Abolition Season
Personal histories of the enslaved
BBC Radio 2 presents Speaking Out (The True Story Of Phillis Wheatley, Enslaved Poet) in which actress Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) reads the remarkable story of how a young Senegalese woman called Fatou born around 1753 was snatched from her family, enslaved, gained her freedom back, and became the first internationally published African female writer.
Jackie Kay's magical new drama, The Lamplighter on BBC Radio 3, has evolved from testimonies and original research into the lives of African women during enslavement. One key character, the lamplighter, must embrace the little girl she once was – a little girl who is eternally trapped in a fort on the shores of West Africa.
BBC Local Radio presents Venture Smith – the story of Venture Smith, an African enslaved in Massachusetts. Venture Smith told his life story to a school teacher before he died. BBC Hull in partnership with the WISE Institute at Hull University have taken up his history and, working with his relatives, have exhumed his body to unlock the untold history before his enslavement.
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