The Voice Newspaper June Edition 2023

Celebrating

The Journey Continues

Today we reflect on those who waved goodbye to familiar shores, seeking new horizons. Windrush pioneers began a legacy; now carried on by their descendants who continue to make contributions that build the United Kingdom and uplift the country of their heritage.

Photo of Windrush Monument courtesy of Blackink

Saluting

Geoff

We owe the Windrush Generation

BRITAIN owes the Windrush Generation so much for everything they have endured over the past 75 years.

They are due thanks and appreciation for the way they enriched Britain culturally and economically.

They are owed acknowledgment for the way they overcame barriers and hostility.

And Britain should reflect on how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go, in removing the barriers that those pioneers, and their descendants, experience.

So on this 75th anniversary, it is an opportunity not just to say thank you, but to learn from their experiences.

Their faith brought them through adversity and paved the way for generations to follow.

Their pride in Caribbean culture was passed on to today’s Black community, and continues to enrich this nation in every conceivable way.

We can only imagine how much greater their impact would have been if the playing field was equal.

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Younger generations can still learn so much by finding out more about their experiences, and reflecting on how that should guide us in making society more equitable in the future.

It is important that our stories are not forgotten. On the contrary, we are a key part of British history, as well as the present and future.

We owe it to them to campaign for justice for victims of the Windrush scandal by making the compensation scheme fully independent of the government.

And we can gain much by listening to their stories which have remained untold for decades.

This special souvenir edition brings some of those stories, and we look forward to covering even more online in the run up to Windrush Day on June 22.

This is a landmark year, let us strive to set the record straight, to tell the history of the Windrush generation so that it is common knowledge for the whole of society.

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Windrush generation’s battle for civil rights

By Vic Motune

WHEN YOU mention the civil rights movement, what comes to mind for most people is the struggle for equal rights under the law that took place in America and saw its leaders such as Dr Martin Luther King Jnr and Medgar Evers rise to world prominence.

But the racism and discrimination faced by African Americans was echoed in post-war Britain.

The new arrivals frequently faced housing discrimination, being forced to pay landlords high rents for overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions. And signs like “No blacks, no Irish, no dogs” were not uncommon in 1960s Britain.

The Windrush generation’s struggles sparked the birth of a grassroots activist movement aimed at achieving racial equality and civil rights.

It was a movement that led to huge changes in society, among them the passing of landmark race relations legislation and the election of Black and minority ethnic members of parliament.

Among those who made a significant impact in the early years of that movement was Claudia Jones, an activist and journalist born in Trinidad and Tobago.

In her youth, she migrated to the United States, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist, and Black nationalist. But facing persecution by the US authorities she was deported in 1955, later finding refuge in Britain.

Arriving in London at a time when the Black community was steadily growing, Jones recognised its need to get organised if racism was to be effectively tackled.

She was the driving force behind the launch of the West Indian Gazette in March 1958, the first major Black newspaper in Britain, located above a Brixton barbershop.

Four months after the newspaper’s launch, riots erupted in Notting Hill, west London. The area’s large Caribbean community had become a target for the open hostility of white working-class youth, commonly referred to as ‘Teddy Boys’.

Racial tensions were also fuelled by right-wing political groups such as the British Union of Fascists who tried to rally locals with the slogan ‘Keep Britain White.’

The riots, which followed an earlier outbreak of racial violence in Nottingham, led to the hospitalisation of three Black men for several weeks.

The Notting Hill “racial riots” as the media referred to them at the time shocked the country into realising that the racial tensions that existed in Britain

The West Indian Association was formed to try to address these challenges. One of its primary concerns was the Bristol Omnibus Company’s colour bar policy, which denied employment to Black and Asian workers.

equate as it failed to address discrimination in housing and employment. Pressure groups emerged with a determination to amend the legislation.

nation.

were not so different from those in the American South. Determined to find solutions, Jones began launching events that emphasised the richness of Caribbean culture and history in direct response to the hostility displayed by white racists.

The events she organised are widely seen as the forerunners of the first Notting Hill Carnival in 1964.

Another person who played a key role in campaigning for the rights of Black people in the 1960s is Paul Stephenson.

In 1963, Stephenson, then a 26-year-old teacher, led a boycott against the Bristol Omnibus Company.

Black Bristolians, largely based in the St Pauls area of the city, faced discrimination in housing, employment, and violence from white British Teddy Boy gangs.

Inspired by the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, Stephenson organised a 60-day bus boycott that gained national media exposure and substantial public support.

Politicians and church groups were among those who backed the campaign.

On August 28, 1963, the company finally lifted its employment colour ban, a decision which was announced on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr’s iconic “I have a dream” speech.

The Bristol Bus Boycott is widely credited with influencing the introduction of the Race Relations Act in 1965, which prohibited racial discrimination in public spaces.

Stephenson continued to make headlines when he faced trial for his refusal to leave a pub until he was served a beer.

However, activists found the 1965 Race Relations Act inad-

Among them was the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD), a group inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Britain in December 1964.

CARD also arose from the frustration over the major political parties’ seeming lack of action against racial discrimi-

Among its founding members were the Trinidadian historian CLR James, Dame Jocelyn Barrow who became CARD’s General Secretary, and its chair Dr David Pitt, a doctor who had moved to Britain from Grenada.

In 1959, Pitt had become the first person of African Caribbean heritage to stand as a parliamentary candidate, representing Labour in Hampstead.

Under Pitt’s leadership, CARD

DRIVING FORCE:

The campaigning efforts of Claudia Jones, an activist and journalist from Trinidad and Tobago, had a significant impact in the 1950s and early 60s

adopted the lobbying techniques of America’s NAACP which involved urging CARD members to write to their local MPs in an effort to raise awareness about ongoing discrimination.

CARD’s 1966 ‘Summer Project’ exposed the weaknesses of the 1965 Race Relations Act. The initiative involved sending students to test housing and job opportunities, revealing widespread racial bias. Over 150 complaints were filed, highlighting the need for additional legislation.

Several national newspapers covered CARD’s testing campaign and published editorials in favour of extending the Race Relations Act.

The campaign led to the 1968 Race Relations Act, banning discrimination in housing, employment, and public services.

Pitt went on to become the first Black chair of the Greater London Council. He later became a life peer in the House of Lords where he played a leading role in campaigning for the introduction of the 1976 Race Relations Act.

Dame Barrow became a prominent figure in the fields

Grassroots campaigns paved the way for race equality laws and Black representation in politics.

It was a movement that led to huge changes in society

INFLUENTIAL: Dame Jocelyn Barrow was a key figure in the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD) in the 1960s

her work, including an OBE in 1972. However, despite its success CARD was short-lived. Its emphasis on including white liberals and establishment figures as part of its efforts to mobilise the community alienated an emerging generation of radicalised activists.

In the late 1960s, a shift occurred as young people, inspired by the Black Power movement in the US, challenged discrimination more overtly.

The movement was fuelled by increasing racism in Britain. Politicians like Wolverhampton South MP Enoch Powell blamed immigrants for a range of social and economic issues and attracted controversy with his Rivers of Blood speech in 1968. Although not a member

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TRIUMPH FOR BLACK PROTEST:

Eight members of the Mangrove Nine around the time of their landmark trial in 1971; below inset, the election of MPs Bernie Grant, Diane Abbott Paul Boateng and Keith Vaz helped change Britain’s political landscape; below left, Bristol Bus Boycott organiser Paul Stephenson, centre, with fellow organisers Audley Evans and Owen Henry

of the government, Powell’s agenda was reflected in the legislation that was passed by such as the 1971 Immigration Act which restricted the ability of people from the Caribbean, Asia and Africa to emigrate to Britain whilst favouring white migrants.

In 1970, Black Power activists organised a march in Notting Hill to protest against police harassment and the repeated raids on the Mangrove Restaurant, a cultural hub founded by Frank Crichlow. Despite the raids, no evidence of illegal activity was ever found. Crichlow, a Trinidadian migrant and businessman, tried to address the situation through legal channels.

Darcus Howe, a young Black

activist and writer who had moved to the UK from Trinidad to study law, played a prominent role in organising protests against the Mangrove raids.

Inspired by the American Black Panthers and his Trinidadian roots, he urged Crichlow to take more direct action to challenge the police’s actions.

Howe led 150 protesters on a peaceful march to Notting Hill police stations in August 1970. However, heavy-handed policing saw the march end in violence.

The subsequent trial of the Mangrove Nine attracted widespread public and media attention when Howe and another defendant, Althea Jones-LeCointe, chose to represent themselves. They also

requested an all-Black jury. Although the request was denied two Black jurors were chosen.

During the trial, evidence of police brutality and racism emerged. After 55 days all nine defendants were found innocent of inciting a riot.

The jury rejected the police claims that The Mangrove was a criminal den.

Their acquittal marked a significant triumph for Black protest. The Mangrove Nine’s bravery and defiance in the face of heavy-handed policing empowered civil rights activists and others in the Black community with the knowledge that institutional racism could be successfully challenged.

When Bernie Grant and Diane Abbott became the first Caribbean heritage MPs to enter the House of Commons in 1987, it was heralded as an event that helped change the face of politics in Britain.

Along with their fellow newly-elected Labour MPs Keith Vaz and Paul Boateng, they blazed a path for other Black and minority ethnic MPs to follow.

It was a journey that had begun with the rise of the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 70s and the huge impact of the Mangrove Nine case.

It continued with trade union activism, anti-apartheid campaigns and a grassroots community response to cuts to public services and a growing race and class divide.

The riots of the 1980s were a turning point that awakened a disinterested Britain to the demands of marginalised Black communities.

The decade also saw the emergence of a powerful network of Black and minority ethnic councillors and council leaders pushing for the adoption by the major political parties, Labour in particular, of strategies to address racial inequality.

Black activists advocated for greater representation within the Labour Party leading to the launch of the Labour Party Black Sections in 1983.

Many of its leading lights were either born in the Caribbean or had parents from the islands.

This included people like journalist and activist Marc Wadsworth and Bill Morris who

went on to become Britain’s first Black trade union general secretary when he was elected to lead the Transport and General Workers Union in 1992. During his illustrious trade union career, Morris tackled a number of issues that affected Black workers.

The relentless determination of visionaries like Claudia Jones, Paul Stephenson and organisations such as the Labour Party Black Sections paved the way for today’s Black and minority ethnic MPs.

However, as the country gears up to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Windrush generation, questions remain over the future of this movement.

The Black voluntary sector, which once served as a vibrant platform for aspiring activists, local councillors, and MPs, has suffered severe blows due to government funding cuts in recent years.

While there are some who believe that this has led to a fading of grassroots activism, others believe that a campaigning zeal lives on in a new generation of young people who share their ideas about creating a fairer and more equal society on social media.

They say that the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in recent years following the 2020 death of George Floyd has ensured that the flame lit by the likes of Jones, Howe and Grant still burns brightly.

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Memories of my father

Leonora Innocent recalls the Windrush story of her father, Alexander Broodie

ON MY wedding day in 1987, my father said ‘put God first’ and then emphasised the importance of remembering your children.

I did not fully understand the relevance of what he said until his Windrush story slowly unravelled over subsequent years, revealing the sacrifices that he had made for his children.

This brought me to wonder: ‘Where would I be if he didn’t take that journey in 1955?’

Alexander Uriah Broodie was born on January 12, 1925 in Freetown, Antigua, the only child of Jimmy Adams and Ina Broodie.

Back home he was known as Uriah Adams. At the tender age of one, his mother took him to St Kitts for a better life, but my father could never forget his birthplace in Antigua as he was sent back every year to stay with his uncle Obe to remember his heritage and stay connected with his family there.

By the time Alexander was a young man, the talk around the Caribbean islands was about the chance of going to Britain. My father told us that politicians from England came over to St Kitts inviting West Indians to help rebuild ‘the Motherland’ after the devastation suffered during the Second World War.

They said that England could not do it without our help to restore the country destroyed during the war to its former glory.

There was not a lot of opportunity for work in St Kitts. “Times were tough,” my father would say.

His close friend Aaron was the one who said “let’s go to England” and so when my father finally made the journey, he said it was “like going on a blind date, blindfolded in the land of nowhere”.

News got back to my father that a friend of his named Procup, who lived close by in St Kitts, had a brother who was already living in Cardiff. It was then he knew he was coming to Cardiff as he had friends here.

My father worked as a fisherman and was also a very good diver. He earned five shillings a week and would give money to his mother. She provided him with clothes and food and saved money for him in a tin.

My father was able to pay his way to go to south Wales. When he went down to book his passage, his friend didn’t have his money to pay the fare at that time. My father, having a great sense of humour, said to Aaron “you mean to say you was the one who said ‘lets go to Britain” and you haven’t even got a copper! How you gonna get there, you can‘t swim it!”

My father wasn’t going anywhere without Aaron so he put down half each deposit for them and Aaron paid the other half later on.

My father set sail aboard the SS Auriga destined for Southampton docks on September 20, 1955.

Upon arrival in England, he was amazed by all the smoking chimneys on the houses, thinking these must be factories so there would be plenty of work!

To his surprise, they were for the coal fires to keep the houses warm — he had never witnessed anything like this back home!

He made his way to Cardiff, and found lodgings in Tiger Bay, a room in a shared house with other West Indians. He would have to put a penny in the gas metre for hot water and then ‘everyone would come running down the stairs to fill their kettle up until the penny done!’

One thing my father was not prepared for was the British weather. He said he got up one snowy morning and went to turn on the tap and no water came out.

The pipes had frozen and icicles were blocking the tap. ‘Oooh, it was so cold’, and he was now having second thoughts, doubting the wisdom of coming to such a cold country, and thought about returning back home.

He managed to find work in a factory. It wasn’t an easy job: he had to carry heavy iron bars on his shoulders and then put them in a furnace, but he loved the heat there, so he felt at home! These jobs were the ones that he said the white people wouldn’t want as they couldn’t stand the heat and hard labour.

I remember my father having to work three different shifts, 2 till 10, then 6 till 2 and 10 till 6. He earned £8 a month, paying £1 for rent, £1 for food, and £1

for what he called his ‘pocket money’.

Every month he put £5 aside so he could send for my mother to join him. He also had nine

West Indies to send for but as he said he had to find somewhere to put them first. Rather than renting, in 1960 he purchased a house at 27 Cranbrook Street

1960s my parents were able to send for their children two by two.

My father was a very proud man. I will always remember him saying ‘father have, mother have and blessed are the child that has his own’.

He was very pleased with what he had accomplished by trying to keep his family together, and providing a better future for us all.

ing me about a ‘partner hand’ where say four or more people would all put in money each week from their wages into a central pot. One person would have all the money one week, then the next person the following week and so on. This was one way the Windrush generation helped each other to get through hard times to send for family and friends and to buy property.

children back home to think about. In 1956, my mother also came to Wales, finding work as an auxiliary nurse, which meant they could save even more.

My father was worried as he still had children left in the

in the Cathays area of Cardiff at a cost of 14 shillings a month. He also had three extra mouths to feed: Margaret, Selwyn and myself (the baby of the family!), we were born in Cardiff. Now my father had 12 children, and throughout the

My father’s mother played a big part in the community in St Kitts, paving the way for many other people to come to the UK by lending them money which would be recycled over and over by those who found work and then sent it for the next person to borrow.

I remember my father tell-

The stories don’t stop there. Fifty-three years after Alex arrived in Cardiff, in 2008, two boys met at Plymouth University for the first time. Unbeknown to them, they were two grandchildren of two childhood friends, Alexander and Aaron who had sailed to Britain together 1955, paving the

He managed to find work in a factory. It wasn’t an easy job but he loved the heat there, so he felt at home!

FATHER’S DUTY: Leonora with Alexander on her wedding day in 1987

way for their grandchildren to graduate on the same stage together.

One of them was my son. Who would have dreamt that could have happened? As my father used to say, ‘Providence, guided my hand’.

In 2010, I remember my father receiving a phone call out of the blue from someone in Scotland with the same surname trying to trace their long lost relative.

He told them it can’t be him, as he was only a Broodie due to his grandfather having his slave master’s name. That’s what they used to do in slavery days, he said; the children would carry the name of the slave master.

My father had a big sense

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of humour and was a popular, well-loved character and much loved by the community in Cardiff.

He was young at heart and always laughing. I guess that’s what got him through life. He used to wear a badge on his jacket which said ‘21’.

He had a daily routine of walking into the city centre to visit his local pub for two pints and then walking home. One day, when he was 88 years old, he went missing.

I went to look for him with my brothers Randolph and Wingrove in the pub in the town centre and asked the barmaid if she had seen Alex.

She didn’t know anyone called Alex.

When we described him

— sunglasses, cap, walking stick — everyone in the pub said: ‘Oh, you mean 21!’ The barmaid said: ‘Yes, 21, he will be back in five minutes, he left his bag and a pint of beer on

My father often reminisced and out of the blue came a story we had never heard before.

LIFE IN PICTURES: clockwise from top left, my father and mother, Mildred Duncan, in Britain, 1956; celebrating my father’s 80th birthday in 2005; my mother in St Kitts, 1955, with Gwen, Randolph, Vernon, Sylvia, Wingrove and Deloris; my father bought his first house in Cranbrook Street in the Cathays area of Cardiff in 1960; Alexander’s name on the ancestry passenger list; father with family and grandchildren Tracey and Christopher

that one of the little girls had lost a ring in the sea. He promptly dived in the sea and found it for them.

family and put his children first regardless of his struggles, he never gave up and was always smiling.

the table over there!’ He was in the bookies placing bets on the horses, like the good old days! Eighty-eight years old, and they called him 21 — it’s amazing when you think about it.

When he was back home, he was a fisherman and was known as a strong swimmer and diver; and fishermen would call on him when they had problems under the water and he would dive in and sort it out.

One day the Royal Family were in St Kitts and he heard

I asked him what happened then, and he said they had marched him up to where the Royal Family were staying to present the ring and was rewarded with a dollar. The little girl’s name was Princess Elizabeth!

He was looking forward to receiving a telegram from that same little girl who was now the Queen on his 100th birthday. But unfortunately, Alexander Uriah Broodie sadly passed away August 20, 2022, aged 97. Gone but never forgotten. His Windrush story lives on.

My father remembered his

I too give God thanks for my father and I remember him for paving the way by taking that journey from Antigua to St Kitts, and then onto Cardiff for his children and his grandchildren.

His sacrifices enabled us to become what we are today: teachers, computer programmers, lawyers, accountants and Welsh-speaking authors. All contributing to the upliftment of the United Kingdom. This could never have happened without his hard work and sacrifice of Alexander Uriah Broodie, a Windrush pioneer!

His sacrifices enabled us to become what we are today: teachers, lawyers and Welsh-speaking authors

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‘WehelpedtobuildtheNHS’

Nurses remember experiences in UK hospitals after responding to calls from the ‘mother country’.

By Leah Mahon

FOR THE thousands of women that came to Britain after the devastation of the Second World War, who trained to be nurses and worked tirelessly to build the NHS that millions know today, their dreams first began as little girls on islands in the Caribbean.

Lynette Richards-Lord, 85, grew up in Guyana and had always planned on training in the profession in her home country. However, she like many others responded to the calls from the “mother country” as labour shortages ran rife.

“I knew I wanted to be a nurse. In fact, my father used to encourage me with that idea, because he used to say nursing is such a wonderful profession,” she tells The Voice. “I liked nursing people; when my father was ill I used to look after him before I left home. And so, it was something that was within me.”

A teenaged Lynette arrived at Paddington Station, London, in February 1959 and soon began her training as a nurse in Somerset just a month later. She began work as a Senior Registered Nurse before going on to qualify in midwifery in December 1963, a role that took her to work in Birmingham and Croydon. She recalls how some of her patients had the “marks of the war” on them.

As Lynette took to life as a working nurse in Britain, she saw that a job had been posted for a Senior Nursing Officer, but doubted she would get the job after the interview because she was Black “and they didn’t have any Black senior officers in those days”.

But she did get the job and

became the first Black divisional nursing officer for midwifery where she stayed in management for the next 20 years.

Sherlene Rudder’s arrival in Britain to help amid the postwar effort was a similar experience. Growing up in Barbados, she stayed with her grandparents after her mother and father travelled to Britain in the 1950s.

By the time she turned 18, she had seen an advert for nursing jobs that inspired her to make a “serious steps forward” in her budding career. But, it also had everything to do with her grandmother.

She tells The Voice: “My interest in nursing started when I was a little girl. My great grandmother actually was one of the first community midwives in St. Lucie, Barbados, and I liked what was happening to her; reaching out to children or helping parents give birth to their children.”

Sherlene, 75, arrived in Britain in 1964 and had applied to Kent and Sussex Hospital, but to her dismay she was told she didn’t qualify for the job. She described her mother as “pretty sharp,” as she quickly realised that her rejection had more to it. She demanded to see the matron and was told her daughter needed to sit an exam first.

Sherlene admits that she felt they responded that way when they realised she was Black despite having every capability to do a nursing job.

Lynette recalls that as she worked alongside an English nurse with the same qualifications, she was given better jobs to do like dressings.

She said: “I was left in the sluice which was cleaning the

bedpans and I pointed it out to the person in charge of the ward at the time.”

The unequal treatment carried on for days before taking things into her own hands and went to see the matron.

