Ken Olende
@kenolende.bsky.social
Writer on history, race and politics. PhD researcher. Tai Chi teacher.
Just saw wonderful Laurie Anderson at London’s Roundhouse supported by wonderful Lonnie Holley and Maria Somerville. First concert I’ve ever been to that finished with a tai chi form!
November 8, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Just saw wonderful Laurie Anderson at London’s Roundhouse supported by wonderful Lonnie Holley and Maria Somerville. First concert I’ve ever been to that finished with a tai chi form!
Twenty odd books on race and racism in Britain from the 60s & 70s turn up at the Oxfam shop. Surely I already have enough books on this subject? “No, Precious! We needs them all!!”
October 9, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Twenty odd books on race and racism in Britain from the 60s & 70s turn up at the Oxfam shop. Surely I already have enough books on this subject? “No, Precious! We needs them all!!”
Went for a walk round Connaught Water in Epping Forest (by London) and saw a figure in the water. We pulled it out and it’s Chinese Taoist wealth god Caishen (財神). I hope he sends us some wealth for rescuing him. I believe people send paper boats out on lakes for luck.
October 5, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Went for a walk round Connaught Water in Epping Forest (by London) and saw a figure in the water. We pulled it out and it’s Chinese Taoist wealth god Caishen (財神). I hope he sends us some wealth for rescuing him. I believe people send paper boats out on lakes for luck.
Local fatcat in our back garden demanding entry (and presumably food), but behind them is a portentous Bergmanesque memento mori!!!
September 26, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Local fatcat in our back garden demanding entry (and presumably food), but behind them is a portentous Bergmanesque memento mori!!!
Remembering my Dad, Shem Arungu-Olende, on what would have been his birthday. Here we are newly arrived in London in the mid 1960s. Behind us is the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens (& Dad is the one with the cool hat) .
September 23, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Remembering my Dad, Shem Arungu-Olende, on what would have been his birthday. Here we are newly arrived in London in the mid 1960s. Behind us is the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens (& Dad is the one with the cool hat) .
30th national protest in central London against the ongoing starvation and ethnic cleansing in Gaza
September 6, 2025 at 3:01 PM
30th national protest in central London against the ongoing starvation and ethnic cleansing in Gaza
5/11 …after the war”.
Mountbatten had received orders from the new Labour government: “On 13 August 1945, he was told that his primary objectives were the reoccupation of Burma, Singapore and key areas of Malaya. When this had been done, Mountbatten was to send troops to Hong Kong, Indochina…
Mountbatten had received orders from the new Labour government: “On 13 August 1945, he was told that his primary objectives were the reoccupation of Burma, Singapore and key areas of Malaya. When this had been done, Mountbatten was to send troops to Hong Kong, Indochina…
August 15, 2025 at 5:08 PM
5/11 …after the war”.
Mountbatten had received orders from the new Labour government: “On 13 August 1945, he was told that his primary objectives were the reoccupation of Burma, Singapore and key areas of Malaya. When this had been done, Mountbatten was to send troops to Hong Kong, Indochina…
Mountbatten had received orders from the new Labour government: “On 13 August 1945, he was told that his primary objectives were the reoccupation of Burma, Singapore and key areas of Malaya. When this had been done, Mountbatten was to send troops to Hong Kong, Indochina…
1/11 There is a lot of bunk talked about Victory in Japan Day. The media wants to recall the forgotten British Army left thousands of miles from home and how the Japanese were the most brutal imperialists, no one wants to mention a strange alliance between the defeated Japanese and the British…
August 15, 2025 at 5:08 PM
1/11 There is a lot of bunk talked about Victory in Japan Day. The media wants to recall the forgotten British Army left thousands of miles from home and how the Japanese were the most brutal imperialists, no one wants to mention a strange alliance between the defeated Japanese and the British…
1/3 Finally finished #BLACKSPARTACUS, the magnificent biography of #ToussaintLouverture by #SudhirHazareesingh. The detail it goes into is remarkable showing his (occasionally contradictory) revolutionary development. If you only read one book #CLRJames’ #BLACKJACOBINS is still it, but to fully…
August 13, 2025 at 4:32 PM
1/3 Finally finished #BLACKSPARTACUS, the magnificent biography of #ToussaintLouverture by #SudhirHazareesingh. The detail it goes into is remarkable showing his (occasionally contradictory) revolutionary development. If you only read one book #CLRJames’ #BLACKJACOBINS is still it, but to fully…
4/4 …Please, Tribune, 19 May 1944). In the light of weird recent social media stories about police bussing lefties to anti-fascist demos; someone paying anti-racist demonstrators to attend (if only!); and the fantastic secret millions of the SWP, it all somehow seems relevant.
