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The David Oluwale Memorial Association (DOMA)

8th ANNUAL REPORT 2020 — 2021

RememberOluwale www.rememberoluwale.org

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CONTENTS
OBJECTS OF THE CHARITY	3
WHO WAS DAVID OLUWALE?	4
IMPACT	5
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES	6
GOVERNANCE
Patron
Directors and Trustees
Advisory Committee
Partners
REVIEW OF WORK TO DATE	8
FUTURE PRIORITIES	9
PUBLIC BENEFIT STATEMENT
FINANCIAL STATEMENT	10

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OBJECTS OF THE CHARITY

The David Oluwale Memorial Association (DOMA) has adopted aims agreed with the Charity Commission. It aims to promote equality, diversity and racial harmony for the public benefit in Leeds specifically and the UK in general, in particular but not exclusively by any or all of the following means:

educating the public about the life and death of David Oluwale
educating the public on the progress the City of Leeds has made towards justice for ethnic minorities and humane treatment of the homeless and destitute, and in combating the stigma of individuals experiencing mental ill health
educating the public on what more needs to be done to achieve full racial justice and humane treatment of the homeless and destitute in Leeds, and to combat the stigma of individuals experiencing mental ill health.

Sai Murray’s illustration of David Oluwale for the front cover of our publication Remembering Oluwale Anthology (Valley Press, 2016), available for purchase on the Help page of rememberingoluwale.org

King David Oluwale, sculpted by Alan Pergusey, painted by Jane Storr, performed by Simon Namsoo, in a costume designed by Joan Jeffreys, using a harness made by Hughbon Condor, for the 50th anniversary of Leeds West Indian Carnival 2017.

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WHO WAS DAVID OLUWALE?

David Oluwale arrived in Hull (East Yorkshire, UK) in 1949. With some friends, he had stowed away on a merchant ship in Lagos, Nigeria. He was imprisoned in Leeds (UK) for one month for the offence of not buying a ticket. Since he was a British citizen, he was free to make his way when he left prison. Like all migrants in search of a better life, he arrived with energy and ambition. He had various manual jobs until 1953. Despite gruelling work and racism, he seems to have enjoyed himself in the pubs and dance-halls of Leeds. He was known as Yankee by his friends, such was his love of American popular culture and his zest for life. This is the period of hope for David Oluwale.

After a dispute over the bill at the King Edward Hotel in Leeds city centre on 25th April 1953, he was arrested and sent to Leeds Prison in Armley. From there, he was dispatched to Menston psychiatric hospital in Leeds (later renamed High Royds). He was briefly released in 1961. In 1964 he was jailed for being drunk and disorderly, assessed as paranoid and a ‘dullard’, and sent again to High Royds hospital in 1965. Released in 1967, he lived as a vagrant on the streets of Leeds. David was found dead in the River Aire/Leeds Canal at the Knostrop weir on 4th May 1969.

While he was of no fixed abode (‘wandering abroad’ was his crime under the 1824 Vagrancy Act) and sleeping rough in the Leeds city centre over the last two years of his life, David Oluwale was persistently assaulted and abused by two Leeds police officers, Sergeant Kitching and Inspector Ellerker.

These officers were arrested following the brave whistle-blowing of a police cadet named Gary Galvin soon after David’s body was found. The investigating officer, Chief Superintendent Perkins of the Metropolitan police, recommended that they were charged with the murder of David Oluwale on 18th April 1969. Instead, they were prosecuted for manslaughter, ABH and GBH (Actual and Grievous Bodily Harm). In November 1971 they were convicted of ABH. They were acquitted of David’s manslaughter on the Judge’s direction. Ellerker was sentenced to three years, Kitching got 27 months.

There was much publicity of the trial, and in 1974 Smiling David, the script of a BBC radio play by Jeremy Sandford, was published. Until two more books about David were published in 2007, by Caryl Phillips and Kester Aspden, his story was almost forgotten. In 2008, while speaking about David Oluwale at the launch of his book at Leeds Metropolitan (now Beckett) University, Caryl Phillips suggested that there should be a memorial in Leeds to David Oluwale.

DOMA: THE #REMEMBEROLUWALE CAMPAIGN

The David Oluwale Memorial Association (DOMA) started life as a committee based at in the Community Partnerships and Volunteering office at Leeds Metropolitan/Beckett University in 2008. It is now branded as #RememberOluwale. In 2012 it was registered as a charity and as a company limited by guarantee, unaffiliated to the university. Its objects are listed above. In remembering David Oluwale, and in joining with all those who are working today to overcome all the challenges that David faced (the ‘Oluwale issues’: migration, racism, mental ill-health, homelessness, police malpractice, destitution) our charity sees itself as restoring David’s initially hopeful trajectory. We support Leeds Council’s ambition to create a compassionate, inclusive and more equal city, where diversity is welcomed and everyone is able to fulfil their dreams. David’s story started with hope and ended in abjection; DOMA aims to restore hope as the City of Leeds becomes a place that welcomes others. We always work with artists of every type to tell David’s story and to campaign for social justice with vivacity, creativity and enjoyment.

