I Visited Canterbury Cathedral and Unexpectedly Met Four Africans
During the 2026 May bank holiday, I chose to travel to Canterbury because I am trying to visit all the cathedral cities in England and because I had heard it is a beautiful place. Of course, being in Canterbury, visiting England's first Cathedral, established in 597 AD by St Augustine and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was an obvious choice. To paraphrase our own Reverend Peter Green 'whether you are a Christian, hold a different faith or have no faith position' the magnificence and splendour of the cathedral is inescapable; it is truly awesome. As you wander through its chapels and cloisters, history feels tangible and you cannot help but wonder of the lives of thousands of people who built the cathedral over the centuries and the thousands more who have visited and worked at the Cathedral or who have simply sought the solace of solitude in its shelter.
As I walked through this stunning space, I was overawed by the multitude of inscriptions, dedications and petitions. I soon realised it would take many trips to even attempt to scratch the surface of the many secrets held within its precincts and it was only by chance that I stopped by the crypt of Walter Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1193-1205. On his tomb, there are four faces, which are clearly the faces of African men with tightly curled hair and full lips. As I learned from one of the Cathedral guides this tomb had never been outside, I wondered if their disfigured faces had been an early act of racism and an attempt to remove these figures from history. While this cannot be ruled out, the guide informed this act of vandalism took part during the reformation when there was widespread destruction of statues and figures. However, I remained intrigued as to why Archbishop Hubert had chosen to have his tomb adorned by four Africans; were they servants, retainers, slaves? It seems none of my suggestions were correct and these four men were symbolic of Hubert's travels to the Holy Land where he encountered and became friendly with Saladin and his entourage and were indeed representations of North African males.
While their history was not removed, it brought to mind how often the roles and contributions of People of Colour are overlooked, forgotten or consciously deleted. Within Lincolnshire I am grateful to Professor Heather Hughes and Dr Victoria Araj for the groundbreaking work they have completed in bringing to prominence the forgotten Black figures of Lincoln's history from Second World War RAF veterans such as Sidney Mcfarlane and Billy Strachan to footballers including John Walker (1876 –1900) and Ralph Toofany who became Lincoln's first black Mayor in 1992 and Lincoln's first black Sheriff in 2000.
Histories should not be forgotten, histories need to be accurate and my unexpected encounter with four Africans in Canterbury cathedral reminded me of this fact.
