Today we met up in the lobby at 8:30 to walk over to BCU for our lectures. We got coffee at Starbucks before going to the classroom to meet Marcia. When she got there, we previewed what we would be learning about on our walk and talked about the history of Birmingham. We learned about the African currency – which is manilla bands. Manilla bands were traded for people. One manilla band was worth 20 people. They also exchanged guns for enslaved Africans. These guns were poorly made and were only about £8. We also learned about the Lunar Society, which was a group of industrialists that met to discuss social issues that may be occurring. Matthew Boulton, who manufactured iron goods, and James Watt, who invented the steam engines, were a part of the group. I also learned that the British Empire turned into the Commonwealth but is still a form of imperialism.
Around 11, we had a guest speaker come in and talk about her experience immigrating into the UK from the West Indies during the Windrush. Windrush was a boat that came to the UK and brought a lot of refugees. We learned a lot about the discrimination that she faced during this time, and what she is still facing today.
We also completed the Black Heritage Walking tour today, where we talked about the impact of black individuals on Birmingham and the UK. We visited the statue of Joseph Sturge, who funded free villages in Jamaica. Free villages is land that is free from the control of plantation owners. Unfortunately, his statue was covered in lichen, which is disrespectful to the community and everything he stood for.
After our tour, we ended up at a Jamaican restaurant called Jamaya, where I got jerk chicken salad for dinner. It was really good, but we had to wait 40 minutes for them to take our order, and I was really hungry after our walking tour. We finished up at dinner and decided to go shopping in the Lego store at the Bullring. When we got there, we accidentally went into the wrong building and got a little lost. The Bullring is very big, so it took us like 10 minutes to actually find the Lego store. We bought some Legos, then met up with the rest of the group at Primark. I have never been to Primark, and the one in Birmingham is huge. We almost got lost in it because there 5 floors to choose from. After that, we walked back to the hotel to hangout for a few minutes before going out for ice-cream. I am so excited to go to Oxford tomorrow and see the school and town!
