STUDENTS at Neath Port Talbot College received a history lesson with a difference when Neath MP Peter Hain visited to talk about the slave trade.
During the visit, students had the opportunity to hear about Wales’s role in the trade, as well as the chance to question Mr Hain about his experiences of the anti-apartheid movement, his role as an MP and his life in Parliament.
Mr Hain, who published a booklet to mark the bicentenary of the slave trade’s abolition in 2007, said: “I was delighted to visit Neath Port Talbot College.
“Everybody talks about how disengaged from and apathetic towards politics young people are today, but I have never found that at the college.
“Like it or not, politics affects every young person – the opportunity for a decent future, living standards, jobs and environment.”
Wales’s role in the slave trade was varied, with many Welsh people prospering from it and many prominent Welsh men and women supported the 1807 bill to abolish it.
The results of the slave trade are still apparent today with many African American families having surnames traditionally considered Welsh.