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In December 2007 the Labour government issued a Press Release in which 23rd August was to be a national (UNESCO) day to remember African enslavement and the British parliament’s Act of 1807 that made the ‘so called’ transatlantic slave trade illegal.



UNESCO was also instrumental in lobbying parliament for the national recognition of 27 January each year as ‘Holocaust Memorial Day’, and millions of pounds £s sterling were awarded by the British government to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust to promote its work nationally. In 2008 after his election, I wrote to the new London Mayor Boris Johnson who continued holding commemorative events at City Hall for the Jewish community on HMD, and I requested a similar commemorative event in respect of 23 August for people of African heritage in London, but the request was refused. He told me he had other ways of supporting black Britons.



After the election in 2016 of new Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, I wrote and asked him to host a commemorative event at City Hall in respect  of 23 August. After a few meeting over many months with mayoral officials it was agreed in June 2017 that, depending on how the 2017 event would show, Mr Khan could consider authorising a similar event in City Hall to remember in August 2018 what could be called an ‘African holocaust’.



Windrush Foundation organised a commemorative event on 21st August 2017 as it was on the evening of 21st August 1791 that the ancestors started an uprising that not only laid the foundation for the liberation of Africans in the West but also for some Spanish nations in the Americas. Deputy Mayor of London Matthew Ryder and two other mayoral officials attended the 21st August 2017 event at the Bernie Grant Centre, and it was evident that there was nothing for them to fear about commemorating 23rd August at City Hall.



So, from August 2018 the new Mayor of London will continue what former Mayor Ken Livingston started in August 2007 but Boris Johnson stopped in 2018.



Arthur