“So I gave up my lunchtime and I went to see the matron and asked her, what was happening? And she said, by the time I got back to the ward, she had got in touch with the sister and sorted it out,” she said, adding that racism didn’t happen to her often but when it did, it did hurt.

However, the nurses like Lynette and Sherlene who came over as part of the Windrush generation persevered and to-

gether have a total of over 100 years experience working for the NHS.

As the pair prepare to mark 75 years since the SS Empire Windrush pulled into Tilbury docks in June 1948, Lynette — who now lives in Croydon — says she’s happy to still be alive to see the milestone of her contribution and many others like her.

“It would be a joyous occasion to see how the NHS has improved and the work that’s been done. When I started nursing, if somebody said to me, they had cancer, you would think that’s it — you start getting into a black dress,” she says.

“But it’s not like that now, the quality of care, although we complain about the NHS, the

quality of care given by all races is absolutely fantastic.”

Sherlene says she’s most proud of being one of the founding members of the Sickle Cell Society and said marking Windrush this year is about “paying tribute to all those people who came before”.

“As I said before, [Windrush is about remembering] on whose shoulders we stand, pledging to continue supporting them. So, that will be my celebration just laying around and reminding people of the good things that immigration of the Caribbean people into this country, reminding them of that need for equal treatment.”

Although we complain about the NHS, the quality of care given by all races is absolutely fantastic

PROUD MOMENT: Lynette Richards-Lord, above left, on her graduation day in the UK; Sherlene Rudder, right, at group preliminary training school

VITAL ROLE: Jamaican nurses arriving at Westminster Abbey for the Jamaican independence thanksgiving service in August 1962 (photo: Getty Images)

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Joe’s journey to mayor

LOCAL COUNCILLORS and MPs of Caribbean heritage played a hugely important role in tackling racial discrimination in the post-Windrush years.

The Windrush generation first became involved in local politics in the decade after arriving, but it took until the 1970s for the first wave to get elected to their council’s town hall chambers.

Local government pioneers like Randy Beresford, who was elected in 1975 in Hammersmith and Fulham, went on to become one of the first Black mayors in the country to wear the ceremonial chain. Ben Bousquet in North Kensington was another who made it.

But it was the 1980s that marked a sea change in the way political parties respond to voters of Caribbean and African heritage.

The inner city riots which marked the start of the decade were a wake-up call to a Britain which had largely ignored a marginalised and over-policed Black community.

POWERFUL

The activism of the Black Power movement which came to prominence in the Mangrove Nine trial laid the foundations for a powerful network of Black and minority ethnic councillors and council leaders who pushed for the major political parties.

This period saw the likes of Guyana-born Bernie Grant — later to become a legendary MP — elected as leader of Haringey Council in 1985.

The same year Linda Bellos, of Nigerian and Polish-Jewish heritage, took the reins at Lambeth town hall. Other notable councillors included Russell Profitt, Martha Osamor, and Lurline Champagnie who represented the Conservatives in Harrow.

Among this cohort was Joe Abrams, a councillor who represented the Graveney ward in Mitcham for over 20 years after being elected in 1982 before go-

ing on to become the borough’s first Black Mayor.

His career in local politics and public service left a legacy that inspired his son Kingsley, who forged his own career in politics, also becoming a Merton councillor four years after his father’s election.

Impressive for a Guyanese immigrant who arrived in Britain in December 1960 with three pounds in his pocket.

However, like many members of the Windrush generation who arrived in the 1960s, life in the ‘Mother Country’ was not easy.

“Life in Britain was difficult and hard for my parents,” says Kingsley.

“After my mother arrived they found a place to live but it was with a lot of other people all living in one room. My father was trying to study, work and raise a family. I was born in 1962, so I joined them in this one room.

“They later got a place of their own. But life was so tough my mother decided to return to Guyana in 1964. She was pregnant with my sister at the time and took me back to stay with my grandmother. So we grew up there until I returned to the UK in 1977.”

Abrams came to Britain with the intention of furthering his education and a burgeoning career as a teacher. In Guyana he had also been politically active as a member of the country’s People’s National Congress (PNC).

The future mayor found work as a bus conductor with London Transport so he could support himself while studying, and went on to become deputy head at Bow Boys school in Tower Hamlets, east London.

Abrams gained a reputation as someone who was forthright about the issues affecting Black residents of Merton after he joined the Labour party in the late 1970s and became chair of the National Association of Community Relations Councils.

When, in 1982, Abrams decided to stand as a Labour candidate in Mitcham’s Graveney ward, many activists didn’t rate his chance of success.

“The ward was held by the Tories and had been for many years despite it having a large Black population,” Kingsley recalled. “So when he was selected to stand in the election not many people thought he would win because Graveney wasn’t seen as a safe Labour seat.”

PROUD

Abrams felt that if he could get his ideas across to the ward’s Black voters they would back him at the polling booth. And his intuition proved correct after he won the seat against all expectations.

Following Labour’s successful local election campaign in 1990 which saw the party take control of Merton Council, Abrams was made mayor of the borough in 1991.

ROUGH

“It was a proud moment for him, for our family and for the local community,” says Kingsley.

“Here is a guy who was born in Guyana in this rackety old house, he came to England with three pounds in his pocket, roughed it out living in one room with his family then went on to become deputy head of a school, then a local councillor and then the first Black mayor of Merton.

“And my mother, who came to this country at the age of 18, was now Mayoress, which was a dream for her.

“There were many people in

the borough who were part of the Windrush generation and settled in the borough in the 1960s. They had struggled, they had faced racism and in the face of it went through school and worked hard to buy their homes. And now they had a Black mayor of Merton. It was an amazing achievement and you could see it on their faces.”

When Abrams died in February 2012 tributes were paid to his selfless dedication to the people of the borough and his efforts to achieve racial equality.

Speaking about his father’s

impact on his own career, Kingsley says: “One of the greatest legacies he left was to show me that Black candidates who stood in elections could win if they got organised and had unity.

“When he was in Guyana he was active in the People’s National Congress. He played a big role in the party’s campaign strategy focusing on getting the support of key groups of voters.

“He was a big influence in the work I did with the Labour’s Black Sections, an organisation that was pivotal to getting Black MPs elected in October 1987.”

Guyana-born Joe Abrams was one of many trailblazers who made an impact in local government.

By Vic Motune

PUBLIC SERVICE: Joe Abrams with his wife after he became the first Black mayor of Merton

INSPIRED: Kingsley Abrams

BEGINNINGS: Left, the house that Joe Abrams was born in at Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara, Guyana; right, Randy Beresford was elected in Hammersmith and Fulham; far right, Lurline Champagnie represented the Conservatives in Harrow

Windrush75

‘We laid the foundations

How the Windrush Generation put transport on the right track.

By Sinai Fleary

PASSENGERS ON the Empire Windrush paid approximately £28 to travel to Britain, which is equivalent to £1,000 today.

Many of those eventually found employment working on the transport network across the United Kingdom.

In 1956, ten years before Barbados gained independence from Britain, a formal agreement between London Transport (LT) and the Caribbean country was created — which allowed the direct recruitment of Barbadians.

The direct recruitment programme by LT was the first of its kind in the Caribbean and was the blueprint for other organisations such as British Rail and National Health Service (NHS), who would later adopt similar recruitment models.

The Barbadian government paid for the fare of new recruits to Britain, which the workers would pay back over a twoyear period.

It is estimated LT recruited about 6,000 employees directly from the region until 1970, with applicants also applying for work from Trinidad and Jamaica.

SKILLS

According to the London Transport Museum, initially the new Caribbean employees worked as bus conductors, station staff and in track maintenance and building work.

Many of the Windrush generation were ex-servicemen and women who were welleducated and had many skills. However due to racism and discrimination, they were often denied promotions and had to do low-paid jobs.

By working long hours, the workers managed to save for tickets to be able to send for children or partners who may have been initially left behind, as the policy of LT at the time was just to employ single people.

There was a smaller black presence in Britain before the arrival of the Empire Windrush.

In 1910, Jamaican-born Joe Clough applied to work at London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) and started work as a spare driver.

He eventually passed his bus driving test and became the first Black London bus driver.

Mr Clough drove the number 11B bus between Liver-

pool Street, in central London to Wormwood Scrubs, in west London. He was born in 1887 and became an orphan at an early age. He was an ambulance driver in France for four years during the First World War.

Ralph Straker was a bus con-

Equal Pay Act in 1970 and Sex Discrimination Act in 1975, Black women were able to begin training to become Tube and bus drivers.

One of the lesser known forms of employment that the Windrush generation did, was working in the food canteens in the transport sector.

These jobs were usually undertaken by Caribbean women who worked long hours in hot kitchens to feed thousands of transport staff.

Eventually, the women slowly introduced different flavours from ‘back home’ to staff menus.

ductor and was directly recruited from Barbados in 1957.

Five years later, in May 1962, Barbadian Carl Hoyte was also recruited in the same role.

Some Caribbean women also worked as bus conductors, like Nona Roberts who was also directly recruited from the Caribbean and worked on the buses from 1965 to 1994.

Following the passing of the

In many British cities, the Caribbean community faced widespread racism and discrimination in housing and employment.

The Bristol Omnibus Company refused to employ Black and Asian bus workers and crews, which promoted the community to take drastic action.

In April 1963, a boycott started which involved sit-down protests, pickets of bus depots and also blockades across the city in south-west England.

The boycott was organised by Roy Hackett and Paul Stephenson who were supported by Owen Henry, Audley Evans, Prince Brown and Guy Bailey and the West Indian Development Council.

LEGISLATION

After four months, the company was forced to back down and remove its discriminatory colour bar policy.

The Bristol Bus Boycott is believed to have influenced the passing of the Race Relations Acts in 1965 and in 1968.

The Race Relations Act 1965

was the first piece of legislation in the UK to address the prohibition of racial discrimination in public places.

The expanded act in 1968 focused on eradicating discrimination in housing and employment.

Members of the Windrush generation were also responsible for ensuring the trains worked properly and effectively.

In 1952, Wilston Samuel Jackson moved to London to help maintain the trains.

He was born in Jamaica in 1927 and previously worked as a fireman.

Ten years later he became a train driver. Mr Jackson began maintaining trains shortly after moving to London, and became a driver 10 years later. He had a long and successful career on the railway, including driving the famous Flying Scotsman locomotive.

Mr Jackson died in September 2018 at the age of 91 and was honoured with a prestigious blue plaque at London’s King’s Cross station in 2021.

British Railways (BR), which was known as British Rail from 1965, operated most of the overground rail transport in Britain from 1948 to 1997.

The company was forced to remove its colour bar policy

PIONEER: Jamaican-born Joe Clough became the first Black London bus driver (photo: Transport for London)

Windrush75 of the transport system’

During this time many of the Windrush generation found work on the railways with many actually helping to build them. The legacy of the Windrush generation can be seen and felt in the workforce across the UK’s transport sector, and especially within LT’s successor Transport for London (TfL), where over 30 per cent of TfL employees are Black or from another ethnic minority.

Glenroy Watson is one of those workers. He has been with the transport network for over 44 years and worked on all London Underground lines.

He is currently a train driver on the Victoria Line. Speaking to The Voice, he said: “I joined the Underground as a guard. I started on the Central Line, and then got transferred to the Northern Line and then got transferred to the Piccadilly Line, where eventually I became a driver.

STEREOTYPE

“I have worked on every line on the Underground, including what was once called the East London Line — which has been now handed over to the Overground.”

Mr Watson, whose parents are from Jamaica and Barbados, says he would describe himself as African because “that’s what I am”.

His father worked in the railway, but he didn’t want a career in transport — especially working on the buses — because of the “stereotype image” associated with Black people at the time.

So he attended college and got a degree in Electronics and landed a job at one of the biggest automobile engineering firms in Britain. However, Mr Watson recalls his dream being cut short when

he “became a manager a little bit too early for their liking.”

He told The Voice that the company refused to pay him his “correct salary” and he ended up leaving and updated his skills further to “work as an engineer on the buses”.

In 1979, he joined the Underground and found workers from the Caribbean still faced hostility, discrimination or were shut out of some promotions and positions of au-

you travelled abroad on holiday you couldn’t go for another five years was “directly aimed at the African workers”.

Mr Watson claims many white managers “severely resented” that Black workers would go away to Africa or the Caribbean for four weeks “in the sunshine” whereas they were forced to holidays in places like Southend. Being an activist and Trade Unionist since his college days, Mr Wat-

of those who came before them.

“I would like to say to young African people it’s a job worth getting into,” he explained.

Windrush 75 is a special occasion celebrating our past pioneers who laid the very foundations of our transport system and other sectors crucial to British society.

And with fearless and dedicated employees like Mr Watson, the celebrations will be even more special, knowing London’s transport system continues to be driven by Windrush energy and principles.

In recent years, the London Transport Museum has held different exhibitions to celebrate its Caribbean employees.

thority.

He said: “The bus conductor was the one who had to deal with the hostile passengers and the driver would be safe in his cab.”

Looking back at the early days in his career, he said: “We had a grade called Station Masters when I came on the railway and somebody said ‘well hang on a minute white people are going to have to call Black people masters’, so it was subtly changed from Station Master to Station Manager.”

The train driver also believes a past policy which meant if

son used his voice to campaign against discrimination.

He added: “I was the first ever representative for the NUR/RMT on London Transport Equality board after we had exposed the racism to replace African and other non-white staff with new white managers.”

He added: “Over the years African workers have improved the Underground and have improved the pay and conditions.”

Now he believes children and grandchildren of the Windrush generation should be able to “benefit” from the improvements made to the system because of the fight and sacrifices

Last year, an exhibition entitled Legacies opened at the museum in Covent Garden, charting the immense contribution of Caribbean workers within the transport network in London since the 1950s.

And the celebrations will continue this year to mark Windrush 75, with a host of Museum Late events throughout the year, where the public can explore the Museum after dark.

In July, the Museum will host an event called Voices of London on July 14 in collaboration with Making of Black Britain (MOBB), which is the brainchild of broadcaster Diane Louise Jordan, of

TRIBUTE: Relatives of Wilston Samuel Jackson, Britain’s first Black train driver, stand underneath a plaque to commemorate Mr Jackson after it was unveiled at King’s Cross station in London.

Over the years African workers have improved the Underground and their working conditions

VITAL ROLE: Ralph Straker was a bus conductor and directly recruited from Barbados (photo: Transport for London)

Leaders pay tribute to the enormous contribution of the Windrush Generation

Prime Minister and Britain’s political leaders offer their thoughts on this landmark anniversary

75 years on, we pay tribute to the enormous contribution of those who arrived on the Empire Windrush in 1948 and the ways in which they have enriched communities across the UK ever since

75 years on, we pay tribute to the enormous contribution of those who arrived on the Empire Windrush in 1948 and the ways in which they have enriched communities across the UK ever since.

From saving lives in our magnificent NHS and founding and leading thriving businesses, to representing the UK on the world stage as professional athletes, the Windrush Generation and their descendants have been at the heart of the UK’s social, cultural, and historical fabric

From saving lives in our magnificent NHS and founding and leading thriving businesses, to representing the UK on the world stage as professional athletes, the Windrush Generation and their descendants have been at the heart of the UK’s social, cultural, and historical fabric.

It is an honour to be your Prime Minister and offer my message for this souvenir issue of The Voice on this historic occasion

It is an honour to be your Prime Minister and offer my message for this souvenir issue of The Voice on this historic occasion.

22 June 2023

Keir Starmer: Time to thank Windrush Generation for rebuilding Britain

SEVENTY-FIVE years ago HMT Empire Windrush brought 500 passengers from the Caribbean to Britain, beginning a new chapter in our history.

They embodied the best of Britain: determination, spirit, public service, and graft.

As we look back on 75 years, we should be proud of the way that generation became integral parts of the society we live in today.

From the NHS, to education, to business, those passengers and their families have given so much to Britain. Their contribution runs deep. This anniversary is an important opportunity to recognise it.

Arriving in a decimated post-war Britain, they joined the mission to rebuild our country. Today, everywhere you look, their legacy is clear.

22 June 2023

Take our health service. The newly created NHS could not meet the health needs of the population without the Caribbean and South Asian nurses. We owe the continuation of our much-loved NHS to the dedication and hard work of the doctors, nurses, matrons and assistants who came after them.

LEGACY

Take public transport. Windrush hands drove our buses and trains, starting a legacy that would last a lifetime.

Take our infrastructure. Windrush arrivals worked on the production of desperately needed raw materials such as iron, steel and coal, so we could live and work safely in the buildings we have today.

Take sport. From boxers to footballers, the legacy of those arriving in Tilbury

in 1948 is rich. England’s first black footballer Viv Anderson’s parents arrived during Windrush.

I remember watching Viv play as a youngster.

I watched him cement his place in an Arsenal team that brought us fans silverware, but it wasn’t until later that I learned the political significance of Viv and others’ success.

The first Windrush Generation contributed so much to British society, but instead of being thanked, they have been badly mistreated. Alongside the government’s repeated failure to treat them and their families with respect and dignity, we take their contributions for granted.

That’s why celebrating their success is important on the 75th anniversary.

It’s why the tireless work by campaigners like Patrick Vernon is so vital.

So as we reflect on 75 years since HMT Empire Windrush docked in Tilbury, we must thank those who keep the stories of the Windrush Generation alive. Their testimonies are what humanises a story of finding not only opportunity in Britain but sadly discrimination, too.

We can all use this anniversary to not only thank those who arrived in 1948, but to learn from them. To encourage all corners of our society to be openminded, to embrace different new cultures, and to harness the power of new stories. Only through conversation and engagement can we truly understand the history and importance of race and migration to Britain across the decades.

Sir Keir Starmer is leader of the Labour Party

THE PRIME MINISTER

1O DOWNING STREET LONDON SW1A 2AA

1O DOWNING STREET LONDON SW1A 2AA

Ed

AS A Liberal Democrat I am proud of the outstanding economic, social, and cultural contribution the Windrush Generation have made to the United Kingdom.

On this 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush – which brought over dedicated Caribbean people who wanted to help rebuild Britain - we should celebrate this contribution.

The Windrush Generation has played a vital role in shaping the UK into the diverse and multicultural society that it is today.

Their hard work and determination helped to rebuild Britain in our time of need, and they have enriched our culture with their music, art and cuisine.

Arriving the same year the NHS was founded, many of the Windrush passengers were instrumental in building the NHS – one

of our country’s proudest achievements.

We must acknowledge and celebrate their contributions and recognise their important place in the history of this country. More than that, they should be working actively to promote harmony and unity in respect of the Windrush Generation’s legacy.

Last year, it was touching to watch the unveiling of the new National Windrush monument at Waterloo Station – a celebration of the Windrush Generation’s legacy, spearheaded by our very own Baroness Floella Benjamin.

The brave immigrants of the Windrush Generation created new lives for themselves and their families, and continue to be an integral part of the diverse Black British community we see today.

The appalling Windrush

Windrush75

Scandal revealed that people who have every right to live in the UK had been wrongly denied access to NHS treatment, housing and other services simply because they didn’t have the right documents to prove it. Innocent people were made homeless, detained and even deported.

The Conservative Government should be working tirelessly to right the wrongs of this country’s treatment of people who have given so much to us.

The recommendations which came out of the Lessons Learned Review in the wake of the Windrush Scandal are vital to prevent the same mistakes again.

Yet we are hearing that Suella Braverman is considering scrapping these recommendations, even after the Home Office’s complete mismanagement of the financial compensation

programme. This scandal is nowhere near over, with people even passing away before they can receive their compensation.

This anniversary is both a celebration and a sobering reminder that here in the UK, far too many people’s lives are still blighted by discrimination, inequality and injustice.

Liberal Democrats will keep fighting for the rights of those impacted by the Windrush Scandal - and to scrap the cruel, ineffective Hostile Environment policies that caused the scandal in the first place.

We will keep standing up to bigotry, hate and racial injustice that is far too commonplace in our country. And we will keep working to combat racism wherever we find it.

Sir Edward Davey is leader of the Liberal Democrats

THIS YEAR marks the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush.

They travelled here full of hopes, dreams and apprehension in answer to a call to help rebuild Britain after the Second World War. Little did anyone know the impact that the people aboard would come to have in shaping our city and country.

The Windrush Generation and their descendants have influenced every aspect of our society. From those working for the NHS and Transport for London, to politicians, activists and the creatives who have shaped our culture - we owe them all an enormous debt of gratitude.

Last year, I was honoured to be at Waterloo station, alongside some of Britain’s best-loved figures, to witness the unveiling the National Windrush Monument. It is fitting that there is a national monument in such a prominent location paying tribute to this

inspiring generation. It is essential that new generations understand the significance of Windrush. That’s why I was proud to host a special public event at City Hall to bring the story of ‘Arrival’ to life using talks, music, film screenings and art installations.

We cannot adequately commemorate Windrush without reflecting on the disgraceful treatment members of that generation have endured.

The Government’s misguided hostile environment policies have caused untold pain and the subsequent delay in delivering compensation has not only compounded the trauma that’s been inflicted, but shamed our nation.

Unfortunately, there remains a chronic lack of funding available to Black-led organisations supporting the Windrush Generation.

That’s why I’m proud that City Hall has contributed to the Windrush Justice programme to help address this disparity.

I’ve also supported the Windrush Justice Fund, launched by Patrick Vernon and delivered by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, to help widen access to free legal advice on often complex immigration and asylum processes.

