A shop in Surrey is facing racism allegations amid calls to remove an “incredibly triggering” image of a tobacco plantation, after a friend of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spotted it while shopping for toys for his daughters.
Misan Harriman, the chairman of London’s Southbank Centre and a photographer who has taken portraits of the Sussexes including Princess Lilibet for her first birthday, said he was “speechless” when he spotted the image behind the counter in Farrants in Cobham while shopping for his daughters on Tuesday, adding he was “lucky” they were not in the shop with him.
The blown-up sepia image covering a wall behind a cash desk includes the words “we sell tobacco”, and appears to show black people working on a tobacco plantation overseen by white men.
Former Netherlands and Chelsea football player Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had complained in 2020 about the same image in Farrants, which was founded in 1989 and has a specialist tobacco room selling cigars and accessories.
Posts about the image on social media by Mr Harriman, who is also an ambassador of Save the Children UK, have been shared thousands of times since Tuesday.
In a video on Twitter, Mr Harriman said: “I saw the most triggering thing, I’ve just come in to try and get toys for my girls, and I just saw the most incredibly triggering imagery; luckily my children are not with me.
“This is supposed to be a family store that has imagery of, if not enslaved, definitely indentured workers with their white masters or overseers.
“This shop in the middle of a Surrey high street thinks it’s normal to have that type of imagery next to where I could go and buy toys for my children.”
The BBC reported that Farrants has a poster next to the picture explaining why the store chose to display it.
It reads: “This image was selected as the main display feature in our store to honour, respect and recognise the ground-breaking work undertaken by all those involved in the development of the iconic Havana cigars available in our Tobacco Room today.
“The photograph, which we have cropped for our display, was taken at the Pinar del Rio plantation in 1907 and is one of the earliest examples of shade grown tobacco cultivation.
“Unlike other crop harvesting industries, the tobacco plantation owners of Cuba refused to use slave labour, insisting instead on employing free men.”
Dr Matt Childs, associate professor for Latin American history at the University of South Carolina, told the PA news agency: “Cuban slavery was abolished in 1886 and indentured servants were not common.
“Without more details other than the date and location, the workers depicted were most likely seasonal labourers paid either wages or some form of credit in script, or perhaps residential plantation workers.
“The statement that ‘tobacco plantation owners refused to use slave labour’ is not correct.
“They refused to use slave labour when it was abolished in 1886 as it was illegal. As long as it was legal, Cuban tobacco plantations used slave labour until the 1880s.”
Hasselbaink said on Instagram that he had complained to Farrants’ owner David Worsfold three years ago and was told the store would “replace” the image.
On Wednesday, Hasselbaink wrote: “Stories come and go. This needs some attention (Farrants), I think it’s time you followed through on your word from 2020 and replaced this image.”
In another video on Instagram, Mr Harriman said: “What I would say about community and matters like this is that I don’t judge people for having a different lived experience or just being busy.
“But when the generational trauma and damage that is caused from imagery like this is shown, and you now know that it’s dangerous, that’s when the choice matters, whether you wilfully ignore it, or you refuse to look away, and I’m glad to say that many people have refused to look away.”
He added that it is irrelevant if the image actually displayed indentured servants or slaves.
“Indentured servitude happened for decades after any kind of emancipation or end of slavery.
“Many history books have covered it and the power dynamic of those two white men who dressed very cleanly, look very comfortable, next to the broken, soulless, black men that are actually working that plantation.
“The optics, that dynamic, that power dynamic, is there clear as day.
“In all, something needs to change, and that image needs to go, and I hope the people of Cobham will come together and make sure that image is taken down – it’s unacceptable.”
Caroline Tang, 49, from Great Bookham, Surrey, said she was “absolutely shocked” when an employee from Farrants made a racial comment about her Chinese husband Andrew Tang, 51, in December 2019.
The couple and their four children had visited Cobham where Mr Tang grew up – his parents ran a Chinese restaurant there during the 1970s and 80s.
During their visit, Mrs Tang went into Farrants with her children and spoke to an employee at the counter about her husband’s origins in Cobham.
She told PA: “He (the employee) turned around and said ‘you know why there are not any Chinese restaurants here any more?’
“He said, ‘oh, because there are no stray dogs in Cobham any more’.
“I was absolutely shocked to my core, then worried about what the children would make of it.
“Then he looked at me and said ‘you all know what I mean’ as if it’s an inside joke.”
After she left the shop, her eldest daughter said to Mrs Tang: “Was that man saying that Chinese people cook stray dogs?”
“It was a more personal attack because I had just told him my parents-in-law had a restaurant down the road,” she said.
“It felt like you’re attacking their grandparents suggesting that’s something they would do.”
Ms Tang said she wrote a one-star Google review, then complained to the store via their website’s comment section and on their Instagram, but she said her comments were deleted.
A representative of Farrants told the PA news agency they would not be commenting on Mr Harriman’s allegations, and have yet to respond to Mrs Tang’s comments at the time of publication.
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