The history of the Anti-Apartheid movement brings up images of boycotts and public campaigns in the UK. But another story went on behind the scenes, in secret, one that has been never told before. This is the story of the foreign recruits and their activities in South Africa, how they acted in defiance of the Apartheid government and its police on the instructions of the African National Congress (ANC). Ken Keable made two undercover trips to Johannesburg and Durban in 1968 and 1970 to […]
How can digital technologies help us to think more creatively about making radical histories from below? This talk considers the use of immersive ‘real world’ digital tools, not only in the reconstruction of radical pasts, but in challenging the conservatism of the ‘authoritative voice’ in mainstream ‘top-down’ history. Historically-based games with open-ended outcomes, it is suggested, invite audiences to think more critically about the ways in which evidence might be pieced together in the […]
In 2012, during the early days of the Syrian Civil War, three mainly Kurdish regions in north-east Syria were able to overthrow and remove the Assad regime through revolutionary action. Over the next years these regions would work with other parts of northern Syrian society and form the Movement for a Democratic Society. Its core values are for grassroots democracy, women's liberation, and ecology. By 2014, this revolutionary movement and its armed defence forces, known as the YPG and the YPJ at […]
As well as co-founding the Plymouth Brethren movement, Victorian preacher George Muller set up a world famous orphanage in Bristol funded purely - his Narratives claimed - by prayer alone. Across the world, Muller continues to inspire countless evangelical christian books, films, TV shows and even a ballet. There is a small museum to Muller in one of the old Muller Homes, on Ashley Down Hill. Muller’s role in welfare and care history is significant: Dickens was one of a number of people visiting […]
Oral history creates space for the voices of ordinary people and overlooked communities to make a contribution to the historical record. It creates new primary sources which, although always subjective, provide rich and compelling narratives. What’s more, oral history offers new and exciting interpretive opportunities, from embedded QR codes that make exhibitions speak via your smartphone to the ever growing history podcast market. This panel discussion on the pleasures and pitfalls of oral […]
In 1855 rumours of murder and a cover up were circulating in the small north Somerset village of Walton-in-Gordano. An epileptic destitute country girl, Hannah Wiltshire, had died in the Bedminster Union Workhouse at Flax Bourton. The Board of Guardians were suspected of concealing the true magnitude of neglect at the workhouse, leading to accusations of medical negligence. Wiltshire’s death caused public outrage after letters were written to the local newspapers, sparking a campaign for […]
Mike Baker, Plaque Maker – Living Easton Legend Erstwhile friend, collaborator and BRHG colleague Mark Steeds, presents a snapshot of the legacy of Easton legend Mike Baker, who sadly died in 2020 aged just 58. A doyen of the Living Easton History Group, among many others, his talent seemed to know no bounds. Rebel archeologist, Baker researched topics to the nth degree and then drew and sculpted them into veritable works of art. From his makeshift studio in the former Great Western Cotton Works […]
The Spanish Civil War was an important pre-cursor to the Second World War, pitting republicans and revolutionaries against an emerging military dictatorship in Spain and their fascist allies in Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany. After a fascist inspired military coup, led by General Franco in July 1936, was halted in its tracks by the armed action of the Spanish working class, the battlelines were drawn for three years of bloody conflict. Volunteers from all over the world went to Spain to […]
Join Satsymph host Ralph Hoyte and Prof. Steve Poole on a located audio walk which reimagines the 1831 reform riots in which the people of Bristol rose up and demanded electoral and social reform, burning the Bishop’s Palace to the ground (it used to be part of Bristol Cathedral), as well as sacking and liberating the New Gaol (it’s now a new development behind M Shed) and destroying much of Queen Square. We will meet up outside the front of M Shed where your hosts will explain the background to […]
In April 1986, a group of women drawn together by their experiences of trauma, self injury and punitive psychiatric treatment started the Bristol Crisis Service for Women. An explicitly feminist user-led and volunteer-run listening service for women suffering mental health crises, it offered callers space to talk about their pain and how they endured it. Through listening without judgment, BCSW showed women a solidarity they had rarely experienced. Amplifying their voices, it began to forcefully […]