The Windrush Generation has played a pivotal role in helping to make our city the greatest in the world, and I will continue to do all I can to honour their legacy and ensure they receive justice.

For it is only by ensuring their contribution is recognised that we can build a fairer, more equal and more prosperous city for everyone.

WHEN THE Empire Windrush cruised into Tilbury Docks in 1948, it opened a new chapter of Black British History - which stretches back through the centuries featuring heroes such as musician John Blanke, who played for King Henry VII, and Mary Seacole, who saved soldiers in the Crimean War and pioneered nursing practices.

Sometimes the Windrush chapter is a tough read, with the cruel signage of “No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs” etched into its pages and vivid illustrations of blatant racism and constant tribulation.

But, mostly, it is a story of bravery, remarkable resilience, fierce determination, and impressive ingenuity.

The people who came from the Caribbean in that era were great adventurers who endured bittersweet goodbyes on sunkissed islands and left the warm embrace of mothers, fathers, children and tight-knit communities to explore new lands.

The Second World War had ended, and the prospect of a new era of peace and prosperity was firmly in sight. They arrived on British shores with their life savings, their skills, their dreams and their spirit of innovation, ready to build a better world.

They woke up every day with Maya Angelou’s mantra, “still I rise”. Remarkably, though their sacrifice was often not respected, and they suffered unimaginable abuse and discrimination, they thrived.

They saved, built and bought houses, educated their children, and in their downtime, they partied

Caribbean-style. Adversity seemed to spur them on to make invaluable contributions to their communities as teachers, nurses, doctors, entrepreneurs, lawyers, musicians and politicians. They added an authentic Caribbean flavour to Britain’s cultural melting pot.

That is why the Windrush story is dear to me. It’s much more than the fact that it is my story, that I arrived here with my parents from the island of Dominica in the 1950s and have tasted the pangs of adversity and the sweetness of triumph.

What I treasure most is the vibrant diversity it helped to create and the values it promotes.

These values, which include unconditional love in the face of hate, perseverance in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges, and tolerance and understanding in the face of racism and xenophobia, defined my journey to becoming the first UK female Attorney General and eventually the first female Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, where those same principles are espoused in our charter.

Therefore, I hope the memory of the Windrush era will continue to be a catalyst for peace, cooperation, equality, tolerance, respect and understanding, and a constant reminder of the resilience of the human spirit.

Baroness Patricia Scotland is Secretary General of the Commonwealth

Sadiq Khan is the Mayor of London

Davey: They played a vital role shaping our multicultural society

Sadiq Khan: We owe them all an enormous debt of gratitude

Patricia Scotland: Theirs is a story of bravery and remarkable resilience

HOW WE’RE CELEBRATING WINDRUSH 75 Thanks to The National Lottery

Windrush-related projects across the UK responded in their droves when they heard that The National Lottery Community Fund was welcoming applications to mark the 75th anniversary of Windrush. We hear from three groups that have successfully applied and received National Lottery awards of up to £10,000 to find out what their Windrush plans

are and the difference their grant makes to them and their community.

Caribbean & African Health Network in Manchester will host a Windrush 75 Health Walk and Festival that has been designed, produced and delivered with older Caribbean people and their families and Black-led community groups.

The event takes place on Saturday 24 June at Alexan-

dra Park in Manchester and will celebrate the contributions of local Windrush communities through storytelling, performances and educational exhibitions.

Dr Faye Bruce DL, Chair of the Caribbean & African Health Network, said: “Both my parents arrived in the UK in 1961 having given up their home in Jamaica in the hope of building a better life for themselves and their family. They worked

tions and persisted with resake

in some of the worst conditions and persisted with resilience for the sake of their children.

“Celebrating Windrush is important to me and the Caribbean & African Health Network because their story is not unique, but a real opportunity to salute, commemorate, recognise and celebrate those that came and contributed to UK society for the sake of future generations.”

Caribbean & African Health

Can’t Blame Da Youth in Leicester will be showcasing the story of Windrush through street and stage performances, bringing people from all communities together to understand the experiences of Windrush pioneers. A series of carnival arts workshops will take place over 12 weeks, and the group will also form part of Leicester Carnival on Saturday 5 August.

Speaking about the importance of commemorating Windrush 75, Joanne Alexander, Director of Can’t Blame Da Youth, said: “The 75th anniversary of Windrush means a lot to our organisation and community as many of our grandparents and parents are the Windrush first and second generation.

“Thanks to the £10,000 National Lottery grant, we will celebrate the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush, when our grandparents emigrated from the Caribbean to Britain to help rebuild after World War II. Many took on jobs such as nurses, bus drivers, food and coal production and much more.

“After facing racism, prejudice and stereotypes we have

built new lives and families and had to fight to be accepted. We have the legacy of contribution, which makes us feel proud.”

Another group to benefit from National Lottery funding is Nottingham News Centre, which will be holding a special event on Windrush Day itself (Thursday 22 June) at Haywood Road Community Centre in Nottingham. This will celebrate the contributions of former industrial workers of African Caribbean heritage from the Windrush generation through presentations and an exhibition.

Norma Gregory, Diverse Heritage Leader at Nottingham News Centre, said: “This is an important occasion to reflect and to remember the significant contributions made by the African Caribbean community, their elders, and descendants as part of British society.

“Over the past ten years, our group has been collating, preserving, and sharing our diverse, industrial heritage. We relish moments like this where communities can come together to share and hear memories, lived experiences and achievements of the Windrush generation,

Almost £800,000 of National Lottery funding has been awarded to 95 community groups across the UK commemorating Windrush, with more investment to come throughout the 75th anniversary year. Projects to benefit include carnivals, history exhibitions, intergenerational workshops in schools, and an event celebrating Caribbean jewellers in the British jewellery trade. Windrush 75 grants up to £10,000 are still available for activities taking place later this year, including for Black History Month in October.

Visit www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/news/blog to read Windrush 75 blogs which provide advice and top tips on how to apply and strengthen your application.

Free grant application clinics, which were hugely popular and sold out earlier this year, are back – with sessions running in June. You will hear about eligibility criteria, what grants can be spent on, and what we are looking for in an application.

SCAN THE QR CODE TO FIND OUT MORE AND SIGN-UP TO A SESSION:

their descendants and legacy.

“Thank you to National Lottery players for supporting our progress and journey towards diversity and inclusion through heritage.”

Recognising the importance of supporting Windrush Day, Phil Chamberlain, England Director at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “The 75th anniversary of Windrush is a great opportunity to recognise and embrace the endeavours and legacy of Windrush pioneers and their families.

“Communities are choosing many ways in which to mark this historic occasion. We’re delighted to be able to support many of them with National Lottery funding, with grants available throughout this significant year.

“National Lottery funding is for everyone so if you are planning a Windrush 75 event or project this year with your community please do apply.”

Windrush75

Historic Windrush coin to be unveiled

Images which the new 50p coin will use are revealed

THE ROYAL Mint is to unveil new 50p coins in celebration of 75 years of Windrush generations. The coins are due to be released early this month.

Artist Valda Jackson, who created the design, explains below what this project means to her as the daughter of Windrush parents.

The new coins will feature a couple that represents Caribbean workers who responded to Britain’s call for help in its rebuilding post-war.

The Union Jack is depicted behind them, to reflect issues around belonging, around ownership, questions around our historical and present relationship with all of what that flag represents.

As well as being an artist, Ms Jackson is working on her first novel, which explores her family’s migration from the Caribbean to England in the 1960s.

Visit www.royalmint.com to register your interest in the coin

coin honours our parents and their legacy’

By Valda Jackson

THE WINDRUSH generation has influenced significant changes to Britain’s school workforce.

I am a multidisciplinary artist and writer; creating complex narratives that reflect and interrogate our past and present.

Both in my visual art and in my writing, my work essentially is about our existence and survival; it’s about individual entitlement, privilege and, above all, dignity.

When my parents set off from Jamaica in the 1960s, my two older sisters and I were left with my grandmother and a young aunt. Three years on, we were sent to join them in England.

I grew up in Birmingham in a strongly religious community of men and women, many of whom also had children who, over time, might be sent-for.

My experience has been one of growing up in a Caribbean/British culture within a wider English/British one, then working and bringing up my own children while making work that explores our cultural and historical truths.

I am deeply sensitive to the many reasons, situations, concerns, the dreams, and the hope that compelled

my parents and others to take the decision to leave their homes and travel such distance, to work and create for themselves and their children a future they could barely have visualised.

They lived and worked alongside their counterparts, English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh, longing, perhaps, to be seen and treated as equal.

I believe in the power of the image, and the written word – what can be called upon through focus on intense small details – in the emotional capacity of marks laboured over, whether

drawn, sculpted or inscribed, their intricacies and subtleties, their poetry, a pattern on a blouse, the form and particulars of a face.

We see examples in the magnificent terracotta, ivory or cast metal figures and heads from Benin or Ife.

In them one sees serenity, repose, and dignity, where even on a scale much smaller than life size they are limitless in their reach and meaning.

These works have become some of my greatest influences and it is deeply moving to look upon them and recognise in my own images, heads – drawn, painted, or sculpted – those features, that serenity, the dignity of Obas, Kings and Queens.

It was important, I think, to honour our multiplicity of differences while recognising our similar stories and histories.

The image is one of unity, representing the bond between the UK and Commonwealth citizens who helped rebuild the country in its time of need.

I am very happy to have my design selected for this coin, which honours our parents and their legacy; and which celebrates our presence, achievements, and contributions that continue to enrich our society.

RELEASE: The new 50p coin will be launched this month

‘This

A STORY TO TELL: Valda Jackson (photo: Georgia Jackson)

Windrush stamps its mark

Royal Mail’s new stamps follow a series which celebrates the Black contribution to Britain

IIT’S NOT just a new coin that will be launched. The Royal Mail are issuing eight new stamps to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Windrush landing in 1948.

T’S NOT just a new coin that will be launched. The Royal Mail are issuing eight new stamps to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Windrush landing in 1948.

This new collection follows a series of stamps in recent times that celebrate and honour Black culture and historical figures. These include the Notting Hill carnival, former England winger John Barnes and the founder of Britain’s first Black newspaper, Claudia Jones.

This new collection follows a series of stamps in recent times that celebrate and honour Black culture and historical figures. These include the Notting Hill carnival, former England winger John Barnes and the founder of Britain’s first Black newspaper, Claudia Jones.

The new Windrush stamps were created by five Black British artists, all with a Caribbean heritage, and are due be revealed on June 15 at an event at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton.

The new Windrush stamps were created by five Black British artists, all with a Caribbean heritage, and are due be revealed on June 15 at an event at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton.

It is expected that the stamps will go on sale on Windrush Day, June 22, and are bound to create

It is expected that the stamps will go on sale on Windrush Day, June 22, and are bound to create intense interest among collec-

intense interest among collectors. Royal Mail say that diversity is a theme they are prioritising to mark the contribution of individuals from all backgrounds. A stamp celebrating singer Dame Shirley Bassey is scheduled for later this year.

tors. Royal Mail say that diversity is a theme they are prioritising to mark the contribution of individuals from all backgrounds. A stamp celebrating singer Dame Shirley Bassey is scheduled for later this year.

In other developments, King Charles is due to commission portraits of Windrush pioneers.

He said: “My hope is to use this project to honour and further celebrate that very special generation, and to ensure that all they did for this country is forever understood and appreciated.

“The strong relationship between Britain and Jamaica has been forged through the centuries, and continues to be strengthened by the myriad connections between our people.

“The contribution of Jamaicans to the life of this country has been immeasurable.”

A tradition of loyal service to Britain since 1944

Delisser (known to all as Dennis) Bernard was born in Lucea, Hanover, Jamaica on 13th September 1928.

He enlisted into the RAF in 1944 which means, like many other brave young Jamaicans, he must have added a couple of years to his age in order to sign-up.

When he first arrived in England during World War Two he was not the first member of

the Bernard family to set foot in the country, nor the first to serve in a World War. Dennis’ father Herbert was one of the first West Indians to join the British West Indies Regiment in January 1916. Just under three months later, along with 1,139 other members of the Third Jamaica Contingent, he boarded the SS Verdala destined for Plymouth. What happened next was a disaster.

The Verdala was diverted to

avoid German U-boats and was caught in a blizzard as it headed for Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ship had no heating and the Jamaican troops were hopelessly ill-equipped in terms of warm clothing. Five young Jamaicans perished and around 600 suffered frost bite and exposure.

The ship later docked at Bermuda to allow the wounded to be treated. In another quirk of fate, the surgeon at the Military Hospital, a Bermudian

called Bill Tucker, would also be a passenger on the Windrush over 30 years later.

Herbert Bernard had a remarkable escape. Dr Tucker worked ceaselessly carrying out around 150 amputations on stricken West Indian soldiers but Herbert survived and was eventually able to resume the journey to England.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 53

From left to right.

SMILLING:

Delisser Bernard

Delisser cooking up a storm (family album)

Delisser in earlier years (family album)

The new Windrush stamps were created by five Black British artists, all with a Caribbean heritage

Gen Z look back on how it all started

How well is the story of Windrush remembered by younger generations today? By Leah

DO THE new generation of Caribbean people remember the story of the Windrush, and if so how much do they know? The arrival of those pioneers in 1948 changed the fabric of British society as we know it today, as they got public services back on its feet after the devastation of the Second World War.

For those that grew up in Britain and for those that made the journey after the Windrush era, the school curriculum is still accused of not only white-washing of the horrors of the empire but also downgrading the contribution of Black people to the prosperity of Britain.

The Voice spoke to Generation Z on what Windrush means to them and why it’s important that young people remember their profound legacy.

Daneille Guthrie, 28, family from the Cayman Islands

DANIELLE

GUTHRIE, 28, moved to the UK when she was just eight-yearsold and tells The Voice she first heard about the Windrush generation through TV coverage.

Being from the Caribbean, the racial equality campaigner says she has always had a rich interest in culture and Black history. But it was in the wake of the Windrush scandal in 2018 where her interest truly peaked.

“The Windrush generation paved the way in many systems and benefits that all communities in the UK benefit from.

“From the more spoken about things such as the NHS, public transport and culture but also in terms of creating and carving out space for marginalised ethnic communities to thrive such as the Race Relations Act and contributing to media standards in the early forms of Ofcom,” she says.

Danielle has even gone as far as founding IN.Society, her own racial equality platform that aims to confront the racist immigration

Mahon

laws that led to the Windrush scandal and the ongoing fight for compensation. She believes that young people like her need to remember all that came before to make Britain what it is today.

“Young people need to understand the history of Britain and who contributed to the opportunities they know benefit from, as well as why we live in a multicultural nation and the contributions made to modern Britain,” the race equality activist says.

“Without knowing the Windrush generations story, especially in today’s times where migration, immigration and refugees are often spoken about in a negative light, it is important to remind and educate on the contribution of how the Windrush generation added crucial value.”

Daneille is proudly Caribbean and says she values the sense of pride and community that the culture shares across islands.

“We have strong values set in family, big gatherings to celebrate and spend time with each other, hospitality, food, music and dancing,” she adds. “I value our sense of creating and making happy moments even in dark times.”

Richie Brave, 40, family from Guyana BBC RADIO 1XTRA presenter Richie Brace was born in New Cross, south London but his connection to the Windrush generation goes back to the 1960s when his dad first arrived in Britain from Guyana.

He tells The Voice their presence has “orchestrated Black identity in Britain”.

“Even the language that we use, a lot of it is rooted in Jamaican tonality, or West Indian tonality more widely. So even if we see things like ‘Wagwan,’ a lot of people take that for granted, but actually the language that we’re using is patois regularly and openly in the country constantly, but we

don’t realise where that comes from,” he explains.

Richie adds that the Windrush generation impact on the fabric of British society is undeniably political, with a direct root to Black liberation in the UK.

He hails people like Grenadian Professor Gus John who orchestrated the Black People’s Day of Action following the devastation of the New Cross Fire in 1981.

Or Trinidadian Althea Jones-LeCointe, who led the British Black Panther movement and revolutionaries behind the Mangrove Nine.

“When they came here, they didn’t just come here, and sat passively, they came here they organised and actually, the only reason why we have got the level of freedom that we have, and it might not be much but we have the space to do, the things that we’re doing is because they lived through that harsh environment,” says Richie.

“They fought, and I don’t think they’re given enough credit or given their flowers for the

space that they created for us — we’re standing on their shoulders.”

The BBC presenter stops short of calling the younger generation unappreciative of Windrush’s impact on the society they’ve grown to call home.

“We cannot say that young people live outside of these families, their grandparents, their great grandparents, are the people who came over in the Windrush generation,” he says.

“Their 80-year old, great grandmothers depending on what age we’re looking at, or their grandmothers, and for some of us, our parents…I think sometimes we take it for granted, rather than disrespect it.”

Richie says he plans to spend Windrush Day this year surrounded by family and playing mas at Grenada carnival, loving the food and music of his culture, celebrating the “vibrancy of us” as well the unique individuality.

He adds: “Identity is not a monolith, right? So, we’ve got doubles in Trinidad, we’ve got pine tarts in Guyana. We’ve got patties in Jamaica, we’ve got oil down in Grenada. You

look across these islands and these countries and there is just a breadth of music and culture and food and beauty; it’s how different we are but how that thread connects us all.”

Olivia Patten, 32, family from Jamaica

LIKE SO many of the Windrush generation, Olivia Patten’s grandmother arrived from Jamaica and worked as a nurse for the NHS to aid the labour shortages after the Second World War.

“I heard about it firsthand,” she tells The Voice. “My grandma came over to be a nurse. And so I’ve kind of heard her side of it and the experience that she had working with English people, why they came, and what they were told over in Jamaica that made them even want to come here…they thought the streets

PROFOUND LEGACY: Those who came over on the Empire Windrush changed the fabric

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Pioneers had tunnel vision to succeed

THE FIRST problem those pioneers faced after arriving on the Windrush was a lack of accommodation.

After travelling to Brixton’s Labour Exchange – a job centre of the time – they did not have a roof over their head.

The immediate answer was to sleep in an underground shelter underneath Clapham South tube station.

For six shillings and a sixpence a week, the 236 pioneers got to sleep on a bunk bed and were given food.

The shelter also had washing facilities which were used by citizens during the Second World War.

The shelter was deep below the surface, the equivalent of 11 storeys down, and it was far from luxurious. It was also noisy, being below the Northern line which served as a wake-up alarm in the mornings.

way to Clapham Common. The Ministry of Labour and National Service even set up a labour exchange inside the shelter to offer job opportunities.

Within two weeks, the last resident had departed having secured jobs in London or travelled to another city.

The shelter has been preserved by the London Transport Museum, who run regular tours. Original 1940s signage remains on the walls, including directions to the toilets, canteen and sleeping areas.

Those seeking shelter were assigned to a specific section of Clapham South, each of which was named after a famous British admiral, including Collingwood, Drake and Jellicoe.

were paved with gold.” Olivia, who works as a workshop facilitator, says that when she learnt about Black history in school it didn’t go beyond the slave trade or through the lens of African-American history.

She says today it’s even more important for the younger generation to understand the contribution of the Windrush generation.

“It’s our heritage isn’t it, it’s how we got here, most of us anyway. It’s important to understand our grandparents or great grandparents, what their vision was to make Britain what it is today, and how they helped the country get back on its feet,” she says.

Olivia admits that she’s never celebrated Windrush Day, but has become more conscious of it because of the 2018 scandal and how they are suffering from gentrification in places like Brixton. She says that although young people like her might be as involved with the dates around this special time of year, their sense of Caribbean identity is just as strong.

She adds: “I feel like we have a strong sense of being. There’s pride in our identity.”

The subterranean underworld of the shelter was cramped, and was described as “like a sparsely furnished rabbit’s warren”, with one corridor that extended all the

To commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Windrush, there will be a 20 per cent discount off the booking price for summer tours when using the code WINDRUSH20.

Visit www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/ hidden-london/clapham-south

CRAMPED: In their bedroom in the Clapham Shelter, Kenneth Murray, Eric Drysdale and Aston Robinson, who came to Britain from Kingston, Jamaica (photo: Getty Images)

of British society as we know it today

(photo: PA Images)

WALK BACK IN TIME: The shelter has been preserved by the London Transport Museum, which run regular tours

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The Windrush generation… a lot bigger than we think!

Deputy headteacher Yvonne Wade recalls how her aunty left Jamaica to make a new life in Britain

YVONNE WADE, deputy headteacher of St Antony’s Catholic Primary School in Forest Gate, is a proud descendant of the Windrush generation.

Her Aunty Phyllis had not journeyed to the motherland on the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948, when the famous vessel first transported its precious cargo of Caribbean Immigrants from Jamaica to the Port of Tilbury in East London.

When interviewed by the children of her class, Miss Wade recalled how her Aunty Phyllis left Jamaica in the early 1960s to journey to England as a young teenager of 18 years.

Aunty Phyllis, like so many other Jamaicans, St Lucians, Barbadians, Dominicans and Trinidadians, had come to Britain for the opportunity to work and study and make good use of the opportunities open to them.

The children were keen to know what happened to Aunty Phyllis when she first arrived in England, where she lived, how she was treated, when she first arrived and what she missed.

Miss Wade told the children that Aunty Phyllis stayed with her aunts (her mum’s sisters who had immigrated to England years before her) in Tottenham

in north London when she first arrived.

