Stephen Kelman wrote Pigeon English as "a tribute to" Damilola Taylor, a ten-year-old schoolboy murdered in London in 2000. Kelman lived in a similar estate to Damilola and observed firsthand how fellow boys got involved in violence at a young age.
Damilola was a ten-year-old schoolboy whose family moved from Lagos, Nigeria, to London to pursue medical treatment for his sister's epilepsy. While waking home from his local library, Damiola was stabbed in the leg by two brothers, aged twelve and thirteen, for seemingly no reason. Days before Damilola's killing, the child informed his mother that he was being bullied at school. Gloria Taylor met with the school headmaster but was assured that bullying was a "low-level problem" mere hours before Damilola's death.
Damilola's murder "sent shockwaves" through the country. Damilola's community and the United Kingdom generally expressed frustration and devastation that the police took "six years and three trials" to provide justice for the Taylor family. The investigation was also marred by "a catalogue of failures," including forensic analysis errors, community hesitance to come forward with evidence, and rampant racism and classism in media coverage.
Ricky and Danny Preddie, Damiola's killers, were convicted of manslaughter in 2006. The children were members of the Young Peckham Boys gang. Even two decades after the murder, London struggles with youth violence.
