It is so
important that we tell our own stories.
The
UK government recently proposed plans to remove Mary Seacole and Olaudah Equiano from the
national curriculum.
The
national curriculum only briefly mentioned Mary Seacole, as a Victorian woman who could be studied. The Daily Mail
recently claimed that Mary Seacole's story was a myth. See below for
more details.
The
following information was supplied by Professor Elizabeth Anionwu at
this event.
Life
of Mary Seacole
Mary
Seacole was a 19th
century Jamaican businesswoman who worked as a doctoress. She saved
many lives during outbreaks of cholera and yellow fever in Jamaica
and Panama.
Seacole
treated Lord Nelson and the future King William IV, both of whom
highly praised and recommended her.
When she
learned that Florence Nightingale was recruiting nurses to serve the
wounded soldiers in the Crimean War, Seacole travelled to London,
paying her own way. She approached Nightingale for help with finding
accommodation in London.
Nightingale
later wrote of Seacole as a “bad woman” who ran a “bad house”.
The truth was that Mary Seacole raised the funds, went to the Crimea
and treated the soldiers there. Her experience of tropical medicine
greatly benefited them.
Nightingale
has been remembered as the “Lady with the Lamp”, but the truth is
that it was Mary Seacole who went to the battlefield to treat and
comfort the soldiers. Nightingalle's hospital was across the sea, in
Scutari.
Mary
Seacole was well loved in her lifetime, frequently appearing in the
newspapers. She was later forgotten, but the current generation have
revived her memory and voted her the Greatest Black Briton on Patrick
Vernon's 100 Great Black Britons site.
The
Daily Mail Controversy
The
Daily Mail claimed that
Mary
Seacole did not consider herself to be Black;
she
did not earn the medals she wore, but stole them; and
-
she did
not receive formal nursing training [in
fact, the first formal nursing training was established in 1860,
after the Crimean War].
Read her autobiography to find out the truth. Click here for an article about Mary Seacole by ProfessorAnionwu on the Operation Black Vote website.
Professor
Anionwu is helping to raise funds for the erection of a statue of
Mary Seacole.
Although
we have a great deal of information and documentation about Mary
Seacole, a national newspaper was able to publish these distortions.
It is so important that we tell our own stories.
The
National Curriculum
Information
about Mary Seacole and Olaudah Equiano is now a mandatory part of the
national curriculum. However, other things have been removed from
the national curriculum.
Please
come to my next Griot Workshop to learn more
about telling our own stories.