They lived on one of the roads off Phillip Lane near to Bruce Grove. She recalls her aunty saying that she had a difficult time getting hair products that were suitable for her hair type, so she began to wear an afro.

She also missed her Caribbean food and music, which was not as readily available as it is today. Aunty Phyllis shared that she felt proud when Jamaican pop star Millie Small hit the top of the charts in Britain in 1964 with My Boy Lollipop

Her greatest challenge, however, was dealing with the cold weather, which made her very homesick, and she really hated contending with the blatant racism, which she faced on a daily basis.

Miss Wade told her class that she was very proud of her aunty and all the people who make up the Windrush generation, as they were brave and resilient, blazing a trail for so many who came after them.

She shared that it was their stories of challenge and triumph that inspired her to write so many poems and plays about the experiences of the diverse people who came from so many countries to help to rebuild post war Britain and help to make it great.

REMEMBERING THE PAST: “You called… we came” ... Windrush poem written by Professor Laura Serrant, put to music and performed by St Antony’s choir led by Nathan Chan, music teacher at the school

St Antony’s pupils pay tribute to the Windrush generation

“I stand in awe of the Windrush generation because they left their countries of origin across the Caribbean, just like my mum’s family did, by leaving Jamaica, to come to Great Britain. They selflessly helped to rebuild Britain after the devastation of the Second World War. This was a true act of patriotism”

Isabella Corriette – Head Girl

“We should truly honour the Windrush generation who blazed a trail for us, the descendants of immigrants. We are now enjoying the fruits of their labour which is evident still today inthe NHS, Transport for London, the Royal Mail and in the honourable service men and women who served in the Brit-

ish Army, Navy and Air Force. We have a lot to be thankful to them for”

Alejandro Serrano – Head Boy

“They came to this country bringing their rich and wonderful culture of Caribbean foods such as jerk chicken, fried dumplings and rice and peas as well as reggae, calypso music and carnival traditions to share with the whole nation”

Jacques Etienne-Crone

“I admire how they dealt with the racism they faced on a daily basis, this showed just how resilient they were. If we could be half as courageous as they were, then our generation would be invincible!”

Prisha Patel

“When you think about it, they actually helped to make Britain multicultural, although they paid a really high price! This is because so many of them were treated really badly and unfairly! Many left and went back home, which was understandable under the circumstances; but thankfully many stayed and helped to bring about the changes that some of us take for granted today”

Demetris N’Jie

“I am so deeply conscious about how they had to cope with all the pressures and challenges they faced on a day to day basis. Especially the young children who came with their parents and had to go to schools where they were perhaps the only child

of ethnic minority in the entire school. That must have been hard! I do not know if I could have dealt with that. They deserve to be honoured just for surviving and now helping their descendants to be thriving in Britain”

Elias Owusu

“I am thankful to the Windrush generation for their tenacity and determination to overcome the hardships that they faced so triumphantly. Many have become inspirational people whom I, and thousands like me, admire. They include Baroness Floella Benjamin and Professor Laura Serrant who were both present at the unveiling of the Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station where we had the honour of performing in June last year. I can only hope to be like them one day”

Maya-Jade

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Windrush churches

By Marcia Dixon

ONE OF the greatest legacies of the Windrush Generation is its churches.

Most ‘Black churches’ started by the Windrush Generation as they are commonly described, are Pentecostal in their theology and practice. However the term ‘Black church’ also includes other denominations like the Wesleyan Holiness Church, which has its roots in Methodism and the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

When Caribbeans took that trip across the Atlantic, between 1948-1971 to work in Britain’s labour-starved industries, they came full of faith.

Many of the pioneers of Britain’s historic Black Pentecostal churches had a passion for God, coupled with a great work ethic, which resulted in them planting churches throughout Britain.

Many experienced racism –but built the church regardless, through hard work, financial support of their congregants and as a result were self-reliant and autonomous.

One key pioneer was Jamaican-born Rev Dr Oliver Lyeseight, a founder member of the New Testament Church of God (NTCG), one of the largest predominantly black Pentecostal denominations in Britain. They’ll be celebrating their 70th anniversary at their annual conference in July.

Ordained a Church of God minister in Jamaica in 1946, Rev Lyeseight came to Britain in 1951. He settled in Wolverhampton and started a prayer meeting for fellow migrants.

On September 20, 1953, along with seven other people, including his wife Rose, Rev Lyeseight led the first ever NTCG meeting at the YMCA, Stafford Street, Wolverhampton. In June 1955, that gathering was officially recognised as the first UK branch of the NTCG.

Rev Lyseight became the first Administrative Bishop of NTCG UK and served in the role for 25 years before retiring in 1978. Since those humble beginnings, NTCG now has 130 congregations, serving 25,000 adherents.

Bishop Joe Aldred, right, a Church of God of Prophecy minister, retired ecumenist and media commentator, is a Windrush Generation minister.

Reflecting on his years in ministry, he said, “One of the things I remember was that nearly all those pioneering Windrush ministers were in their 20s and 30s, young and vibrant.

“Although they had little academic training, they were pioneering and had an adventurous spirit. I look back and think how brave and undaunted they were, taking on massive projects like buying churches.”

He believes it’s due to leaders’ unwavering commitment and consistency why the church has become a major force in the community.

FORCE

Other church denominations founded by the Windrush Generation during the 50s and 60s include Bethel United Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic.

Founded by the late Sydney Dunn in 1955, he is credited as the driving force behind Bethel Convention Centre in West Bromwich, the only conference centre built and owned by a Black church de nomination here in the UK.

The New Tes tament Assembly is another one. It was started by the late Bishop Melvin Powell in Jamaica. Bishop Powell was originally a mem ber of the Church of God (COG), but after visiting the denomination in the US, he noted, to his surprise, their churches were racially segregated.

NTA in the UK, partnering with Bishop Bernard. His sister, the late Pastor Io Smith, also played a pivotal role in establishing the NTA as a force to be reckoned with and became a trailblazer as a leading woman in the movement.

Another notable denomination is the First Born Church of the Living God, founded by Bishop T G Francis. His youngest son, Bishop John Francis, is Senior Pastor of Ruach City Church, and his eldest son is former BBC Songs of Praise producer Roy Francis, and author of Windrush and the Black Pentecostal Church in Britain

As the son of a pioneering church leader, Roy had a front row seat as the church developed as his father knew many of his fellow church pioneers.

FAITHFUL

Roy said: “The early Pentecostal Church leaders had positions as elders, pastors etc in their churches in the Caribbean, so it wasn’t unexpected that they would seek to start their own churches when they arrived in Britain.

“They were faithful and were able to combine working full time with running a church/ ministry. They were fairly cooperative, not as churches are today, and would visit each other’s churches and their events

regularly. They believed in the Bible literally, stood for holiness and believed in being led by the spirit.”

During the early decades of Caribbean migration to the UK, churches gave attendees a respite from the racism and hardship they experienced. They also saw Black people in leadership. Most churches started as prayer services held in a member’s front rooms. When they outgrew front rooms they rented halls in schools, or pubs. After a while however, leaders desired to buy their own buildings, and galvanised members to help them raise funds to purchase places of worship.

Those efforts paid off. The Windrush Generation amassed

The pioneers brought their faith but faced hostility in Britain’s churches, so they set up their own.

MBE

PIONEER: Jamaican-born Rev Dr Oliver Lyeseight

shaped community

a portfolio of properties that is now worth millions – some of those properties are on prime locations. The story of Britain’s Black churches can’t be properly told without mentioning the role of women within it. Whilst many churches did not ordain women, if it was not for the voluntary work, fundraising efforts, and spiritual energy they brought, the church as we know it would not exist.

Juliet Coley, right, founder of BlackJac Media, recently published Mothers of Zion: Windrush Women Past and Present, which she co-wrote with her mother. The book features profiles of women who played a pivotal role in their churches.

Juliet said: “I felt it impor-

tant to share stories of Windrush women, firstly in tribute to their work and effort and for the younger generation to understand the major contri bution they made to the es tablishment of our churches. Some of the women were just amazing. They raised funds for their churches, sup ported mothers in raising their children, provided hospitality, fed the hungry, and visited the sick in hospi tals. They were the backbone of our churches and deserved to be recognised.”

Women of note in-

Iconic Black churches

NEW TESTAMENT ASSEMBLY, Tooting – It’s numerous events and dignitaries over the years, including civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan

RUACH CITY CHURCH, Brixton – In 2006, Ruach became the first church to host a British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, when he addressed the congregation.

FIRST BORN CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD, Islington – Although no longer based in Islington, the church made history when their choir, The Inspirational Choir sang backing on pop song Wings of a Dove and got to number three in the charts.

NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH OF GOD, Handsworth, Birmingham – A former Senior Pastor, Bishop Derek Webley made history when he became the first Black man to serve as Chair of the West Midlands Police Authority

BETHEL CONVENTION CENTRE, West Bromwich – It is the only conference centre in the UK, built and owned by a Black church denomination

CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST, Vauxhall – The spiritual home of the late Lavine Hudson, the first British female gospel artist to get a record deal and Rev Carmel Jones, founder of the Pentecostal Credit Union

clude the late Olive Parris, the founder of the Latter-Rain Outpouring Church,

services in Hoxton, east London; Bishop Esme Beswick, the first black woman to serve as a President of ecumenical body Churches Together in England and the late Pastor Amy Williams, a mother of nine, who founded Chosen for Christ Ministries in 1970, and was still preaching in her 90s.

Fast forward to the present day, and Britain’s black churches have become a major success story and are seen as the most stable, prosperous, and educated sector of the Black community. This is a view Mark Sturge, a church leader, PhD research student in leadership and former head of the African Caribbean Evangelical Alliance, concurs with.

“In the church, they have

created the most cohesive and often the most consistent representation of the Black community. And their focus on education has resulted in upward mobility, including the presence of leaders in the private, statutory and charity sectors and at the heart of government. and credits the Windrush church leaders laid a firm foundation.”

LEGACY

He does however have some qualms. “Despite many attempts, it is true that there has not been a lasting legacy of an umbrella body that authentically represents their (the church) voice to the nation. Equally, because some still have not worked out their succession planning, their effectiveness in

ministry and legacy has and continues to diminish.”

That said, the church remains a permanent, and reliable fixture in the black community.

The Windrush Generation not only provided a spiritual refuge for the Caribbean community, they laid the foundation for the wave of African Christians who came to Britain in the 80s and 90s. Following the example of Caribbeans, Africans planted churches that met the specific needs of their community.

With the coming of age of Millennials and the falling population of the Caribbean community, only time will tell how the church will adapt to meet their respective challenges and concerns. However, one thing is for sure, the church is here to stay.

HIGH PROFILE: Ruach City Church, Brixton (photo: Getty Images)

HERE TO STAY: The church remains a major part of the Black community (photo: Getty Images)

WESTMINSTER CELEBRATES WINDRUSH 75

With our commitment to being a Fairer Westminster, our focus is on working together with our communities to both celebrate and champion good causes as well as provide practical support. We are concentrating on how our communities can have more equal and equitable experiences, and we have been working hard with those communities to respond effectively to their needs. On Windrush Day, we take a moment to reflect on those from that generation and their descendants (particularly from the Caribbean) who answered the call from ‘the motherland’

to come and help.

For many in the Windrush generation, their contribution has gone by in a quiet and ‘matter of fact’ way. The experiences they had as they arrived and settled here 75 years ago, working tirelessly in the service of others and raising their families, hasn’t always received the attention it deserves.

Worse than that, we know that the challenges faced back then surrounding racism and discrimination in employment and housing (to name but two) have pervaded into the modern day – with the effects of the Windrush

scandal still being felt by many. On this most auspicious of celebrations, it is important that we remember and do all we can to ensure support is realised by those most in need.

This year, Westminster City Council wants to celebrate our communities in the loudest possible way. Windrush in Westminster has always been an important milestone. From ensuring a green plaque within Paddington station to cement the legacy at such an important transportation hub, to our community documentary ‘And Still We Rise’ capturing stories of real experiences within Westminster, to hosting

the first Windrush film festival in the city and working with the Maida

Dominoes Club on their campaign to make Dominoes an international sport. This year we are going bigger to celebrate and acknowledge 75 years. Visit our website to find out more https://www.westminster.gov. uk/windrush

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Communities, Public Protection and Licensing, Cllr Aicha Less said:

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3.

4.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Windrush generation. Over the years, we have supported our communities to channel their creativity and share their stories. We are incredibly proud of our Caribbean residents in Westminster and the fantastic, often understated, role they play in our communities. It is vital that we continue to support those who experienced racism and discrimination and overcame the huge challenges of leaving their homes for the generations that followed.

1. Westminster City Council celebrates the Windrush generation with a green plaque at Paddington station, in collaboration with Network Rail, Great Western Railway and the Elizabeth Line. Westminster City Council Global Majority staff network at the unveiling of the plaque, led by Project Officer Loy Phillips

2. Jennifer Samuels, Head of Diversity and Inclusion

Serena Simon, Director of Communities

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Communities, Public Protection and Licensing, Cllr Aicha Less.

5. The Dutch Pot volunteers at the Westminster City Council Windrush Film Festival 2022, alongside Chief Executive Stuart Love and Leader of the Council Adam Hug

6. Carl Gabriel, Carnival sculptor and creator, will be displaying his artwork in the front window of Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6QP, from 2nd of June

7. Michael McMillan, The Front Room, permanent 1970s period installation at the Museum of the Home, London, 2021. Photo courtesy of EM Fitzgerald. The Windrush Window exhibition, curated by Michael McMillan and Mia Morris, will be available to view at 35 Church Street, London, NW8 8BS, from 11 – 27 June

8. Jaqui Haynes from the Maida Hill Maestros Dominoes Club, who are campaigning to make Dominoes an international sport

Hill Maestros

The Dutch Pot Lunch and Social Club

The club was started by Roy Morrison, Ivan Hazel and others who recognised the need for a social community group for the retired Windrush generation who had nowhere to socialise. As a result, the luncheon club was started in the early 1980s’ to help alleviate isolation and is still going today.

The Windrush generation endured all the trauma of leaving the Caribbean and coming to the unknown to work and help to rebuild Britain. We are so resilient – a great set of People.

Once shunned Windrush now remembered by our leaders

SEVENTY-FIVE WINTERS on and the legacy of that inaugural journey of post-war immigration that represents the modern settlement of Britain by Caribbean pioneers is all around us, in every one of us, and getting stronger every day.

You just can’t escape it. Everywhere you turn you’ll find Windrush. If not in the geography, then in the history, and the folklore, and the culture, and in your bones.

But we wouldn’t know it was Windrush if the Windrush flame had not been kept alive.

Someone had to do that. And make no mistake, Britain tried to forget about Windrush… and it almost succeeded.

TEN WINTERS ON from that historic arrival, Windrush is already a dirty word and the people it brought back over the Atlantic are regarded as a problem. ‘The colour problem’.

No politicians want to own that moment in June of ‘48 when the good ship docked in Tilbury. Certainly not the racist MP Enoch Powell, who stretched out the colonial hand of economic desperation that triggered the mass movement from the Caribbean to the socalled mother country in the first place.

The ‘colour problem’ he created manifests itself on the streets of, in particular, Notting Hill in West London. And what vestiges of pride the Windrush

First Generation left — about being the early settler pioneers — is gradually eroding. They don’t even know this is history.

TWENTY WINTERS ON noone is talking about Windrush. It is the Swinging Sixties for some but for many of us it’s the ‘bleeding’ Sixties, our ‘Once Upon a Time When We Were Coloured’ Sixties.

Local councils herd our par-

ents into council estate ghettos, and then herd their children into failing schools, and then herd us into dead end jobs.

Britain is institutionally racist with successive immigration acts translating into a colour bar if not THE ‘colour bar’, a subtle form of apartheid. It was a time of survival and a time of asking, ‘why, oh why, oh why’?

Sometimes our parents couldn’t remember why they came to this country in the first place. And if they did, they couldn’t remember what possessed them. How were they to know it was history?

TWENTY-FIVE WINTERS ON and a new generation, a second generation, the Windrush generation. The irony is that we don’t even know it.

Most of us had never even heard of Windrush. We have no idea about its legacy and we’re not celebrating those founding fathers and mothers like the heroes they were/are. Certainly not on the TV and on the radio, and there is very little evidence of it in the newspapers.

Windrush is the story around the Sunday rice and peas dinner table, passed down, griot style, from generation to generation.

In 1973 we were ‘afros’ and afros were us — Afro-American, Afro West Indian, Afro-African. The bigger the ‘fro the bigger the militancy is the general

rule of thumb, and the bigger the militancy the more you are likely to be reading your Black history without Windrush. Maybe we’re ashamed. Because whereas Black Americans were taken out of Africa in chains, we from the Caribbean and subsequently Africa came here of our own accord.

On ‘the good ship Windrush’. Maybe it’s more embarrassment than shame. Windrush was very rarely mentioned in the public discourse within (the Black community) and without.

And none of us, Black or white, wants to claim it. Not in this era of Black Power. And revolution.

FORTY WINTERS ON they’re still trying to hide it. A little booklet called Forty Winters On is published to mark the 1988 anniversary. It’s sponsored by The Voice newspaper, Lambeth Council (the borough of Brixton) and the South London Press. It features the memories of Britain’s post-war Caribbean

immigrants. The foreword is by the great social historian Professor Stuart Hall, who famously quipped that “we are over here because they were over there”, and adds in this 40th anniversary of the Windrush souvenir: “Though the path

Windrush like Sam King plays a critical role in keeping Windrush alive and turning it into something to be celebrated.

FIFTY WINTERS ON it’s like man’s forgotten what Britain was like before Windrush. The ship brought colour to Britain.

Local councils herd our parents into council estate

SEVENTY-FIVE WINTERS

ON there will no doubt be some member of the royal family (maybe even the King himself) who comes out giving Windrush the high five. Because now everybody loves it, and dares not say a word against it.

Prime Ministers would sooner say I ain’t into this reparations thingy, than say I ain’t into this Windrush thingy.

and

heard their children into failing schools

for Black men and women was uncertain, there were opportunities, life-chances — chances to be taken by those who were willing to gamble with the future because they had so much at stake and so little to lose.”

I am not exaggerating when I say that this little booklet of memories by some of those pioneers who were on the

Literally and metaphorically.

The last empire coronation in 1953 reflected this.

The revolution that the Windrush began saved Her late Majesty’s crowning from being too ‘terribly white’. It was ‘terribly white’ nevertheless, but at least it wasn’t completely ‘terribly white’, if you know what I mean.

But as we begin this quarter of a century (one generation) build-up to the Windrush centenary we should pay tribute to those who kept the flame alive in those coldest winters ever so that these founding fathers and mothers of modern Britain.

These magnificent 491 men and one woman will always be given the credit for being the building blocks upon which our multi-cultural and multi-faith sceptred isle is built. That’s what this new King should be saying. Or does he want Meghan to say it for him?

TRUE PIONEERS: father and son arrive at Tilbury; inset left, the great social historian Professor Stuart Hall

For decades, the ship that brought colour to Britain was forgotten. Now politicians claim to love this Windrush thingy

ghettos

then

Wanda Wyporska

Thank you, pioneers

WINDRUSH. A word that evokes many emotions.

Pride, sorrow, anger, joy, frustration and grief to name but a few. But 75 years on, more than anything one word stands out: thank you.

Those who disembarked from the Windrush were met with a mixture of reactions and faced racism, hardship and discrimination. They worked hard and contributed to the UK’s economy and culture in a way that far outstripped their numbers.

They encountered refusal after refusal, and were denied access to business loans and mortgages, and to jobs that matched their skills and expe-

Dr Wanda Wyporska reflects on the Windrush heroes’ hard work

rience. Undaunted, they built community credit unions, saved together and supported each other to fund funerals and houses, as well as supporting families back home.

They came because the Motherland called them, and they came as citizens of the UK.

As we at the Black Equity Organisation celebrate the courage, struggle and joy of our Windrush generations, it is personal for so many of us.

My father, his brother and

twin sister, came over from Barbados in the late 1960s and worked as psychiatric nurses in the NHS.

And all of us, as children of the different groups of our Caribbean and African elders, who came over in and after 1948, have seen the sacrifices they made, not just in terms of the harsh realities of UK society, but also in what they left behind. Family, culture, music, food and customs which they were hard pressed to find in the

UK, especially beyond the metropolis of London.

They weathered the hardships, recreated communities and had a strong respect for education, setting up and supporting supplementary schools and classes.

We, their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, owe them a debt that can never

be repaid, and we stand with them in their fight for justice and compensation.

That is also why we all felt so strongly about supporting the work done to highlight and rectify the Windrush scandal by so many, including victims and survivors, and the redoubtable campaigner, Patrick Vernon.

It was an honour to stand

alongside Windrush scandal survivors and victims as we handed in a petition to Downing Street demanding that the Williams Review recommendations are implemented in full.

Black Equity Organisation is determined to see justice done for our Windrush generations, and to support and work with survivors and organisations, where you feel that we can help.

We are proud to be part of the Windrush 75 family of organisations paying tribute to those who came before us and celebrating our heritage, cultures and presence.

As I walk past the commemorative statue at Waterloo, I always raise a half smile. Proud to see it, but mindful that there is so much more to be done.

We still have a struggle to get justice, recognition and compensation, and we stand beside and with our communities in their fight for it. But ultimately, we take this moment to say thank you.

