Around the Globe: BHM Stories in Leeds
I wake early to sunshine – a perfect morning to complete the Leeds Globe Trail, a trail of ten globes spread across the city in celebration of Black History Month. Similar trails are happening across the country in places like Liverpool, Bristol, and London. Each of the globes represents one of nine themes of discovery, exploring the violent history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its continuing legacy today, as well as celebrating the resilience and achievements of black people across the world. While most of the globes can be found in the city centre and are easy to reach by foot, I decide to take my bike to see the first globe, which is up in Chapeltown’s quiet Norma Hutchinson Park. Rodell Warner’s “Liberation is Now” stands next to the playground and is painted in boldly in black and white, depicting Africa before the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
I glide down Clay Pit Lane towards Sheepscar, the skyline of Leeds city centre rising before me. The second globe is “Earth’s Cradle” by artist Mussarat Rahman. Using textured surfaces, Rahman’s work powerfully evokes the pain suffered at the hands of white colonialists, yet he includes a flame, which in his words burns “eternally for Mother Africa.” I also notice the inscriptions at the bottom of the globe, giving the name and age of different enslaved Africans, bringing this history back to the surface.
Down in the Merrion Centre, where a few morning shoppers stroll, I pass Marcia Brown’s “Church Window of No Return.” Using images of stain-glass windows, she highlights how British institutions such as churches benefitted from the exploitation enacted upon enslaved Africans. Up by the noisy Clay Pitt Park stands Gherdai Hassell’s contrastingly calming piece, “Children of the Enterprise,” and down towards Cookridge Street, I find Shivanee Ramlochan’s globe, “The Sea’s Lament Becomes a Battle Cry,” which is covered in black webbing, like the veins of leaves. Her artist statement in form of an extended poem is worth listening to- see the link to the World Reimagined Trail Website at the bottom of the article.
The next three globes are scattered around the Leeds shopping quarters- on Briggate, Victoria Arcade and finally Kirkgate Market, and so I park my bike and complete the last part on foot. In Larry Amponsah’s “Hold the Line!”, figures and wound-like blocks of red paint emphasise the violence and systemic inequalities still enacted upon the black population today. The next two globes are celebratory – Kwaku Anokye’s “And Into the Future” is vibrant, showing people helping each other with yellow dots like suns for heads, and Rosanna Gammon’s “Currents in Motion” displays soft dapples of green and orange. They look like landscapes as seen from above, out of an airplane window, perhaps illustrating ideas of migration and movement around the world.
I make my way towards the Docks, passing first by globe number nine, “Parallel Empires, Ancestral Kingdoms” by Emannuel Unaji, honouring the cultures of the African diaspora and their influence on art, music and food around the world.
Finally, I cross the River Aire into Meadow Lane. Ali Elly’s “Stitching and Mending” presents a colourful tapestry of different patterns being sewn together. This globe tells the stories of African quilt making in the US under the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and brings the trail to an end, hemming together the last pieces of this story.
The World Reimagined Trail aims to display how we understand the Transatlantic Slave Trade’s impact in the past and present, to create racial justice and stress that this is “not Black History, this is our history.” While the globes are here for a limited time only, the legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade is embedded in Leeds; British and World History must remain in our consciousness beyond this month.
From Monday 19th October, the globes will all be presented on Briggate, however there are still other points of interest on the map for you to discover, such as Equiano’s diary in the Leeds Library or Nesyamun, an Egyptian mummy, in the Leeds City Museum. There are also further globes to explore, designed by primary students from local schools. Find the interactive map and guide on:
https://jod.theworldreimagined.org/trails/leeds/leeds/12
Featured Image Credit: Author’s Own