August 9, 2025 at 8:40 PM
4/4 …Please, Tribune, 19 May 1944). In the light of weird recent social media stories about police bussing lefties to anti-fascist demos; someone paying anti-racist demonstrators to attend (if only!); and the fantastic secret millions of the SWP, it all somehow seems relevant.
2/4 …Tribune is not a Communist paper and not in the pay of the Soviet Government. One very curious characteristic of Fascists… is their failure to recognize that the parties of the Left are distinct from one another and by no means aiming at the same thing In just the same way very few Communists…
August 9, 2025 at 8:40 PM
2/4 …Tribune is not a Communist paper and not in the pay of the Soviet Government. One very curious characteristic of Fascists… is their failure to recognize that the parties of the Left are distinct from one another and by no means aiming at the same thing In just the same way very few Communists…
1/4 George Orwell wrote in 1944 on extreme belief about who was in the pay of who, ‘Anyone acquainted with the [far right/fascist] type will know that no assurance, no demonstration, no proof of the most solid kind would ever convince the writer of this that [left wing paper Orwell wrote for]…
August 9, 2025 at 8:40 PM
1/4 George Orwell wrote in 1944 on extreme belief about who was in the pay of who, ‘Anyone acquainted with the [far right/fascist] type will know that no assurance, no demonstration, no proof of the most solid kind would ever convince the writer of this that [left wing paper Orwell wrote for]…
While celebrating Cleo Laine’s jazz, recall her racial legacy. Born 1927 in London to a Jamaican dad and a white mum (disowned by her family). Laine & husband John Dankworth fought racism through the Stars Campaign for Interracial Friendship. Read about it in Rick Blackman’s Forty Miles of Bad Road!
July 26, 2025 at 6:58 PM
While celebrating Cleo Laine’s jazz, recall her racial legacy. Born 1927 in London to a Jamaican dad and a white mum (disowned by her family). Laine & husband John Dankworth fought racism through the Stars Campaign for Interracial Friendship. Read about it in Rick Blackman’s Forty Miles of Bad Road!
Online meeting to discuss recent Kenyan uprising tomorrow (Sunday). Annoyed I won’t be able to attend as in London we have anti-fascist protest (so I hope it is recorded).
July 26, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Online meeting to discuss recent Kenyan uprising tomorrow (Sunday). Annoyed I won’t be able to attend as in London we have anti-fascist protest (so I hope it is recorded).
2/2 …So there are some Benin bronzes with the truth of their being looted explained, and also African cultural items like a cloth that could be found in any market in Kenya (that’s not a criticism), also anti-colonial resistance from Rani in India.
July 12, 2025 at 8:19 PM
2/2 …So there are some Benin bronzes with the truth of their being looted explained, and also African cultural items like a cloth that could be found in any market in Kenya (that’s not a criticism), also anti-colonial resistance from Rani in India.
1/2 Since I last visited Glasgow’s #KelvingroveArtGallery and Museum has had a #BlackLivesMatter moment. There is a large noticeboard in the central hall admitting to links with enslavement. So now they mark empire related produce and have special exhibitions on colonised countries…
July 12, 2025 at 8:19 PM
1/2 Since I last visited Glasgow’s #KelvingroveArtGallery and Museum has had a #BlackLivesMatter moment. There is a large noticeboard in the central hall admitting to links with enslavement. So now they mark empire related produce and have special exhibitions on colonised countries…
In Glasgow’s #KelvingroveArtGallery, currently overrun by coachloads of multinational teenagers. In the cafe many are rearranging tables & creating mess. I see a mutinous ‘Pirate Jenny’ rage in the eyes of the 2 young female museum staff trying to keep some semblance of order. Hope all survive OK!
