Description:

Join the Buffett Institute for a faculty research lunchtime talk series on the first Friday of every month. Faculty members give a half-hour talk intended for a broad, multidisciplinary audience of Northwestern students, faculty and staff, followed by a conversational Q&A. Lunch is provided beginning at 12:15 p.m.

This talk draws from my research on the life, death and legacy of David Oluwale, a Nigerian born man whom many believe was murdered by two Leeds City police officers in 1969.  While much of what we can begin to know about David Oluwale as an historical subject is sullied by the manner in which the archive documenting his existence in Britain was produced, in this talk I want to consider the meaning of the blue rosary beads and the red prayer book recovered with David Oluwale’s body after it was retrieved by frogmen from the River Aire on 4th May 1969 to read against an archive that renders him persistently violated and fated for death to consider how he inhabited and made sense of the world in which he lived. 

This talk will explore and question the function and values attached to these items and consider how these items allow historians to broaden our understanding of the Black Atlantic roots and routes that have shaped the making of contemporary Black Britain— some of which involve the movements of people and religious cultures from West Africa to Latin America and back again.

Please note that 720 University Place is not an ADA-accessible space. Increasing physical access to buildings and facilities is a goal of the University, but not all buildings and venues have been updated.