Two confident essays came out of this tape last week. These are the two minutes they were answering — in 4K.
After five years in a folder called DELETED — this footage finally sees the light of day. Filmed in October 2021 and devastatingly relevant now. Nothing was rewritten.
Honestly, the video baffles me. Comments like “you probably did the crime” were obviously expected but “looked like he was gonna stab someone” is a bit mad. No?
New hate comments are literally pending as we speak. Like they are overdue at this point. What could possibly be worse though? I was allegedly “dealing” at Stamford Bridge during the COVID-19 pandemic, at midnight. Let that sink in.
Then the Metropolitan Police have the sheer audacity to claim I am part of a “gang” orchestrating attacks against them. Well so be it; consider this very offensive counter-attack with the Chelsea trio: Palmer, Rogers and João Pedro up front. Like I think I am gonna score eventually, actually I already have...
Quick one, I draw parallels near the end to something larger than feeling sorry for myself. However, 10 officers vs 1 innocent civilian (me btw) is crazy work ;) Excessive and disproportionate much, even for the MET.
My actual point being, Black people in the UK have paid for their own freedom through taxes — very weird but sadly accurate.1 Anyone who paid UK tax before February 2015 — whatever their colour — was helping service the debt raised in 1835 to compensate slave owners. Not the enslaved. The owners. Receipts attached: I wish I could have made this up, the authorities beat me to the punch — yet again.2 Kind of embarrassing. Shambolic for lack of a better word.
In other words, we have paid for a freedom not yet received.
On a lighter note, thank you for the love shown — for real. I will continue dropping gems so do watch this space. The fact that you have read this far means I ain't just chatting shit. You can comment directly here too, you know that right?
Below are a few calm messages I received (for a change), made me smile, not gonna lie.
Am I Really Free?
— Joshua Immanuel Nyamekye Arthur
“Am I Really Free?” premieres 1 October 2026 · jjdreamss.com/film
Testimony, not fabrication.
The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 committed £20 million to compensate slave owners — roughly 40% of the national budget at the time. Nathan Mayer Rothschild and his brother-in-law Moses Montefiore led a syndicate underwriting three new series of securities to raise £15 million; a further £5 million was paid out directly in government stock. Not a penny was paid to those who were enslaved. Sources: HM Treasury, FOI2018-00186 (gov.uk); Tax Justice Network, "Britain's Slave Owner Compensation Loan" (2020); UCL Legacies of British Slavery database.
HM Treasury, FOI2018-00186 (2018): the 1835 loan was rolled over into the government's gilt programme, ultimately into an undated gilt, the 4% Consolidated Loan, which was redeemed on 1 February 2015 as part of the decision to redeem all remaining undated gilts — in the Treasury's own words, "Money borrowed to fund the Slavery Abolition Act (1835) was therefore fully repaid in 2015." The "beat me to the punch": HM Treasury's own #FridayFact tweet of 9 February 2018 read "Millions of you helped end the slave trade through your taxes" — subsequently deleted after backlash. Honest caveat, because receipts cut both ways: the Treasury holds no record of how much of the original loan was outstanding in 1927 when it was consolidated, so it's not known how much of this loan was repaid in 2015. The debt line ran to 2015; the exact sum is unknowable.
