Remembering Dami twenty years on...
Damilola Taylor: a young life cut tragically short
NEXT month will mark twenty years since the nation was horrified by the murder of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, stabbed and left to die alone in a stairwell just metres from his front door.
Damilola lived on the North Peckham estate in south London, which became demonised as a no-go area, with reports of violence, drugs and gang warfare.
But for the people who lived there, and were friends with the schoolboy, their experience was a very different one.
Yinka Bokinni is a successful radio DJ and writer. She grew up on the estate, and was a neighbour of Damilola – or Dami, as she and her family knew him.
They became firm friends as soon as Dami moved in, and Yinka remembers a happy childhood, surrounded by family, friends and a tight-knit community.
But for the twenty years since that terrible day, Yinka hasn’t been able to talk about what happened with her friends and those others affected, and hasn’t even wanted to admit where she came from and that she knew Dami.
In this powerful film Yinka returns to the area for the first time in many years, to meet her and Dami’s old friends to discuss for the first time the impact his death had on them all.
She also meets his father Roger, who has devoted his life to helping prevent youth crime, and other people who were raised on the estate and have gone on to great success.
It’s a moving, thought-provoking and vital watch.