Also, some of the findings from the area show that there is evidence that the ‘Kushitians’ not only fought but also traded - quite a lot - with the Romans from the mighty Roman Empire.
All in all, the evidence that researchers have been digging out from the ruins of this place point to the fact that the Kushite Kingdom was a thriving, confident society in its time, an engine of economic activity - and they even had women soldiers. So why haven’t we heard more about this extraordinary place before? - You might ask. Well, according to Bonnie Greer the answer to this question has to do with limitations “..it was [too] hard to reach for European explorers”, she says. A question that inevitably springs to mind when hearing this is: What else have we been missing?
Surprising findings in a London medieval burial site
From the Queens of Kush in the northeast of Africa, Bonnie Greer moves further north, all the way up to London where she ends up standing face to face - or rather: Face to bones - with skeletons from a medieval burial site.
This particular site, Greer explains, was used to bury the dead who died from the plague during the years from 1348 till 1350. So, what this specific place - with these specific bones - tells us is, of course, which people actually lived in London during this period. And to this, the researchers reveal some surprising information: One of the skeletons is of a black woman.
What the skeleton also reveals is that the woman lived until she was fourtysomething years old and that she, in her early years, had lived quite a healthy life, getting enough food - and a proper type of food too. This sign of health is also seen in other skeletons of black people from the London burial site. All of them, it turns out, came from either North Africa or the Southern Mediterranean - and P.S. none of them were slaves. The researchers suggest that these findings mean that back in medieval times, Northern Europe was the continent of famine, disease, and disaster while the area around North Africa and the Mediterranean were places where people grew up healthy. Which is, as Greer remarks, quite contrary to our contemporary stereotypes.
What you didn’t know about the transatlantic slave trade
Now, at some point during the podcast, Bonnie Greer says something that I, unfortunately, have to agree upon, and that is that very often when you think about the history of people with African descent, all that more or less comes to your mind is the transatlantic slave trade that took place back in the 17- and 1800s. Okay, perhaps a few other happenings might also pop up, but! The transatlantic slave trade is very much the time and place where ‘black history’ starts for many of us. And still, as it turns out, we don’t know very much about that part either.
Greer speaks with a certain Dr. Rebecca Hall, a researcher who has dived into a theme about the slave revolts that happened on board the slave ships sailing the Atlantic. For a long time, researchers apparently thought that these revolts only rarely took place. So when it turned out that this was n o t the case most of them were naturally quite surprised. And when the data started pointing to who was behind these uprisings, it all seemed so unlikely that many of the investigators ended up dismissing their own findings.
[Log book from a slave ship, Bristol 1763]
But Dr. Hall kept on diving into the archives and what she has found out you can hear all about in episode 6 - it really is very surprising.
This podcast makes the world a little bigger
History is a process, Bonnie Greer says, it is evolving, and these days the field of black history has reached a point where new perspectives are added to the picture. This development means that the - traditional - picture each of us has of ‘black history’ will have to change.
Black people lived and worked alongside the rest of the population in medieval London, black female queens ruled over a kingdom in northeast Africa for (almost) 1.000 years, black slaves actively revolted against the slave traders back in the 17- and 1800s plus a whole lot of other happenings - some of which you can learn more about in this podcast.
Yes, history certainly is a process. What we know about our past changes. And when we are lucky to get access to an eye-opener type of knowledge as presented in this podcast, it’s like…”oooh, really!?!” And just like that, the world somehow looks a little bigger.
This is history at its best, in my opinion.
“In Search of Black History” is definitely worth a listen. Just remember that you don’t have to recollect everything, ‘cause there sure is a lot of information. Sometimes overwhelmingly lot. But hey, no exam is waiting at the end of it, so just dive in, lean back and enjoy the calm voice of Bonnie Greer - and who knows, perhaps you too find that the world starts to look a little different, a little bigger once you’ve reached the end of it.
A FEW XTRAS
Listen to a free sample of “In Search of Black History”
…or watch this introduction to the podcast - by Bonnie Greer herself:
See you next time.
Majken xx
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P.P.S. I would love to hear from you! Comments on this blog post, recommendations in the historical non-fiction department...anything you like to share. Please send me a message
“In Search of Black History” created and narrated by Bonnie Greer.
8 episodes á 50 minutes.
Find it here: Audible.
Sources:
Wikipedia
📸 Log book: Bristol Radical History Group
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