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John Ocansey

Episode 5 of 5

To mark 400 years since the arrival of African slaves to America, author Caryl Phillips reflects on the life of the young African John Ocansey, exercising his freedom in Liverpool.

In April 1881, a young African man named John Ocansey set sail from the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) for Liverpool in order to try and discover what had happened to goods that his father had dispatched to a Liverpudlian agent. The Africans had not received the two and a half thousand pounds they were owed in exchange for the goods, and rather than sit at home and accept the fact that they had most likely been swindled, young John Ocansey had decided to journey to the world-famous port of Liverpool and claim the money that rightfully belonged to his father. Trading between Africa and Liverpool had been established for over two centuries, and was based on the slave trade in which it was understood that Africans had no rights. Even after the abolition of the trade such attitudes persisted, but Ocansey was determined that he would not be treated as a slave.

Producer Neil McCarthy

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14 minutes

Last on

Fri 15 Oct 2021 22:45

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  • Fri 22 Nov 2019 22:45
  • Fri 15 Oct 2021 22:45

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