After taking early retirement Victor Okrafo-Smart embarked on a quest to discover his family history, he went right back to 1807. His research took him back to the year of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, and it was here that he found that the Okrafo family had had a lucky escape. Victor discovered through his uncle that despite the Okrafo family coming from a royal household in Nigeria, they were still taken as slaves (by countries not taking part in the Act). Victor explains what happened next... "They ended up in Sierra Leone because they were already on a slave ship.... Then slavery was abolished. "One of the conditions of the enforcement of the act was that the British naval crews intercepted the slave boats. "The human cargos settled in Free Town [Sierra Leone] and they were known as the 'liberated Africans'." Missionaries Victor's late great aunt lived in Sierra Leone. Before she died she told Victor that their family were once missionaries.
 | | Victor's book |
Victor went to the Church Missionary archives in Birmingham where he read journals written by his great-grandfather." "This gave me a lot of information... on an occasion it gave me a vivid description of slavery practiced by the Africans, Africans had slaves before the Europeans had slaves!" Victor found that his family during the last 200 years have been doctors, lawyers, engineers and nurses - which never would have happened had the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act not been realised. Victor has written a book about his family. "I wanted to show that here was one family that was lucky enough not go into slavery and this is what came out of it, they were educated and they gave a lot back..." To get a copy of Victor's book call him on 07710 376754. | 