[Much more information about David Oluwale and the charity can be obtained from here on our website.]

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DOMA’S IMPACT IN THIS PERIOD

This report covers the charity’s activities over the period of 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021. It provides the charity’s accounts up to 31st March 2021. Details are provided below.

DOMA on hold

2020—2021 has been engulfed by the global Covid-19 pandemic. All the public activities that DOMA normally undertakes have been erased by the measures put in place by the UK government to restrict the havoc caused by the virus. DOMA joins with the rest of the UK in mourning the deaths of huge numbers of our people, and many more worldwide, and in wishing a good recovery to the many more who have had a serious illness caused by Covid-19. Nevertheless, almost entirely through working from home, we have moved forward.

Developing the David Oluwale Memory Garden

Much progress has been made in developing the Memory Garden for David Oluwale, which, it has now been agreed, will be built in Aire Park, in the city centre just south of the River Aire, close to where David Oluwale was drowned.

Developing our vision and planning the next four years

David Oluwale’s story starts with the hope, ambition and energy of the migrant. He was cast out and brutalised, but he refused to bow down. The #RememberOluwale charity reignites his hopeful start by using the arts to inspire creativity, to generate compassion and kindness, and to engage the people of Leeds in the struggle for social justice and social inclusion. Our Memory Garden will inject beauty and playfulness into the city, in David’s name.

Much work this year has gone into developing our Business Plan 2021-4.

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

Raising our profile:

We have kept our story in the public eye by regularly posting items of interest to our followers on social media:

Our Facebook followers increased from 1,187 to 1,296.
Our Twitter followers increased from 1,101 to 1,327.
Our MailChimp newsletter is now going out about eight times a year to all those who have given us their names.

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Our Instagram page is quite new and now has 553 followers.
Our You Tube channel has quite a bit of content now and it has 74 subscribers.
Our website is being regularly updated.

GOVERNANCE

Patrons

Caryl Phillips, writer and Professor of English Literature at Yale University, USA became our Founding Patron in 2013. Phillips was born in St Kitts and grew up in Leeds. The third part of his book Foreigners — Three English Lives (2007) analyses David Oluwale’s life and death. He initiated the memorial to David Oluwale in Leeds. CarylPhillips.com

Ruth Bundey, MA, became a Patron in February 2019. Ruth has lived in Leeds since 1969. Initially she worked for the Race Relations Board but soon became a solicitor. Her office in York Place merged with Ison Harrison on Chapeltown Road in 1993 becoming Harrison Bundey. Ruth now works from the city centre representing families at inquests into deaths in custody and mental health detention.

Directors and Trustees

In March 2021 our Directors and Trustees were Abdullah Adekola, Victoria Ajayi, John Battle, Emma Bimpson, Max Farrar, Emily Zobel Marshall, Abigail Marshall Katung, Peter Hindle-Marsh, Duncan Milwain and Ellie Mongomery. Full details appear here on our website ww.rememberoluwale.org

Advisory Committee

Our Advisory Committee is Saphra Bennett, Max Dunbar, Ian Duhig, Arthur France, Mahalia France-Mir, Sam Kapas, Mike Love, Sai Murray, Yosola Olajoye, Chijioke John Ojukwu, Martin Patterson and Michelle Scally Clarke. Information about each of them is on our website www.rememberoluwale.org

Volunteers and Consultants

There are lots of people who help DOMA’s work as Patrons, Board members, Consultants, Advisers and Partners and we are grateful to them all. We recruit volunteers for specific activities: this year (with no public activities) we are specially grateful for Andrew Du Feu for up-dating our website and Chloe Hudson for helping us with financial planning.

Partners

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We are indebted to these organisations, with whom we have had partnership arrangements and/ or financial support over the past seven years:

Leeds Beckett University (School of Cultural Studies and Humanities, School of Art, Architecture and Design, School of Social Sciences)
Leeds University (School of English, School of History)
Nigerian Community Leeds
Leeds West Indian Centre
Leeds City Council
Leeds Philosophical and Literary Association
The Forward Arts Trust
Group Ginger Architects
St George’s Crypt
• The Big BookEnd
Leeds Literary Festival
• Fictions of Every Kind
Virtual Migrants
Touchstone
Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network
Rennaissance One
• The Tetley Centre for Contemporary Art
Leeds DynaMix
Utopia Theatre
Stand Up to Racism
Together for Peace

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REVIEW OF WORK TO DATE

The David Oluwale Memory Garden

As reported last year, the property company Vastint has been contracted by Leeds City Council to build what is to be called Aire Park, south of the River Aire, surrounding The Tetley Centre for Contemporary Art (the former HQ of Tetley’s Brewery). During the period of this report, Leeds City Council endorsed Vastint’s plans for Aire Park, including a site for the David Oluwale Memory Garden. We were able to announce that Yinka Shonibare CBE, the world-famous British-Nigerian artist, had accepted our commission to make a sculpture in David’s name as the centre piece for the Memory Garden. This long-held ambition of the charity has taken on special importance in light of the protests against sculptures all over the UK that applaud men whose standing derives from their colonial plunder.

