Rekindle and The Guardian: Bringing Manchester’s Radical Legacy into the Classroom

During October, our Manchester Youth Pioneer Farzana led the delivery of the Manchester Radicals pilot at Saint Mary’s Primary School, with Rekindle acting as delivery partner. This project sits within The Guardian’s Legacy of Enslavement Programme – a long-term initiative created after the newspaper’s investigation into its historical connections to transatlantic slavery.

As part of their response, The Guardian is developing community and education projects that explore overlooked histories, amplify radical changemakers, and support schools to teach a more complete and truthful account of Britain’s past.

The Manchester Radicals resources are designed to help pupils learn about local figures who were part of wider movements for justice and resistance. Rekindle was invited to test these materials in a school setting and help shape how they could be used nationally.

At Saint Mary’s, the focus was Elouise Edwards, a social justice activist born in Guyana who moved to Moss Side at the age of 28. Over five decades, she founded around 35 organisations and campaigns tackling issues such as housing inequality, community health, and cultural marginalisation. Her work was part of a broader tradition of Black community organising in Moss Side, including the Abasindi Women’s Co-operative – a Black women-led initiative based in the Moss Side People’s Centre (the building that later became home to the space Rekindle proudly occupies today). She was a powerful advocate for transforming the education system, arguing that incomplete histories – and the sidelining of Black achievements – amounted to a form of cultural apartheid.

Across five sessions, Farzana brought Edwards’ story to life through creative tasks and critical inquiry. Year 6 pupils:

• wrote biographical pieces about Edwards’ life and legacy
  
• debated the positive cultural impact of immigration
  
• imagined the issues Edwards might campaign on today
  
• developed their own vision for a fairer and more connected local community

This pilot has offered a valuable opportunity to test new educational materials, introduce young people to a radical local figure and support them to build confidence in their own ideas, voice and civic imagination.

A huge thank you to Farzana for leading this work with such care, creativity and commitment.