parliament in sri lanka has voted for prime minister ranil wickremesinghe to become the country's new president, despite his unpopularity with the public. he faces the task of leading the country out of its economic collapse, and restoring order. now it is time for empire and me. i'm de—graft mensah — podcaster, presenter and proud british ghanaian. i'm going to be leaving behind my dayjob and heading to west africa for the first time since i was nine. the murder of george floyd and the anti—racism protests that followed led people to start to question britain's history, as well as its actions abroad when it had an empire. and it led me to want to find out more. i know that ghana used to be part of the british empire, so i want to discover what that meant for the country. i want to learn why britain made ghana part of its empire, how it affected the ghanaian people, and what impact it had on my own family. i've made the 3,000—mile journey to accra, the capital of ghana, somewhere i've not been since i was a kid. you know what? it feels so... it feels comforting because i'm seeing people that look like me, that talk like my family and i'm seeing just, like, loads of people on the roadsides, selling, it's vibrant. but, ultimately, the goal is finding out what the british empire was all about. as i travel through accra, i don't have to look far before seeing a physical reminder of the legacy of empire. right here is this, the freedom and justice arch, and it was built as a massive celebration for the ghanaians to remind them of their independence from the british empire. so, when it comes to my personal knowledge of the british empire, i know as much as i was taught in school. i know that we had an empire, it ruled countries all around the world but, growing up, it was sort of told to me as something to be celebrated. i want to know whether the empire is something to be proud of and what living under the empire was like for everyday ghanaian people, like my own family. so, to get started, i'm heading away from accra and travelling to a rural community along the coast. it's where a lot of my family were born and it's where my gran still lives today. if i am exploring the british empire and how it's affected ghana, i, in a sense, am right in the middle of that story. i've got the british side to me and i've got the ghanaian side to me, so what better way to explore the ghanaian side to me than to actually meet one of my family members who was around at that time, but also who i directly come from? it's weird because i haven't seen her in the flesh since i was a little kid and now, like, i'm a full—grown person, so i'm really excited. i'm really excited. sings. hello, grandma! sings. hello. i'll be chatting to my grandma with the help of a translator. and first, she wants to know about myjob. i work for the bbc as a journalist and i present a tv programme. i'm still quite young, so i'm not thinking about marriage. so, when you were younger, what were the attitudes from people in ghana towards the british? did people like being ruled under them, or were people sort of resentful against them? do you think that the british being in control of ghana, do you think that was a good thing that happened, or a bad thing? what were other members of ourfamily doing? what kind ofjobs did people have? it was great to see my grandma again, and i have learnt loads. that my family have farmed here for as long as anyone can remember. although helping my cousin george on the farm has shown me that i've not picked up the farming gene. hey, guys, move! i'm trying to feed you! i've learned that my grandma is pretty positive about the british, but i thought it was really interesting that my grandma also raised the topic of slavery. my family live near the coast and i know that trade in enslaved people did go on here, so i want to know more. nearby, historian kweku has information for me about the relationship between the people living in this area, known as the fantes, and visiting europeans. so, kweku, i wanted to chat to you to get a greater understanding of what was happening in ghana during the empire, but also what my family were doing, and apparently you have all the knowledge. so fill me in, what's going on? so within this area, it was what we call the british domain. 0h, 0k! so, the british were occupying here. what? in this very area? in this very area. 0k! so let me get this straight, then, because how i always envisioned the empire — i envisioned that the british came over and just captured everything and said, "this is ours." so let me correct an impression here. the europeans didn't come and then grab everything. first, they signed agreements with the locals. 