Malik Al Nasir, a Cambridge PhD researcher and author, has just launched a major new digital archive. It is the first such resource to uncover how British business dynasties profited from then enslaving people in territory now known as Guyana. Al Nasir has dedicated twenty years to this monumental research. His research explores how these Lancashire families made much of their wealth through their participation in slavery. His scholarship records the historical legacy of slavery. It spotlights the key role played by Rev. John Smith in leading the fight to abolish it.
Their journey started when Al Nasir bought a trove of letters in an effort to trace his own family history. His own frustration with the inaccessibility of information about his ancestry led him to do something.
“The process started because I became incredibly frustrated with how difficult it was to know my family history. None of the stuff was indexed and digitised, so I said, ‘I’ll buy it’” – Malik Al Nasir
In the course of his research, Al Nasir discovered that he was related to the Sandbach family. This discovery connected his Guyanese ancestry to influential British abolitionists and opponents of the slave trade. This surprising discovery gave him the opportunity to further explore his roots and culture. It initiated a much broader investigation into the socio-economic legacy of slavery today.
Al Nasir’s memoir, which bears the title Searching for My Slave Roots, combines those historical discoveries with his own biography to create a deeply personal narrative. He recalls growing up as the son of a Guyanese merchant seaman. It was his Caucasian Welsh mother who raised him, however, in the heart of black Liverpool. Those experiences have spurred him on to pursue a passion for revealing hidden histories and facing unsavory truths about Britain’s colonial past.
Al Nasir has painstakingly and impressively created a digital archive which catalogs these documents and narratives. He points to the insidious links between slavery and wealth creation across Britain. He emphasizes that this “epic tale of empire was hiding in plain sight,” suggesting that many aspects of Britain’s history remain obscured or underexplored.
The Continuing Struggle archive acts as both an invaluable resource for scholars and as an educational tool for the public. Now based in Houston, Texas, Al Nasir is working to raise awareness about slavery’s complicated past. They hope to inspire a better appreciation of its continuing influence on today’s society.
As a community-based archive, Al Nasir is still actively expanding this archive. He wants to inspire future generations to discover their own family histories and explore the depth of their own ancestral stories. His recent work has underscored the important place for teaching historical thinking. Given the current climate of more honest and critical discussions around race, identity, and accountability, this is perhaps more critical now than ever.