I spent last night in the splendour of Liverpool Town Hall with its gilt mirrors and stunning chandeliers.
It was all most unexpected really. I had accepted an invitation to hear the Slavery Remembrance Day memorial lecture, given annually on the eve of the day itself and in a venue at least partially created from the fortunes of Liverpool's slave traders.
Ekow Eshun, the artistic director of the Institute for Contemporary Art, was due to give the lecture and I rather imagined we’d all just roll up to a room with rows of seats and the modern powerpoint equivalent of a slide show.
In actual fact, first we were shown into the large ballroom which stretches the length of the hall overlooking Exchange Flags.
There, we all sat down together for a lavish buffet - old and young (there were children among the audience which was a good sign), mayor and housewife, and of every community in the city.
It was all very entertaining, and I managed to save myself from an embarrassing faux pas when I went to chat to Michelle Charters of the Novas group and she introduced me to the speaker himself - for some reason I didn’t click it was him and it was only after I got back to my seat that I realised. A good thing I stuck to polite chit chat!
I suppose I was expecting a rather crusty academic, or a middle aged arty type.
Ekow Eshun turned out to be barely older than myself, and a former editor of Face and Arena magazines.
His lecture, downstairs in the main council chamber, was interesting if at times a little unfocused.
The most intriguing part was when he described how he had taken a trip to Ghana to find out about his ancestors (he was born in London to Ghanaian parents) and what he discovered was most unexpected and a little discombobulating.
It turned out that Eshun’s great, great, great, great grandfather, or maybe there should be another great, was a Dutch settler who married an African woman. But he was also a slave trader, and so was his son.
How do you deal with that skeleton in the family closet? As Eshun said, he went looking for answers and actually found more questions.
Today is Slavery Remembrance Day itself and the usual services of libation and remembrance will be held.
It is right we remember - which is why proposals to expunge the names of merchants involved in the trade from street signs was so ridiculous - and recognise Liverpool’s role in this most abhorrent of trades, but at the same time without beating ourselves up about it. Self-flagellation isn’t constructive for anyone in the long run.
