Freedom
Is Mine
By FAYIDA JAILLER
T
Australia
he Australian mainland has been inhabited by indigenous Aborigines for tens of thousands of years. The oldest foreign artifacts ever discovered in Australia are coins minted by the medieval kingdom of the Kilwa Sultanate – the equivalent of modernday Tanzania - found on the Wessel Billy Blue 1834 Islands which indicates trade with Africa by J B East Convicts at Botany Bay from as early as the 12th century. The first fleet of British ships arrived in 1788 at on the convict ship Minorca. He arrived in Sydney Botany Bay which is located in modern-day Sydney. in 1801. Upon release, he married an English They established a penal colony on the mainland former convict, Elizabeth Williams and they had six which was populated by exiled British convicts. children together. Billy became a boatman, ferrying You may be wondering what this has to do passengers across Sydney Harbour, where it was with people of African descent. Well much of the said he was such an eccentric character that the money that went into establishing British colonies in local authorities turned a blind eye to him smuggling Australia was financed by Britain’s involvement in contraband and escaped convicts. Blues point on the Transatlantic slave trade. Sydney Harbour and Blue Street, Blues point tower and the Billy Blue College of Design are Several figures have been all named after him. documented as migrating to Australia after their families acquired wealth So, when did Africans start arriving in from the slave trade, particularly from Australia in large numbers? The African the compensation they received for diaspora in Australia as we know it today it the loss of their ‘product’ when the relatively recent, and African migrants have British government announced the entered Australia for a number of reasons, abolition of slavery in 1833. The Legacies whether as skilled workers, through family Kilwa coin of British Slave-Ownership database at connections or on humanitarian programs. by Powerhouse the University College London details The largest African diaspora communities in Museum many prominent European settlers in Australia hail from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Australia who had benefitted financially Sudan, Mauritius and Kenya. One of the largest from the slave trade. African diaspora communities in Australia today is the Sudanese community. From 1997 to 2007, over People of African descent arrived 20,000 Sudanese people migrated to Australia. via the First Fleet and throughout the 19th century. Notable examples include Billy Blue, John Caesar and Black Jack Anderson. Originally from either New York or Jamaica, Billy Blue was a black convict who was transported to Botany Bay British Abolition slavery compensation cartoon closeup by C. J. Grant
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