Find out more: Oval Four

Over the next ten weeks I will share resources to find out more about each of the movements I discuss in The Shoulders We Stand On: How Black and Brown people fought for change in the UK.

The resources will mostly be free, and will cover a range of mediums including articles, videos, podcasts and radio programmes. Follow me on Twitter to be the first to know when a new list has been posted.

Poster in support of the Oval Four

The British Black Panthers weren’t the only Black Power group in the UK. The Fasimbas were another, and the Black Liberation Front yet another. The Oval Four were Fasimbas who were arrested coming back from a BLF meeting. Find out more using the below resources:

Hear the story of the Oval Four directly from one of the Four, Winston Trew, on the Un:Just podcast. Or hear Trew on the Afrika Speaks show on Galaxy Radio. Winston Trew has been very outspoken about what happened to him and the rest of the Oval Four.

If you prefer to watch something, watch and hear Winston Trew speak in 2021 as part of the necessary exhibition War Inna Babylon. And this 20 minute documentary about the Oval Four - Black for a Cause - is well worth your time.

In this Guardian article, Trew reflects on the decades long fight to clear his name.

The only paid resource on this list is a must-read, To read all the details from Winston Trew’s book Black for a Cause.

The Young Historians Project do great work to research hidden history. They made a documentary on the Black Liberation Front, and an exhibition, both of which can be seen on their website.

Check out a pamphlet from the Black Liberation Front from the fantastic collection of the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton.

This is a phenomenally detailed blog on not just the BLF but the Black Unity and Freedom Party, another Black Power group (and here’s an e.g. of a paper of the BUFP.)

And if you are seeing this but haven’t read the book I’m referring to, then what are you waiting for?! Get your copy of The Shoulders We Stand On now.