In late 2022, Bristol Legacy Foundation (BLF) members transferred the coordination of BLF from BCC to the Black South West Network (BSWN) to produce a Single Unified Campaign of Commemoration and Reparation for the city.

This is a project of huge scale and ambition, which will require careful planning and a significant timescale.  The 200th Anniversary of the Explicit State Sanctioned End of Chattel Enslavement will be 2033, creating the framework for a ten year campaign worthy of this scale and ambition, and a timescale across which potential obstacles can turn into opportunities.

• We will have time to commission and develop a series of commemorative, storytelling and reparatory activities through an ongoing programme culminating in the opening of the New Memorial, Storyhouse and Afrikan Heritage Centre of Excellence in Bristol 2033.

• We will have time to build on the new understanding of the need and opportunity for Reparations in relation to the history of the trafficking of enslaved people across the UK and globally, those connected as part of the transatlantic routes in many organisations which are now understanding the need and opportunity for activity of this kind.

• This offers a ten-year timescale, which would allow proper time for the processes of structuring, commissioning, and building process of a project of this scale and with this ambition, alongside the significant fundraising and communications campaigns which will be required to realise it.