[2] He has presented historical documentaries on the BBC and contributed to The One Show and The Guardian. David had at least 1 relationship in the past. David Olusoga was born in Lagos, Nigeria, to a Nigerian father and British mother. Many want it to go much further in confronting the role of both slavery and imperialism in its history and the British national story. • David Olusoga is a historian and broadcaster Topics July 2020. How do you erase a figure from the past and rewrite British history? [8], Olusoga began his TV career behind the camera, first as a researcher on the 1999 BBC series Western Front. Read on to find out more about the presenter and historian... David Olusoga is a British Nigerian historian, broadcaster and writer. [10], Subsequently he became a television presenter, beginning in 2014 with The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire, about the Indian, African and Asian troops who fought in the First World War, followed by several other documentaries and appearances on BBC One television's The One Show. Instead, he used the term "partner." It’s right to remove him from his pedestal. David Olusoga mentions "partner" in a tweet on 11 February 2018 (Photo: Twitter) But, he didn't clarify if the lady was his girlfriend or his wife. Not only did David face his parents' separation, but he also got to experience the pain of being born black. HE IS one of Britain's most prominent historians and has appeared on The One Show. He was also a contributor to the Oxford Companion to Black British History, and has written for The Guardian, The Observer, New Statesman and BBC History magazine;[11] since June 2018 he has been a member of the board of the Scott Trust, which publishes The Guardian. While growing up, … Little of this, in reality, has much to do with Sloane or even with the British Museum and we are not at the beginning of some Orwellian age of historical erasure. Who is David Olusoga’s wife? [6][7] He later attended the University of Liverpool to study the history of slavery. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. [6] His most recent TV series include Black and British: A Forgotten History, The World's War, A House Through Time and the BAFTA award-winning Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners. The show tells the secret history of houses around the United Kingdom. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. But who is David Olusoga? Furthermore, the married couple welcomed a single child in their long married life. Olusoga lives in Bristol with his partner and daughter. Acknowledging this unpleasant reality is all the museum has sought to do. Oddly, this is not the form of “erasure” favoured by al-Qaida and the Taliban, who tend to opt for alternative methods involving sledgehammers and explosives. [12], Olusoga was included in the 2019 and 2020 editions of the Powerlist, a ranking of the 100 most influential Black Britons. David had at least 1 relationship in the past. They were eventually forced to leave as a result of the racism. Taking Sloane off his pedestal and setting him within historical reality is not an act of erasure – it is a small act of recognition. His father was Nigerian and his mother was British. News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services. Although having never thought it a good idea to test if the cabinets in the museum are indeed locked, I am not in a position to determine if the bust of Sloane has been singled out for special treatment. If these horrific details of the abused and commoditised lives are unfamiliar to most of us today, it is because they, not Hans Sloane, have been the focus of a genuine process of historical erasure. David Olusoga has not been previously engaged. David was born in 1970 in Lagos, Nigeria to a British mother and a Nigerian father. ", Nicholas Lyndhurst 'utterly grief stricken' as son, 19, dies of ‘short illness’, Simon Harris felt 'a tightness' in his chest as Covid-19 gripped Ireland, Gogglebox's John still has 'good days and bad days' as he opens up on weight, Nicholas Lyndhurst's son Archie's final Insta post quoted Mac Miller, I'm a lazy mum & let my son have crisps for lunch - even though his school say no, ©News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. Sloane witnessed and later became part of a system ruled by terror. David worked behind the camera for the BBC for years before finally being brought in front of it in 2014 with The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire. The supposed victim of historical erasure last week was Hans Sloane, the wealthy physician and naturalist whose collection of artefacts formed the nucleus of what became the British Museum. • David Olusoga is a historian and broadcaster, Available for everyone, funded by readers. In 2015 it was announced that he would co-present Civilisations, a sequel to Kenneth Clark's 1969 television documentary series Civilisation, alongside the historians Mary Beard and Simon Schama. David Olusoga is single. 2017: Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters, 2015: World War One Book of the Year at the, This page was last edited on 1 October 2020, at 16:15. Like many famous people and celebrities, David Olusoga keeps his personal life private. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. As Colston’s statue lies forlorn in a lock-up, Bristol is working out what its toppling means. David is stern about also his dating position as well as his associate. Writing in the Spectator, Charles Moore complained that the bust of Sloane had been “locked in a display cabinet”, hardly a unique fate for an artefact held by the British Museum. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. In August 2017, David was subject of a racial tweet where the … Personal Life. His Nigerian father had met his white British mum at … David Olusoga: his Edinburgh television festival speech in full. Moreover, David and his wife exchanged their vows in an intimate ceremony. 6.8K likes. In the system that made Sloane wealthy, black women sought out herbs, plant species that he carefully identified and categorised, and used them to induce abortions, determined as many were not to bring into the world children who would be born items of property and destined to live short, brutalised lives. However, his personal life is still a mystery to his fans and followers. Yet upon Sloane’s marriage to Elizabeth Langley Rose, one-third of the income from her plantations and her human property became his. He is also presented Civilisations, a BBC documentary which examines, over 9 episodes, more than 500 works of art across 31 different countries. In less hysterical times, a minor act of curatorial reinterpretation and recontextualisation would be of little interest outside the museum world. No matter how much we are asked to look only at his talents as a physician and his passion for botany and collecting, the fact remains that much of the money Sloane used to purchase the objects that today lie within our national museum came from the murderous exploitation of African men, women and children. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. Biography. David Olusoga’s Bio. By the time he was 14, the National Front had attacked his house on more than one occasion, requiring police protection for him and his family. Last week, those who would rather we kept it that way expressed their outrage that the memory of the victims of slavery was allowed to intrude into their fairytale version of British history. professional enquiries to: [email protected] Sloane’s achievements remain undimmed, but while he stood on a pedestal the significance of slavery to his life and to his collection was rendered invisible. [4] At five years old, Olusoga migrated to the UK with his mother and grew up in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. David Olusoga was one of very few non-white people on the Newcastle council estate where he grew up. This new display made it possible for the museum to explain the links between Sloane, his collection and slavery. A Nigerian father and British mother gave birth to the British Nigerian popular historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter, and film-maker, David Adetayo Olusoga aka David Olusoga in January 1970 in Lagos, Nigeria. [5] He was one of a very few non-white people living on a council estate. All rights reserved. [18], In response to the global Black Lives Matter movement with protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, Olusoga's Black and British: A Forgotten History was re-broadcast on the BBC and made available on BBC Player along with several other documentaries fronted by him. Published: 12 Jul 2020 . When he left the beans seeing his lovelife, his romantic romance surfaced in 2018.