It has been 75 years since HMT Empire Windrush (formerly called the Monte Losa which had prior taken German travellers on Nazi-aproved holidays towards Europe and South America and captured by the British as a prize of war where it was renamed Windrush) arrived with 500+ African-Caribbean people at Tilbury and then London in June 1948. The marking of this anniversary has been used to remember and appreciate the importance of the contributions and efforts of African-Caribbean people who arrived in Britain. However, there are serious problems with using the label “Windrush”, which homogenises the experiences of African Heritage Communities who arrived before, during, and after Windrush, as other forms of transportation have been documented by Caribbean post-war migrants.
Also, the label, “Windrush generation” is used to assume wrongfully the entire history of the migration of Black people to the UK. As there’s a popular claim that Black migration only began in 1948 and onwards, which is incorrect. What’s missing is that many arrived in the early 1940s, due to their work with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It's important to state that initially, there was a colour bar from the British empire on enlistment, this dissolved for sadistic purposes, as they wanted extra humanpower for the war. It was always about wartime production for the British, and how they can maintain their colonial power and global imperial dominance.
Their enlistment occurred either through the paternalistic colonial idea of defending ‘King and Empire’ and supporting their “mother country”. Another reason was due to the levels of unemployment African-Caribbean people faced in the Caribbean islands, as Sealey states. During their time in the RAF, Caribbean people faced huge levels of racial discrimination within their units and from society, receiving a third of the pay white soldiers in the war received. Black Caribbean women in the RAF, also known as Women’s Auxiliary Air Force also faced gender and racialised oppression as Sealey highlights in Colour, Climate, and Combat: The Caribbean Regiment in the Second World War.
Many also moved to towns such as Bolton and were here much earlier than at for example, Pero Jones an enslaved African man, who is named after the Pero Bridge in Harbourside. As Professor Hakim Adi asserts in the important book, African and Caribbean People in Britain.
Setting the record straight
Historians and others alike for the most part, prefer to use terms which fail to provide justice to whole historical chapters. As stated earlier, HMT Empire Windrush which arrived in Tilbury in June 1948, was one of the many ships which arrived in Britain. In fact, other ships such as SS Ormonde arrived much earlier than Windrush docking 241 people on the 31st March 1947 to Liverpool. And the Almanzora which docked 200 people to Southampton on 21st December 1947.
By using the term ‘Windrush’, we’re marginalising this specific chapter of Black British History, simplifying a complex story of immigration, activism and resistance for Black Britons.
Caribbean people also arrived through different sets of ways, beyond ships, as many also arrived on airplanes and through other various means.
Pioneering spaces and the creation of cultural institutions
Forming cultural institutions such as St Pauls Afrikan Caribbean Carnival, African-Caribbean people have made waves, breaking colour bars that refused access to spaces, places, work, housing as well other basic freedoms and privileges their white counterparts had. For example, the Bristol Bus Boycott in 1961 which was led by the West African, and brilliant orator Paul Stephenson and the West Indian Development Council (WIDC) which included the equally brilliant Owen Henry, Roy Hackett, Audley Evans and Prince Brown.
The boycott gained international attention, opening the doors for people of colour to gain access to employment from racist companies like the Bristol Omnibus Company, in this case. Who refused to let people of colour work as bus conductors, bus drivers and other roles within the company. The result of the boycott led to bus drivers and conductors of colour, finally getting the bus work which was wrongfully denied to them. With Norman Samuels becoming the first African-Caribbean bus driver in Bristol as documented by Tanja Aminata Bah in Discover St Paul’s Black History in a storymap and walks.
African-Caribbean people mobilised to form their own spaces, creating venues that were for and by their community
The spaces Black communities made added to these sanctuaries, as they were able to express their Blackness unapologetically. We’ll address a few spaces, placing particular attention to Bristol. For instance, The Bamboo Club (1966-1977) was created as a form of resistance by Lalal and Tony Bullimore to the colour bars that prevented and policed the access of African and Caribbean people into bars, as stated within the Seven Saints of St Pauls app, a community project directed by Michele Curtis, the app can be found here.
Packed each and every night hosting international superstars like Bob Marley and the Wailers, Tina Turner and regulars like The Atlantic Rollers. The Bamboo Club became a musical staple and centre for Reggae.
Unlike other bars in Bristol, the Bamboo club was inclusive, not exclusive. Even initially becoming the headquarters of the Bristol West Indian Cricket Team. Another example is the Kuumba Arts Centre, initially referred to as The Inkworks in 1974. Kuumba is the first centre that was completely dedicated to the arts of African and Caribbean people in Bristol.
The centre is also a library, resource, event space, and pillar for the Rastafari community in St Pauls, as said by Bah.
The Rastafari Culture Centre (RCC) formely known as the Justice For Marlon Thomas Centre, which has been run by Ras Bandele Selassie since 1994, has been a major cultural source for the St Paul's community for over 40 years. The RCC was central to the mobilising activities of 1994, where there was a campaign called Justice For Marlon Thomas. A campaign against the racist attack of young Black men by fairground workers at the Downs on 31st March 1993 including 18-year-old university student Marlon Thomas.
