Murphy Browne © October 1, 2020
October is African Heritage Month/Black History Month in Britain and African Caribbean people are a large part of that history. African Caribbean people first began to settle in Britain in large numbers after the Second World War. According to information from the exhibit “From War To Windrush,” approximately 16,000 men from the Caribbean volunteered to fight for Britain in the First World War, and over 10,000 servicemen and women answered the call of the ‘Mother Country’ during the Second World War. The exhibit marked the 60th anniversary of the arrival of the MV Empire Windrush in Britain on June 21st, 1948. “From War To Windrush,” was housed at the Imperial War Museum London, from June 2008 to March 29, 2009.
The Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury, Essex docks on June 21, 1948, carrying 492 passengers, mostly from Jamaica and Trinidad. The arrival of the passengers and the image of the African Caribbean passengers disembarking has become an important landmark in the history of Britain, symbolising the beginning of modern multiculturalism which significantly changed British society over the past 72 years. In 1998, an area in Brixton was renamed Windrush Square to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the African Caribbean patriot/migrants. The Black Cultural Archives (BCA,) founded in 1981, is housed at 1 Windrush Square. The African and Caribbean War Memorial, “the United Kingdom's national memorial to African and Caribbean service personnel who fought in the First and Second World Wars,” was unveiled in Windrush Square on June 22, 2017.
Although the passengers of the Empire Windrush have their place in history as the first large number of Africans travelling from the Caribbean to settle in Britain, they were not the first Africans who made Britain their home. There is documented African Presence in Britain from as early as the 2nd century A.D. according to information from “The Oxford Companion to Black British History” edited by David Dabydeen, John Gilmore and Cecily Jones published in 2007. Britain monopolised the Trans-Atlantic slave trade from the 16th century until slavery was finally abolished in the British colonies in the Caribbean, Central America (Belize) and South America (Guyana) in 1838.
During slavery, kidnapped Africans were enslaved in Britain and were amongst those who campaigned to end slavery. Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano were two formerly enslaved Africans who on gaining their freedom became abolitionists. Africans were also involved in other areas of British life, including the arts and politics. Samuel Coleridge Taylor (August 15, 1875 – September 1, 1912) was a “Black British” poet and composer whose work included “Song of Hiawatha” and “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.” Robert Wedderburn and William Davidson both born in Jamaica to enslaved African women and White slave holders suffered because of their political involvement. Wedderburn was jailed several times in various London prisons; Davidson was hanged and beheaded at Newgate Prison, London, on May 1, 1820.
The “Windrush Generation,” travelled to the UK at the invitation of the British government to help rebuild the bombed-out nation. Those African Caribbean migrants were patriots who answered the call of the British government to help rebuild the “Mother country” after it was almost destroyed by German bombs. The “Windrush Generation” travelled from all the colonized British Caribbean islands and from British Guiana on the South American continent between 1948 and 1970, because of severe labour shortages in Britain following WWII. They were essential to the rebuilding of Britain. Unfortunately, the reception these patriotic African Caribbean migrants received from “ordinary” White people in Britain did not mirror the British government’s desperate appeal for help. The “Windrush Generation” and their descendants were subjected to rabid racism by White people in Britain. The racism led to police misuse of the sus law, ("suspected person") which was a stop and search law that permitted police officers to stop, search and arrest people on police “suspicion.” Mostly male “Black British” youth were targeted by the “sus law,” similar to “stop and frisk” in New York and “carding” in Toronto. The April 1981 “Brixton Riots,” immortalized in song by African Guyanese, Eddie Grant “Electric Avenue” and dub poetry by African Jamaican, Linton Kwesi Johnson “The Great Insurrection” was a result of White supremacy and police brutality.
Although there has been an African presence in Britain for centuries, this history is not taught, similar to the history of Africans in North America whose history is not acknowledged except for 28/29 days in February. Africans must continue to educate themselves and their children about their history and herstory. The Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey said: “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”
Murphy Browne © October 1, 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment