There's a lot more to Notting Hill Carnival than a great street party. This album gives you a true insider guide, by some of the people who have made the Carnival what it is today. Its story reaches back to the darkest recesses of European tradition, through Colonialism and slavery, to racist Britain of the 1950’s and 60’s. It merges contemporary ideas with art forms reaching back via the Caribbean slave plantations to tribal Africa. And its setting in West London brings out a history of the area which some of its residents might prefer to forget. The album also contains academic perspectives from Susie West, Lecturer in Heritage Studies at The Open University; Hakim Adi, Reader in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at Middlesex University; and Ruth Tompsett, Visiting Lecturer in Carnival Studies at Middlesex University.

This material forms part of The Open University Course AD281 Understanding global heritage.

You can discover something of what it's like to study the course by using the downloadable 'activities' files to explore some ideas which connect carnival with the study of heritage in contemporary society and the way in which heritage is related to multiculturalism and the production of a sense of identity and community.