The royals and their fans love to talk about history and tradition. The reality is that the history of royals and monarchy is one of empire, slavery and oppression at home and abroad.

Caribbean carnival culture, most famously the Notting Hill Carnival, has become part of the tradition and culture of modern Britain. As well as being about celebration and party the carnival is also about challenging inequality, racism and the colonial legacy the royals and elites have left behind.

In a departure from Republic's usual programme, this programme looks more closely at that legacy, the culture of carnival and how it can fit with more recent campaigns for equality, justice and democracy.

In the video, Republic's Graham Smith, Professor Emily Zobel Marshall, Cllr Graham Campbell and Dr Tola Dabiri discuss the relevance of carnival to protests and campaigns about the monarchy and demands for change. 

Republic's CEO Graham Smith was joined by Dr Emily Zobel Marshall (left) and Dr Tola Dabiri (right).

Professor Emily Zobel Marshall

Emily Zobel Marshall’s research is informed by Postcolonial theory and spans a broad range of concerns, including examinations of constructions of identity (in particular hybrid and liminal identities), race and racial politics and Caribbean carnival cultures. She is particularly interested in forms of cultural resistance and cross-cultural fertilisation in the face of colonialism. Her work also often focuses on the ways in which hybrid identities, languages and literatures challenge and modify existing social and cultural structures.

Dr Tola Dabiri

Tola Dabiri is the Director of Electric Piers CIC and has worked across the cultural sector since 1995, beginning her career in public libraries and archives. Tola has also worked at the Museums Libraries and Archives Council, The National Archives, the UK Centre for Carnival Arts, and the National Academy for Social Prescribing. Tola has developed and managed a number of successful projects including Carnival in a Box (www.carnivalinabox.co.uk), fundraising for archives for The National Archives, and UKCCA’s NLHF funded Carnival Archive Project, (www.carnivalarchives.org.uk).