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Bristol campaigner makes history in Trinidad
A Bristol campaigner fighting to bring an end to the celebration of Bristol’s slave trade legacy has made history by taking a stand on an international platform.
Cleo Lake has played a key role in getting the city to question its prominent use of the name of Edward Colston and recently spoke out in Trinidad as part of a global bid to change the country’s relationship and narrative to its past colonisation.
Lake, a Green party councillor and member of campaign group Countering Colston, was one of keynote speakers at the launch of the Cross Rhodes Freedom Project and took part in a number of TV and radio interviews.
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Lake (pictured with the former Trinidad prime minister and others) was an invited guest and keynote speaker at the annual Kwame Ture Lecture
Together with New Orleans-based educator, poet and activist Michael Quess Moore, she was one of the keynote speakers at the annual Kwame Ture Lecture. The pair are the youngest activists to have graced the stage in the Emancipation Support Committee’s 25 year history and are rumoured to have been chosen ahead of actor Danny Glover.
“Having connected as activists in a global movement, we can clearly see that the challenges we face are the same in Brooklyn, New Orleans, Bristol, London, Port of Spain and this therefore requires joint up action,” said Lake.
She described the invitation to Trinidad as a huge honour, adding: “Being an African Caribbean woman born in the UK, it was an opportunity to connect with my roots.
“I was pleased to meet new people, including members of the Nepoyo, Warao, and the Santa Rosa first peoples community – people we are still taught were exterminated by Columbus – but they are not – they are alive and need our help to preserve their sacred land and achieve equal rights.”
Cross Rhodes Freedom project founder Shabaka Kambon introduced the two campaigners as “history makers on the front line, responsible for dismantling the colonial legacy that underpins great inequalities of today.”
He added: “We may not be able to change history but we can change our relationship to it.”
The new transatlantic relationship will continue, with plans for a conference in New Orleans in March, as well as twinning schools and community groups in Bristol, the Caribbean, Africa and the USA.
Lake is spearheading a new creativity and history project named ‘Absent Archives: Reimagined Futures.’
Welcoming the announcement in April of the decision to change the name of The Colston Hall after a long campaign, she described it as the moment Bristol turned a corner and history was made.
Returning from Trinidad to the news that Colston Primary School has launched a consultation over changing its name, she said: “This is forward thinking and as the local councillor, I pledge to support where I can and hope that the primary school will be on board for the twinning project.”
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