0k. so, it was not that they came and just grabbed. yeah. so, i guess that answers how the british became in control of certain areas of ghana, but i still don't quite understand where my family fits into all of this. yeah, so back in the day, mostly they were engaged in farming, and then fishing, because the fantes do two things — fishing and farming, and then sell it to the british. ah, 0k. but whilst europeans had first arrived in the area to trade in goods like gold or foodstuffs, over time, trade became far more sinister through the buying and selling of enslaved human beings — something known as the transatlantic slave trade. i have a document here of the young man you see. yeah. his name is ottobah cugoano. this gentleman was from ajumako, which is close to your home town in enyan abaasa. enyan abaasa, yeah. amazingly, ottobah wrote about his experience, and i'm holding a copy of his first—hand account. this is heartbreaking. "i didn't want to go to the forest. i was worried that something bad might happen to us there. after a couple of hours, we were approached by a group of men. they pretended they meant us no harm. but before too long, they used weapons and kidnapped us. i was taken on a long journey, away from my home and family. eventually, my captors took me to a castle on the coast. i can't remember its name. i asked a man why i was here, and he replies, "to learn the ways of the white man". he handed me over to the guards from the castle. in return, he was given a gun, a piece of cloth and some lead. this made me cry bitterly, and i was taken to a prison for three days, where i could just hear the cries and moans of other prisoners. a vessel arrived to take us. it was the most horrible scene. there was nothing to be heard but the rattling of chains, smacking of whips and the gruesome cries of our fellow men. i was brought from a state of innocence and freedom and converted to a state of horror and slavery". reading this... ..it�*s hard. to know that somebody, who was 13 at the time, who came from very close to where my family are from, went through all of this... this is disgusting. it's disgusting. it makes me wonder, would there be moments where my family ever had at the back of their mind that, "yes, we're trading, but we too... "we could be captured"? i want to know more about the kind of fort ottobah would have been taken to, so kwaku has arranged for me to see elmina castle — one of the largest and oldest forts in the area. whilst it's located in an idyllic setting, elmina played a role in one of the darkest chapters of human history. originally built by the portuguese, elmina was used by several european nations to imprison enslaved people, before they were transported across the atlantic. inside, i'm going to be shown around by essie. so, essie, where are we right now? ok, so this right here was a male slave courtyard. this is where they bought and sold the slaves. what, as in, like, right here? right here. wow. so, right here, we have the largest female slave dungeon. it held about 150 of the female slaves. 150? yes. once they got in here, this is the floor they slept on — the same floor they had to urinate. the food was poured onto the dirty floor and they had to eat from the dirty floor. because of that, a lot of the female slaves — the male slaves as well — died, because this place was very, very dirty. it takes... for me, hearing all of that, for somebody to do that to somebody else, that's just plain... it's evil. so, i'm assuming that, when you're in a space like this, you must... you must be in this space, thinking, "i might not leave "here alive at all, cos everywhere i look, "there are many different ways i could die"? yes. down this corridor is a door of no return. through it, slaves were forced onto ships ready for transportation. it's almost as if... if suffering here wasn't bad enough, once you leave past that door, you'rejust going to suffer some more. so you're going to end up at a plantation, and your suffering doesn't end here. did the slaves know that? i don't think they knew. i don't. when i've learned about slavery in the past, it felt distant. it sort of felt like, "this is something that "happened to people that looked like me, but not necessarily "people who were just like me." if i was born in that time, i easily could have been in that situation, and that's something that... i don't even know how a human goes through that and survives. it's thought that over three million africans were purchased and transported across the atlantic on british ships, with those on board facing a life of working without pay in inhumane conditions. ottobah, like many of those transported by the british, was sent to work on a caribbean sugar plantation. but unlike most, his story has a positive ending. ottobah was purchased by a merchant who took him to britain, where he learned to read and write and was eventually freed. ottobah was able to record his story in writing, and it went on to help convince the british people of the evils of the slave trade. by 1807, britain — a country which had been one of the world's largest slaving nations — became one of the first to outlaw the trading of enslaved people, meaning people could no longer be forcibly transported from africa. so, i know there'll be some people who think that because britain was leading in the abolition movement, that that clears them of everything. and it's like, "you know what? "yeah, they did terrible things, but they did "help to free the slaves." you can think like that... ..but i don't always think rights clear your wrongs. sometimes the wrongs that you do are so wrong that your rights... ..theyjust don't cut it. i now know that the trade in human beings was key to britain's arrival on these shores, but i want to know what kept britain here once slavery had been abolished and