Lloyds of London is widely considered the most august name in the world of insurance. Having grown from a small concern offering information to mariners to becoming a huge market for insurance, Lloyds of London is a fixture in the Square Mile.

While there has long been some knowledge about the involvement of many figures associated with Lloyds in the slave trade and ownership of the enslaved, in the past there has been a smokescreen put up around the data provided to researchers who sought to quantify the extent of the involvement that those at Lloyds had with slavery. This has led to the shameful narrative of access denied that Lloyds began to engage with, first with their own employees and community, then with the wider world after 2020.

In 2021, Lloyds began the process of commissioning a serious piece of arms-length research into the involvement of Lloyds members in the slave trade. This podcast is an interview with those that carried out the research. This interview was carried out after the launch of their findings in the winter of 2023.

Alexandre "Sasha" White is a sociologist and historian of medicine, race and racism, and empire. He is an assistant professor at John Hopkins University in the Department of Sociology.

Pyar Seth is now an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His work lies at the intersection of Black Studies, historical and medical anthropology, and postcolonial theory, much of his research focuses on the rationalization of state violence and the abstraction and distortion of Black life and death.

In the bonus episode, we showcase some of the work of the Sankofa London Schools Project. Year 9 students from Alleyn’s School in Dulwich talk about what they have learned from talking part in the Project - a local history study that enables students to recover, explore and share the hidden histories of people of colour living and working in London 300 years ago. The study shines a light on a specific group of pioneering individuals known as ‘Freedom Seekers’ - Britain's first Black Resistance activists - men, women and children, who freed themselves from captivity by running away. Many of whom joined a global majority community in London that numbered well over 20,000 by the 1800s, a group of individuals that played a crucial, active role in the demand for Abolition.

Today’s episode features the actor, writer, musician and glover, Lula Mebrahtu, known more usually as LULA.XYZ. Ahead of her upcoming double bill performance at The Pleasance Theatre, we discussed Lula’s multi-media approach to storytelling, how she integrates her personal experiences into her work and unpacked the themes of her latest show I AM - A Walking Universe which is the 2nd instalment to her AfroFuturistic Theatre series OommoO. ‘This episode is a harrowing true story about medical racism, identity and self’.

You can catch the upcoming performance on:

Friday 25th OCT

I AM - OommoO (7pm)

I AM - A Walking Universe (8.45pm)

To find out more about Lula’s work, go to:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lula.xyz

Tickets for Friday: https://www.lulamebrahtu.com/