IB DP History Class: Monumental struggle: the 20-year campaign for a slavery memorial in London

This article picked by a teacher with suggested questions is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration here.

Specification: 

• IB DP History

Connections with the DP: DP History Key Concept: Perspectives; World history topic 7: Origins, development and impact of industrialisation (1750—2005); HL option 4: History of Europe, Unit 10: Society, politics and economy in Britain and Ireland (1815—1914)

Key terms and ideas: Contested history, Multi-perspectivity, Decolonising

Click to read the article below and then answer the questions:

Monumental struggle: the 20-year campaign for a slavery memorial in London

This article explores the campaign led by Oku Ekpenyon to create a national memorial to slavery. She argues that existing memorials celebrate the British heroes such as William Wilberforce who helped overturn slavery, but ignore “the pain of the system itself.”

She makes the case for having a contested history, which explores multiple perspectives. As the sculptor Les Johnson, who has been involved in the campaign, states: “I wanted to represent the many ways in which slavery permeated.” 

• What are the roles of memorials in our understanding of the past?

• Should memorials be focused on the celebration of successes in the past, or a more contested view of history?

• In what ways can multi-perspectivity help us understand the system of slavery more fully?

Ned Riley, historyrising.net