"Not backwards, not sideways, but forward!", declares Sam "The Wheels", a speaker on the 
Black History Tour, to a room of 25 Danish students on a excursion to London from Dronninglund
Sixth Form College. What a fitting slogan it is for a tour highlighting the positive direction
Brixton has taken in dealing with its ethnically diverse residence.
 
Under the guidance of Lamont’e Johnson, artist and founder of Artworks Direct, the Social 
Science, Religion and English students were taken around Brixton on Wednesday, March the 25th 
to experience a working "multicultural" community. "Denmark," says their teacher, Anne-Mie 
Nielsen, "is encountering a greater increase of migrants…mainly Muslims and mainly young boys
who are feeling estranged and isolated from Danish mainstream culture and are becoming 
disaffected, violent and disruptive.”  It is a common story and one that rings true not just in
Denmark but in many areas of Europe, but clearly, for them, London is a hopeful example of what
goes on when different ethnicities start getting along.   
  
First stop: The Temple Arts Centre. Loaned by Lambeth Council, and situated on top of Brockwell
Park, the building is the creative hub of Artworks Direct. Running a number of projects for 
youths, senior citizens and recently, young offenders, it teaches creative and practical skills
to combat apathy and boredom in the community.  Bling Ya Bike, a popular arts project focusing
on the personalizing of old bikes, Johnson explains, “Using bikes as a medium, we deal with a 
lot of issues like gangs and trying to use skills in a more positive way. The bikes can be the
first chance to pull the kids back.”    

Brixton still has its problems. While listening to Johnson, as we walked down Railton Road, 
we recounted how the feelings of animosity between the black community and the Police lead to the 
Brixton riots in the 1980’s, and then arriving at our second stop:  198 Gallery, exhibiting 
Aya Haidar’s work dealing with her struggle to find a personal identity out of a British and 
Lebanese background, using storytelling and textiles, you couldn’t help feeling how far Brixton
has come and what a model it is.  If only the sensational stories of gun crime and drugs, that 
dominate the national press’s output on the area, were balanced with some positive reporting. 

It was a morning of much talk and debate, with residents telling personal accounts of their up-
bringing and explaining their particular views on identity. Bob Harvey, who has lived in London
since emigrating from Jamaica at the age of nine believes his home to be Jamaica but prefers 
the security Brixton offers, while Maynard Eziashi, actor and owner of the Lounge, strongly 
identifies with England despite his African parentage, and Clement Graham a local researcher 
and 3rd generation immigrant found a resolution in uncovering the historical forces influencing
immigration since the second world war. This fired-up the students to discuss and contemplate 
what they heard using the tools learned in the classroom – illuminating just how complex 
questions of identity, ethnicity and culture are.
 
In all it was a thought provoking tour that for many students proved to be an eye opener for a 
possible brighter future in Denmark, one student remarked:  “I used to think Muslims and blacks
were unapproachable and serious but they were talkative and kind.” 

The tour finished at Windrush Square, opposite the planned site of The Black Cultural Archives, 
with a round of questions from the students. The one on everyone’s lips being; “Why do you have 
dreadlocks?” A tricky question, to which each speaker had his opinion - to sum up: because of 
ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, thousand year old African culture, Rastafari beliefs, because of his 
experiences in Chicago, because his father wore them… Each valid, each worth hearing, and an 
illustration of the difficulties faced in a multiethnic community and the dialogues needed to 
tackle them.  

For more information about Artworks Direct, 198 Gallery and The Black Cultural Archives email:  
www.artworksdirect.org, www.198.org.uk, and www.bcaheritage.org.uk.
              
                                     March 25, 2009

                                Writer:  Julius Pasteiner 
                          Photographer:  Derran Zlatareff