KEY ROLE: A doctor checks the pulse of a patient in a London hospital in 1948 (photo: Getty Images)

Dr Wanda Wyporska is Chief Executive of Black Equity Organisation

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Shane’s telling Contribution

AN ARTIST very much inspired by talks with his gran as he grew up, Shane D’Allessandro’s Windrush painting exhibition, entitled Contributions, is currently being displayed in the Challenging Histories gallery at the International Slavery Museum.

The piece aims to highlight the contributions of Black people the world over, but notably the Caribbean, to British society.

D’Allessandro told The Voice he was inspired to bring the creation to life during a period that allowed him to reflect on what it was to be Black and British right now.

“There were a few factors (that inspired the creation), but it was during the height of Covid and when the Black Lives Matter movement had just emerged, and I just sat down with my brother and I was like, I want to do a piece that brings everything together.

“The Windrush Scandal at the time was at the forefront of the media, so I just thought is there something that I can do, like a colonial piece that incorporates different factors, and I was looking at the flags, African flags and Caribbean flags, and my brother was like, why don’t you do a montage of flags?”

The family inspiration didn’t stop there. D’Allessandro, of Jamaican and Italian heritage,

enthused: “My grandma is obviously of the Windrush Generation, and I spent a lot of time with her and my dad’s family.

“She passed away a couple of years ago. She came over with her brother and she settled in South London, Woolwich and Brixton, and then ended up in Charlton.

“You hear stories from your grandparents and parents about how things were in the 1960s and ‘80s and you’re like OK, but then you get an instance of something that will happen today and you’re like, OK, people still harbour those same sort of views.

“Of course, there has been progress. More inclusion, more diversity, which is nice.”

D’Allessandro originates from Suffolk, but currently resides in London.  His passion for art and his unique perspective on social issues have propelled him into the spotlight, culminating in the exhibition at the renowned International Slavery Museum in Liverpool.

A professional in the world of

logistics by day, he says art for him at this point is still a sidehustle.

With Contributions’, D’Allessandro seeks to evoke a sense of solidarity among all Black individuals in the United Kingdom, regardless of their specific origins.

Although his painting does not include every Caribbean flag, its intention is to symbolise unity and recognition for these marginalised communities.

“I wasn’t sure how that would work and how I would communicate that on canvas, and I just started sketching on an A5 sketchbook and after a couple hours I sketched the basis of how it would look.

“Then I was apprehensive because I was like, OK, I’ve sketched it but how do i get it

geometrically correct on canvas and realise it in painting form?

“Then I just got on with it. I was working from home at the time and as I was painting it I thought, OK, I’m not sure how this will look but it seems to be something quite special that is being pulled together.”

Powered by the spirit of his ancestors, D’Allessandro says, mustering the confidence to put his work out there has given him a fervour to create more pieces,

but at his own pace. “I’ve always wanted to paint and I’ve always been drawing, just in pencil, like all of my life.

“When Covid struck it gave everyone time to think about what I wanted to do and if there was anything that I wanted to try, and that’s when I went out and bought some paints and got stuck in.

Contributions is actually the second painting I’ve ever painted.

“I guess you get to a point where you have to take the plunge and you have to have the confidence and the gumption to do it. I’m not saying I’m not confident. I just want to be in that flow of feeling like I can do this all the time.”

He added: “I really like painting portraits of people. I painted

Elvis for my mum for Christmas a couple years ago and I have a Bob Marley on the way and a Thierry Henry and a Dennis Bergkamp. I feel like if I had more time to do it, that would be great.”

D’Allessandro’s upcoming exhibition at the International Slavery Museum stands as a testament to his artistic talent and his dedication to shedding light on underrepresented narratives.

Through his thought-provoking works, he strives to ignite conversations, foster understanding, and ultimately contribute to a more inclusive and compassionate society.

He concluded: “It’s always an honour to have your work featured anywhere. As an emerging artist, that’s a big thing.”

INSPIRATION:

Shane’s gran, Velma, was behind his work, which is now on display in the Challenging Histories gallery at the International Slavery Museum, far right. Photo: Gary W Smith

DʼAllessandro explains how his gran inspired him to take up a brush and put his thoughts on canvas.

By Joel Campbell

TALENTED: Shane D’Allesandro’s artwork has earned a great deal of praise and is now on show to the public

“I was like, I want to do a piece that brings everything together”

“It’s an honour to have your work featured. As an emerging artist, it’s big”

BY SHANE D’ALLESSANDRO; In loving memory of Alison Branton & Velma Kelly

Survivor who became head

The education system was hard for the Windrush generation but they organised to get ahead.

By Sinai Fleary

MANY OF those who arrived on the Empire Windrush, including children, had to quickly adapt to a completely new country and their education system.

Yvonne J Davis, inset, was born in Wolverhampton in the 1950s to Windrush generation Jamaican parents.

Her parents settled in Wolverhampton and that is where she attended primary school.

But looking back, Mrs Davis says she doesn’t have good memories and believes many other Black children who went to the school in the 1950s and 1960s will have had similar experiences.

Speaking to The Voice, she said: “I can’t remember anything good about my schooling, apart from having one good headteacher who listened to me, when I was being bullied out of primary school.”

Mrs Davis said she is “grateful” because the headteacher made the child and her parents go to her home to apologise or they would not be allowed to return to school.

She said: “On reflection of this action, it shows not only the power of school leaders to address issues at a time when you felt all alone.”

She added: “In those days we were in the room, and it was adapt and fit in. The education system didn’t cater for us in any way and that’s why we ended up

having the Educationally Subnormal groups that developed in the 1960s.”

Mrs Davis said structurally the system was “not fit for purpose” and failed to cater to the needs of Black students.

She recalls a combination of racism, “low expectations” from teachers, a lack of understanding of Caribbean culture and the pressure to assimilate to British society — as reasons why life was so hard for Black children at the time. She was also subjected to racist name-calling all the time and the “teachers would just dismiss it”.

She said the Black children all “congregated together” and “looked after each other” as a survival technique.

Hundreds of Black children with Caribbean parents — attending British schools in the 1960s and 70s — were labelled as “educationally subnormal” (ESN). They were wrongly sent to ESN schools for children who were believed to have low levels of intelligence.

Black students were sent to these schools at a disproportionate rate, which would have a devastating and long-lasting impact on their education and futures.

Many Black parents, fed up with the racism and poor exam results their children experienced, decided to take action and this birthed the UK Black supplementary school movement. It began during the 1960s and was a collective effort from parents, community activists,

Black teachers and some church leaders.

The groups would run mainly on Saturday mornings and would provide extra lessons in English and maths, but in addition, offered black history lessons as a core focus to counteract the poor media representation of black communities at the time.

PROBLEMS

The problems Black children were facing was documented in Bernard Coard’s book How the West Indian Child is made Educationally Subnormal, which was published in May 1971 by New Beacon Books.

The low expectations white teachers had of Black pupils

was common and something the Davis family also unfortunately experienced.

A few years into her secondary years, Mrs Davis’ sister arrived in Britain from Jamaica, to join the family once they settled in Wolverhampton — which was also quite common for many Caribbean families.

Her sister passed the British grammar school test in Jamaica and was very “bright”, but according to Mrs Davis she was still put in the bottom set.

Mrs Davis describes her parents as a “formidable force” who went to see the headteacher straight away and the situation was quickly resolved.

She believes one of the legacies the Windrush generation

have left on the education system is the “presence” Caribbean communities had within schools up and down the country.

She also stressed that “getting a good education” was always of the utmost importance to Caribbean families and these values were passed on to their children.

In 2000, Mrs Davis made history by becoming the first Black headteacher in Hertfordshire, at a school in Watford.

Looking back on her remarkable career she describes it as challenging, but filled with moments of “enjoyment, satisfaction, and enormous achievement.”

Through “sheer determination and perseverance”, Mrs Davis

STRUGGLE: Black children were subjected to racist name-calling and the ‘teachers would just dismiss it’, according to Yvonne Davis

was able to make a difference. Mrs Davis is now retired and runs a charity, Icane Foundation, supporting parents and young people in their confidence to navigate the educational landscape through personal advice, workshops, coaching, and mentoring.

Like her parents, she believes we cannot leave our children’s education in the hands of the system alone.

She says everything she went through “was for the children, for all children and our children.”

Mrs Davis was awarded an MBE for services to education by King Charles III and is a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching.

First Black headteachers influenced major change

THE WINDRUSH generation has influenced significant changes to Britain’s school workforce.

In 1967, Tony O’Connor became the UK’s first-ever Black headteacher when he was appointed head at Bearwood Primary School in Smethwick, in the West Midlands. He received years of daily attacks and harassment, but remained headteacher for 16 years.

Two years later, Yvonne Conolly CBE, who was born in Jamaica, became the UK’s first Black female headteacher

at just 29 years old. Sadly, the level of racist abuse she received was so brutal, she needed a bodyguard to walk with her to work.

In the same year, Beryl Gilroy, who was born in Guyana, became the first Black female headteacher in London.

Betty Campbell was born in Butetown in Wales in 1934 and raised in Tiger Bay. Her mother was Welsh Barbadian and her Jamaican father came to the UK when he was just 15. She had a tough upbringing and was raised by her mother after her father was killed in the

Second World War. As a child, she was an avid reader and was able to win a high school scholarship.

As a newly qualified Black teacher, she experienced a lot of hostility and got a job at Mount Stuart Primary School, where she taught for 28 years.

In the 1970s, she made history and became the first Black headteacher in Wales.

In October 2017, Mrs Campbell died at the age of 82.

In 2021, a sculpture was unveiled in Cardiff of the pioneering headteacher.

INSPIRATION: Yvonne Connolly became the UK’s first Black female headteacher at just 29

Guy Hewitt

God can help us repair our disunited Kingdom

Guy Hewitt of the Church of England reflects on Windrush75 and the issues the country faces

THE FOREBODING that I felt five years ago during the commemoration of the arrival of the Empire Windrush, the symbol of modern, diverse Britain, has returned.

In 2018, the Windrush anniversary was overshadowed by the scandal and impacts of the ill-conceived ‘Hostile Environment’ policy, this year it is the “morally unacceptable” Illegal Migration Bill.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, emphasised that the legislation would “damage the UK’s interests and reputation at home and abroad” and could break the system of international cooperation for those confronted by or fleeing war, famine and conflict.

The Government’s recent walk back on some of the commitments that it made following the Windrush Lessons Learned Review along with the failure of the Windrush Compensation Scheme, due to its slow progress in offering pay-outs to victims, may vindicate those sceptics who in 2018 dismissed Windrush Day as political spin and a means to push the call for racial justice onto the political backburner.

In order to receive compensation, victims of the scandal are required to prove their case ‘beyond reasonable doubt,’ the standard of proof normally required to convict defendants in criminal courts rather than ‘on the balance of probabilities’ as is usually required in civil cases.

Nonetheless, Windrush Day is significant to the history of Britain. Many West Indians heeded the post-Second World War call from Britain to her then colonies for workers to migrate to England to address critical labour shortages.

Approximately 550,000 West Indians (nearly 15 percent of the Commonwealth Caribbean population) migrated. West Indians often did the low-pay,

long-hour, shift jobs that White Britons rejected all the while paid discriminatory wages. Many faced immense hostility including the signs that read “No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs”, the infamous Teddy Boys, and the race riots.

Notwithstanding these challenges, they persevered and out of their efforts helped to build institutions like the National Health Service and London Transport.

The most telling indication of the West Indian resolve is the Notting Hill Carnival.

This two-day event takes place on the same streets of Notting Hill where the 1958 race riots occurred. With some blood and much toil, sweat and tears, they played a pivotal role in building a modern Britain.

It has been a trying journey to Windrush 75. The observance of Stephen Lawrence Day and the 30th anniversary of the murder occurred in the shadow of the Casey report which confirmed the perpetuation of “institutional homophobia, misogyny and racism” in the Metropolitan Police Service. Similarly, notwithstanding the proclamation by King Charles III, that our nation’s diversity is its greatest strength, this latent power is yet to be realised as the Kingdom is disu-

nited ethnically. Desmond Tutu, a titan of Anglicanism, noted that reconciliation isn’t easy as it is rooted in acknowledging wrongdoing and as such demands truth-telling. Britain still struggles to confront its racist history.

TUTELAGE

Even today, some try to suggest that Empire and colonialism were benevolent – a system of ‘benign tutelage’ founded on Christian principals while providing ‘civility’ and ‘modernisation.’ However, the reality was quite different, There was no greater corruption of the Gospel that the

odious comingling of religion, politics and wealth accumulation to the institutionalisation of transatlantic slavery.

This great crime against humanity that enriched nations and individuals alike and provided the financial and organisational means to develop our modern world, was devised politically, constructed legally, justified scripturally, and accepted socially.

Britain’s domination of the seas, the slave trade and plantation slavery economies allowed it to become an economic superpower.

This historic reality was linked contemporarily at the

Lambeth Palace Library exhibition Enslavement: Voices from the Archives. The exhibit formed part of the Church’s truth-telling and the beginning of a journey of reconciliation with historic links to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans.

Such a journey of reconciliation will neither be swift nor easy. Generations of injustice cannot be healed overnight.

At the opening, the archbishops of Canterbury, West Africa, and the West Indies gathered symbolising a transformation of the historically abhorrent ‘triangle-trade’ into a modernday triangle of hope, including the £100 million investment fund to create better futures, including for those who suffered the legacies of slavery.

Following that event, the Archbishop of Canterbury invited Dr Howard Gregory, the Archbishop of the West Indies and Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to lead a group of bishops from the Church in the Province of the West Indies (CPWI) to visit dioceses across England and participate in the national service on June 22 at Southwark cathedral to celebrate the 75th anniversary.

I have dedicated my life to proclaiming a social gospel rooted in justice, equality and

inclusion including advocacy around the Windrush scandal.

Aware of the walking back on commitments previously and the persistent struggle for persons to access compensation – I am not naïve to the fact that we are still a long way off from a point where the colour of a person’s skin is of no more significance that the colour of their eyes.

However, I continue to labour to honour the lives and legacies of Kelso Cochrane, Stephen Lawrence, Paulette Wilson, George Floyd and other victims of racism, pressing on with the struggle for justice for all by faith, in hope and with love.

Racism is not a stain to be washed away but a gaping wound that needs to be cleansed by truth-telling and reconciliation in order to heal. However, rather than being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task, we should go forward keeping faith that God’s peace, justice and love are with us.

With God’s help and the many blessings offered to us by being true to the Gospel, we shall overcome. Let’s keep hope alive and continue our walk of faith.

The Revd Guy Hewitt is the director of Racial Justice in the Church of England.

SHARED HISTORY: Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, centre, and Dr Howard Gregory visit the exhibition (photos: Chris Vaughan Photography)

POWER IN NUMBERS: Dr Howard Gregory, third from left, and Revd Guy Hewitt, right, led a group of bishops from the Church in the Province of the West Indies in a visit to English dioceses

Providing the tools to build wealth

NATALIE SCOTT, a 33-year-old former fashion stylist who is now a certified money coach, has been taking part in money circles (known as pardna in the Caribbean communities) ever since she can remember, and her grandmother was able to buy a property using this system.

Here she explains how new technology and the Bloom Money app is directly helping thousands of people to save money and providing the tools to build inter-generational wealth that can be passed on to families and children to provide a lasting impact and legacy.

AT: Can you explain what a pardna money circle is?

NS: Pardna is a peer-to-peer lending and borrowing service which many Caribbean people — especially the Windrush generation — used when they arrived in the UK. It’s a very big thing in the Caribbean culture. It was a way for us to pool money together to get up the property ladder and essentially boost our savings. It is very much a system based on trust and who you know. A random person cannot participate; you need to be trustworthy and fact checked by family members.

The reason we chose to take part in this system was because at that particular time it was extremely difficult to access loans from traditional banks.

It was something we did to help each other in the community as most of us were new to the country, with no fixed home and living with others, and we

Certified money coach Natalie Scott explains how the Bloom Money app is helping thousands to save.

By Anshu Taneja

were deemed a big risk to the banks if they were to lend us any kind of money. Our system enabled us to rent somewhere, have a secure address and fit in with UK society.

AT: Did taking part in pardna specifically help your family?

NS: Yes! My grandad on my dad’s side bought a property for £20,000 which was a lot of money back in the day! And my grandad on my mum’s side was able to obtain a mortgage. This is all through pardna. Without it they wouldn’t be able to raise a deposit.

My grandmother was the first in my family to come to the UK and worked for the NHS, like many did, and had a very good career and established herself. My mum was born abroad but did all her schooling over here from age five once her mum was settled. We have been involved in pardnas forever.

AT: Can you give us an example of pardna?

NS: If ten people all put in £2,000 each, one nominated person would take the £20,000 when it was their turn, but also continue to contribute their share again for others to benefit in the future — and it keeps going. Back then it was a weekly draw; you would put in your

cash share (known as ‘hand’) and there would always be a person leading the money circle, usually a lady, who would log and register everything in a book. If there was a person in dire need of money, they were able to request to receive the £20,000 first even though they had put in less, and would then have time to pay back what they had borrowed.

AT: What age did you get involved?

NS: We knew as little children what pardna was and where we were going. It was very much ingrained as a normal part of our lives. I was five or six when I first started and later, I went as a teenager when I got my driving license to drop money off when my mum couldn’t go and I developed a good relationship with the pardna lady. My mum never saw it as a problem to carry money in the car, but I wouldn’t go on public transport.

I even set up a pardna myself at a local school for about six months with many of my friends. We were young and weren’t working at the time and only had pocket money from parents.

It really did help us to buy small things like a new dress or a pair of shoes. It was something that didn’t break the bank. All our parents knew we were taking part. We understood that if we were doing it on a small scale when young, we would also continue it when we were older.

AT: How does Bloom Money help you with pardna?

NS: What Bloom has created is fantastic and enhances our normal behaviours that we are so used to. It effortlessly helps people get closer to their monetary goals. The fact that it is all digitised is something new for people who are not used to technology. It’s a really simple system for everyone to use and

you’re able to see everything easily, such as how much you’ve put in and your withdrawals. It’s easy to digest, not scary and fun to use for example when you are saving up for something. Society and technology

until last year but that wasn’t even a Caribbean one. It was a Congolese family as they do it too, but I waited six months to join as it took a long time to check my background to know I was honest and true to my

POOLING RESOURCES: Natalie Scott has been involved in pardnas all her life; below Natalie’s grandmother, left, great grandmother, older sister and twin sister (main photo: Mellz Photography)

people who have similar saving goals to you and get started quickly.

AT: Finally, do you have any money tips for our readers?

NS: It’s very simple really; my main advice is to just start!

is changing constantly and now many people within the community are already using it regularly because using apps is now the norm.

Trying to find a pardna that still runs without technology is very difficult; I was in one up

word. Having the Bloom app allows anyone to say, “I can afford this. I won’t default on my payments”.

It removes the uncertainty of trying to find a credible pardna, whereas now you can just go into the app and find other

Lots of people think they need a set amount to begin, but in reality, even if you start with something small you are still closer to your goal than waiting for an amount to hit your bank account. And also, try not to equate your salary to your self-worth which is not a good habit.

I remind people that it’s not about the money you earn but instead it’s about what you do with it that counts.

So always try to save something and invest a portion towards your future!

I remind people that it’s not about the money you earn but instead it’s about what you do with it that counts

Bloom helps people from global communities create and share wealth in the UK.

Contributions, ajo, hagbad, or pardna — whatever you call your savings club, Bloom helps you manage it with technology that emphasises trust, transparency, and tradition.

PRESENTED BY THEATRE ROYAL STRATFORD EAST AND ACTORS TOURING COMPANY

The arrival of the MV Empire Windrush 75 years ago marked a seminal moment in Britain’s history and has come to represent the rich diversity of this nation.

Those who arrived on the MV Empire Windrush, their descendants and those who followed them have made and continue to make an enormous contribution to Britain, not just in the vital work of rebuilding the country and public services following WWII but in enriching our shared social, economic, cultural and religious life.

Overcoming great sacrifice and hardship, the Windrush generation and its descendants have gone on to lead the field across public life, in business, the arts and sport. Britain would be much diminished without their contribution.

Groups and organisations across the UK will be hosting activities to acknowledge, inform and celebrate Windrush 75 in the areas of arts, educational, sporting and other projects across England.

Over 40 groups have been awarded funding through the Windrush Day Grant Scheme.

Lee Rowley MP Minister for Communities, said: We celebrate the positive contribution the Windrush generation and their families bring to this country and recognise the contributions made by all British Caribbean people in our communities.

Bringing people together ensures better understanding and social cohesion and everyone is encouraged to get involved in activites in their local area.

Chair of the Windrush Community Funds and Schemes subgroup of the Windrush CrossGovernment Working Group, Paulette Simpson CBE said:

This year’s celebration of the British Caribbean community will be extra special, as we mark the arrival of the MV Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks 75 years ago.

From those first passengers who went on to build their lives and make their home here, those that followed, and their descendants have and continue to make an enormous contribution to all aspects of British life.

I’d urge everyone to get involved in this significant moment in our shared history.

Windrush Day Grant Scheme Projects

n Bounce Legacy London

This project will showcase outstanding British Caribbean artists and filmmakers. It includes a Windrush Day launch event featuring short films by British Caribbean filmmakers followed by Q&A with inspirational artists discussing the contribution of the Windrush generation; A 2-month training programme for 16-25-year-olds from Caribbean backgrounds; 1-2-1 mentoring with support on build-

WINDRUSH 75 WHAT’S ON

ing portfolios and CVs; placement opportunities with Bounce, and a final film screening co-curated by young participants to celebrate creativity of Caribbean storytellers, artists and filmmakers.

