Black History Walking Tours Edinburgh

Black History Walking Tours Edinburgh Walking tours exploring Edinburgh's Black history.
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Led by Lisa Williams, BA African and Asian Studies, MA Arts, Festival and Cultural Management, Honorary Fellow in the School of History, Classics and Archeology at the University of Edinburgh

Another fun day leading a tour up at Collective Gallery. for their annual Gala day. Also got to have a wee tour of the C...
05/09/2026

Another fun day leading a tour up at Collective Gallery. for their annual Gala day. Also got to have a wee tour of the Cooke Telescope with Astronomical Society of Edinburgh and see some amazing art exhibitions.

When you're up there you get to see the Politician's clock, named as such due to having two faces! We got into clocks, chronometers and colonislism and what following linear time does to our relationship with nature and our own bodies.

All of Robert Burns' messy situationships, dodging the Maroons of Jamaica, and getting his love interest's maid pregnant while she delivered their passionate love letters. The final straw for Mrs Agnes Maclehose.

What Royal Astronomer for Scotland Thomas Henderson had to say about the people he worked among at the Cape Observatory in the 1830s when chattel slavery was still legal.

The wonderful reception abolitionist Frederick Douglass had, and the regular walks he enjoyed on the hill in 1846. The amazement at Henry 'Box' Brown's panorama he unveiled at the Waterloo Rooms in 1852.

Beautiful day!

Had quite the experience yesterday afternoon, hanging in the National Library of Scotland then getting stung by some cre...
02/09/2026

Had quite the experience yesterday afternoon, hanging in the National Library of Scotland then getting stung by some creature and stripping off half my clothes in the middle of the Royal Mile to try to find it.

Enjoyed the serenity of St Giles’ Cathedral which is where the late Queen lay in state for several days.

The National Covenant is in the Cathedral, and stood by it thinking about the hundreds of Covenanters, made enemies of the Royal Family who were killed and deported to Barbados in the 17th century.

Others were deported for crimes large and small, including a woman who, disguised as a man for several years, had become Scotland's most notorious witch pricker. She picked on the wrong person one day and off she went to the plantations.

Great to take round folks from the Turn2us organisation who help those struggling financially. We got into some rough stuff, including the African children blatantly bought and sold in Edinburgh in the 18th century.

We made it in the rain all the way to the Melville Monument to show them how inadequate a gesture to the memory of some of the enslaved is a tiny plaque that you can hardly see on such an enormous statue.

Melville helped to make sure people considered enslaved were clearly legally free in Scotland in 1778, but went on to orchestrate a mission of genocide and reenslaving the self-emancipated across the Caribbean in the 1790s to ensure continued wealth for Britain and win the war against the French revolutionaries.

So many of the working classes in Britain and France didn't want slavery or a war between the nations, they wanted democracy and rights in each! Some cared about genocide and ethnic cleansing, some egged it on. Plus ca change....

One tour down, one to go! Just finished taking round students on a semester abroad from Butler University in the US. It'...
01/09/2026

One tour down, one to go! Just finished taking round students on a semester abroad from Butler University in the US. It's an annual end of summer event!

We covered the Royal African Company, Darien, the Jacobites, trade, abolition, the Enlightenment, religion and solidarity movements from the Old Town to the New Town.

Having some lovely soup in the Undercroft cafe at the Edinburgh New Town Church They use Fairtade ingredients, support local suppliers, the Church's work and local charities.

Everyone is super nice and friendly. Used to come here when I first moved to Scotland and always felt very welcomed. Still the same.

Had a lovely time taking African American folks round Edinburgh the last couple of days. Enjoyed meeting Lia from Telia ...
31/08/2026

Had a lovely time taking African American folks round Edinburgh the last couple of days.

Enjoyed meeting Lia from Telia Nate Deboyes who has just moved to Scotland, Jennifer who was here with the Legacy of Slavery powerful exhibition at Playfair Library The University of Edinburgh as part of Edinburgh International Festival

Today a wonderful family and friend group passing through Edinburgh on a cruise. Happy to take them to the National Galleries of Scotland and to the Assembly Rooms Edinburgh to see where folks like Frederick Douglass and James Pennington spoke in the nineteenth century to huge audiences.

Lots of questions that I am always happy to try to answer.

Now the Fringe is over, heading back up to the Old Town tomorrow for an American student group and a local charity.

Tomorrow's 2pm tour of Central Edinburgh will touch on some links to Trinidad and Tobago. Independence Day is coming up!...
28/08/2026

Tomorrow's 2pm tour of Central Edinburgh will touch on some links to Trinidad and Tobago. Independence Day is coming up!

We'll look at some of the trailblazing Edinburgh University medical graduates from Trinidad like Jean Baptiste Philip, Arthur McShine amd psychiatrist William Besson.

Folks like Fife born Judge John Gorrie, Chief Justice of Trinidad in the 1880s, unfortunately run out of the island by the elites as he sided too much with the working class and the underdog.

Lots to discuss! Book your spot now.

This was one of my favourite TV shows to be involved in. Dr Onyeka Nubia of University of Nottingham presented a series ...
24/08/2026

This was one of my favourite TV shows to be involved in. Dr Onyeka Nubia of University of Nottingham presented a series called Walking Victorian Britain for Channel 5.

Here we are discussing Guyanese taxidermist and lecturer John Edmonstone when he taught naturalist Charles Darwin on this street 200 years ago.