July 12, 2025 at 4:12 PM
In Glasgow’s #KelvingroveArtGallery, currently overrun by coachloads of multinational teenagers. In the cafe many are rearranging tables & creating mess. I see a mutinous ‘Pirate Jenny’ rage in the eyes of the 2 young female museum staff trying to keep some semblance of order. Hope all survive OK!
Just finished Kate Atkinson’s super meta-detective novel DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK, where gritty PI Jackson Brodie ends up in a v Agatha Christie stately home. Now on Dorothy L Sayers’s HAVE HIS CARCASE where crime novelist Harriet Vane compares her detective to Sayers’s own Peter Wimsey. Witty.
July 11, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Just finished Kate Atkinson’s super meta-detective novel DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK, where gritty PI Jackson Brodie ends up in a v Agatha Christie stately home. Now on Dorothy L Sayers’s HAVE HIS CARCASE where crime novelist Harriet Vane compares her detective to Sayers’s own Peter Wimsey. Witty.
Jeremy Corbyn MP talking at the #Marxism2025 festival in London on why he’s launching a new party.
July 5, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Jeremy Corbyn MP talking at the #Marxism2025 festival in London on why he’s launching a new party.
Saw fascinating & moving play WHO IS CLAUDE CAHUN? at London’s Southwark Playhouse. With partner Marcel Moore, Cahun created Surrealist photos in Paris. They were both gender queer (or trans). Cahun was Jewish & they organised artistic resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Channel Island, Jersey.
July 2, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Saw fascinating & moving play WHO IS CLAUDE CAHUN? at London’s Southwark Playhouse. With partner Marcel Moore, Cahun created Surrealist photos in Paris. They were both gender queer (or trans). Cahun was Jewish & they organised artistic resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Channel Island, Jersey.
It’s peak cherry time in the garden. Here’s a cherry picking view from up in the tree. #fruitpicking
June 10, 2025 at 11:29 AM
It’s peak cherry time in the garden. Here’s a cherry picking view from up in the tree. #fruitpicking
…The Great War 1914-1919. This is the Artillery Regiment memorial in London. On REMEMBRANCE DAY we hear the war ended in 1918. This date slip reminds us of less remembered imperial business - controlling oil across ARABIA, PERSIA & PALESTINE & trying to crush the revolution in RUSSIA (all listed).
June 2, 2025 at 1:35 PM
…The Great War 1914-1919. This is the Artillery Regiment memorial in London. On REMEMBRANCE DAY we hear the war ended in 1918. This date slip reminds us of less remembered imperial business - controlling oil across ARABIA, PERSIA & PALESTINE & trying to crush the revolution in RUSSIA (all listed).
Saw great Dolly Parton tribute band Dumb Blondes at London’s Lexington. With Mother Lori Mae; Yee/Haw and stepping lessons from Strap In Line Dance. Fantastically fun evening of queer country.
May 31, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Saw great Dolly Parton tribute band Dumb Blondes at London’s Lexington. With Mother Lori Mae; Yee/Haw and stepping lessons from Strap In Line Dance. Fantastically fun evening of queer country.
3/3 powers. Author Hassan Mahamdallie has woven together the words of Olaudah Equiano, Robert Wedderburn, William Cuffay, Annie & John Simmonds and many others. The power of hearing these voices in the seat of empire is unsettling. There were only five tickets left for the last performance tomorrow!
May 23, 2025 at 10:11 PM
3/3 powers. Author Hassan Mahamdallie has woven together the words of Olaudah Equiano, Robert Wedderburn, William Cuffay, Annie & John Simmonds and many others. The power of hearing these voices in the seat of empire is unsettling. There were only five tickets left for the last performance tomorrow!