Picture courtesy of Camilla Mngaza
Imagine the scene on a beautiful bank holiday weekend in May 2019. The weather is gorgeous, and you need a much-needed break. So, it was for Siyanda Mngaza, a 20- year-old black woman from Wales and human resources officer for the South Wales Fire Brigade, who, along with her boyfriend, went on an overnight stay at a camping site in Brecon, in the middle of Wales. The injustice you will read here is profound, In support of Siyanda over 500,000 people have signed her public petition calling for justice.
The events that were to unfold would see her become victim to a brutal racist attack by two white men and a white woman and, as a consequence of defending herself, would be charged, convicted and sentenced to four and a half years in jail.
Holidaying, whilst black in the UK, can be a traumatic experience. Many in our community will take for granted that they and their families will be safe in doing so. After all, this is Great Britain.
Taking a break in the countryside or choosing to go to a holiday resort or camping site usually poses no risk to most white families.
Many black people, particularly those living in isolated majority-white areas, labour under the innocent and yet dangerously naive assumption that taking a break in another majority-white area of the country will pose no significant risk to them or their families.
However, in post breaks in Britain, wherever there are large numbers of white people holidaying from around the country, black people can find themselves quickly confronted with people displaying the kind of racist, hostile attitudes and violence of a bygone age.
Many fail to consider that for white people from largely monocultural communities with virtually no lived experience of diversity, meeting a black person can be a cultural shock. Black communities travelling outside of diverse communities have long experienced meeting the racism of the 1950s from both white people themselves, local shops and business and sometimes local police services.
When you leave Brixton and head for Brecon, you need to pack more than just sun cream and a beach towel. Getting caught out in these backwater areas can come at an enormous cost to you and your family. It is a part of black life in the UK and Europe that you need to risk assess your holiday in terms of the likelihood of experiencing severe racism you may encounter, and a contingency plan is always best advised.
Such was the case with Siyanda Mngaza; she arrived at the camp on Sunday, planning to stay the night and return the following day. Siyanda wasn't a big fan of camping. Invited by her boyfriend's parents, she was keen to improve her relationship with them, so she decided to make an effort.
Her boyfriend's parents were already at the site with a large group of their personal friends. None were known to Siyanda, and she was the only black woman in a group of around 15 people.
All was well, and later that night, they all gathered, drinking and singing around a campfire. An argument then ensued between her boyfriend and his parents. Heated words were exchanged, so Siyanda went to prepare the bed in their tent and eventually, her boyfriend, slightly the worse for wear, called it a night.
Returning to the campfire by herself to calm the situation, Siyanda was subsequently verbally attacked and physically confronted by a drunk white woman, let's call her Karen.
Karen pushed and punched Siayanda and she was suddenly surrounded by Karen and two white men.
Siyanda stepped back, telling all three to leave her alone. Karen, now encouraged with the support over to white male colleagues, launched another attack.
Siyanda told me, "I was in fear of my life, my boyfriend was asleep, it was clear these people were drunk, I was in a pitch-black campsite at the dead of night, in the middle of nowhere."
She then proceeded to try and get some help and pleaded for some other campers to help her. They didn't want to get involved and refused to help, and as she continued to look for help, she came across another camper who immediately abused her, saying, "You just hit my friend. We don't want you around here".
As she made her way along a gravel road towards a local pub, she met the Dyfed Powys Police, four officers from the local Brecon Police station making their way to the scene.
Siyanda was immediately handcuffed straight away and placed in the Police car. Dazed and in shock, she remembers the police car door opened, and a white man was shouting racist abuse at her as a larger group of hostile whites gathered around the car.
She began hyperventilating; the police returned and closed the car door. Eventually, she was taken to the local police station and then to the hospital. She was given bail at 9 pm the next day. Pictures taken whilst in police custody confirm that she had been the victim of an assault. The police routinely ignored that evidence.
Although Siyanda made it clear to the police that she was the victim of a racist attack and had acted in self-defence, the police nevertheless charged her with grievous bodily harm with intent. The police took none of her attackers into custody, and none were arrested or charged.
She told me, "The police made out at first like they were trying to help me. The police said that the others were heavily intoxicated, so they had put them to bed. I was made to feel that I was being taken to the police station for my safety. When I was presented with their statements the following day saying they were being classed as witnesses, it was only then that I realised that I was being blamed for a serious crime."
She added, "They didn't even try and investigate my version of events, and the perpetrators were allowed to conspire with each other work out their excuses. They were allowed to stay at the campsite, and their statements were taken the following day, giving them plenty of opportunities to construct their version of events."
An all-white jury sitting at Swansea Crown Court on 21st February 2020 found her guilty, even though she was a career professional and had never previously been in trouble in her entire life.
And so, a small, 4" 10 professional black woman was convicted of assaulting two men twice her size and a drunken Karen and was sent to jail or four and a half years. An extraordinary sentence for a professional black woman who has never been in trouble in her life.
At court, the police admitted they failed to investigate claims of being the subject of a racist attack, nor did they properly consider her injuries that completely undermined the perpetrator's version of events. They stated that nobody had attacked Siyanda is entirely inconsistent with the evidence as demonstrated by her injuries.
Siyanda appealed against her conviction, but a single sitting judge dismissed the appeal. She has now lodged her case to the Court of Appeal and her new legal team, Hilary Brown of Virgo Consultancy Service Ltd.
Incidents such as these were prevalent in the era before the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. Black people who were victims of racist assault would often call the police and then found themselves arrested and charged instead of the perpetrator. Those areas of the country where there is virtually no diversity, such as abusive practices and cultures of institutionalised racism, remain barely untouched by the progress made in Britain's major metropolitan cities.
Such is the social reality in these little white-majority towns where progressive practice and work on antiracist policing is at least 30 years behind large metropolitan cities.
Siyanda now awaits a date to seek permission to appeal her conviction, and we expect a date soon.
In this country, there is long-held civil liberty that self-defence is no offence. The reality for black people is the culture of racism prevalent throughout the United Kingdom and in these isolated areas, which means that racist attitudes continue to prevail and conspire to deny justice to those caught out in the racist hinterlands of Brexit Britain.
The Free Siyanda campaign is undertaking a virtual tour of the country starting on 13th March in Wales, hosted by Stand Up to Racism Cardiff.
On the 20th March in London, there will be another meeting and hosted by myself and supported by BAME Lawyers 4 Justice, followed on the 27th March by another meeting hosted by Black Lives Matter, Stoke.
The campaign seeks your support for the local hosting of meetings to bring Siyanda's case too wider public attention. Please contact the campaign if you'd like to host the meeting in your area.
#FreeSiyanda