Communities of Liberation

Communities of Liberation is a historical research and public art project which aims to increase awareness of the long history of the African presence in the borough of Tower Hamlets, by focusing specifically on excavating and sharing stories of individuals who lived here in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The aim of the project is to identify the places, spaces and networks in which African people lived, worked or socialised during the period of operation of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Rather than focus on exceptional individuals - eg those who published their life stories or were abolition activists - the project will locate names, stories and experiences of everyday life of working Londoners, and map them to specific locations in present day Tower Hamlets. We are especially interested in the buildings and spaces - homes, taverns, places of worship - where ‘working class’ African people would gather, meet and coalesce as a community.