For further information: www.bouncecinema.com

n Bath Ethnic Minority Senior Citizens Association (BEMSCA)

This project will create an interactive exhibition celebrating the life of Bath’s Windrush generation. Visitors will enjoy a lively and educational experience through a unique mural showcasing the Windrush story, artefacts, photos, audio and video interviews with members of the Caribbean community living in Bath, hosted at Fairfield House. Further information: www.bemsca.com

n The Brixton Project London & National

In the first public spectacle of its kind, ‘Procession’ brings together diverse communities in a shared celebration that cements the histories, experiences, and voices of the Windrush generation in the fabric of British heritage. From the Deep Shelters at Clapham Common to Brixton’s Windrush Square, Procession will follow the journey from the first temporary accommodation for arrivals to the Job Exchange on Coldharbour Lane.

For further information: www.thebrixtonproject.com

n BLACK* artists on the Move Bristol

This organisation will hold a crossgenerational literary lunch in Bristol on National Windrush Day, inviting elders and school children to attend. The event will feature readings from all four books published through its 2022 Windrush work, will work with one key library in each locality, providing intergenerational community workshops and also work with communities in each region to compose two further anthologies.

For further information: www. blackartistsonthemove.com

n Bounce Legacy London

This project will showcase outstanding British Caribbean artists and filmmakers. It includes a Windrush Day launch event featuring short films by British Caribbean filmmakers followed by Q&A with inspirational artists discussing the contribution of the Windrush generation; A 2-month training programme for 16-25-year-olds from Caribbean backgrounds; 1-2-1 mentoring with support on building portfolios and CVs; placement opportunities with Bounce, and a final film screening co-curated by young participants to celebrate creativity of Caribbean storytellers, artists and filmmakers.

For further information: www.bouncecinema.com

n Brighton Book Festival

This project will deliver a multiday celebration of the 75th anniversary to inform, inspire and entertain audiences of all ages and backgrounds. The project will comprise two family festivals, using readings, arts and crafts and interactive activities, as well as young poet’s workshop drawing inspiration from British Caribbean poetry. See also page 46

For further information: www. brightonbookfestival.co.uk

n Enfield Caribbean Association

This project will produce an illustrated children’s book for 4-7-year-old children, and a Windrush resource pack to be used in secondary schools to teach about the Windrush generation. The book will be launched in a library, with schools invited to attend. A copy of the book will be given to each primary school. The project also includes a Windrush thanksgiving celebration on National Windrush Day, with a film screening of the Windrush Voices documentary film.

For further information: www. enfieldcaribbeanassoc.org.uk

n Collage Arts London

The project is an intergenerational collaboration, bringing together elders and young people of the Caribbean communities in Haringey to create four children’s books of inspiring true-life celebratory stories from the Windrush generation and their descendants. These books will be shared with all primary schools in the borough and shared digitally free online. Collage Arts will also create films and podcasts of the stories being told that will be shared online.

For further information: www.collage-art.org

n Craftspace Birmingham

This intergenerational project will celebrate how textile crafts and making travelled from the Caribbean to England. A group of Caribbean artists and elders in Birmingham will collaboratively devise a ‘Front Room’ exhibit in a city centre shop space to learn how Caribbean crafting was a catalyst for social and economic change and acknowledge the contribution of Windrush craft heritage to British culture and other spheres of life.

For further information: www.craftspace.co.uk

n Devon Development Education (DDE)

A programme of events celebrating Windrush 75 in Devon, including: a flag-raising/speeches at Devon County Hall, a specially commissioned Devon Windrush flag, with the Chair of Devon County Council, councillors and Windrush group members in attendance. Windrush/ Caribbean activitie includes a new educational Windrush 75 exhibi-

tion; and a July/August heritage pop-up centre in an Exeter highstreet shop to discuss Windrush 75 programme of cultural events. For further information: www.globalcentredevon.org.uk

n Creative City England

Manchester

This project will be driven by a diverse group of young people aged 11-16, who will attend a series of 12 workshops to explore the Windrush story, learn new skills, meet key individuals and artists, and design an event. The culmination is a National Windrush Day event that will educate, celebrate, and inspire community cohesion through food, music, exhibition, film showing, performances and speakers. For further information: www.creheartcic.com

n Cricket Arena Sheffield

A cricket festival and series of cricket matches will be held at the Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club, with a Caribbean culture theme celebrating the Windrush generation and inspiring youth. It will include traditional Caribbean music and dance, food vendors, speakers on Windrush stories, local cricket tournament, and a children’s area with games and activities.

For further information: www. instagram.com/cricketarena.x

n Creheart-Collective

Birmingham

GIVING VOICES will celebrate the contribution of the black and migrant communities in Dudley. Young adults of Afro-Caribbean descent will create a cross-disciplinary stage piece to celebrate the Windrush generation’s contribution to the society. The performance will be showcased at Creheart Community Centre and Brierley Hill civic hall.

n Enfield Caribbean Association

This project will produce an illustrated children’s book for 4-7-year-old children, and a Windrush resource pack to be used in secondary schools to teach about the Windrush generation. The book will be launched in a library, with schools invited to attend. A copy of the book will be given to each primary school. The project also includes a Windrush thanksgiving celebration on National Windrush Day, with a film screening of the Windrush Voices documentary film.

For further information: www. enfieldcaribbeanassoc.org.uk

n Broxbourne Borough Council

This project is an exhibition about the Windrush generation taking place at Lowewood Museum. The funding will allow the creation of an exhibition explaining the history, experiences, and achievements of the Windrush generation. This

Network Rail plans to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Windrush at London Waterloo station on Windrush Day

Thousands of Windrush pioneers passed through London Waterloo station on their way to start their new lives across the country.

Last year, the station became home to the National Windrush Monument, a permanent memorial that symbolises the courage, commitment and resilience of the thousands of men, women and children who travelled to the UK to start new lives from 1948 to 1971.

On Thursday, 22 June, passengers, and colleagues are coming together in a cross-industry event being led by Christopher Henley, the Railway Chaplain for Network Rail’s Wessex route.

Attendees will be welcomed with the harmonising sound of steel drums echoing through the station to mark the special occasion.

Following this, colleagues from across the rail industry are joining together to talk about some of their lived and shared experiences of family members that were part of the Windrush generation, which is being led by Network Rail’s race network, Cultural Fusion.

Nafisa Nathani, Network Rail’s diversity and inclusion project manager for the Southern region, said:

“The Windrush generation have made a hugely positive impact on society and contin-

ue to do so and it’s a real privilege to come together to mark such a major national moment and celebrate our shared history in collaboration with the Windrush Commemoration Committee.

“Waterloo station is a place that has a very proud and rich connection to the Windrush generation, and there can be few more fitting locations for this event at Britain’s busiest station which was the gateway to London for so many of them.

“This day is a reminder to every one of the sacrifices made by the Windrush generation who came to the UK to help rebuild the nation in the postwar years and many of those actually ended up working as part of the railway family.”

Stuart Meek, South Western Railway’s chief operating officer, said:

“We were so proud to see the National Windrush Monument unveiled at London Waterloo last year. It reminds us, every day of the many thousands who passed through the station on the most important journeys of their lives, and it continues to inspire us.

“The event on 22 June will be a chance to once again recognise and celebrate the Windrush generation, and we are pleased to play our part alongside the rest of the railway family.”

What’s On

will be supported by educational programmes and cultural workshops in local schools.

For further information: www.broxbourne.gov.uk

n Friction Arts Birmingham

‘Back Home’ is a photographic and AR project to be exhibited at the Library of Birmingham over an extended period, including National Windrush Day. The organisation will produce portraits of Windrush-era Afro-Caribbean people/families and interview them about what ‘back home/Windrush’ means to them. Audiences will be able to listen to voices of these people on their smartphones (via a QR code) while viewing the photographs.

For further information: www.frictionarts.com

telling and crafts, a film show, and much more.

For further information: www.brucecastle.org

n Harrow Council London

The ’Voices of Windrush’ project will curate a programme dedicated to educating young people and intergenerational families to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Windrush in Harrow. This includes a series of programmed activities on June 22 such as, in-school workshops culminating in a day of celebration – featuring a concert with music and spoken word content and a theatre show aimed at families.

For further information: www. harrowarts.com

n Inspiring

Audio

National

tured including a 75-piece bunting created by participants.

For further information: www.kainemanagement.org.uk

n Kirklees Local Television Ltd Huddersfield

‘Paraffinalia – 75 Years of Windrush’ is an innovative 5,350 sq.ft exhibition located in a Huddersfield town centre shop front, which will run over a 30-day period throughout June 2023. The exhibition will illustrate the history, aspirations and contributions of both the local and national Windrush generations. ‘Paraffinalia’ will bring a range of local organisations, artists and community activists together to create a bold, innovative, educational and commemorative experience for visitors.

Contributions Project’ will raise awareness of the lived experiences of former industrial workers and miners of the Windrush generation who contributed significantly to the industrial labour economy from the 1950s and beyond. On National Windrush Day, they will host the Digging Deep touring exhibition, inspiring educational resources and hosting a free public discussion about the legacy of Windrush industrial workers and the impact on environmental considerations for greener sustainability in the East Midlands and beyond.

For further information: www. nottinghamnewscentre.com

n Pegasus Opera Company London and Bedford

Windrush 75th Anniversary Service at Southwark Cathedral

n Friends of Hannah

More Bristol

The project will bring a group of Caribbean elders to Friends of Hannah More Primary school on National Windrush Day to run interviews with children. The next day the project will run a celebratory event for the whole community, with performances from Bristol’s reggae orchestra and refreshments for all.

For further information: friendsofhannahmore@gmail.com

‘The Girl and the Suitcase’ is an audio project bringing Windrush generation stories to life in a fun and inspiring style for children. A ten-part drama will follow the adventures of Adanya as she explores different objects in her grandfather’s suitcase that he came with in 1948 from the Caribbean. This project will educate, celebrate and foster pride of the Windrush Generation.

For further information: inspiringaudio.co.uk

n Jamaica Society Leeds

For further information: www.kirkleeslocaltv.com

n Lewisham Churches Care South London

n

Friends of St Pauls Luxuriance Bristol

The project includes organising a floral display in one of the organisations central spaces in St Pauls celebrating Windrush 75, honouring Windrush elders. It will entwine Caribbean and UK native plants and produce a beautiful, colourful display.

For further information: fospluxuriance@gmail.com

n Gunnersbury Estate CIC London

The project, Jigsaw Heritage exhibition is inspired by an artist’s grandmother’s voyage to the UK towards the end of the Windrush period. It consists of textile pieces blending traditional Jamaican cloth patterns and imagery found in the furnishings of Windrush homes. Programming to accompany the exhibition will include a launch event with music and spoken word performed by new and established artists.

For further information: www.visitgunnerbury.org

The project ‘Here: Windrush 75 Leeds’ is a series of public installations across the city of Leeds featuring 75 larger than life portraits of Windrush generation residents of Leeds. It involves community engagements, a National Windrush Day event, interactive sessions with young people in schools, a publicity campaign promoting the installations’ significance and an online gallery of the portraits as a legacy of the project.

For further information: www. jamaicasocietyleeds.co.uk

n John Hansard Gallery Southampton

This organisation will work in partnership with Southampton Black Archives to present ‘Windrush Legacy’. Contributions from the Windrush generation will be celebrated through existing oral histories and new photographic portraits made available for the first time through the launch of Black Histories Archive on National Windrush Day.

For further information: www.jhg.art

This project will celebrate and commemorate the 75th Windrush anniversary through two fun-filled events for 100 people, in Lambeth and Lewisham. Events will feature Caribbean food and music, drumming and quadrille workshops, and interactive theatre. Leading up to the events, members will participate in an intergenerational photography project to be exhibited in several locales in South London. The project will educate through members’ personally and historically significant mementos.

For further information: www. bringmesunshinese6.co.uk

n Manchester City of Literature

This organisation will work with three Pentecostal churches in South Manchester to deliver an intergenerational project. Young people from Manchester will work with church elders, capturing their experiences of Windrush and faith, collaboratively producing podcasts and short documentary films which will be launched on digital platforms on National Windrush Day.

For further information: www. manchestercityofliterature.com

n Newham Borough Council

The Legacy and Hope: Windrush Anniversary Concert Series will bring together intergenerational communities across London and Bedford to celebrate the Windrush legacy through musical performances inspired by the Caribbean diaspora. It takes place throughout the month of June, including an Opera Flash Mob on June 22. Professional artists, amateur performers and community audiences will be educated on the Windrush story and the musical contributions of the Windrush generation while celebrating their shared identity and creating lasting memories through musicmaking. For further information: www. pegasusoperacompany.org

n Phoenix Dance Theatre Leeds

12 schools will take part in weekly workshops over a six-week period, starting with a session run by a local black historian and Caribbean community members. Young people will learn about Windrush and the rich history and culture that was brought to Leeds. They will work with Phoenix dance artists to create celebratory dance works in front of a live audience.

For further information: www. phoenixdancetheatre.co.uk

n Renewal Choir Bristol

Churches and Christian organisations from across Britain have come together to host a service at Southwark Cathedral, south London, on 22 June 2023 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Windrush.

n Haringey

Council (Bruce Castle Museum) London

‘Creating A Corner of the Caribbean in Tottenham’: inspired by Haringey’s elder and acclaimed designer the late Althea McNish, this project will celebrate and share stories and experiences about ‘what is home’ for Windrush generation elders. June 22 sees Bruce Castle lit up in Windrush Day colours, for a discussion panel with intergenerational guest speakers. June 24 will be a community day for all ages to celebrate at three sites in Bruce Castle Park, including vintage-inspired stalls, story-

n Kainé Management Leicester

‘Better Together’ will focus on educating about the Windrush generation, engaging with peers regionally (Nottingham and Derby) and working with the Leicester Windrush Consortium to erect a Windrush memorial in the city. It will continue the intergenerational engagement between the Windrush Generation, children and young people through hosting workshops in libraries, school and community settings. Stories and experiences will be creatively cap-

As a community-led project, ‘Memories of Home’ will celebrate and recognise Newham’s Windrush generation by capturing and preserving their memories of home in the Caribbean and their new home in the UK, and passing them on to future generations. The project will be centred around a recreated 1960/70s Caribbean ‘front room’, and used as a base for reminiscence sessions, oral histories, art workshops, theatre performances, film screenings, school workshops and exhibition.

For further information: www.newham.gov.uk

n Nottingham News Centre CIC

‘Digging Deep Windrush Generation Miners & Their Industrial

This project will celebrate and educate about the arrival and contribution of the Windrush generation to the UK through the medium of gospel music. It will deliver a number of singing workshops to provide an immersive experience for school children Bristol. A performance will be held on National Windrush Day 2023 and will end with a showcase performance, highlighting the work achieved in the workshops. Various segments of the workshops and performances will be captured on video to provide a legacy of Windrush Day 2023 in the Southwest.

For further information: www.renewalchoir.org

n Rosetta Arts London

Through the lens of art history, the project will create a series of educational workshops for young creative entrepreneurs and events, highlighting the stories of Caribbean artists who migrated to the UK

The service, which starts at 2pm, will be an opportunity for attendees to remember the (ongoing) struggle of the Windrush generation and celebrate their successes and the way they have revitalised this country. Finally, the service will encourage the younger generation to build on the successes of their forebears, urging them to tell these stories their generation.

One of the service’s organisers, Richard Reddie, Director of Justice and Inclusion for Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, said, ‘This service is an opportunity for this country to reflect on the humungous contributions that the Windrush generation have made to Britain over the years, despite the racism they faced. These men and women were pioneers, and those who are their descendants, stand on the shoulders of giants.’

A number of key community leaders, senior church figures and politicians have been

invited to the service, and there will also be a delegation of church leaders from across the Caribbean who will add an international dimension to the gathering. The church service itself will be an eclectic mix of preaching, poetry, prayers, choirs and soloists. One of its key aspects will be the involvement of the younger generation; students from local schools will be participating in the act of worship, while the service’s final segment will be led by some of the younger voices in the Black church.

Richard Reddie adds, ‘We want to make sure that our younger people are affirmed and given the opportunity to take up the baton from those who have carried it so well over the years. This service will see these amazing younger voices telling the Windrush story for their generation, and there is little doubt they will do it well.’

For more information about the service and to register, via Eventbrite, see: https:// www.eventbrite.com/e/ windrush-75-a-nationalservice-of-thanksgivingtickets-630473261497 It will also be broadcast live via YouTube, see www.ctbi.org.uk

in the 1950s and beyond. Young people will get an opportunity to co-curate an exhibition, host a spoken word event and assist in workshops to gain invaluable work experience and skills.

For further information: www.rosettaarts.org

n Rudolph Walker Foundation London

A group of 18 young people from three schools in Enfield will be matched with older people from the local Caribbean community to explore the story of the Empire Windrush and the experience of Caribbean migrants through music, spoken word, drama and conversation. The young people will work with their older partners, journalists, writers and performers to develop written and performance pieces celebrating their lives for a public exhibition and performance – and inclusion in Enfield’s local history archives.

For further information: www.rosettaarts.org

n Southwark Playhouse

Across a series of 8 workshops, primary school students will work with a professional playwright to write their own plays inspired by and retelling the story of the Empire Windrush. These plays will be staged at Southwark Playhouse, with professional actors reading students’ work, directed by a professional director. Students, their families and the public will be invited. Following this, students’ work will be edited and printed in a special anthology, with a copy given to each student, and additional copies given to school libraries. For further information: www. southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

n Tan Teddy Taunton

Tan Teddy will hold two celebratory events on National Windrush Day – an early year’s celebration for 150 nursery children and their families at St Werburgh’s Primary School, and an evening Windrush performance in Taunton for people of all backgrounds. The Organisation will record a collection of Windrush early years songs and poems to be disseminated during the project in nursery settings across the South West.

For further information: www. tanteddy.org

n Telford African & Afro-Caribbean Resource Centre (TAARC)

TAACRC will deliver events to commemorate, celebrate and educate about the Windrush generation: Community art; Bespoke Windrush seminars/workshops and collaborative creation of relevant art in schools; Collaborative schools’ art display/Windrush exhibition at Wellington Orbit, a local independent arts centre; Canal trip to Lancaster for Windrush members; Iconic film and commissioned Windrush poem at local arts centre Wellington Orbit; Windrush tea party with entertainment; Windrush family fun day.

For further information: www.taar.uk

n Wolverhampton NHS Trust Charity

‘Came to Care’ will offer artistic commissions for young creatives (aged 16 to 25) from the local Caribbean community to explore and bring awareness to the contribution of the Windrush generation, particularly towards healthcare in Wolverhampton to coincide with joint NHS 75 celebrations. The artworks will be exhibited and shared at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre on National Windrush Day. Artworks will then be displayed at New Cross Hospital.

For further information: www. royalwolverhampton.nhs.uk

n

Warm Hut UK Salford

This project will run the ‘Grandma Dishes’ project, which will see them invite older women from Windrush communities to share their cooking heritage with young people. It involves using the transmission of a beloved recipe to question their relationship and the heritage being passed down from one generation to another. Young people will be invited to film and make a web documentary about the recipes of these grandmothers.

For further information: www.warmhut.org

n Westway Trust West London

The project will celebrate the Windrush story, engaging supplementary schools, Windrush generation speakers and Caribbean partner organisations to deliver key activities: curated National Windrush Day school workshops reaching 300 children, speaker spotlights, art installations, and a communitywide celebration event with at least 1000 attendees. The overall theme of the project will be celebrating the MV Empire Windrush sea voyage, and the rich culture and heritage the passengers brought with them from the Caribbean.

For further information: www.westway.org

n Wesleyan Day Care Centre Waltham Forest

This project will involve cultural heritage cooking demonstrations for children and young people, community recipes for Caribbean dishes and a Windrush celebration event and community BBQ. Finally, to celebrate National Windrush Day, they will be holding a celebration event and community BBQ.

For further information: Contact London Borough of Waltham Forest

n Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music

Woodbridge will host a summer programme of events and themed audio-visual skills workshops about the cultural legacy of Windrush generations on music, with a celebration of sound systems. It begins with a carnival stage (June 18) during the Town’s Regatta, followed by the Town Council raising Caribbean flags on the town’s

flagpoles, a poetry competition, and exhibitions at venues across town (June 22). An outreach event in East London (June 23), a Caribbean Street Feast in Woodbridge (June 24) and an event starting the weekend festival will be held in the town park (August 31).

For further information: www.woodbridgefestival.com

n Youth Plugin London

The project will focus on the creative legacy of the Windrush era by delivering a series of fashion/talent workshops highlighting their enterprising skills and contribution to style and culture in the UK. Participants young and old will create designs such as Zoot suits and full skirts that can tell a powerful story of creativity, skill and culture that came to London with the Windrush generation. Storytelling will be a key feature of the workshops and how using sustainable fashion methods helped bring people together to share stories and pass on creative and entrepreneurial skills.

For further information: www. youthplugin.org/admin@youthpluin.org

n Celebrating Windrush - Bilston

A two-day event will be hosted at the New Testament Church of GodBilston Saturday June 24th and Sunday June 25th to raise awareness about Windrush and celebrate the achievements of that generation.

