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Press Releases
Manchester sports champion traces his roots for special ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ slavery project
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Manchester man and five-times world karate champion Geoff Thompson has a remarkable ancestry which he discovered this year when he decided to trace his roots back 200 years to Ghana.
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Geoff, from Flixton, will take ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Manchester listeners on an extraordinary journey as he reveals the people and places of his past that have helped to shape his present for a special series of programmes to mark the Act of Abolition of the Slave Trade (1807) beginning Monday 19 March.
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Geoff had wanted to trace his roots for many years. But it was a trip to Ghana a couple of years ago that really sparked his interest when, at passport control, an officer looked at his passport, then up at his face and said, "you must go and see your people" – meaning that he was originally from Ghana.
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Geoff says: "Finding my social, cultural and spiritual African heritage is as important to me in my 50th year as it is to my 13–year–old son and all those young black males who may not have a sense of their true African identity.
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"It will be a greater achievement than all of my sporting achievements and like my hero, Muhammad Ali, he knows who he is, I want to know who I really am."
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Geoff was appointed to the GB Sports Council (now Sport England) in 1990 following an outstanding career in competitive karate. He was five times World Karate Champion from 1982 to 1986 and holder of more than 50 national and international titles.
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As one of Britain's most successful and celebrated sportsmen of the Eighties Geoff made a transition from tracksuit to lounge suit where he established himself as a sports politician and administrator. He is also founder of the Youth Charter for Sport, Culture and the Arts.
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His full story can be heard on Eamonn and Dianne's show on Radio Manchester on Monday 19, Wednesday 21 and Friday 23 March from 10am.
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Radio Manchester presenter Eamonn O'Neal says: "The story of slavery and its subsequent abolition is one of the most interesting, complex, disturbing yet inspirational stories we never tell about Britain.
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"As Manchester was central to the slave trade and its ultimate abolition, it is important that Radio Manchester reflects and reports on what took place, the issues and the legacy that slavery left behind."
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Radio Manchester will also feature a number of other special programmes as part of a season of programming across ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ television, radio and online which sets out to tell the stories of the forgotten heroes who helped drive the spirit and action of the abolition movement.
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The station will be exploring the local links to slavery and abolition, examining the role that this part of history had in shaping the local landscape and economy.
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They will look at the central role Manchester played in the transatlantic slave trade with much of the city's 18th century wealth built on the profits of slavery. And how, in the 1700 and 1800s, slave–grown cotton fed the mills on which the city thrived. Yet Manchester played a key role in slavery's ultimate abolition.
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Throughout the week the Breakfast Show will feature special guests including well known local historian Washington Alcott and African elder Mama Toro.
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Thomas Clarkson, one of the founders of the Abolition movement, first read his lecture on his findings of the horrors of the slave trade at Manchester Cathedral in 1787 and on Monday 19 March, human rights campaigner Zerbanoo Gifford will be reading that same lecture in the same location.
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She will be in the studio speaking to Heather Stott live at 4.30pm before the event.
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On Tuesday 20 March, West African group Kukoma will be performing music and storytelling on Eamonn O'Neal and Dianne Oxberry's show between 9am and noon.
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On Thursday 22 March, Richard Fair will be live at the Afewe restaurant, in Hulme, exploring food and music and featuring story tellers from the community.
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Poet Segun Lee French will be in the studio talking about the journey of the slave trade with Eamonn and Dianne, from 10am on Thursday 22 March.
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And on Sunday 25 March, from 7 to 9am, Mike Shaft will be talking to Manchester's very own Rev Rogers Govinder, the only black Dean of a cathedral in the UK, and Archbishop Drexel Gomez, from the West Indies, both of whom are hosting a memorial service at Manchester Cathedral.
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They will be exploring the role religion played in the continuing operation and abolition of the slave trade.
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For information about what is happening in the North West and the abolition season visit the Where We Live website, bbc.co.uk/manchester/abolition
or bbc.co.uk/abolition.
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