why they ended up expanding their power. so i'm heading north, following the path the british took to kumasi. it's ghana's second largest city and is home to the people of the asante tribe. first stop, i'm going to a farm on the outskirts which grows cocoa, used to produce chocolate. i'm meeting historian osei bonsu to tell me what they were up to. here, we have the cocoa bean... yeah. ..in the pod. and i guess the most important question is, can i try some of that? you can. it feels very, like, gooey. he laughs yeah, suck on it. hmm! it tastes quite sweet! laughing: yes. so, we know when the british stopped trading in slaves, they didn't just leave ghana. in fact, their growth in ghana continued, and they moved to different regions. why was that the case? so when slavery had ended, they had to move to other areas where they could make money. such as cocoa, i believe? yeah. cocoa... yeah. ..kola nuts, gold. they also traded in coffee. why did the british find so much value in products like this? they were selling overseas. it was giving the british government a lot of money, so they institutionalised the cocoa farming. so, the british saw things like cocoa beans, they decided, "wait, we can make quite a bit of money "off of farming these beans. "let's make the production even bigger and even faster "so we can make more money." is that essentially what happened? yes. maximise profit. expansion north led to violent clashes with the ruling asante people. britain wanted control in the region, to be able to make money through the likes of cocoa and gold. but britain tried to justify their violence by claiming that they wanted to stop the asante, who were believed to be keeping slaves and carrying out religious killing known as human sacrifice. just outside kumasi, at a workshop he helped set up weaving african fabrics called kente, osei bonsu wants to show me just how far britain went to protect its interests here. so what exactly did the british do to the people of the asante community? they engaged them in a number of wars. any time they defeated the asantes, they took more of their lands and added it to theirs. the british did not stop there. they moved into the capital and then burnt down the capital. british soldiers burnt kumasi to the ground and sent a brutal statement of power to the asante people. osei bonsu has a document that he wants to share with me. it is important to note... yeah. ..that the british used local people to fight the asante. britain ordered that the fante people from the south of the country had to support the british in their wars. as many as 20,000 men were forced to help. so, reading this, "every able—bodied man not already engaged "in the service of this country is immediately "to present himself for that service." and then it goes on to say that every able—bodied man refusing to do it without a proper excuse is to be arrested and made to work without pay. does that suggest that, at this point in history, my family would have been used to help fight against...? yes, that is true. wow! i am somebody who, i've always said, "i'm proud to be british. "i'm british through and through." but at the same time, i'm very much so ghanaian, and i'm very much so fante. and knowing that the british went through any means that they could to manipulate the fante people and other ghanaian communities, and inflict such harsh punishment, that's not easy news to hear at all. to think, what, you would do all of that just for money? and you would do all of that to become this great empire that we've learned so much about? for the asante, the hurt of what happened still lives on — in part because british soldiers looted precious items, many of them made of gold, like these still on display in kumasi — and took them to britain, where they remain today. to find out more, i'm heading into the city to meet one of the leaders of the asante community, chief agyemang—bonsu. but before i can chat to the chief, tradition calls for me to dance for him. drum music dance over, and it looks like he's happy. so i know byjust looking at appearance alone that gold is very important to not only the ghanaian culture, but specifically the asante culture. butjust how important is gold to you guys? gold is very important, because it's a sign for us not only of wealth, but also of authority. during this journey, i've learned that there was a point in history where the british actually looted from this culture and took it to the uk. how do the current asante community feel towards the british and all the things that they've still got in the uk? that actually had... ..a devastating blow to our kingdom, because, for us, it's not just an artefact. it is the soul of the kingdom. and to have taken those items from us, robbed us of those important historical relics — i mean, we would have loved to have had them here. for the current and the future generation, we want to have them back. so far, i've heard some pretty difficult things about britain's history in ghana, but i want to look at another side to the legacy of the empire. and i'm off to church. christianity is the largest religion in ghana and was introduced by the british. for loads of ghanaians, like those here in church today, that's something to be thankful for. singing