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Boris backs Hyde Park slavery memorial
Katharine Barney, Evening Standard18 Aug 2008
Boris Johnson today gave his support to a campaign to create a permanent slavery memorial.
The Mayor, who has said he is descended from Russian slaves, wants to erect a statue to honour millions of Africans sold in the trade.
A design was unveiled today at City Hall, but volunteers behind the campaign need to raise £1.5 million for a permanent sculpture. The group, Memorial 2007, has already secured a space in the Rose Garden at Hyde Park.
Mr Johnson said: "It is important that this era in our history is never forgotten. Hyde Park is a fitting site for a permanent memorial to the millions who lost their lives and the courageous people who fought to end the brutal transatlantic slave trade."
The Mayor has previously said his great-great-grandmother was a slave. During his election campaign in May Mr Johnson said: "I am the proud offspring of Turkish immigrants-I want you to know that my great-great-grandmother was a slave, so put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr Livingstone.
"She was a Circassian slave [from a region in southern Russia], and she was sold: my great-great-grandfather literally purchased her."
The Mayor is now looking at the possibility of providing public funding for the statue.
The design - unveiled at City Hall in the lead up to World Slavery Day on 23 August - will be on display until 1 December.
Reader views (26)
Are there any memorials in Africa honouring all the soldiers from the first and second world wars that fought to keep it free from Hitlers grasp? I think not!
- Peter Killick, Hartlepool United Kingdom, 21/08/2008 05:34
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The statue is a waste of money. If Boris wants to do anything worthwhile, he should spend some of the millions on being pro-active in educating the youth of today descended from slaves about their great African history BEFORE slavery. Maybe that would go a little way to help the current state of self-hatred and self-destruction of children killing each other because they don't love themselves and they don't know who they are or where they came from and thus where they are going.
- Ms Smith, London, England, 19/08/2008 11:50
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Dear Boris, what about a statue to the bravery of commuters having to avoid the drug dealers openly touting their trade around Brixton tube?
- Dank, London, UK, 19/08/2008 11:21
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1/ The model of the proposed statue is rubbish, a 3rd rate project.
2/ If the cost is covered by a Public Appeal, it's OK.
But not one penny from our Rates.
3/ is overdoing it with his slave-granny and all the rest.
4/ now that he has been elected the Mayor, he hasn't got to keep the loony left happy by coming out with such dribble. Please Boris, stick to running London, keep away by these stupid schemes.
- Paul Epps, twickenham england, 19/08/2008 09:56
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Of course, on the positive side, all those Africans who ended up in America must be looking at Africa today and thanking whoever they pray to for taking their ancestors across the Atlantic...
- Jonathan Montmorency, cooden, uk, 19/08/2008 08:12
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It is estimated that between 1550 and 1816, one million of US and European slaves were captured by the Arabs. (the US Marines hymn "to the beaches of Tripoli" refer to the Marines landing in North Africa and fighting the Arabs to release the White slaves).
It is also estimated that the West enslaved 11 Million Blacks (1525 to 1867), and the Arabs/Turks/Muslims) enslaved 17 million Blacks 600 to 1920.
If you travel anywhere in the Gulf or any Arab/Muslim countries... you will find very few Blacks (?), but if you travel in the West you will find plenty of Blacks, big, large and in good health (Olympics?).
Do the Muslims feel guilty? If they do,I haven't heard of it.
Oh, BTW what happened to those 17 millions of Blacks?
A statue in London to "honour" millions of Africans sold in the trade! There was no "honour" involved, they did not volunteer, they did not fight for their Country, they were the victims of the treason of their own Kinship who sold them to the highest bidder.
Our Looney Left will never give up, I'm afraid.
- Paul Epps, twickenham england, 18/08/2008 23:59
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... and the design looks horrible from that photo.
- Stephen, London, 18/08/2008 23:58
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Slavery is sadly very much alive today on this planet (including the UK) and a memorial is necessary in some form - my reservation is that we are turning our public spaces into graveyards filled with memorials to dead royals, victims of atrocities and we are at risk of running out of space for such projects here in London.
We should have a moratorium for 100 years on building such monuments and keep our green spaces free of physical monuments of certain vulgar design. A virtual interactive memorial is the future for all such worthy projects.
- Ronan James, London, 18/08/2008 14:58
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"Does that mean we are going to have a statue of a potato to remember the Irish Famine that the English contributed to"-What absolute tosh! You've been suckered by the Irish Republicans re-write of history: The potato famine was a natural occurrence caused by potato blight. The "English" did not contribute to it in any way. No public money was thrown at the problem because, in the 1840's, it was not the remit of government to deal with such issues. Apart from anything else, 19th Century government was very small and did not stick its nose into peoples' everyday lives, or try to micromanage them; it would not have had the necessary resources to do anything about this. Had it happened on the mainland, the government response would have been the same.
"What a load of pc nonsense. Why not have a memorial to the brutality of the Romans and Vikings."-Absolutely, Steven!
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster, 18/08/2008 14:46
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When will the PC brigade acknowledge the fact that it was the black West African who sold his brother into slavery? It may not have been our glorious period, but ...
