Book description
IS A BLACK LIFE WORTH LESS THAN A WHITE ONE?
When, in May 1969, the body of David Oluwale was fished out of the
River Aire near Leeds, not too many questions were asked about the
circumstances of his death. Oluwale was a tramp and a patient in a
mental hospital, an immigrant from Nigeria who was trapped in a system
that failed him miserably - a police charge sheet from just two weeks
earlier had 'BRIT' scored out, his nationality replaced with 'WOG'.
Eighteen months later a lengthy campaign of harassment by two Leeds
policemen was uncovered - Oluwale became national news in Britain, and
a symbol for its black community. This extraordinary book draws on
original archival material only recently released to revisit one of
the most chilling crimes in British history, and at the same time
raises questions as relevant today as they were at the end of the sixties.
Kester Aspden was born in Toronto in 1968, and raised in Todmorden,
West Yorkshire, and York. He has a doctorate in history from Cambridge
University, and taught history of crime at Leeds University whilst
researching this book. He now lives in Istanbul.
