2007 | "The Hounding of David Oluwale"

Inspiration

Kester Aspden first heard David Oluwale’s name while teaching a crime and punishment class at the University of Leeds. He knew Oluwale was a homeless man who had drowned in the river but nothing more. He began to research the case because he was interested in it on a human level (Aspden, 2013).

The more Aspden discovered, the more significant the case seemed. Ellerker and Kitching were the first police officers to be prosecuted for charges relating to a police related death. It was especially significant that David Oluwale was a homeless black man as Aspden saw echoes of what Oluwale suffered in the institutional racism that continues to shape interactions between the police and black communities in Britain. This motivated Aspden to write a book as a form of ‘posthumous justice for Oluwale’ (Aspden, 2007).

Research

Aspden was influenced by the novelist David Peace, whose Yorkshire-based books made ‘fiction from facts’ (Aspden, 2007). He was also determined to move beyond the gory details of Oluwale’s death and situate it within its social, political and cultural context.

To complete his research, Aspden was able to look at police and trial documents that had only just become available under the thirty-year rule. He was also able to speak to former police officers, who had since retired and were perhaps more willing to give their opinions.

Although some former police expressed sympathy for David Oluwale, others continued to speak about him as a filthy, violent, nuisance. Many were eager to say that Oluwale’s death was a unique occurrence, and should not be viewed as a reflection on the institution Leeds Police as a whole. Aspden contacted other people who knew Oluwale at the time and described things very differently.

The book

Aspden’s book was first published in summer 2007 under the title Nationality Wog: The Hounding of David Oluwale. The title (which was controversial and dropped when the book was republished as a paperback) was taken from one of the charge sheets Aspden had viewed at the National Archives.

The book told the story of the humiliation David Oluwale had faced at the hands of the Leeds police. It also touched on his life in Nigeria and dealt with his early years in Leeds, asking why Oluwale’s life ended so horrendously when he had come to Britain in hope.

Despite the defence of former officers, Aspden rejected the idea that Oluwale’s treatment was not a reflection of wider culture of the Leeds police. He argued that Ellerker and Kitching’s brutality symbolised an approach to policing that centred on removing problems from the city. He also argued that the police were more worried about their own careers than how Oluwale was being treated.

Impact

Although the story of Oluwale’s death had been a national scandal at the time, it was almost forgotten after the 1970s. Aspden’s book returned the story, and the horrors of it, to the public eye.

The book was widely praised by those who reviewed it. Writing for the Institute of Race Relations, Harmit Athwal praised Aspden’s ‘painstaking research’ for reconstructing the case so clearly (Athwal, 2007). Another reviewer praised the book for restoring ‘some dignity and humanity’ to the story (Choonara, 2007). It was described in a third review as a ‘fitting valediction’ for Oluwale (Carvill, 2007).

Most reviewers referred to the story’s continued relevance. The book was not only a study into Oluwale’s life and death, but a story that resonated with the experiences of so many black people living in Britain. As the BBC journalist Mishal Husain put it ‘David Oluwale's story has a raw power... and Kester Aspden makes it relevant for the reader of today’ (Husain quoted by Penguin Books, n.d.).

The book won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger award for non-fiction in 2008 and was adapted into a successful stage play.

The production

Aspden’s book was adapted into a play by Oladipo Agboluaje and produced by Eclipse Theatre Initiatives. The play was first shown in Leeds on 31 January 2009 and toured British theatres that year.

In contrast to the book’s focus on the trial of Ellerker and Kitching, the play put David Oluwale at the centre of the story. It depicted David Oluwale, as a dead man, conversing with the Scotland Yard inspector in charge of the investigation into his death. This approach allowed Agboluaje to consider parts of Oluwale’s life that were missing from official records.

The play includes the twenty years of his life from when he left Nigeria to his death, as well as the fight for justice after his death. It also imagined conversations between Oluwale and his mother as a device to understand his character. Agboluaje said at the time that he wanted to create a play that ‘discover[ed] the man buried beneath the pile of official records’ (Agboluaje quoted in Wilby, 2019).

The job of depicting David Oluwale fell to Daniel Francis. His performance was lauded for its range, moving between portrayals of life and death, youthful confidence and mental ill health. The British Theatre Guide said Francis created a ‘believable and sympathetic character’ (Brown, 2009) while The Guardian said it was a ‘central performance of immense gravity’ (Hickling, 2009).

Impact

The play received excellent reviews and had a profound effect on viewers. It also brought David Oluwale’s story back into the centre of Leeds. In fact, for the duration of the play’s run at the West Yorkshire Playhouse a banner with Oluwale’s face on it looked out at the soon to be demolished Millgarth police station. It was a powerful display of resilience, forty years after his death.

It is essential for society understand its history, the good and the bad. Oluwale’s story shown through Aspden’s book and Agboluaje’s play are excellent examples of this.