Held every October in Britain, Black History Month (BHM) was first introduced in London in 1987 through the Greater London Council, as a means for offering a sense of history, achievement and continuity within the Black community.
In the same year, the African Jubilee Year Declaration was launched which called on local and national government authorities to recognise African contributions to the cultural, economic and political life of London and the UK. Over the years, hundreds of local and national events have been organised across the UK in commemoration of Black History Month. It has also evolved into a celebration of cultural diversity, and has significantly contributed in promoting inclusion in the UK.
At Durham, BHM activities and events are organised by various groups, colleges and departments from across the University. Have a look at our consolidated programme below and take part in the activities!
(Tuesday 07 October 2025, 6-8pm TBC | Assembly Rooms Theatre)
Join us for a special screening and discussion of We Were Here: The Black Renaissance Uncovered (2024), the latest documentary by award-winning US-based Italian-Ghanaian filmmaker and activist Fred Kuwornu. Exhibited at the Central Pavillion of the Venice Biennale, the film challenges traditional narratives by uncovering the hidden histories of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe. It reveals how their lives, labour, and cultural contributions were systematically erased from canonical accounts. Blending archival research with powerful storytelling, Kuwornu offers what he calls a “historical remix,” challenging assumptions about Europe’s past and its enduring legacies of race and exclusion. Following the screening, Fred Kuwornu will join Durham academics in conversation to explore the intersections of history, identity, and creativity, and to reflect on the challenges of recovering suppressed narratives. The event provides a rare opportunity to engage with a filmmaker whose work bridges scholarship and activism, while contributing to ongoing debates on decolonisation, equality, and belonging within and beyond the university.
(Monday 20 October 2025, 12.30pm to 4.30pm | Durham City Centre | University College | Open to all)
Join us for the “Absence/Presence of Durham’s Black History Walking Tour” around Durham city centre followed by a roundtable with invited panellists. This is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science taking place all across UK and is led by Dr. Sol Gamsu (Sociology), Dr. Liam Liburd (History) and Prof. Nayanika Mookherjee (Anthropology), in collaboration with colleagues from Durham Cathedral.
About the Walking Tour - 12.30pm to 3.20pm
A ‘walking tour’ around Durham city centre. This is a self-guided audio tour lasting around 90-120 minutes, if completed in full. Although the “Absence/Presence of Durham’s Black History Walking Tour” is self-guided and you are welcome to do it in your own time, we recommend you begin at the Galilee Chapel in Durham Cathedral at 12.30 pm where we will be able to offer logistical support including hard copy of the walking trail/maps if you need it.
We recommend that you bring headphones for the best experience and use WiFi to download the pdf of the walking trail and the audio tour outside the cathedral (as there might be network and loading issues within the cathedral) before you begin in order to save data. You can also download/print the PDF of the entire walking trail, a summarized map of it and audio recordings with each entry – all of which we are preparing now. You can either hear or read the entries to enable accessibility. Please allow 90 to 120 minutes for the walking trail to enable talks/listening/reading/ at each stop.
About the Roundtable - 2.30pm to 4.30pm
A roundtable of invited panellists will be responding to the Black History Walking Tour at University College on Palace Green. Participants will have the chance to engage with the walking tour, and make comments and raise questions.
This walking tour will allow us to engage with Durham's built heritage outside the classroom in the midst of our working lives. The working lives of the enslaved, colonised, miners and the possible links between them are central to the project.
Further information and registration can be accessed on this page.
(Wednesday 22 October 2025, 2pm to 4pm | Lindisfarne Centre, St. Aidan’s College | Open to all)
We are delighted to be welcoming Dr. Nicole Phillip at the Lindisfarne Centre for this year's Black History Month keynote event. Dr. Phillip is the current Director for Global Campus Sites at The University of the West Indies. She holds a PhD in History from The University of the West Indies and is recognised as a distinguished historian and published author. Her first book, Women in Grenadian History 1783-1983, published in 2010, won The University of the West Indies Press Best-Selling Scholarly Monograph in 2013.
