Homeless: David Oluwale
Sunday 4th May 1969 – the day the battered body of a homeless and helpless black man in search of a better life was found and dragged from the River Aire in Leeds. David Oluwale, 38 when he died, was in fact a Nigerian immigrant who had been the victim of horrific, institutional, brutality by two serving members of the police force.
The pair were found guilty of manslaughter and had been proven to have constantly tormented Oluwale, an inside Scotland Yard police investigation unveiled.
Abused and isolated from mainstream society, the desperate immigrant arrived to work on the docks but ended up on the streets in a continuing battle to survive oppression and suffering. Arriving to England aged 19, Oluwale, spent half of his time in backward thinking mental centres.
Based on Kester Aspden’s award winning book The Hounding of David Oluwale, Oladipo Agboluaje brings David Oluwale back to Leeds to tell a story of one man searching for justice and another who just wanted to find home.
In an interview with the Metro newspaper, Aspden said: “I became fascinated by how someone becomes so excluded from mainstream society that he’s seen as an animal”.
It’s not an innovative statement that Britain was an openly racist nation 40 years ago but the poignant truth is that treatment of ethnic minorities by the police is still seen by a large proportion as unacceptable.
Hackney Empire this week stage not only the story of a man tormented to death by two racist policemen but the story of a man who came to England full of faith in the hope of making a improved living. He was let down by every ‘helping’ institution under the government; from asylum aid to the courts.
Acting the dead man’s character is actor Daniel Francis who stars in hit theatre drama The Brothers Size. David Oluwale’s staged resurrection enables us – people of all races – to get a SMALL idea of what it feels like to be denied a “proper” chance in life. Something that still happens four decades on.
Here is what the INDEPENDENT said about the play:
“Kester Aspden’s account is a timely one, reminding us of the profoundly sad connections between past and present”
Tonight until Sat, Hackney Empire, 7.30pm, Thu mat 1.30pm, Sat mat 2.30pm, £12.50 – £16.50
Tel: 02089852424
www.hackneyempire.co.uk
I watched this documentary the other day about people who live in North Korea, a communist country where the condition of life is really bad for some people. Alot of them where trying to cross over into China or south Korea illegaly and the things that they go through just to get a good condition in life was heartbreaking. People need to lay off immigrants, if this country was as bad as others we’d all be immigrating too!
Comment by carolyn09city — April 9, 2009 @ 5:29 pm
Thanks for your comment,
I totally agree. If this country was bad I wouldn’t think twice about moving to a ‘better’ place. In hope that I would be accepted. People that are too comfortable in what they have and where they are just simply choose to deny they would do the same if in the situation of the suffering immigrants seeking asylum. Very heartbreaking indeed! I wish for a solution.
Comment by FiFi Afobe — April 12, 2009 @ 4:23 pm
It’s a good production. I recommend it myself.
Comment by Katie — April 21, 2009 @ 2:41 pm