How close is each of us to the legacy of Britain's slavery?
When the Edward Colston statue was brought down in Bristol on 9th June 2020, it signified a new chapter in the history of that statue and what it meant for many people in the UK. The history of slavery is not something banished to the past. Its legacy continues to play out every single day.
Descendants looks into our lives, and our pasts, and asks how are we connected to slavery? And what does that mean for how we live now?
Yrsa Daley-Ward - poet, wordsmith, child of Nigerian and Jamaican parents, born in Lancashire - introduces us to a network of lives, each one connected in one way or another through the history of slavery. The story begins with Jen Reid - whose image first captured attention of the national and international press after a replacement statue of her appeared on the plinth where Colston once stood. Yrsa meets the descendants of slave owners, investigates Britain's role in the history of carnival and tells the extraordinary stories of people whose lives today are all connected through the legacy of British slavery.
Presenter: Yrsa Daley-Ward
Producers: Polly Weston, Candace Wilson, Rema Mukena
Editor: Kirsten Lass
(c)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
(p)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
- ISBN10 1529186919
- ISBN13 9781529186918
- Publish Date 14 October 2021
- Publish Status Temporarily Withdrawn
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher BBC Audio, A Division Of Random House
- Imprint BBC Digital Audio
- Edition Unabridged edition
- Format Audiobook (WAV)
- Duration 3 hours and 10 minutes
- Language English