i know that other ghanaians also think positively about some of the things britain created here — things such as building schools, advances in medicine and the creation of roads, railways and ports. in 1957 became one of the first african countries to achieve independence from the british empire, a fact i know guidelines are fiercely proud of. ——ghanaians are fiercely proud of. many fondly remember the british infrastructure projects. for me it is difficult to look beyond britain's exploitation of ghana for people and profit. we need to remember what happened here and in other former colonies and learn from it. britain and ghana will always be connected by a shared history. because of that, millions of people here see britain positively, and view it as a home away from home. like my family did when they moved to britain all those years ago. in order to know who you are, you've got to know where you come from. yeah, i might not be entirely proud of the history that underpins both sides of me. but it's made me who i am. and it's made my life what it is today. so maybe, just maybe, i am because of the empire. we will start with a reminder of the extraordinary temperatures recorded on tuesday, in excess of a0 celsius in a few locations what is even more extraordinary is just how widespread this high temperatures were, into the high 30s, even in northern england. 0n high 30s, even in northern england. on wednesday we would call this a typically hot day in the uk, 29 degrees in norwich, 27 also in london but compared to what we experienced that seems pretty tame now so our perspective has changed in the last few days. the at the forecast into thursday then and light winds with a weak area of high pressure over us, cloudy in the morning but through the afternoon i think the cloud will allow for some sunny spells to develop, a few showers around, scattered and temperatures will range from around the high teens to about 25 celsius in london so fairly typical temperatures for our climate and this time of year. on thursday night into friday perhaps some showers into early friday and staying quite warm as far as the nights go. in fact the early morning temperatures on friday roundabout 1a— 16 degrees across central parts of england. this is the weather map for friday and there is a front crossing the uk meaning some clouds and some showers around as well, hit and miss so we're not talking about widespread rain, we could do with some widespread rain but the showers will be hit and miss. some of them perhaps from the re and against standard temperatures for the time of year, around 23 also in london, 19 in liverpool, high teens for glasgow and edinburgh as well. toward the weekend this area of approaches so we do expect for cloud and outbreaks of rain move across ireland and into the north parts of the uk but ahead of it this south—westerly breeze will scoop up some hot airfrom france breeze will scoop up some hot air from france so breeze will scoop up some hot airfrom france so by breeze will scoop up some hot air from france so by the time we get to sunday we could start to see these temperatures climbing across the south—east and extend. as the area of low pressure onset of the night into sunday moves north, the wind for the south increases and drawers in the former continental airfrom the and drawers in the former continental air from the south but how warm it gets is still a little unsure because we can see from an amount of clutter showers in the breeze will keep the temperatures down but it's not impossible that we could see those temperatures approaching maybe in exceeding 30 celsius across parts of east anglia and the south—east. more conservative figure thereof 28, the low 20s towards the west. into monday that low pressure moves through, weather front moves through, weather front moves through, weather front moves through so that means fresh atlantic air and you can see the breeze from the north around the area of low pressure and spreading that atlantic air over the uk so fat to fairly typical temperatures of around the low 20s, low— maybe mid 20s across the south of the country, high teens to 20 or so in norwich and liverpool. that is monday. what about next week? i pressure is expected to generally dominate across england and wales but to the north—west of the uk or closer to the weather sit, typical weather for our parts of the world. in summery, next week, temperatures should be near average, a sunny spell and the possibility of some showers in the north and west. welcome to bbc news. i'm tim willcox. our top stories — a threat to our very existence — as wildfires continue to rage, president biden pledges to make the biggest ever investment to combat climate change. i'll do everything in my power to clean ourairand i'll do everything in my power to clean our air and water, protect our people's health, to win the clean energy future. despite winning a confidence vote, is mario draghi about to once more resign as italy's prime minister? inside parliament, sri lanka's lawmakers choose their new president. 0utside, protests continue against the selection of prime minister ranil wickremesinghe. music and — a window into the past — newly—discovered footage
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