David Oluwale (1930–1969) was a homeless, British Nigerian who drowned in the River Aire in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1969. Smiling David is a dramatic interpretation of the events leading up to his death which included systematic harassment by the police and which eventually led to the first successful prosecution of British police officers for their involvment in the death of a black man.



His story began in 1949 when he was discovered as a stowaway on a ship when it docked in the city of Hull, in the North of England. During the intervening years he was unable to find steady work, was discriminated against, spent time in a mental asylum, and became homeless. These were the "Windrush" years when Britain welcomed mass migration from former or current British colonies due to post-war labor shortages and the 1948 British Nationality Act, which granted Commonwealth citizens the right to live and work in the UK. The fate of David Oluwale has rightly been held up as an example of how the machinery of the welfare state failed those most in need as well as shaping discussions on systemic racism within British legal institutions, police brutality and practices, inequality, and mental health policy.

Jeremy Sandford