In this powerful and deeply human episode of Trims & Talk, Lungani “Uncle Lou” Sibanda and Donald McLean sit down with one of Sheffield’s cultural pillars — Leroy Wenham — a man whose life traces the arc of Caribbean arrival, survival, and triumph in the UK.
Leroy takes us back to 1963, when he arrived from St Kitts as a 10-year-old boy stepping into the cold streets of Leeds,one of a handful Black children in his school and part of the only Black family on his street. He speaks candidly about those early years — the kindness of one neighbour who offered warmth and cups of tea, and the silence of others who never spoke a word.
He tells the truths many Caribbean migrants of the 60s know too well:
if you didn’t fight, you got beaten every day.
And how those lessons shaped the man he became.
From there, Leroy walks us through his rise as Sheffield’s first Black full-time youth worker in 1979, the building of a Black youth work team, and the impact those relationships had on preventing unrest during Britain’s 1981 riots.
We explore his visionary role in the African Caribbean Fortnight, the early cultural festivals that paved the way for Black History Month in Sheffield; his passion for carnival culture; and his groundbreaking work on BBC Radio Sheffield’s Back A Yard.
And finally, we dive into his current work with Sheffield Museums on the three-year exhibition Caribbean Footsteps(2024–2027), a living, breathing celebration of Caribbean history, culture, and creativity in the city.
This episode is a journey through migration, memory, community, youth work, creativity, and the making of a cultural elder.
It is history told not from a book, but from the mouth of a man who lived it.
If you want to understand Sheffield’s Black story, you must sit with the people who built it.
This conversation is one of those moments.
🎧 Listen now and step into the legacy.
#TrimsAndTalk #CaribbeanFootsteps #SheffieldHistory #WindrushLegacy
