A new exhibition in the library at Lambeth Palace includes artefacts such as a “slave bible” with passages relating to freedom and escape removed and documents revealing the Church of England’s involvement in a fund linked to transatlantic chattel slavery It is the latest step in a wide-ranging programme of work launched in 2019 that aims to “address past wrongs” by researching the church’s historical links to the slave trade.

The Queen Anne’s Bounty fund, set up on 1704 to tackle poverty among clergymen, made significant investments in the South Sea Company, which the church knew was involved in purchasing and transporting enslaved people as its main commercial activity between 1714 and 1739. This fund has grown into the £9bn managed by the Church Commissioners out of which a new fund of £100m was set up last month to support projects “focused on improving opportunities for communities adversely impacted by historic slavery”.

Covid-19 restrictions have meant several bookings for our exhibition have had to be postponed or cancelled. So we have filmed it. While not quite as good as the real thing, especially the interactive part, here is our digitised version of 'Colonial Slavery and its Legacy.' Feel free to use and share.

Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) has commissioned artist Joy Gregory to create an artwork for an exhibition opening in October on the transatlantic slave trade. It will explore how the impact of the trade can still be seen in Devon and Exeter today.

The exhibition is part of a wider programme in 2020 that will see RAMM use its collections to ask difficult questions and explore hidden stories. Untold Stories will feature a series of exhibitions, events, artist commissions and other activities that are also designed to give a voice to neglected communities. Read more here.

Following on from yesterday's Colloquium in Belfast, the new MJR Exhibition is now on display at the city's Titanic Centre and, according to MJR Chair Rev Alton Bell, "causing quite a stir". It is there as part of the ACSONI sponsored GalaNIA Cultural Gala. If you would like to hire the exhibition, there is more information here.

MJR's Alton Bell and Nigel Pocock will be taking part in "Colloquium: 400 years since the start of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade" in Belfast on November 7th. This event is being organised the by African and Caribbean Support Organisation Northern Ireland (ACSONI) and will also feature the new MJR Exhibition on the Legacy of Slavery.

ACSONI is an autonomous community-based organisation formed in 2003 with a proactive approach towards targeting needs and facilitating belonging among individuals from the continent of Africa, the Caribbean (West Indies) and other families in Northern Ireland with these linkages. The November 7 seminar will explore 400 years since the beginning of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, with talks on the epigenetic of slavery and research on the shipwrecked slave ships around Northern Ireland's coast.

The event is at Stranmillis University College, Belfast and runs from 2-6pm. Tickets are free, but places are limited and must be prebooked here. Download a leaflet here.

St Catharine’s College, Cambridge has admitted that a bell it had on display for decades was originally from a slave plantation in Guyana. The bell, which carried the inscription "De Catherina 1772”, will be donated to the Rijksmueeum in Amsterdam, Holland for a major exhibition on slavery next year. The action follows the Cambridge University announcement of an inquiry into how the 800-year-old institution benefited from the slave trade, which was responded to by MJR. ​The bell was initially hung in a belfry outside the Porter’s lodge where it was used to “summon College residents to food and to prayer”, but in 1994 it was moved to a less prominent position and arlier this year it was “shuttered” from view while its origins were investigated. Read more here.

The slavery exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, the Dutch national museum, will focus on slavery in the Dutch colonial period, from the 17th to the 19th century, and will testify to the fact that "slavery is an integral part of our history, not a dark page that can be simply turned and forgotten about". The exhibition will run from September 25 2020 to January 17 2021. More information here.

A forgotten part of the history of black people in Britain is to be revisited with an exhibition revealing how some of the most celebrated black fighters in the early struggle against slavery were once held in a British prison. During the wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, when Britain’s black population numbered no more than 10,000, some 2,000 African-Caribbean people were held as prisoners of war in Portchester Castle in Portsmouth Harbour. Read more here.

The exhibition, 'Black Prisoners of War at Portchester Castle', opens on July 20. More details here.

​Afro Supa® Hero is a new exhibition at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool celebrating the importance of role models and icons. It provides a snapshot of Jon Daniel’s personal journey of self discovery, through his collection of pop cultural heroes and heroines of the African diaspora. Entry is free and the exhibition in running until December 11.

Jon Daniels grew up in South West London in the 1960s and 1970s. Looking back at his childhood he sees himself as a typical British-born, first generation child of West Indian parents – a young boy trying to find his place within a culture he couldn’t always relate to. In his late 20s he began collecting comics, games, action figures and memorabilia featuring positive Black role models of history and fiction, feeling that they most strongly embodied the era of his childhood and his search for identity. 

Who is your hero? Is she strong? Is he kind? Are they brave? A hero can do and be many amazing things, even without super powers. This exhibition highlights the importance of Black heroes and role models within society and their ability to have a positive impact on the lives and aspirations of us all. More...