A BLACK Lives Matter activist has relived the moment he shook hands with counter protestors during last weekend’s tense stand off in Bolton’s Victoria Square.

Saturday’s protests saw emotions run high as scuffles broke out between the two groups and insults were traded at the town’s Cenotaph.

But as onlooking police prepared themselves for an escalation in violence, 22-year-old Joel Mungie approached the group claiming to be protecting the war memorial and bravely explained the reasons behind the protest as he called for calm.

“It was a great moment,” said Joel, who lives in Astley Bridge but is originally from DR Congo. “When I first joined the protest, bottles were being thrown but I was motivated to get my point across and show the people around me that we can stand and our voices can be heard.”

Joel, who works as an engineer and is studying for an MA at UCLAN, said he was shocked when he realised he recognised people among the counter protestors.

“It made me very emotional because I could see people who I knew and was close to and there was literally a line between us,” he said. “We used to laugh and joke and it hurt me. One lad said to me they had come to protect the statues and at that moment I realised that none of us really understood each other - the people on the other side didn’t know what the Black Lives Matter movement was all about. All they could see was a crowd of black people and they had come to protect their heritage which I understood because I have studied here and I know the history of the UK is something a lot of people are proud of - I just thought why don’t I go over there and speak to these people - the first I said to them was ‘love’ because I am a Christian and my Bible teaches me to love thy neighbour.”

Joel was pictured shaking hands with one of the counter-protestor he was told was “the leader” and he admits it was a nerve wracking moment.

“It was scary because he was a big bloke,” he said. “But we are all human beings before we are white or black so we can connect on that level. I just went ‘come on man let’s spread the love and talk about it’ and I reassured him that no one was going to touch the statues and we were just here to stand up for someone’s life that did not matter.

“Once they saw us come over they could tell that we wanted to talk - sometimes you have to be brave enough to look past these boxes that society puts you in.

“We quickly found some common ground and were laughing and hugging.

“I am happy with how things are going in Bolton - there was one lad on the other side who I used to know and I saw he had posted on Facebook about how we are all the same - it made me think that people are getting the message and I am very grateful.

Joel added that he had been alarmed how violent the protests had become especially in America.

“These protests are going somewhere where they were never meant to go,” he added. “None of us want to go out there and riot but if I was put in that same situation I would probably do the same thing but that is not what we are about - we are here to stand up for black lives because it is black lives that are being taken and in America it is black lives that do not seem to matter.”