“After all, when people look at her pictures, especially the one that is so famous for her, they just become a victim and I see my partner with whom I hung out.”
It has been exactly 20 years since a 10-year-old boy named Daminola Taylor was murdered in a public housing estate in south London on Friday. Demilola died 10 weeks after leaving Nigeria for the UK, when he was attacked by a broken glass while on his way home in the suburbs of Peckham. Only a pair of brothers aged 12 and 13 at the time of the incident were later sentenced to death.
Demilola’s senseless murder was one of the highest profile murders in the UK and shocked the black community abroad, especially in Nigeria, from where the Taylor family emigrated in the hope of giving their children a better life.
Two decades later, one of his best friends, radio presenter Yinka Bokinni, began telling Damilola’s story from the perspective of those who grew up with him. The result is documentary Damilola Taylor: The Boy Next Door, Shown in the UK on Channel 4.
Bokinny, now in her 31-year-old film, is open about her friendship with Damilola and talks to people about her death for the first time. She returns to the shuttered estate where Damilola was murdered for telling her story in her own words. Ultimately the film revolves around not only the death of his friend, but also his upbringing in Britain’s forgotten places.
“I know it’s a sad story. I mean, I’m living it, I’ve lived it all my life,” Bokinny told BuzzFeed News by Zoom. “I know he’s not the one we’re going to see and laugh and joke about, and he’s not a light clock. I know he’s heavy. But I don’t want tragedy and obscene cockroaches and estate to be ruined.” It’s a dynamic place and the fact that I’m not a diamond in the rough. “
Damilola and Bokinni were close friends. They played together and Damilola often hung out at Bokini’s house. She saw him as her brother. Star Wars Actor John Boyega was also the boy’s best friend and one of the last people to see him alive.
Shortly after Damilola’s death, as part of the BBC, Bokinni and his family were interviewed. Panorama Murder investigation. “If you read all the magazines and everything you think it’s really gentle and everything, but it wasn’t,” said one young Bokini. Panorama. “He was like my little brother, Rough, and didn’t really care what he did, but if he hurts you he’ll forgive and apologize.”
In the archive footage, Bokinni’s late mother also talks to the presenter. Bokinnie completely forgot that her mother was in the episode and she became emotional hearing her voice. “When I put the DVD on, I just burst into tears, because that was the gravity of the situation,” Boccini said.
Bokinni never had a conversation with his mother about Damilola’s death as an adult. She had a lot of things now she wants them to be able to talk about. “I couldn’t talk to him about the conditions we grew up in and the state of his environment,” he said.
Listening to his mother again in his own words, and seeing how much he tried to make life better for her, Bokinny was saddened. But now he feels a sense of fulfillment that his documentary can show people the reality of his upbringing – and perhaps his mother’s pride.
Bokinni said she was surprised to learn while making the documentary that since childhood no one has taken professional help for the trauma of growing up. “It’s very insane because when I talk to other people, if they were telling me my story and that was their point of view, I would advise them to talk to someone.” “I would advise them to sort things out and prepare tools to work with.”
Although Damilola’s loss has had a devastating effect on her, she has been suppressing traumatic feelings for the past two decades. Making this film of how to deal with his past proved to be a cathartic opportunity. “It was almost like my childhood, because of the trauma, pieces like jigsaws were missing,” she said, “and then slowly I am too, Oh, no, that means”
Bokinni gradually realized that he had developed an emotional outlook on Peckham as he grew up, but the documentary allowed her to take a step back to her childhood home and look at it from a more objective point of view. She compared her experience of growing up in south London to Lily Allen’s music video “LDN”, where Len looks at things around her through a pink lens.
Towards the end of the documentary, Bokinny focuses on the murder of his friend and some articles about the estate. One of the stories she read predicted that someone would be killed, as if it were her inevitable fate to grow up in the inner city of London.. They were also outraged by the headlines describing how unsafe the milk delivery staff and police visited the estate due to the presence of the gang, and families are still relocated to the area despite well-documented violence. He said, “My mother tried to avoid some things, like people were running around, running fights and the crime of knives, the police, like calling us as soon as possible.” “All this stuff that no one knew differently when I was just young.”
The 31-year-old presenter said she’s not sure what impact her documentary will have, but she hopes she has respected her friend and her field.
“I just want everyone to know that it’s important, that his life – his eyes, his death – [but] “There are things in her life,” she said.
“After all, when people look at his pictures, especially the picture that is so famous for him, they only see one victim,” and he said, “and I see my partner with whom I was hanging out. In protest against the inevitability of the photo, I fought with the one who was 10 years old. “