We got so involved in conversation we forgot all about the camera crew trying to keep up with us! Crazy 'just emerged from covid lockdown' hair, but never mind, we had fun.

Was great to take folks around Leith yesterday to mark the UNESCO International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade an...
24/08/2026

Was great to take folks around Leith yesterday to mark the UNESCO International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

Shout out to those repping Guyana, Jamaica and Guadeloupe!

I read out some of the Scottish newspaper adverts for Black children and teenagers for sale in Edinburgh and for the recapture of those seeking freedom. Those said to be 'lurking at Leith', trying to get on a ship with assistance from locals.

Gave thanks to the freedom fighters across the Caribbean who tried to hold out against the massive military mission of the 1790s organised and headed up by Scots.

They ruthlessly crushed freedom movements and reenslaved thousands of people. Despite the British occupying Haiti between 1793 and 1798, Haiti became the first free Black republic in the Americas in 1804.

By the small monument marking the 1822 landing of King George IV, I read out the names of the enslaved people in Barbados who George owned. The auction of families to the highest bidder, children wrenched and sold away from parents. The money straight went into his coffers.

George was a profligate spender, particularly when buying lavish gifts of pearls and diamonds for his secret illegal Catholic wife Mrs Fitzherbert of Brighton.

The church, hospital and school left for the poor of Leith by John Gladstone, the biggest recipient of Slave Compensation money. Much of the profits from the labour of enslaved people was invested into the Caledonian railway. Much of the British railway system was funded by Caribbean people.

Today, the 23 August, marks the UNESCO International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. First mark...
23/08/2026

Today, the 23 August, marks the UNESCO International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. First marked in Senegal and Haiti in the 90s, the date is chosen to commemorate the start of the Haitian Revolution in 1791.

Scotland and Scots had many significant links to St Domingue which we'll explore over the next week.

Cecile Fatiman was a mixed heritage Haitian Vodou practitioner whose father was from Sicily and mother an enlaved African woman.

On 14th August Cecile and Dutty Boukman, a Senegalese man who had been enslaved in Jamaica, presided over a Vodou ceremony in a forest in northern Haiti called Bois Caïman during a terrible thunderstorm.

They brought together 200 people to strategise and commit to the overthrow of the French plantocracy and the brutal system of enslavement.

From the 22nd August, they killed enslavers, burned down 200 sugar mills and over a thousand plantations.

Cecile lived well over a century, marrying Jean-Louis Pierrot, a General in the Haitian army, a Prince under King Henry Cristophe and President in 1845. Her grandson went on to resist the US occupation of 1915-1934.

The day is officially marked in Edinburgh, but so far organised by people with no heritage from, links to or any knowledge of the Caribbean. Haiti is barely mentioned.

Non Caribbean people have become the official spokespeople for Caribbean reparations.

It's the only place in the world where this happens.

The question is why and how, Edinburgh?

Tour of Leith today at 4pm. Still tickets available.

Nice time this morning taking round delegates with the Momentum programme here to visit the festivals and exchange knowl...
22/08/2026

Nice time this morning taking round delegates with the Momentum programme here to visit the festivals and exchange knowledge with other arts professionals. These folks work in Literature and come from all over the world.

I did this tour backwards, beginning with stories of WW2, the lumberjacks from Belize and the support and fundraising for Ethiopia by African organisations in Edinburgh during the Italian invasion of 1935.

We passed what was the Fascist Club popular with members of Italian heritage up until it was infiltrated by M15. Anti Italian rioting, internship and deportation of Italians in Scotland happened when Mussolini declared war on Britain in 1940.

Lots more stories of African and African American doctors and abolitionists who graduated from Edinburgh and spoke around the New Town. Some worked at the Royal Infirmary as surgeons some delivered hundreds of Edinburgh babies.

Most excited that one of our delegates greeted a large group of pigeons at the beginning, with one sitting happily on his head until a hundred more flew over, taking his new friend with them. Very special! My grandmother used to have homing pigeons in Grenada.

Tomorrow we have a special tour of Leith at 4pm marking the beginning of the Haitian Revolution in 1791.

This was so much fun to do. What a joy to be in an 18th century music hall like St Cecilia's Hall to talk about and pla...
20/08/2026

This was so much fun to do. What a joy to be in an 18th century music hall like St Cecilia's Hall to talk about and play music from across the centuries during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Go and visit the museum, it has some precious and delightfully intriguing instruments on display.

Talked about the African musicians at the court of James IV who travelled around Scotland with the Royal Famiy.

Sounded lovely to play minuets composed by Black Georgian musicians like Ignatius Sancho. Other Black abolitionists played instruments too, like the kind of French horn Sancho sold in his shop.

Imagined the all Black balls in London in the 1760s, madly fashionable, full of glamour and going on till dawn.

Very delighted to include a live performance from Blackbox actors Josiah Alpher and FLWERCHiLD about the incredible life of Henry 'Box' Brown who came to Edinburgh in 1852. You can still catch the show for a few more days at Underbelly

Ended with the kind of calypso Trinidadian psychiatrist William Besson may have had the Edinburgh University calypso band play to his wealthy patients at Rosslyn Hospital, the 1956 classic Jean and Dinah by the The Mighty Sparrow

Ended with Savannah Grass by Kes to show how soca music is about to go global! I could not help but dance down the aisle and get everyone up and dancing at the end.

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St. George's Is The Capital Of Grenada.
Saint George's

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07429540849

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