Progress on the Memory Garden was made possible thanks to the work done by our consultants Pam Bone and Pippa Hale. As well as negotiating with Vastint, the Yinka Shonibare Studio and Yinka’s agent, they secured funding for development costs and the making of the maquette of the sculpture. The Board is immensely grateful for awards made by

Arts Council England
Leeds 2023 festival of culture
The Henry Moore Foundation
The Scurrah Wainwright Trust
Lord and Lady Harewood’s Charitable Settlement
the National Skateboard Company
and a number of individual donors

DOMA’s major task now is to raise the huge funds needed to manufacture the sculpture. It is planned to install it during the Leeds 2023 festival culture.

The values underpinning the Memory Garden remain as before. It will be a place where:

everyone is welcome
there is sanctuary for all who are vulnerable
the diversity of the cultures in Leeds is expressed
quiet reflection is possible
debate about the issues facing the city of Leeds may take place
pleasure and conviviality are to be enjoyed
social justice is promoted
growth takes place — in flora and fauna, and in the lives of individuals and groups.
creativity in all its forms (music, film, art etc) abounds
performance (spoken word, drama, dance etc) is produced
and this will be a playful place, attractive to people of all ages and backgrounds.

Educational and campaigning work:

Our campaign activities this year have been put on hold, but we did produce two funding bids with the Leeds Development Education Centre for a programme of educational work to be piloted in Leeds schools. This envisaged relating the David Oluwale story, and the social issues it raises, to curriculum areas in primary and secondary Key Stages. The bids were unsuccessful but we shall continue to develop this project. We also consolidated our close relationship with the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities at Leeds Beckett University, agreeing a programme of work over the next few years which will contribute to their teaching, research and their work to enhance student engagement (eg by volunteering with DOMA).

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Our Future: DOMA’s Planning 2021-24

During the Covid-19 lockdown, much thought went into our Business Plan for 2021 to 2024.

‘Our Future — DOMA’s Business Plan 2021-4’ will be available on our website after it has been agreed by the Board. Its headings provide an indication of our intentions.

Developing DOMA’s organisational capacity: we will bid for funds to employ an office manager and part-time workers with an office base.
Making the David Oluwale Memory Garden with the Shonibare Sculpture.
Developing community engagement in the Sculpture Garden project.
Producing a programme of community arts to amplify DOMA’s campaigning mission, including live art to animate the Sculpture Garden (with the Geraldine Connor Foundation); a second volume of the Remembering Oluwale Anthology (with Leeds Beckett Univeristy’s School of Cultural Studies and the Humanities) ; a play that relates the Oluwale story to contemporary life (with Utopia Theatre) an annual music event with an internationallyknown headline artist, the David Oluwale’s Leeds walk/talk event (with Joe Williams of Heritage Corner)
Civic Engagement activity: an Ian Duhig poetry plaque in Chapeltown and a Civic Trust Blue Plaque in the city centre; an annual ‘Oluwale Issues’ discussion panel; and an annual lecture on the contemporary relevance of David Oluwale’s life
Education programmes in schools and HE
The David Oluwale Digital Culture Centre: an on-line facility
(to be developed with support from universities in Leeds) that encompasses the full range of DOMA activity and impactful research on the ‘Oluwale issues’, with the facility to promote all DOMA events on-line across the globe (providing security for our activity if further pandemics break out).

"#$#%&! PRIORITIES

In the coming year our first priority is to raise the funds needed to build the David Oluwale Memory Garden in Aire Park, in Leeds city centre. Our next ‘big idea’ is the Digital Cultural Centre.

We will continue to take every opportunity to raise the charity’s profile and to support all educational and campaigning activities on all the issues that David Oluwale endured: mental ill-health, homelessness, racism, police malpractice and destitution, while always mindful of the current plight of migrants seeking settlement in the UK.

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PUBLIC BENEFIT STATEMENT

The David Oluwale Memorial Association promotes equality, diversity and racial harmony for the public benefit in Leeds based on the story of David Oluwale, and in this way complies with its duty as set out in section 4 of the 2006 Charities Act.

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DAVID OLUWALE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION

Company Registration Number (England and Wales) 8107693 Charity Registration Number (England and Wales) 1151426

Abbreviated (Unaudited) Financial Statements

Period of Accounts:

Start date: 01 April 2020 End date: 31 March 2021

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Directors

V Ajayi J Battle

E Bimpson

M Farrar

A Marshall Katung

P Hindle-Marsh

E Zobel Marshall

D Milwain E Montgomery

A Adekola (Appointed 15[th] July 2020)

Secretary