On the 18th of November 2019, YHP members Olivia and Sue gave a presentation at an event hosted at the British Library themed 'Sociology in the Archives'. Their presentation examined the work of YHP as a form of resistance. Both played a key role in the wider conversations of the day. Olivia shared that YHP exists in order to collate Black history and cultivate an emerging generation of young African and Caribbean historians. Therefore, YHP aims to work to solve the systemic failures black people face when their history is predominantly narrated by people outside of black communities in Britain.
Olivia and Sue argued that curating oral history is a form of activism by young people as we are unearthing stories from history which would otherwise be left buried. They also asserted that curating oral history follows the cultural tradition of our ancestors; passing down knowledge by word of mouth. This method is intrinsically valuable, so we it plays a significant part in our research.
YHP also explained our current mission to create learning resources about African women’s historical contributions to the British health service during the 20th century. Our discussion further explored the impact on research of the systemic exclusion or misinterpretation of Black communities in official archives, which YHP is grappling with at present.
As we see it, the people we interview, as well as ourselves as interviewers, are living archives. The lived experiences of our elders, as told by themselves directly to members of the younger generation, creates an exchange of knowledge and wisdom which can be used to enrich and educate peoples understanding of Britain and the Black community's historic role in it. Therefore, a form of activism in the present is to fight against the pernicious effects of a warped historical narrative which impacts on the lives of Black people today.
