| AdminHistory | Tower Hamlets African and Caribbean Mental Health Organisation (THACMHO) was founded in 1996 was as a mental health service users group for the African and Caribbean communities. It has become recognised that mental health services across the United Kingdom had failed African Caribbean people because they were not set up with other cultures in mind.
The 1990 Community Care Act led to some improvements with its requirement for comprehensive consultation procedures for providers and purchasers of mental health services to be follow. Tower Hamlets Mental Health Users Development Project attempted to find out the needs of local African Caribbean people. However, consultations and seminars in 1994 failed to attract wide community interest. Mike Loosley, the mental health development worker for Tower Hamlets Community Health Council Users Development Project and St. Clements Patients Council, asked Harry Cumberbatch, an Independent Mental Health Community Work Consultant to address the issue.
An 'African / Caribbean Conference and Consultation' was held in November 1996 which led to the formation of the Tower Hamlets African Caribbean Mental Health Users Group. The name later changed to Tower Hamlets African and Caribbean Mental Health Organisation (THACMHO). The aims of this voluntary organisation have been to:
- promote the well-being of African and Caribbean users of mental health services living in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
- make the life of their communities a more fulfilling and rewarding experience.
- developing positive self-awareness and identity.
A key statement of the organisation has been: 'We believe that the best treatment for our mental health is a strong, vibrant and caring community'. THACMHO has run events including conferences and workshops, often during Black History Month. They have produced publication resources with a focus on Tower Hamlets maritime history and the slave trade. These include:
- 'Power Writers and the Struggle Against Slavery', 2003 and 2005 which celebrates African writers who came to the East End of London in the 18th Century;
- 'Sailors of the Caribbean, 2005;
- 'African History at the Tower of London', 2008.
Many publications have been achieved through THACMHO's 'Health Though History Project'. The Health Through History Committee followed on from the Black History Committee which largely undertook initiatives around history research and publications. Philip I Morgan was a key committee member and volunteer coordinator for 15 years before his death in 2017.
THACMHO has been led by users of mental health services, supported by a development worker. Members have included Harry Cumberbatch, Raymond Smith, Fabian Tompsett and Sidney Millin. Their work has continued as part of the Philip Morgan Legacy Group.
Further information on 'Power Writers' initiatives written by a member of THACMHO:
"The Health Through History Committee was an additional project to THACMHO's other activities. Our committee had discovered that five of the writers mentioned in Vincent Carretta's 'Unchained Voices: An Anthology' (1996) had all interacted with London's East End in the last quarter of the eighteenth century:
These were Phillis Wheatley, Ukawsaw Gronniosax, John Marrant, Olaudah Equiano, and Ottobah Cugoano. As part of Black History Month, 2001, we organised its first Power Writers walks, having identified five African Writers who came to London's Fast End and found that we could make a short walk visiting locations connected with each individual. Our members would read out short pieces by each of the Power Writers, followed by a brief discussion of the writer's contribution. The walk would end at the Whitechapel Mission, who kindly hosted the group, with the support of Tony Miller.
The presence of the eighteenth-century brick work in the cellar of the mission, at the time, led us to believe that it as the most likely site of the White Raven Tavern and a site of importance for London's African population in the 1780s, and we called out for further research to be carried out.
The development of the walk was designed to be inclusive, and to provide an embodied, experiential sense of place. As we went from location to location, participants would sometimes meet old friends and sometimes make new friends, breaking off into splinter groups as they negotiated through the bustling streets. The walks facilitated a life affirming psycho-geographic connection between the local participants of African descent and the city they came to live in.
The five writers were not isolated individuals, but rather a selection of the Black community in London's East End, whose presence endured the historical record thanks to the publication of their books.
Stephen Braidwood's book 'Black Poor and White Philanthropists' (1994) provided a book length account of the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor, highlighting the role of the White Raven as a meeting place particularly for Black Loyalists who had fought for the British Army in the American War of Independence. Promised their freedom by the British, they were evacuated from the newly independent colonies following their defeat.
At this time English law required the local parish to keep a record of baptism, and those that found themselves subsequently destitute were expected to return to their original parish, where they would be provided for by that community. This meant that these army veterans were often reduced to begging on the streets of London.
The site then became a principal recruiting place for the resettlement of these veterans and others who wanted to go with them, to create an English colony in Sierra Leone.
At the time of THACMHO's inception, not much academic attention was given to Black presence in British historical narratives. We found our interpretations of the past largely dismissed, with some members even being misdiagnosed by psychiatric professionals as delusional. The denial, erasure, and pathologisation of Black people's interactions with the past have real, material effects on their wellbeing in the present. This is particularly disheartening given the values of THACMHO, and our agenda to promote healing and connectivity.
This erasure can further be identified in the booklet 'The Hamlets and the Tower: 1000 Years of Tower Hamlets' History' published by Tower Hamlets Council (2000). The first time Africans are mentioned are Somalian sailors who settled in Tower Hamlets during 1950s. When this matter was raised, the Council agreed with the concerns and provide some funding to support THAMHO in our publication of a booklet version of the guided walk, entitled 'Power Writers and the Struggle Against Slavery' (2005)."
Source: 'Theatres of resistance: Buried stories and Black radicalism at London's earliest playhouse and taverns' pages 18-27 in British Archaeology - July/August 2025.
For more information check out Harry Cumberbatch's website established in 2024 'to commemorate my 60 years living in the UK whilst also reflecting on the 20 years I spent growing up in Barbados': https://hcheritage.co.uk/ |