Kwaku | The Aya bursary, a nod to a traumatic history

As the UK concluded another African History Month, I feel compelled to highlight the Aya bursary, its first recipient, and why the BTP (British Transport Police) should continue funding it for a King’s College London law undergraduate of African/African Caribbean heritage.

In the November 13, 2021 edition of The Gleaner, an article was published titled ‘Simply Inexcusable: British Transport Police apologises for historic convictions’. It highlighted the corrupt practices of BTP pickpocket squad head Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell and his colleagues, who through misuse of the Sus law in the 1970s, fabricated evidence, and criminalised several Africans, majority being of Jamaican heritage, such as the members of the Oval Four and Stockwell Six.

Both cases, among others led by Ridgewell, have in recent years been quashed, following reviews by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The last member of the Stockwell Six, Ronald De Souza, had his sentence quashed by the Court of Appeal in July 2025.

It was after I delivered a 2021 BTWSC/African Histories Revisited Zoom event titled ‘Police and the criminalising of British African youths by numbers’, that participants charged the organiser to demand of the BTP an apology and some form of restitution.

The article included an unequivocal apology by BTP Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi, QPM, which in part read: “ I am sincerely sorry for the trauma suffered by the British African community through the criminal actions of former police officer DS Derek Ridgewell who worked in BTP during the 1960s and ‘70s. In particular, it is of regret that we did not act sooner to end his criminalisation of British Africans, which led to the conviction of innocent people. This is simply something that my colleagues and I are appalled by.”

The restitution, symbolic as it is, took longer, as the Chief Constable had to manoeuvre through red tape, to get the funding for the Aya Bursary. It provides £75,000 to support tuition and living costs for a student of African/African Caribbean heritage during a three-year LLB Law degree at King’s College London. The BTP has committed to only one cycle so far.

FUND FURTHER CYCLESThe first recipient is 19-year-old Jaydan Okunola, from Richmond upon Thames in south-west London. At his last school, Orleans Park in Twickenham, south London, his focus wavered until a football injury shattered his dreams of a professional career. This setback became a turning point, steering him away from potential failure and the criminal justice system.

“I wasn’t focusing on my grades. At the end of Year 12, they were quite bad –B, D, E, not really going anywhere,” Jaydan recalls. After undergoing surgery for his injuries, he adds, “I figured that I should kind of put that spare time to studying, because I knew I had the aptitude when I wanted to.”

Without the Aya Bursary, Jaydan might have delayed starting university to save money, by taking “a gap year to get some money in the bank,” he says. A care leaver, Jaydan balances his studies with volunteering, including work with the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association on a Ministry of Justice Probation Project helping refugees.

Jaydan has an interest in languages. Already a French speaker on account of his adoptive mother being French, he is currently learning German, and Portuguese because one of his friends is Brazilian. He actually spent part of his summer holidays in Brazil. Another university friend is Russian, so he also plans to take the Russian Legal System module this academic year.

“I’m someone that’s always wanted as wide a breadth of knowledge and understanding as possible, and I figured that law would give me that,” explains Jaydan for choosing to study law. “Based on the fact that it touches across loads of different disciplines, and then on top of that, I liked, you know, how analytical it is. I also like structuring arguments. So I figured that all round, it kind of ticked all the boxes for me,” he adds.

Interestingly Jaydan isn’t thinking of becoming a lawyer. Instead, he thinks he may go into politics after graduating. But in the meantime, he has already formed a charity– Tomorrow’s Changed Society– to give back by delivering schools-focused intervention programmes aimed particularly at “neurodivergent, trauma experienced and children from disadvantaged backgrounds.” Financial support for this initiative can be offered via a crowdfunding appeal at https://gofund.me/f8dd97ac.

Out of the trauma, broken lives and (broken) marriages suffered mainly by Britain’s African/African Caribbean community, because of Ridgewell’s corrupt practices, one small light has sprung.

However, the Aya Bursary should not be a one-off. Considering Ridgewell’s prolonged misdeeds and the continuous availability of Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 funds, the source of the bursary’s cash, the plan is to engage the BTP to fund further cycles. In addition, the door is open to potential donors who wish to sponsor or part-sponsor future cycles.

Kwaku is an independent history researcher and posts his events at AfricanHistoryPlus.eventbrite.com.