Today’s episode of Black in The City of London is a special one but a departure from the past few weeks. I am interviewing two people connected to an event that is seminal in black British history, they are founder members of the New Cross Fire Foundation, both personally affected by the tragedy but both determined to help seize control of the narrative that surrounds the event.

In 2011 I got the opportunity to cover the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the New Cross Fire and those affected by it. It was a cathartic and important event that felt like a real stepping stone. In talking to survivors and their families, I began to get some sense of the pain and struggles they faced.

Dr Toyin Agbetu is a lecturer in political and social anthropology at University College London. He specialises in ‘race’, ethnicity, nationalism, and coloniality. Using critical pedagogy with a reparatory and social justice approach, Toyin addresses systemic racism, structural violence, and algorithmic discrimination. He is an award-winning filmmaker and museologist and promotes antiracist, inclusive practices in academia, local government, and museums. In 2024, Toyin developed the racial literacy training module for the NHS’s Integrated Training with Practice programme.

Toyin’s research interests include institutional activism, decoloniality, community resistance, structural violence and abolitionism. His doctoral research examined the governmental policies and practices used to transform cultural institutions into forums of social justice through Exhibitionary Praxis.

Tony Warner established Black History Walks in 2007. BHW explores the thousands of years of African/Caribbean history in London via 15 guided walks, bus tours, river cruises, talks, films and courses.

Black History Walks has featured on BBC, ITV, Arise TV, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Time Out and Channel 4. Tony has written and presented documentaries for Teachers TV; Conde Nast Traveller listed BHW in their Best 15 walks in London in 2018; and in 2011 the Guardian put them in their Top Ten walks.

Tony is an author on the ground-breaking ‘Pearson GCSE (9-1) Edexcel History Migrants in Britain Student Book’. This exam textbook, for the first time, introduces Black British Civil Rights at GCSE level. The book is part based on his Notting Hill Black History Walk. It sold out its first print run and is increasingly being used in schools across the country.

Here Tony talks about the difficulties and process of getting black history recognised on the curriculum and in public consciousness.

Below is a link to a petition that refers to the BFIs insensitive and inexplicable decision to remove the film programme that Black History Walks showed there.

https://www.change.org/p/save-17-years-of-black-film-history-at-british-film-institute

Check the Black History Walks website for events and information.

https://blackhistorywalks.co.uk/