The themes will include the impact on the development of the black church and celebration of their cultural heritage through entertainment and cuisine.

Civic, faith, community, and business leaders from across the West Midlands are expected to attend.

We are encouraging intergenerational support with a view to educate younger attendees about the Windrush generation’s experiences, struggles and contributions made to the British society.

This will be hosted at the New Testament Church of God in partnership with the Wellington Road Seniors Project on20-22 Wellington Road, Bilston, WV14 6AG. For information contact Albert Watson via email. Albert.Watson@ntcg.org.uk

n 70 Objeks & Tings Nottingham

Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery has invited Museumand, The National Caribbean Heritage Museum will display their touring exhibition ’70 Objeks & Tings’ as part of the national 75th anniversary celebrations of Windrush.

The exhibition is a fun and inspiring way to learn more about the Windrush Generation through the voices and collected objects which British-Caribbeans hold dear and are important to them. The collected items give insight into exploring broad themes including Caribbean food, homes in the UK, hair, beauty and dress and Caribbean culture.

The Exhibition will run from

26 June to 29 October 2023 at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery, off Friar Lane, Castle Place, Nottingham, NG1 6EL

For information visit: www.nottinghamcastle.org.uk

n Max Roach Children’s Festival Brixton

A FREE 2-day children’s event on June 24th (11am to 5 pm) and June 25 (11am to 4 pm) to commemorate, educate and celebrate Windrush 75. Located in the heart of Brixton, with support from local partners our outdoor space will be transformed into a vibrant and engaging festival environment, with a grand set-up for children’s entertainment, music, games, activities, food, and stalls. The Children’s Festival is the highlight of our calendar at LCC and is an amazing intergenerational event for children, families, and the local community to come together and have fun. This is a ticket only event.

For information: candice@ lccmaxroach.co.uk /www.lccmaxroach.co.uk

n Windrush 75 Service of Thanksgiving Birmingham

A coalition of Churches in Birmingham is hosting a Windrush 75 Service of Thanksgiving and Celebration on Sunday 25th June 2023 at 4.45pm at The New Testament Church of God 240 Lozells Road Birmingham B19 1NP.

Organised by Bishop Desmond Jaddoo, Birmingham Empowerment Forum on behalf of the Churches and supported by The Windrush Movement (UK), the Windrush National Organisation and Churches Together England, The Association of Jamaica National and other groups.

The theme will be The Journey, The Contribution, The Barriers, and The Future. Birmingham’s first Non -white Councillor, Bert Barless who arrived in the UK from Jamaica in the 1950’s will also be honoured. It will feature a combined The Windrush Mass Community Choir with song, dance, poetry from Victor Richards. The Lord Mayor, The Leader of Birmingham City Council and other dignitaries will be in attendance. All are welcomed and refreshments will be available free of cost.

n Somerset African Caribbean Network

A film Screening iconic docu-drama “Man from the Sun” written & produced by John Elliot on June 20th from 7pm – 9 pm. Shown on BBC in 1956 it provides insight into life of West Indians living in London. Presented by SACN & Somerset Film at Westlands Entertainment Centre Yeovil.

Tickets https://www.tickettailor. com/events/somersetfilmandvideoltd/923895

Music Event “Sound System’s and Soul - Yeovil Music scene 80’s & 90’s breaking down racial barriers” will be hosted on September 30th at The Manor Hotel Yeovil. There will also be events and window displays at selected librar-

What’s On

BELONGINGS: Windrush 75 Anniversary – Art Film Installation

The Evewright Arts Foundation (EAF) bring “Belongings: Windrush 75,” a significant part of the Windrush 75th anniversary celebrations this month.

To honour the waiting period endured by the passengers of the Empire Windrush before disembarking at Tilbury in 1948, EAF will host a captivating art and film installation over a continuous 36-hour period, spanning from Saturday to Sunday.

Notably, it will feature two new film works by artist Evewright, namely “Motherless Child” and “Here I Stand,” exploring the resilience, identity, and determination of a generation.

The program will also include “The Movement of the People,” a dance film by Phoenix Dance Theatre, selected films from local artists, a new film created by young people from Gateway Learning Community schools in Tilbury, and a captivating live performance.

The presentation of these film works will be enhanced with photographs, sound, and words, accompanied by images of the Empire Windrush’s original passenger list, creating an immersive experience amplified by headphones throughout the weekend.

Additionally, on Saturday

evening, attendees will be treated to a DJ set celebrating the musical influence of the past 75 years.

This extraordinary program will take place at the London International Cruise Terminal in Tilbury, commencing at 12pm on Saturday, June 24, and concluding at 6pm on Sunday, June 25.

The event is free and open to all, with attendees invited to embrace the spirit of the era by donning optional period costumes.

Tilbury Port holds profound historical significance for the black community in Britain, and this artwork stands as a poignant tribute to the lives of those who arrived from the Caribbean, proudly bearing their British passports as citizens with hope and expectation.

Serving as one of the original walkways where passengers of the SS Empire Windrush disembarked in 1948, this iconic location represents the first significant wave of British colonial citizens to arrive post-war at Tilbury Cruise Terminal, although many had arrived prior to 1948. Public Opening Times.

June 24- 25th, 12pm Saturday - Sunday 6pm - Admission is free. Location: Tilbury International Cruise Terminal Essex RM18 7NJ

A Windrush Grant Funded Project

Once again Butetown Community Centre Wales will host an event to celebrate our beloved Windrush Generation.

Two events will be held on 17th June 2023 and on Windrush Day 22nd June 2023.The events are being held at the Centre where the Windrush contribution to the UK is a permanent feature depicted by two commissioned art pieces as displayed in the photo-

graphs attached. The first piece shows the journey to the UK of Empire Windrush and the second piece tells the story of the hostile environment.

A third and final piece is now being commission which will tell the story of those ‘left behind’ whilst their family members answered the call of the Uk to come and help rebuild it after the devastating effects of WW2.

Also see page 77

ies plus other events in Somerset during 2023.

Contact sacnevents2023@ gmail.com/SACN2020@outlook. com

Facebook: https:facebook.com/ somersetafricancaribbeannetwork/

n Bank of England Museum

The Bank of England Museum, in collaboration with Museumand - the National Caribbean Heritage Museum, is opening a display focusing on the Pardner Hand system, a community-based savings system. Brought to the UK by the Caribbean diaspora, many arriving on the Empire Windrush in 1948, the display celebrates the entrepreneurship of the community in the face of financial exclusion.”

T. 020 3461 5545

n Windrush 75: Riddim and Poetry - Windrush Day at Museum of London Docklands

Can’t make it to the museum?

Enjoy a recording of the special Windrush Day event with performances and readings from poets of Caribbean heritage, exploring intergenerational themes of migration, home and community and reflecting on the museum’s own connections to this history.

Join for an event fusing words, sounds, and discussion as the museum mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks and honour the enduring spirit of one of London’s most vibrant communities.

June 20, 2023 6:30pm, Duration 1hr 30. £12. 14yrs+ https://www.museumoflondon. org.uk/museum-london/whatson/event-detail?id=331208

n What a Sweet Sensation Dance – Celebrating Windrush 75!

JustBe with us as we commemorate the Jubilee Anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush. Come and join the fun as we’ll be dancing the afternoon away –the perfect way to honour and remember those from the Windrush Generation.

Guest artist Patrick Johnson will be performing chart toppers and popular songs you’ll remember, music & memories from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s & 80’s. This is your time to shine so get your glad rags on and show us the fashion and dances you remember from the Windrush Era.

Ticket price includes entry, refreshments, fun quiz and a line dance session so you are encouraged to wear comfortable footwear, suitable for lots of dancing.

This is event, hosted by Yvette McDonald, will be held on June 10th at St Laurence Church, 37 Bromley Road, Catford SE6 2TS. Standard Ticket Price: £25 ( plus booking fee) Free for senior 67 and over

n WINDRUSH 75TH YEAR CELEBRATION Blackstory Partnership - Birmingham

Join Birmingham’s Blackstory Partnership and Birmingham Repertory (The Reo) as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Windrush Day on June 22nd at 7pm – 9.30pm.

This uplifting event will acknowledge Birmingham’s Windrush Generation who contributed to the rebuilding of England, paving the way for future generations and will be both celebratory and educational.

BBC West Midlands radio pre-

senter, Nikki Tapper and Mykal ‘Wassifa’ Brown MBE will host this prestigious one-off event. The program includes a performance by a newly formed children’s choir, The Next Generation Choir Birmingham, a variety of guest speakers, presentations, including the unveiling of the Windrush Memorial Statue at Waterloo Station in 2022 plus the Windrush Pioneer Award Ceremony. The evening will culminate with a jamboree of music from the 50’s to modern day from Wassifa Sound System.

VENUE: Birmingham Rep 6 Centenary Square Birmingham B1 2EP

Tickets www.birmingham-rep. co.uk/

n PODCAST | Caribbean history, heritage and culture through “Objeks & Tings”

Objeks & Tings - a new podcast by Museumand, The National Caribbean Heritage Museum, launches on June 22, celebrating Caribbean history, heritage and culture in the UK through the “objeks & tings” that Caribbeans cherish the most.

The podcast allows Caribbeans to tell their stories their way. Guests dive into the significance behind an object that represents their Caribbean heritage and explore the role it played in their British upbringing, while Museumand founders and motherdaughter duo hosts Catherine Ross and Lynda Burrell use their generational historical expertise to shed light on each object’s wider cultural context and relevance in modern-day Britain.

LAUNCH: 22 June 2023 – new episodes released weekly n 2023 Windrush Caribbean Film Festival host cities

and partner venues

What’s On Windrush: A Voyage through the Generations Exhibition – London

In 2023, Windrush Caribbean Film Festival (WCFF) will explore the complex relationship between the big screen and the Windrush era settlers from the Commonwealth through screening films from across the span of the Windrush era through a programme that speaks to 75 years of Black British Cinema, highlighting the contributions of the original pioneers and their descendants who are shaping Britain today.

Windrush Caribbean Film Festival will have over 40 screenings and talks taking place across five cities. The historical city of Southampton was also announced as the location for the opening night of the 2023 Windrush Caribbean Film Festival.

For the first time in the festival’s history, the city with strong historical ties to the Windrush generation will host film screenings from the festival on June 6 and also on June 21, the day before National Windrush Day.

VENUES:

Southampton - May Mastflower Theatre; Harbour Lights Picturehouse Bristol - Watershed Cinema Birmingham - Midlands Arts

Centre

Newport - Riverfront Cinema London - Rich Mix (Shoreditch); Genesis Cinema (Whitechapel); Rio Cinema (Dalston); Channel 4 headquarters (Westminster); Picturehouse Central (Piccadilly Circus); Ritzy Brixton.

GET

BRIGHTON BOOK FESTIVAL PRESENTS: Windrush 75th Anniversary Celebrations

and outlook for the future. We’ll also be serving up some delicious Caribbean cuisine and will be treated to performances by some brilliant poets and musicians.

The evening will celebrate Caribbean history and culture through food and music, photography, film and textiles exhibition and Windrush voices, stories of the Windrush generation and their descendants live in their own words.

Windrush: A Voyage through the Generations is a new photography exhibition by Jim Grover, the award-winning social documentary photographer behind the lens of Windrush: Portrait of a Generation, the acclaimed 2018 photo-story which celebrated the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks.

Now, five years on, and to mark the 75th anniversary and this major milestone, this exhibition, is a moving new photo-story which explores how the generations which followed the Windrush Generation are living their lives in the UK today.

Uniquely, this work explores and invites conversations around the different ways of passing down traditions, the continuity of heritage and intergenerational exchange. It also continues the stories of some of the familiar faces who featured in Grover’s previous Windrush exhibition; the first generation of men and

The Diamonds, a recently-formed women’s domino team in

women from the Caribbean who played a crucial role in the creation of a multicultural Britain.

The set of 70 colour photographs, which include nine themed photo stories, shine a light on both individuals, groups and organisations in south London, who together are doing so much to preserve their distinctive Caribbean heritage and traditions for current and future generations.

The exhibition fittingly ends with a display featuring a collage of 75 photos from the youngest generations - under 16s who have been invited to contribute a photograph of an artefact which is important to their families Caribbean ‘story’.

Windrush: A Voyage through the Generations will be on display for three months from June 1 until September 2, 2023, overlapping with ‘Windrush Day’ on 22 June, at the Clapham Library, situated in the heart of south London where so many of Jim’s subjects, who he has formed close bonds with over the years, still live.

Join Brighton Book Festival for a multi-day extravaganza, celebrating the contributions of Caribbean communities to Britain. Events will include two family festivals, a poetry workshop for young people and an evening of celebrations to mark Windrush Day on 22nd June. Enjoy crafting with Afrori Books, creating poems with our poet on the sofa, a read-a-long with Patrice Lawrence, hair education and writing workshops along with lunch and goody bags for all. Attend our poetry workshop where you can develop your writing with Canal Laureate Roy McFarlane and AFLO. the Poet. Create a piece together on the theme of Windrush Day, hear their tips and tricks and receive feedback on writing and performance.

Come along to our 75th Anniversary Windrush Celebrations on the evening of June 22nd to hear from authors Louise Hare, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Colin Grant, Rosanna Amaka and Windrush voices across generations as they share their experiences, inspiration

Central to our celebrations on June 22nd researcher and cultural producer Pauline Rutter is creating an arts installation that evokes the stories and experiences of people from the Windrush era. Artists, organisers and communicators who arrived in Britain after 1945, will feature within a large-scale collage at the CCA Gallery Brighton. This installation will include archival video footage and history panels developed with the support of London and Brighton based archives. The work will conjure the spirit of community building and the essence of the individual activities of some of the first folk, particularly women, to arrive in Britain between World War two and the 1960s. It places them in conversation with each other and invites reflection on their stories and the experiences of the many others who arrived all those decades ago and whose lives continue to lift us up.

For tickets and the full line up, take a look here: Windrush 75th Anniversary Celebration Tickets, Thu 22 Jun 2023 at 19:30 | Eventbrite and follow brightonbookfestival.co.uk

A Windrush Grant Funded Project

south London, take on the Bradfield Domino Club in The Golden Anchor pub in Peckham

Windrush75

Ain’t no stopping us now!

Baroness

By Lester Holloway

BARONESS FLOELLA

Benjamin has been famous since the mid1970s, when she influenced the children who are today’s 50-somethings, as a presenter on BBC’s Play School

But last year she found a new audience, as the driving force behind the Windrush monument, which stands proudly in Waterloo station since being unveiled during last June’s Windrush Day.

This year, she’s as busy as ever promoting Windrush and the contribution of the Caribbean pioneers that rebuilt post-war Britain and made such a contribution to this country.

She’s been so rushed off her feet touring schools the length and breadth of the land, that it was amazing she found time to make history again, carrying the sceptre at the King’s coronation, alongside her friend and Mary Seacole campaigner, Dame Elizabeth Anionwu.

STRUGGLE

As someone who has done so much to elevate the Windrush story, what motivates her to do what she does? Her answer is as simple as it is poignant: that telling these stories, so long untold, changes people who hear them.

Younger members of the Black community, who don’t always know details of the struggle their descendants had in the early years after the SS Empire Windrush docked in Tilbury in 1948, can contextualise current struggles.

Black Caribbean elders, too often silent about the traumas they endured, gain a cathartic release of telling their stories and educating the listener.

Older white people, who were around during the Windrush period, get to reflect on their own role — whether that be facing up to perpetrating racism, or ignorance of what was going on around them.

And younger white generations gain a greater appreciation of how this country was built, and the suffering and sacrifices that Windrush pioneers made in putting down roots and establishing themselves in all walks of life.

“These celebrations are about

showing people we have a voice, we have a presence and our story needs to be told”, she said.

“Unfortunately people from the Windrush generation have been silent about their emotions and about their trauma, and so many Caribbean people are carrying trauma; the ones who were put in educationally subnormal schools because the teachers couldn’t understand their accent.

“All the things they had to go through, suddenly it’s all spilling out, and people who didn’t realise what was going on feel ashamed. And so now people are saying ‘sorry please forgive me’.”

Floella, now 73, added that the Windrush monument, which she was instrumental in delivering as head of the committee, has helped to spark conversations about those past decades, and prompted schools, institutions and companies to ask themselves what they can do to make things better?

She takes pride in the fact that schools are being named after her, and that her autobiographical children’s book Coming to England is being widely taught in schools across Britain, including in primarily white areas.

It has been a remarkable journey for the Liberal Democrat peer, who travelled 4,000 miles across the Atlantic from Trinidad in 1960 with her sister and two brothers, arriving at a platform at Waterloo station which is so close to the new monument.

That journey marked the end of a period of hell in which the

young Floella and her siblings were put in the care of strangers as their parents travelled before them to Britain, as was common.

Yet her arrival also heralded a new difficult period in her life, as she experienced constant racism in Penge, south London, on the streets and in school.

She got into, and won, plenty of fights, but describes in her books the moment when she realised that fighting racist people was not the answer, and that she

“needed to fight with my brain.”

It was a moment that has shaped her life ever since, as a TV presenter, actor, author of multiple books, peer of the realm, and

member of many high-powered committees, including one that brought Britain the first stamps featuring Black faces.

Not content with her achievements, Floella is a vocal champion for change, and has spoken in parliament three times about the Windrush scandal which, she says “does not define the Windrush generation but is part of the story.”

Of the monument, she is keen to promote others who were involved, such as sculpture Basil Watson, the foundry where the statues were made, and other members of her committee, including her deputy on the monument committee Paulette Simpson,

Executive Director of The Voice

“My father bicycled from Penge to Colindale everyday there and back to work in a fac-

tory. That’s how strong our Caribbean people have been. We’ve been resilient, we’ve been determined, we’ve been proud of who we are but we haven’t told our story”, she says.

“Now is the moment, so that your children and your grandchildren can hear your story.

“We are now standing on the shoulders of those 90-year-olds and those people, many who have died, and they have paved the way for us. There ain’t no turning back.”

She bursts into song: “Ain’t know stopping us now, we’re ON THE MOVE!”, adding: “This force that I feel, I really feel this force within my soul.

“We’ve reinvented ourselves because we lost our name, culture, religion, it was taken away from us. The financial richness of Britain has been off the backs of Caribbean people.

“We are a force to be reckoned with because we have that midas touch.

“We have made a difference; and it’s only now that people are recognising this. It’s about feeling worthy, feeling good about who they are.”

Floella Benjamin, who brought us the Windrush monument statue last year, reflects on its impact in stirring conversations about the past.

DRIVING FORCE: Floella at the Windrush monument with the Prince and Princess of Wales (photo: Getty Images

We’ve been resilient, we’ve been determined, we’ve been proud of who we are but we haven’t told our story

HONOUR: Floella carrying the sceptre at the King’s coronation, alongside her friend and Mary Seacole campaigner, Dame Elizabeth Anionwu (photo: Getty Images)

What happens on the day of your Secure English Language Test?

Taking an exam in a foreign language can sometimes be an unsettling experience. Trinity College London always works to make the process as easy and convenient as possible for every candidate who books to take their SELT test at one of our UK exam centres.

SELT stands for Secure English Language Test and is a Home Office requirement for most UK visa applications. The English language test will be determined by the visa you are applying for.

When you arrive at the Trinity SELT centre at the time specified on your confirmation email, a steward will guide you through your test experience. The steward will confirm that the ID you brought matches the one used for booking the test and show you where to securely store all your belongings. Security checks to comply with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) are also performed at this stage. Those wearing religious clothing will be able to adjust them in a private area to ensure they can make security checks safely and comfortably.

Once the security checks have been completed, you will be registered before taking the exam. SELT tests are taken via one-to-one video

conferencing and the examiner will already be on the screen to meet you.

After the test, the steward will meet you outside the exam room to take you back to your locker and explain that you will receive your provisional GESE result by 9am the day after your exam and your certificate will be sent within 4 – 7 days.

Trinity SELT exams are taken at one of our 20 UK SELT test centres. Tests can be booked 24 hours in advance, with tests taking place seven days a week.

Ready to book your exam?

Scan the QR code or visit trinitySELT.co.uk to find a date and location that fits your schedule.

We answered the call

Ex-servicemen from the Caribbean on their contribution during the Second World War and keeping their memory alive. By Leah Mahon

WHEN THE “mother country” called for help amid the terror of the Second World War, young men from the Caribbean in their thousands responded.

Many know of the Windrush generation, the first mass migration of Caribbean people to Britain to aid the labour shortages, but many others from British colonies arrived years before and some even returned.

Upon the invasion of Poland by the Nazis in September 1939, Britain declared they were at war and recruited millions to fight, including around six thousand brave men from the Caribbean. Between 1940 and 1945, West Indian veterans took on the roles of fighter pilots, ground staff and mechanics.

However, in the yearly remembrance of fallen servicemen and those that are still with us, their story in the war effort is often still forgotten and their

presence before the Windrush generation’s arrival.

Glenn Parsons, leader of the Filey Commemorative Association, was behind a blue plaque unveiled in March this year that honoured the incredible effort of ex-West Indian servicemen.

Mr Parsons tells The Voice their contribution must not be an “overlooked chapter” in our history.

“There has been an overwhelming tendency for the history books to record immigration from the West Indies as starting with the docking of the Empire Windrush in 1948, whilst completely overlooking the 6,000 or more Caribbean servicemen who came to these shores as volunteers, between 1940-45,” he says.

