Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
David Oluwale was a British Nigerian who lived in Leeds for most of his adult life. He died in April 1969 after being assaulted by two police officers. His death briefly caused a national scandal but was virtually forgotten until the release of police files thirty years later. The way Oluwale has been remembered was brought into sharp focus last year after a Blue Plaque commemorating his life was stolen in a racist hate crime.
History students at Leeds Beckett University have produced a new digital resource to show how David Oluwale’s memory has been kept alive since 1969. This event will celebrate its launch on the anniversary of the unveiling and theft of the Blue Plaque.
The event will also mark the 30th anniversary of the murder of Black British teenager Stephen Lawrence. Despite 24 years separating them, both Stephen’s and David’s deaths share disturbing similarities ranging from police racism, incomplete convictions and defiled memorials. Teaching resources relating to Stephen’s life will also be promoted.
The event programme will include:
This event is being supported by the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Leeds School of Arts and the David Oluwale Memorial Association. It is open to everyone.
Henry is a Senior Lecturer in Public History and an expert on the history of waste and resources.
Emily's research is informed by postcolonial theory and includes examinations of constructions of identity, race and racial politics and Caribbean carnival cultures. She is particularly interested in forms of cultural resistance and cross-cultural fertilisation in the face of colonialism.
Emily is an expert on the trickster figure in the folklore, oral cultures and literature of the African Diaspora and has published widely in these fields, including her books Anansi’s Journey: A Story of Jamaican Cultural Resistance (2012, University of the West Indies Press) and American Trickster: Trauma Tradition and Brer Rabbit (2019, Rowman and Littlefield). She is also a published poet with two poetry collections published by Peepal Tree Press, Bath of Herbs (2019) and Other Wild (2025).
Emily is a qualified Mountain Leader and a Black Girls Hike Leader with research interests and publications in decolonising the countryside and The Black Outdoors.