- Bc, Witney, Oxon, 18/08/2008 14:40
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Mark Lee, Vauxhall, London - Even if I accepted your argument, how can you possible justify the cost. Why on earth would it cost £1.5million, where would that go? You could probably get someone to knock up a decent statue for about £150 and get the local builders in to do the rest of the work for about 10 grand. But I am forgetting this will come out of public money so there is no expense spared.
James Neilson, London, UK - Obviously you don't understand much about history or people. How many people actually know anything about either there ancestors or heritage if anyone does they will only know it going back 2,3 or 4 generations and not anywhere near 300+ years.
Slavery had been conducted on such a scale before European slavery and indeed after it. Read a history book James.
The British empire WAS NOT built on slavery at all, the British empire was constructed during the Victorian age. It may have been built on colonialism but that is all. Read a history book before misquoting it.
- Steven Patrick M, London, UK, 18/08/2008 14:14
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Perhaps the most fitting memorial would be a statue of William Wilberforce who campaigned for the abolition of slavery.
- Alan, Northampton UK, 18/08/2008 13:52
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Strange a few years ago, anti-PC Boris would have been the first to condemn such a statue.
p.s.
I think you'll find all that stuff about Boris's great granma was a load of tosh.
- David, London UK, 18/08/2008 13:41
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Peter Thurgood is right. And what about 21st century slavery, for instance in countries like Haiti, Niger, Pakistan, Latin America, others? Wilberforce was not alone in his efforts, others should be commended too.
- Helen, norwich, 18/08/2008 13:39
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Those of us who have studied the social history of the UK will know that the indigenous peoples, about the time of the abolition of the slave trade, were being treated horrifically by the same authoritarian bodies who now go about apologising to foreigners for treating them in the same way. Where does one stop? How about starting with a memorial to all the young lads who climbed up Georgian chimneys and lost their lives doing it?
- Jonathan Montmorency, cooden, uk, 18/08/2008 13:24
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"PC Nonsense"?! Many of this country's modern-day cities were built based on money from the slave trade (c.f. Bristol) and it's right and just that we acknowledge that.
Slavery is one of the more abhorrent aspects of the growth and development of Britain and to brush it under the carpet for the sake of a few right-wing allegations of "PC nonsense" would be deplorable.
I'm a London taxpayer and quite happy to see my tax money spent on this. Such a monument would cost £1m - £2m tops, which is a drop in the ocean for the Mayor's budget.
- Mark Lee, Vauxhall, London, 18/08/2008 12:57
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Another memorial? How fashionable.
- Stephen, London, 18/08/2008 12:56
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Does that mean we are going to have a statue of a potato to remember the Irish Famine that the English contributed to - where does this end?
- Claire, London, 18/08/2008 12:55
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We could put it in a row next to the Boer War one, the bombing of Dresden one and the slaughtering the Zulus one. Or we could get over it.
- Squiz, Islington, 18/08/2008 12:38
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Confused. Is Boris a slave child or member of the Russian royal family? Was Boris' great grand mother some form of internet bride?
- Steve, London, 18/08/2008 12:31
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If you just understood the scale of destructiveness of slavery over the 300+ years that it occurred, and the effects current day, maybe you would understand. On a scale never seen before, whole tribes and families were abducted to faraway lands, forced away from their identity. I can't explain how it is to simply have no idea of your ancestors before they were slaves.
Unlike past atrocities these horrors happened in a so called enlightened age, AND, without them, Britain and the rest of western Europe would have NEVER advanced in the way it did. Slavery ran the British Empire, The Spanish Empire, the Portuguese, and without it, many of the beautiful buildings surrounding Hyde park today would have never been built in the first place.
- James Neilson, London, UK, 18/08/2008 12:28
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This memorial is glorifying the slave trade that made this country great! What has the transatlantic slave trade got to do with his great great grandmother?! We never learnt about this in history lessons at school! It should be forgotten and not be given a permanent reminder in Hyde park of all places - a disgrace to those that fought for the abolition movement - Boris knows what he's doing - creating unrest among multicultural Britain.
- Ian Williams, Surrey, 18/08/2008 12:25
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"Mr Johnson is looking at the possibility of providing funding for the statue."
Go spend your own money!
We got rid of that last idiot for that sort of stunt.
- Frank H., London., 18/08/2008 11:44
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Dear Boris, please don't spend tax-payers money on this cause as there are far more pressing requirements for taxpayers funding to be spent on!
- Tim, London, 18/08/2008 11:16
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It is a worthy idea indeed, to honour the millions of people sold into slavery, but it is also very insulting, to only honour Africans who were used in the slave trade. As a Briton, weren't we also forced into slavery by the Romans? Are we going to ask Italy for an apology now for what their ancestors did to us, and are we going to have a statue commemorating those Britons who were forced into slavery in the past?
It also needs to be remembered, that it was the Africans themselves, who started the slave trade that most people talk about, and that Boris wants a statue built to commemorate, and it is the Africans who still trade in slaves to this day.
If a statue is erected, it should be to honour William Wilberforce, the Great Britain, who helped stamp out slavery everywhere, and it should also be to slaves of all nationalities, including Britons, and including Boris' great great grandmother.
- Peter Thurgood, London, UK, 18/08/2008 11:03
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What a load of pc nonsense. Why not have a memorial to the brutality of the Romans and Vikings.
- Steven Patrick M, London, UK, 18/08/2008 10:36
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