Migration from West Africa to Roman Britain

Three Year 8 students at St Paul’s Way Trust School (Tower Hamlets – London) won first prize in the University of Kent’s Animation Script-Writing Competition (2017). They set out to contemplate migration from West Africa with a view to joining the auxiliary forces in Britain. We consulted whether this was a possibility and Professor David Mattingly confirmed that although there is no evidence for West Africans in the Roman army, recruiting officers would have come across West Africans in the oases of the Sahara and within the provinces of North Africa. Thus, this is not all impossible and we are not saying it happened, but is worth contemplating (so please keep any accusations of ‘political correctness gone mad etc.’ under control!).

The Year 8 students at St Paul’s Way Trust School kindly agreed to record an audio version of their script and we present it here. Many thanks to them and also to Olivia Sanchez. Some may already know Bregans’ Rap that was written in 2016 by students from the same school.

 

Bregans’ Rap on Slavery

Bregans’ rap was created by Tahirah, Sadia and Imah – students at St Paul’s Way Trust School (London) and found its way to us via the 2016 Animation Script Writing Competition.  Our judges, especially the writers of animation scripts, were bowled over and so Professor Ray Laurence and Dr Rosie Wyles were sent to East London to meet the students and record a version of their rap. If you have recorded a rap based on characters from the Cambridge Latin Course, please contact classicscripts@kent.ac.uk