Zakia Sewell: How one author is using British folk culture as an antidote to the far right

On a sunny March morning in Bunhill Fields, a cemetery in central London, broadcaster Zakia Sewell ponders whether folk traditions could really be an antidote to far-right nationalism.

The 32-year-old author and BBC Radio 6 DJ has been pondering this question for some time as he travels around the British Isles exploring the country’s folk resurgence for his first book. Finding Albion: Legend, Folklore and the Quest for Secret Britain It is based on Sewell’s hit audio series for BBC Radio 4, in which he explored a different, more inclusive idea of ​​”Britishness” beyond the usual national myths and symbols. The book was longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for non-fiction.

According to Sewell, Britain is in a “folk frenzy”; It signals a post-pandemic revival in folk culture, evidenced by a new slate of pagan festivals and the growing popularity of folk music, dance, films and magazines. Strange WalkingIt takes its name from a movement that invites people to explore places rich in myth and ritual on foot.

“People are becoming more interested in public today because they are looking for alternative visions of Britishness that are more eccentric and fun,” says Sewell. Today it stands a few feet away from the tombstone of poet and mystic William Blake. Born in 1757, Blake was one of the researchers of “Albion”, the oldest known name for the island of Great Britain.

Finding Albion It follows the Pagan calendar, also known as the “Wheel of the Year”, which marks the changing seasons with eight annual festivals across the UK, which Sewell participated in. He celebrated the spring equinox with a druidic ritual at Glastonbury Tor, celebrated May Day with Morris dancers in Oxford, and observed Samhaim, known as the Gaelic Halloween, among the ghosts of York. During Montol, a midwinter festival in Penzance, Cornwall, Sewell dressed as a wolf before wrapping up his year at Stonehenge for another spring equinox.

But alongside this revival in folk culture also emerged another kind of craze. Last year, “flag fever” emerged as a result of the Operation Raise the Color and Unite the Kingdom marches, two movements with links to well-known far-right campaigners such as Tommy Robinson. As flags proliferate from street to street, their meaning is hotly debated in newspapers and on social media: are they a symbol of patriotism or racist nationalism?

Finding Albion looks to history to help undermine efforts by far-right groups to use traditional symbols and stories to fuel division. “Many of our national symbols in England do not have their roots in English soil,” says Sewell, noting that St George, the patron saint of England, never set foot in England and is of Palestinian origin. And the national flag, the St George’s cross, originated as the flag of the Italian Republic of Genoa. “The British even paid taxes to Genoa for centuries for the privilege of using the flag,” he says.

Sewell isn’t the only one hoping to grapple with divisive visions of the past. LGBTQ+ female Morris dance troupe Boss Morris brings a new breath to English folk dances dating back to the 15th century. Their Gloucestershire-based dancers perform at festivals and festivals. They appeared at the Brit awards in 2023 alongside Wet Leg.

By reimagining a modern vision of folk culture, away from the darker aspects of folk traditions, including the practice of blackface, Boss Morris hopes to redefine “Britishness” in a way that is more inclusive and has wider appeal.

As someone of British and Caribbean descent, Sewell’s relationship with her own Britishness has always been complicated. Along with his love of sunlight and syncopated rhythms, he also inherited from his Caribbean family stories of ancestors brought from West Africa on tightly packed ships and working as slaves on sugar plantations under British rule.

Sewell attributes much of Britain’s inequality to the specter of colonial history and the racism used to legitimize it. But through his research he discovered that “Britain in the past was not as white as we thought.” Take the cheddar man; It was revealed in 2018 that the 10,000-year-old Mesolithic skeleton, called the “first Englishman”, had dark skin. Even Septimius Severus, ruler of Great Britain in Roman times, was North African.

Finding Albion It is rich with information and understanding that helps pave the way for a more inclusive vision of Britain. The book’s cover is a picture of something that closely resembles the illusory Holy Grail; The book is an incredible discovery.

Finding Albion: Myth, Folklore, and the Quest for Secret Britain by Zakia Sewell is published by Hodder & Stoughton on 19 March.