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From #FreeSatpalRam to funding racism

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Born and bred to Indian Parents settling in Birmingham in the 60’s, Satpal Ram , aged 20 in 1986, went to a local Indian restaurant with friends. When six white people acted to provoke a situation using verbal and racist abuse, Ram reacted firmly. One of the abusers, Stuart Pearce , stabbed him in the face with a broken glass, he self-defenced with a knife, accidently killing Pearce. Until July 2000, journalists were not allowed to interview prisoners serving life sentences for murder, regardless of any claims of wrongful conviction ;  The Guardian published a disturbing story after visiting a 34 year old man who had spent 13 years in prisons around England . Prior to 2000, the only method Ram’s family had to get his voice heard due to miscarriage of justice, racism and physical abuse in jail, was to make big noise in the nascent British-Asian music scene of the mid 90’s while All things Asian were also emerging. London born and bred but signed to Virgin France , Asian Dub Founda
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Peeping Tom

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  Anticipated truth . When I moved in 152 in 2013 , I was reassured by flat agent that the area was very safe as we had many CCTVs: in parking lots, communal garden. This was a first email sent to flat agent on 4  November  2014 . On 7 November 2014 , former colleague @ Les Inrocks JD Beauvallet  (friend with my aggressor) says I take things wrongly;  I'm aggressive,  I invent stories... On many occasions, I found my front door open in the morning when I woke up; heard noises as if someone was in when I was in living room… then going to front door finding it open. One evening, I had some drinks at a flat neighbour who casually asked what my plans were for the following day. I had to get up early to go somewhere. But, as usual, I felt totally hung over despite drinking two to three glasses of white wine. White wine never got on well with me, so I assumed it was the white wine fault and I stayed home. After my shower, I sat on sofa with towel on when flat agent appeared in livi
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Soleil Ȏ

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“ Memory and its temporalities remark upon other moments in time and, in doing so, invite correspondences and comparative study between formations-cultural and otherwise. Of no less importance is memory’s account of collective trauma and its truth-making utility. Against received and fixed notions, this dynamic conception of memory engages across time, place and circumstances in the human affairs of historical activity.” Michael T Martin – Situating the June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive in the Play of Memory   On Saturday 20 May 2023 I was part of a full house screening for Ousmane Sembene ’s The Camp at Thiaroye . Retracing the epic journey of Senegalese soldiers ‘returning home’ after fighting in the French army in WWII, this first Pan-African film produced without Western technical or co-financing assistance left me perplexed on my Eastern London bus journey back home. A humorous yet terrifying tale of oppression and  massacre  in a camp that I had no idea White French
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