October proved to be a glorious month for Northampton as we reeled under the cultural double whammy of Black history Month and the One Community Festival.

What the average County Council employee knows about customer service ... Art ... apologies Nat Lofthouse

Rock wit u

Firstly Chris Rock’s Good Hair though lacking the guile of a good Louis Theroux farce, & a decent soundtrack, illuminated some scary facts:

• Though only representing 20% of the population black women constitute 60% the $9B annual US hair industry spend.
• Most black product vendors in US are … Korean.
• Most (false) hair used in the black hair industry originates from India, where Tonsuring temples donate to rather less altruistic hair dealers.
• Dudley is the only black owned manufacturer
• A hair weave can cost up to $35K (apparently Beyoncé favours the racoon)
• Going for the burn relates to the amount of pain you can masochistically endure in  a hair straightening session.
• The highlight of the Bonner hair fair in Atlanta featured a contestant performing her interventions … in a tank full of water.
• Black women don’t do swimming?

Rock’s fly on the wall technique was interspersed with celeb interviews & equally hammy mis en scene, vis a vis his (Daz) investigation of the effects of Lyle on a rather scraggy chicken leg. As the creamy crack melted a hole into the chicken flesh, he then informed the safety goggled white boffin : “ That’s what black women put in their hair” – the reposte ‘” Why would then do that ?” remains the poignant non sequitur of the whole movie.

Nice but Tim or small ears?

All this would be presumably lost on Tim Loughton, the Minister for Children, who waded into the interracial adoption debate with a brainlessness that has become a hallmark of the Coalition cuts. Presumably his Ministry will supply prospective adoptees & social workers with his Noddy Society colourless colour-in books?

One Community

By contrast the Library’s One Community festival proved to be a fitting celebration of the ethnic diversity that has settled in Northampton. Paul Crooks ( A tree without Roots) gave a brilliant account of his journey in tracing his own ancestry from Hackney to Mali via Jamaica, and elucidated many useful tips & data sources.
Rageh Omaar gave an equally inspiring talk on parallels with the earlier British experience in Mesopotamia (Iraq), and the travails of working in the malaise of the Oxbridge driven news agendas. My social cohesive pennithworth is that it wouldn’t do any harm introducing Arabic in its rightful place on the curriculum alongside its stable mates Latin & Greek.

ho cuisine

The Somali cultural day set the cuisinal high water mark with delicious curries, flatbreads & barbecued chicken. Presumably the establishment of a Somali restaurant within Northampton is only a matter of time?

Caribbean Quads

Sadly I missed the Indian Classical Dance display but Caroline Muraldo’s Caribbean Quadrilles proved a captivating and unexpected revelation of the link between European & Caribbean Dance.

Univited

Finally a special mention must be made of the Univited- Songs and Stories of exiled which featured a virtuoso performance from Elizabeth Mansfield who recited music & poetry from the victims of our global plethora of oppressive political regimes.

Amazing Grace

I’ve only given a taste of the depth of the Festival but a big up must go to Grace Kempster and her team who gave the lie to the quote about the founders of Hamtune :

The anglo-saxons had never come under the Roman influence at all, and in consequence were quite uncivilised, and hated the ways of civilised people.They were not very quick-witted , they were extremely obstinate, they were slow of speech and rough in their ways…..

AP White – The Story of Northampton 1914

No chickens were harmed in the writing of this blog!