In 2020, the RCC was threatened by the Bristol City Council, who wanted to close the build more flats, a plan that would look to gentrify St Paul’s. The St Paul’s community protested against this threat by signing the Stop the Sale petition which had 5,000+ signatures. The RCC needs to amass £20,000 by the end of the summer. There is a crowd fund which helps support the centre, Bridging Histories have also written an article on this.
As recalled by St Pauls community member, Fred Uriah Miller, African-Caribbean people horrifically faced housing discrimination, which meant that there was nowhere to go to find housing.
As they were regulated due to racial segregation, to the at the time, dilapidated areas of Bristol such as St Pauls. Which had been bombed during the Second World War and was not rebuilt or refurbished at all.
Such segregation still exists within Bristol, looking at the cost of living crisis, Black communities are negatively impacted in various ways, unable to revive support, or the essential services they require financially, mentally, physically and emotionally.
Because of these issues they faced, African-Caribbean people worked together as a community creating a community fund, which a person could access to purchase their own home. As Miller states, this is called the pardner saving system, which allows people to put some of their wages they earned each week into a housing fund, until a housing deposit could be paid for, for a person to get and use and acquire a house.
In April 2018, there was a political campaign to detain and deport Caribbean people who arrived in the UK in the 20th century. A campaign which completely contradicted the British Nationality Act of 1948, which gave people of the United Kingdom and ‘colonies’, status as well as the right to stay in the UK.
The UK government denied African-Caribbean people their legal rights. 83+ people were wrongfully deported. Many lost their homes, their possessions and were not given any access to the healthcare they were rightfully entitled to.
The UK government refused the re-entry of people through an still active policy called ‘hostile environment’.
This law which came into effect in 2012, makes it difficult for people to stay in the UK. Even though they were guaranteed the right to stay, work, to create a business, and study in the UK.
The law is incredibly harsh and cruel and is responsible for furthering xenophobia in the UK.
As of 2023, the UK government is still failing to provide compensation to the many that were affected by the racist policies of the Home Office, however, many are unable to acquire the compensation they rightfully deserve.
It’s important to make note of the ways in which the term ‘Windrush’ used to reference the scandal, further normalised the historical inaccuracy of Black British migration history. As papers, commentaries and people, commenting on this vile campaign, failed to demarcate the different contexts and circumstances, in which Caribbean post war migrants arrived in Britain prior to 1948.
On top of this historical failure, many were also subjected to racial discrimination and deportation, a sickening cruel act in which the children and grandchildren of these migrants also suffered.
To end, we must celebrate African-Caribbean communities. They must be celebrated, they are powerful trailblazers who have done so much.
I would like to provide a special thanks to St Paul’s Community member, Fred Uriah Miller for their great contribution to this article.
Sources:
Royal Museums Greenwich, ‘The story of the Windrush’, <https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/windrush-histories/story-of-windrush-ship>
‘Lest we forget the black war effort’, The Voice, 11 November 2022, <https://www.voice-online.co.uk/news/history/2022/11/11/lest-we-forget-the-black-war-effort/>
Arts and Realm Public Bristol, ‘Pero’s Bridge’, <http://aprb.co.uk/projects/all-projects/1999/peros-bridge/>
Professor Hakim Adi, ‘African and Caribbean People in Britain A History’ <https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/304774/african-and-caribbean-people-in-britain-by-adi-hakim/9781802060683>
St Pauls Afrikan Caribbean Carnival, <https://www.stpaulscarnival.net/>
Tanja Aminata Bah, ‘Discover St Paul’s Black History in a storymap and walks’, <https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/blog/discover-st-pauls-black-history/>
Bristol's Free Museums and Historic Houses: Celebrating Bristol's Black History, ‘The Bamboo Club’ <https://museums.bristol.gov.uk/narratives.php?irn=2244>
Michele Curtis, ‘The Seven Saints of St Pauls® art & heritage trail app’, <https://apps.cactus.co.uk/seven-saints/>
The Kuumba Arts Centre, <http://www.kuumba.org.uk/>
Debbie Death, St Paul's Bristol History in Old Photos And Flim, <https://localhistoryvideos.com/st-pauls-bristol-england/>
OTR Bristol, <https://www.otrbristol.org.uk/>
Project Zazi, <https://www.otrbristol.org.uk/what-we-do/zazi/>
Black South West Network, Impact of the Cost-of-Living Crisis on Black & Minoritised Communities in Bristol , <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/594948a7414fb5804d2b4395/t/63f38ba25a87b9639c5cfc07/1676905382253/Cost+of+Living+Crisis+Report+2023.pdf>
The Runnymede, ‘British Citizenship and the Windrush generation’, <https://www.runnymedetrust.org/blog/british-citizenship-and-the-windrush-generation>
Bridging Histories, ‘Protect the Rastafari Culture Centre!’, <https://bridginghistories.com/save-the-rastafari-culture-centre>