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Recaptive number 11,407

Poet Raymond Antrobus traces the lost story of a deaf man freed from slavery.

An astonishing series of documents in Sierra Leone named the Registers of Liberated Africans record details of Africans freed from slavery by the British Royal Navy in the 19th Century. There is one entry in the registers that simply says 'Recaptive Number 11,407, without name, deaf and dumb'. In this documentary mixing poetry and new historical research, award-winning deaf poet Raymond Antrobus goes on a personal journey to Sierra Leone to trace a piece of forgotten history and try to find out what became of this deaf man without a name.

Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Damon Rose
Historical consultants: Suzanne Schwarz, professor of history, University of Worcester and Henry Lovejoy, associate professor of African diaspora, University of Colorado Boulder.

(Photo: Raymond Antrobus (L) and Bosedeh George (R) sitting in front of the Cotton Tree)

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27 minutes

Last on

Sun 30 Oct 2022 05:32GMT

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Broadcasts

  • Tue 25 Oct 2022 01:32GMT
  • Tue 25 Oct 2022 08:06GMT
  • Tue 25 Oct 2022 12:32GMT
  • Tue 25 Oct 2022 19:06GMT
  • Sun 30 Oct 2022 05:32GMT