In 2017, she co-edited the book Perspectives on the Grenada Revolution 1979 -1983 with fellow Grenadian historian and archivist John Angus Martin, marking the first publication of papers from an Open Campus country conference. She collaborated with HarperCollins UK to co-author Caribbean Social Studies Books 2 and 3 in 2018 and Collins History for Trinidad and Tobago Forms 1, 2 & 3 in 2022. In recognition of her scholarly contributions, she was honoured by the Global Campus with the Principal’s Award for Excellence in Research and Publication. Her latest publication, Collins Junior History of Grenada (2023), is now being used in secondary schools in Grenada.
Abstract
In just under two hundred years 1795 -1979, three revolutions have marked the Grenadian landscape. In the 1790s, the ideas of radicalism, revolution and the alienable rights and freedoms of man, had permeated the minds of many seeking an end to repressive regimes. In 1951, the island reverberated with the freedom cry of the working class. The radicalism that had swept through the Caribbean in the 1930s had belatedly hit Grenada’s shores. Through riot and strike action, Grenadian estate, road and domestic workers demanded increased wages and better working conditions.
The third revolution of 1979, saw the staging of a military coup by the New Jewel Movement (NJM) that marked the beginning of a new political epoch for the English Speaking Caribbean with the formation of a socialist People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG). Led by the charismatic Maurice Bishop, this revolution promised radical social and economic transformation that would benefit the people. ‘is freedom we making’ is the title of a book written during the Grenada’s third revolution. It epitomizes the ideals of the revolutionary government. It speaks to the idea that in taking power by the nontraditional route of usurpation and force, the actions of the revolutionaries were geared towards the creation of freedom; towards the creation of a space as Maurice Bishop defined it ‘this revolution is for work, food, shelter, education, and decent medical services for our children and our grandchildren’.
This lecture focuses on Grenada’s third revolutionary upheaval. It posits that while time moved on and spaces were transformed, the fundamental issues of paternalistic leadership, racial and class conflict remained an integral part of Grenada’s political landscape. Forty years later, it examines the question, did the 1979-1983 revolution attain its objective of ‘making freedom’? It further examines the lessons we can learn from the processes, programmes and demise of Grenada’s third revolution.
(Thursday 23 October 2025, 1-2pm | Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies | Open to all)
Everyone is invited to take part in this thought-provoking seminar with the Department of History, to be delivered by Dr. Nicole Phillip.
Research Concept Note
Grenada, a small island in the Southern Caribbean has quite an eventful history of riots, strikes and revolutions. My research has focused on women in Grenadian history, Grenada’s 1979 socialist revolution and its aftermath and more recently its colonial ties, entangled past and reparations. In examining Grenada’s colonial past, most of the documents unearthed have been British. There was a Scottish connection. At the 54th Caribbean Historians Conference in Trinidad held in June, a paper was presented on Scottish business ties in the Southern Caribbean notably Grenada’s Sister Island of Carriacou and British Guiana (now Guyana) in the colonial period. As a Grenadian historian there is a paucity of information regarding our Scottish links particularly their involvement in establishing a thriving cotton industry in Carriacou.
Former Scottish Governor and plantation owner, Ninian Hume, looms large in Grenada’s historical narrative as the Governor in charge during the Julien Fedon Rebellion 1795 and his ultimate demise at the hand of Fedon as his ‘freedom fighters’ or ‘rebels’ depending on which side of the historical divide is taken. Remnants of Hume’s Waltham Estate still form part of the Grenadian landscape and the name Waltham holds as that of a village that sprung up in the estate ‘s outskirts in the post emancipation period.
Who are these Scottish plantation owners? What were their origins Highlanders, or low country Scottish dwellers? What were the factors that lured them to Grenada’s shores? How did they fare in the sugar and cotton business? What compensation did the receive at the end of enslavement? Are there Scottish families who wish to follow the ‘Trevelyan model’ for reparations in Grenada?
Scottish legacy still forms part of the Grenadian landscape in the names of places like Argyle, Craigston and Dunfermline and the names of people like Fraser, Mc Kenzie and Mc Lawrence. I am intrigued by the missing parts of the narrative.
If your department / college / association / network is planning a Black History Month activity this year and would like for this to be included on this consolidated e-programme, please complete this form. Thank you.
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