Booker Prize urged to consider changing name over slavery links

Radio 1Xtra host Richie Brave has implored the Booker prize to consider changing its name for its links to enslavement.

Brave’s legal surname is Booker and his ancestors were enslaved by the founders of the company that originally sponsored the award.

“I hope that Booker will start asking themselves some questions around the name,” Brave said to the Guardian. “That name was inflicted upon us. As an organisation, you have a choice to change your name to something different.”

He also said he “personally wouldn’t want to retain a name that’s associated with that.”

Earlier this week, organisers reworded a piece about the prize’s original sponsors and its links to enslavement after Brave denounced it on X.

Hi @TheBookerPrizes, I really appreciate the transparency. The enslaved African people referenced are my family.

Josias & George did not "manage" my family. They enslaved them. Thats why we STILL have their last name. They were enslavers, not "managers".https://t.co/exxOhSgQd8

— Richie Brave 🇬🇾🇬🇾 (@RichieBrave) April 24, 2024

Brave was enraged at the original wording, imploring writers: “Don’t attempt to sanitise the horrors of slavery.”

He challenged the notion that the brothers George and Josias Booker were described as having “managed nearly 200 enslaved people.”

“Josias & George did not ‘manage’ my family,” Brave penned. “They enslaved them. That’s why we STILL have their last name. They were enslavers, not ‘managers’.”

The piece was subsequently reworded to say the brothers “enslaved” nearly 200 people.

Brave publicly thanked the prize organisers for editing the site. He said he was “really appreciative” that they had reached out to him to talk. “I think this is the beginning of a very long conversation that attempts to start righting the wrongs that have happened historically,” he said.

The original piece on the Booker website, initially published in 2020, recounts the history of Booker McConnell, the company that sponsored the prize during its establishment from 1968 to 2002.

In 1818, Josias Booker departed Liverpool for what was then known as British Guiana, where he enslaved people on his Broom Hall cotton plantation. His brother George later joined him. When the British parliament voted to abolish slavery in 1833, the brothers received £2,884 – around £285,836 with modern inflation– in compensation for 52 formerly enslaved people.

In 1834, the brothers founded Booker, a trading and shipping company. The family holdings were passed on to a partner, McConnell, in the 1880s, forming the Booker McConnell company.

“When we’re not having the correct conversations, or we’re not using the correct language, not only are we dishonouring people’s ancestors but we are retraumatising people who already feel the trauma as a result of what happened in their families historically,” Brave noted. “So yes, fine, this is generations ago for me, but I still feel the effects of slavery now. I see the socioeconomic effects on my family. And these things hurt, it isn’t just me being a little bit upset. This is traumatising. This is traumatic history.”

In a statement, the Booker prize said: “A descendant of people enslaved by the Booker brothers in the 19th century contacted us on social media yesterday about an inaccuracy in a description of Booker’s history on our website. We appreciated his getting in touch and fully agree with his point about the importance of language.

“We have updated the article accordingly and apologise for the distress caused. As the article also explains, further research into this important history is in progress, which we will share once it’s complete. This research will contribute to any future thinking. The Booker prizes are committed to excellence in literature and mindful of the conditions for justice. We will continue to reflect on the ways in which we represent this to readers everywhere.”

The prize’s connections to slavery have been highlighted before, most prominently when John Berger, who won the Booker prize in 1972 for his novel G, used his acceptance speech to announce his intention to “turn this prize against itself” and donate half of his winnings to the British Black Panther movement. Booker McConnell was still the sponsor of the prize at the time.

The Booker and International Booker prizes are now funded by the charitable foundation, Crankstart.