“They were instrumental in turning the tide of the war in favour of Britain and its Allies.

“I am not alone in thinking that proper recognition for these selfless acts of bravery is long overdue.”

ACT OF BRAVERY: A recruit from the first contingent of ground staff volunteers for the Royal Air Force from the West Indies, holding his newly-issued kit at No 2 Receiving Centre, Cardington, Bedfordshire, in January 1944

Getty Images)

They served the ‘mother country’ with distinction

Gilbert Clarke

Growing up in Jamaica, Gilbert always had an interest in mechanics and electrics. In 1943, when news broke of the Second World War, he signed up to join the RAF and left behind his old job at a bookstore.

His journey to Britain was marred by threats of torpedo attacks from German U-Boats but he safely docked in 1944 amid the woes of the war. He remembers it being cold, but said it was expected.

“It was exciting [joining the RAF]; I learnt mostly electronics and of course military training like how to use a rifle and how to shoot from the reins, we sorted planes and ships,” Gilbert tells The Voice

On his way to Britain, Gilbert had to pass through the United States and says the “colour bar” couldn’t have been more evident across oceans but settled in the training camp in Filey, North Yorkshire. He remembers vividly when D-Day erupted and the sky was filled with aircrafts.

As he started his new life in Britain, he said leaving behind his family in Jamaica was still “heartbreaking” but tried his best to get used to it and even chose to stay in Britain after the war.

The now 97-year-old has been “in demand” and spends his time ensuring that the memory of the ex-veterans from the West Indies is still kept alive today. He spoke at the 77th an-

niversary of D-Day which also marked the opening of the British Normandy Memorial and is due to attend a royal celebration of the Windrush generation at Buckingham Palace.

John Desmond Crawford, ‘Jack Crawford’

Jack was born in Lucea, Jamaica in 1923 and first read about the outbreak of the Second World War in The Gleaner. He quickly joined the Jamaica Home Guard in Kingston and by 1944 he voluntarily began training with the Royal Air Force ground crew as the war raged on.

Jack recalls his journey to Britain as he arrived at Filey.

In a piece for the African Stories in Hull and East Yorkshire Project, Jack writes: “I travelled in a troop ship from Jamaica to New York where our ship joined a convoy to Glasgow.

“It took 3-4 days to get to New York and a couple of weeks to get to England. We were in a 20 ship convoy. The only thing we were afraid of was being torpedoed…The weather was freezing. I’d never seen snow before and on my first morning I slipped on the ice in my “hobnailed” boots!”

Jack was stationed at Filey for six weeks, but on his departure he developed bronchitis and had to stay in

a convalescent home. A young Jack would go on to experience his first Christmas in Britain in the winter of 1944.

He recalls that despite the rationing caused by the war, he and his fellow veterans had the trimmings and “the lot” on Christmas day. After his six week stint at the convalescent, Jack returned to training with the RAF.

After the war, Jack returned to Jamaica in 1946 where he worked for Customs and Excise in Kingston, but arrived in England once again in 1953 as part of the blossoming Windrush generation.

He rejoined the RAF and worked his way up to become a Chief Technician and made enough money for his wife and children to join him in his new life in Britain.

Jack, now 100, has four children and six grandchildren and says he’s most proud of his achievements made during the Second World War.

“I am particularly proud of my four medals including my Long Service medal and my B.E.M gained in recognition of my achievements in the RAF,” he says.

‘Prince’ Albert Jacobs

‘Prince’ Albert Jacobs says he first heard stories about England while on the small island of Trinidad from his great-grandfather who was a Scotsman. He got news of the war brewing

and signed up to join the RAF soon after when he was just eighteen. He travelled to the US, Liverpool and finally to Filey where he worked as an Equipment Assistant on aircrafts and machinery.

Prince Albert tells The Voice that he missed his family back home in the Caribbean, but like thousands of others he “took the chance” to see what was on the other side.

While in England, he met his wife, Mary, who was a local typist and they eventually went to settle in Birmingham, in the West Midlands. They married on April 27 1948 at Oldbury Registry Office with just the two of them. Despite dealing with racism, Mary who is now 92, and ‘Prince’ Albert, 98, have been married over 70 years. The ex-war veteran, who now lives in Solihull, says he’s upset about how the Windrush generation arrived and some that returned have faced hostility over their immigration status and even deported as the country prepares to mark Windrush Day.

‘Prince’ Albert says his contribution to the war effort was “genuine” whether it worked out for him or not, but he says after 75 years since the war ended he “did the right thing at the right time”.

“You had to work your way, you had to prove your point. That’s why I found it in Britain and I think it was a good thing,” he says.

(photo:

HERO: Jack Crawford reading a greetings card from King Charles

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Windrush children of Leeds

Thriving

THE CHILDREN of the Windrush generation helped to cement the foundations laid down by their parents — and it wasn’t only in London where they built thriving Caribbean communities.

Here, we look at three stories of second-generation West Indians and how the Windrush legacy shaped life in Leeds.

Norman Francis was a founder member of Mandela Warriors, a local basketball team in Leeds set up in the early 1980s, and now coaches youngsters in the city.

His mother, Merlyn, came over to the UK from Jamaica while she was pregnant with him in 1961 and settled in Leeds. His stepfather, Edmund, worked night shifts at a foundry and his mum was a hospital cook.

BUILD

“That generation helped build the country we know today. The country needed help and reached out to places like the Caribbean to fill in the jobs that a lot of British people didn’t want to do, or felt were below them — like dustmen, bus drivers and nurses — and these jobs helped keep the country going,” says Norman, a father of six.

“We look back at our parents’ genera tion and look at the conditions they had to face and the things they had to do. There wasn’t much money but there was always food on the table and a roof over your head.”

Norman, a head coach at Leeds City Col lege Acad emy, has been coaching bas ketball in the city for nearly 40 years and, despite hav ing his left leg am putated below the knee in 2021, contin ues to run

children’s basketball teams. The inspirational youth basketball coach believes much of the fortitude and success of him and his peers stems from the example set by their parents.

“We made our entertainment, like the sound systems and setting up basketball and football clubs. These things became a big part of our culture and the foundations for all this came from the ethics of our parents.

It’s now up to us to continue that legacy and lay more foundations for our youngsters.”

A new book out next month Rebellion to Romance, by Susan Pitter, celebrates stories of second generation West Indians living in Leeds. People like Norman and Sandra Whyles, who worked as a nurse and health promoter for a number of years before becoming an artist and maker.

Sandra was born in Birmingham in the 1960s and moved with her family to Leeds when she was eight. Her mother worked as a cleaner at Leeds University for more than 40 years in order to provide for Sandra and her siblings.

“She saved up so that we could go on school trips. She did that so we could do things that she never did, and those sacrifices spurred us on to do better things.”

Her mum moved back to Jamaica more than 20 years ago, and Sandra still visits her to help

stay close to her roots. “It’s part of our culture. We were brought up with Jamaican culture, but some people weren’t.

Some Caribbean people didn’t want their children to know about it, they were embarrassed about not having a toilet inside or having to fetch water. But my mum was happy to tell us her stories as a child and what it was like, and in doing so we learned how to survive.”

Sandra, inset below left, feels her mother’s generation instilled in them a sense of resilience in the face of adversity.

“That generation was brought up to believe that England was the ‘motherland’, but they were still brave to leave their homes that they loved to come to a country that was often hostile towards them – and still stay.

“That was the brave part, to stay and endure and raise their children. My generation thrived and did well and we got our values from our parents.”

TRAINING

Lornette Smith was 10 years old when she and her two younger siblings moved to Leeds in 1962. They joined their mother, Lorna, who had arrived a couple of years earlier.

“Like so many other people from the Caribbean, my mother was encouraged to come over here to work as a young person and she left behind her children with grandparents. She eventually saved enough money to pay for us to come over,” says Lornette.

“In the Caribbean my mum had been training to be a teacher but when she came over here she couldn’t get a job like that, you ended up in a factory. So my mum worked in the Burton factory in Leeds making men’s suits.”

Lornette herself went on to run the famous Jumbo Records shop in Leeds, with her husband Hunter, for 43 years. She’s also a historian and teacher and is full of praise for the courage of her mother’s generation and the sacrifices they made.

“She was a single mum when she was bringing us up and she had four children who all went to university — and that’s the testament of the Windrush generation to me.

“They didn’t come here to sponge; they came here to work hard and better themselves.”

Caribbeancommunitieswerealso establishedoutsideofLondon.TheVoice looksatthreestoriesofthesecond-generation whosettledinthenorthofEngland

LEGACY: Leeds City Academy coach Norman Francis (photo: JMA Photography); left, Lornette Smith came to the UK when she was 10 years old to rejoin her mother (photo: David Lindsay); Sandra Whyles photo taken by Godfather of Black British photography Vanley Burke

There wasn’t much money but there was always food on the table

Moss Side stronghold

Manchester’s suburb was home to early Windrush pioneers. By Leah Mahon

FAR AWAY from London, in one of Manchester’s inner-cities, a place called Moss Side is where some of the Windrush generation chose to call home.

Similar to the blossoming strongholds of Brixton and Notting Hill, Moss Side was predominantly Black, predominantly Caribbean and also the most deprived.

Only now, Manchester’s Moss Side is almost the same as when the mass migration of people from the West Indies first came to Tilbury Docks with a large Black community still living in the area.

Linford Sweeney, 67, pictured above, tells The Voice that he arrived in the UK with his mother from Clarendon, Jamaica in 1964. They started life to-

gether in Moss Side. Although still very young, he was one of the many “barrel children” that were left behind in the Caribbean when his father made the same journey ten years earlier.

“Where we lived there were quite a lot of houses which were destroyed, because obviously there had been a war, but as a child I didn’t understand that,” says the local historian.

“People couldn’t get housing [when they arrived in Britain] and they had to go into the areas with the bad housing, and Moss Side became that place.”

On June 22, 1948, there were 492 passengers on the SS Em-

pire Windrush but only five came to Manchester, Linford says. They included people like Lord Kitchener; the Trinidadian calypso singer who famously sang, “London is the place for me”. But by 1954, he was living in Manchester in a borough called Trafford.

The Caribbean presence could be seen in the shops and dancehalls, to the market stalls and hairdressers across Moss

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19

He arrived in Plymouth on 6th June 1916 and was transported to Withnoe Camp in Cornwall for training.

It is unlikely that Herbert was totally unscathed, however. Dennis recalled his father telling him about his time in Wales during World War One. Herbert’s Battalion was deployed in Egypt so it is probable that he was considered unfit to serve on the front line but well enough to carry out duties in Wales. Indeed, a Travelling Medical Board that visited Withnoe on 22nd June 1916 found that the majority of surviving Verdala passengers were still suffering from frost bite and many were permanently unfit for further service.

The fact remains that there was a member of the Bernard family on each of what must surely be the two most famous (or infamous in the case of the Verdala) sea voyages in West Indian history.

REBUILDING

At the end of World War Two Dennis returned to Jamaica where like many of his fellow ex-servicemen he was disillusioned at the lack of opportunities offered in his home country. He had a taste for Britain and knew the country needed rebuilding after six years of conflict. He jumped at the opportunity when he heard about the Windrush and pulled together the £28 and 10 shillings needed to buy that one-way ticket.

The Windrush passenger list shows Dennis as passenger number 564. His

Side. By the 1970s, Manchester Carnival became the city’s latest cultural event which still sees hundreds parade through the streets and make their way to Alexandra Park.

Linford says the stories of Windrush communities that emerged outside of London are no worse or better from the narrative so commonly told about this pioneering generation.

Rather, all Caribbean com-

occupation is recorded as ‘carpenter.’

When I interviewed Dennis, his son, Roy expressed some surprise that his father had once been a carpenter. Dennis gave an impish smile and admitted he was never a carpenter, he simply thought it was a good trade to put down. In truth he could turn his hand to most things.

FORTUNATELY

On arrival in Tilbury most passengers were destined for addresses in London or the Clapham South Deep Shelter in the case of those with nowhere else to go; Dennis headed for the Midlands and the National Service Hostel in West Bromwich. The hostel could house around 700 men and was the site of serious rioting in August 1949 – predominantly between Polish and West Indian men who were based there.

Fortunately, Dennis had left the hostel by the time of the rioting and moved to nearby Telford where he had found work in a factory. He later worked for Vauxhall in the car manufacturing industry.

In 1952 Dennis married Marjorie Wildey in Wolverhampton, which is where he still lives. Unfortunately Marjorie passed away in 1987.

Dennis and his father had both served their country and Dennis and Marjorie’s four children certainly continued that tradition. Son Roy has gone on to become an extremely successful entrepreneur, primarily in the health care sector. Tyron became a fire fighter and younger daughter Sonia, a nurse.

Dennis’ other daughter Verona,

munities from St Kitts and Nevis, to Dominica and Jamaica all have something that makes them unique and yet still undeniably Caribbean.

He adds: “There’s a whole load of people we could look at of Caribbean descent who have made Manchester what it is today, who we can say contributed. That didn’t just sit back, that did the work they were told to do.”

under her married name of Elder, represented Great Britain in the 400 metres at the 1972 Olympic Games and won Gold and Silver medals at both the 1974 and 1978 Commonwealth Games. In a yet further coincidence, when Verona’s grandfather Herbert died in Claremont on 30th November 1969, the doctor who certified his death was none other than Arthur Stanley Wint who in 1948 had been Jamaica’s first ever Olympic Gold medal winner in Verona’s event – the 400 metres. Wint could have represented Great Britain but opted to run for Jamaica. Trinidadian McDonald Bailey faced a similar dilemma but elected to wear a British vest rather than a Trinidadian one. Passenger number 11 on the Windrush was McDonald’s father who was coming to London to watch his son in the 100 metres where he finished sixth.

Dennis later married Margaret Artwell who died earlier this year. Tragically Margaret won’t see how he will be celebrated and acknowledged during this, the 75th Anniversary of Windrush in recognition of his “immeasurable contribution” to British society.

The Bernard family has certainly contributed to British society. We start with Herbert who in order to fight for ‘King and Country’ patiently queued up outside the recruitment office in Hanover on 11th January 1916 and then move on to Dennis who proudly carried service number 724500 in the RAF and finally Dennis and Marjorie’s four children who have all continued the family tradition of service to the United Kingdom.

STRUGGLE: Moss Side is one of the most deprived areas in Manchester (photo: Getty Images)

Verona Elder competing in the European Athletics Cup Semi-Final in 1979

(Photo by Tony Duffy/Allsport/Getty Images)

Windrush75

CIVIC PRIDE: Nottingham residents from the Windrush generation in the city centre

Nottingham standing on the shoulders of giants

NOTTINGHAM IS to stage several events to celebrate the extraordinary contribution the Windrush generation has made to the city.

The events will also be an opportunity to pay homage to today’s multi-talented descendants of the generation by bringing a unique intergenerational feel to the occasion.

The celebrations will begin on Thursday, June 8 with a Special Windrush Lecture by author and BBC producer Colin Grant, the writer of several Windrush books including the illuminating Homecoming: the voices of the Windrush Generation

It is part of Nottingham Trent University’s (NTU) new Great Minds series which is designed to entertain, inspire and stir imaginations. It will be held at the Nottingham Trent University from 6.30pm and will be an occasion for NTU’s diverse student population to engage in the inspiring stories of the Windrush generation.

Windrush 75 Weekend celebrations start on Thursday,

Special intergenerational events lined up to mark the big day

June 22 (National Windrush Day) with a special civic service at the Council House, Old Market Square, from 10.30am.

This service will include dignitaries, civic leaders, community leaders, school representation and members of the Windrush generation.

The Council House will also host an exhibition reflecting the various sectors the Windrush generation has contributed to in Nottingham, such as nursing, mining industry, transport, sports and entertain ment.

Celebration festivities will move over to the new Binks Yard Island Quar ter complex with its magnificent outdoor per-

Nottingham events

Thursday, June 8: Special Windrush Lecture, NTU University Hall at 5.30pm

been a central part of the Windrush experience and the Sunday service will be a time to give thanks for the life and contribution of the Windrush Generation.

formance stage with the largest video wall screen backdrop in the East Midlands. This will set the scene for live entertainment for the afternoon.

It will be a trip down memory lane, with artists reflecting the singing, music, poetry, dance, fashion and storytelling of the Windrush generation and, of course, a Windrush

The 75th Anniversary Windrush celebrations will also be an occasion to showcase the multitalented descendants of Windrush generation and the Commonwealth. On Saturday, June 24, the festivities

Thursday, June 22: Civic Service, Nottingham Council House at 10am

Thursday, June 22: Lunch and entertainment, Binks Yard, Island Quarter at 1pm

Saturday, June 24: Windrush Cuisine & International Celebration – 11am to 9pm

Sunday, June 25: Commemorative Gospel Service, Binks Yard, Island Quarter @3.30pm

For further information contact Rev Clive Foster MBE, Senior Minister Pilgrim Church Charitable Trust. Email: clivefoster36@gmail.com. The service and various activities will be live streamed.

continue at Binks Yard with the Cuisine Flavours of Windrush Family Day comprising a demonstration of how to cook traditional delicacies and an opportunity to sample such delights as ‘Saturday Soup’.

Later, there will be a spectacular line-up of intergenerational talent reflecting the music, dance, poetry and spoken word from the Windrush descendants

and commonwealth of today. On Sunday, June 25, there will be a Windrush Commemorative Gospel Service held at Binks Yard. The service will pay homage to the sacrifice and enduring faith of the Windrush generation, with uplifting gospel singing bringing together outstanding choirs, singers and musicians performing traditional and modern gospel. Faith and the church have

High sheriff of Nottingham Veronica Pickering, left, said: “Here in Nottingham we are delighted to be marking and celebrating the 75th Windrush Day.

“We need to keep on sharing and learning from the stories of the rich contributions made to our everyday lives and culture by the Windrush Generations.”

Clive Foster, who recently received an MBE for services to the Windrush generation, added: “We are looking forward to celebrating the outstanding and incredible contribution of the Windrush generation to rebuild the UK after the ravages of the Second World War.

“Their sacrifice, their hard work and enduring hope, despite the obvious challenges, never faltered and serve as a great example of perseverance and pride in themselves and the country they served so well.

“We are standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Black steel in Sheffield

How Windrush generation survived hostility and put down roots in the city.

AS ONE of the largest cities in the Yorkshire and Humber Region, and a former economic powerhouse, Sheffield has always been a magnet for migration.

Britain’s first professional Black footballer, Arthur Wharton, was born in Jamestown, Accra, on the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1865 but came to Sheffield to study and then played for Sheffield United in 1894/5.

There has been a small but significant Black community in Sheffield since the late 19th Century. African seamen from countries such as Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and the Gambia came to the city on the ships that sailed to and from West Africa.

Over time, some of these seamen decided to settle in Sheffield, either permanently or temporarily, and formed a fledgling Black community in the city.

The post-war economic boom created a huge demand for labour and the call went out to commonwealth nations and people were recruited to work in industries such as steelmaking, engineering, and healthcare.

Workers from the Caribbean, particularly Jamaica, settled in parts of the city such as Attercliffe, Pitsmoor and Burngreave. Tight-knit communities were formed, and they quickly began to contribute to the city’s

By Maurice Mcleod

cultural and economic life. The First African-Caribbean market was held a couple of years back and Yvonne Wray, from the Action Committee, a charity that helps the African diaspora community, with a focus on education and identity, said:

“The Windrush years are a significant part of history — a time that changed the UK forever. Our parents and grandparents were invited here to build up this country after the war.

Club were set up to help with social integration.

Since arriving the community faced discrimination and intimidation from the police and authorities and hostility from their white neighbours who resented the new presence in their city.

Sheffield experienced some of the disturbances in the wave of social unrest which sprung up in 1981, two years after Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, which were sparked by tensions between the police and the Black community.

The city also saw a massive decline in its traditional industries, like steel, during the 1980s and this was exacerbated by migration from parts of Africa, as well as Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

“We are hopeful that the people of Sheffield can continue to embrace change, building a stronger community.”

Like everywhere else in Britain that saw new Black communities moving into areas which had been home to poor whites, tensions began to rise and in the 1960s and 1970s, the Black community in Sheffield faced the familiar challenges of racism, discrimination, and social exclusion. Organisations like the Sheffield Caribbean Sports

The Caribbean community in Sheffield is very settled, council records show 90 per cent have been living in the city for more than 20 years. These roots have been nurtured by organisations like SADACCA, (Sheffield and District African Caribbean Community Association), which grew out of Sheffield’s West Indies Association.

Since gaining its own premises in the 1980s, it has been a hub for the city’s African and Caribbean community.

Today Sheffield’s Black communities are at least celebrated as part of the city’s cultural heritage.

The Black community in Sheffield faced racism and social exclusion

TIGHT-KNIT COMMUNITIES: Workers from the Caribbean settled in parts of the city such as Attercliffe, Pitsmoor and Burngreave (photo: Andy Moff)

ROOTS IN THE CITY: Youths in Sheffield back in the 1970s

A FORCE FOR GOOD IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE

INEZ HENRIQUES’ decades of advocating for emerging Black communities in Wolverhampton and surrounding areas after co-founding and operating the West Midlands Caribbean Parents’ and Friends’ Association in 1958, were acknowledged with an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in 2019.

Now 97, she was pleased to follow up her previous interview with The Voice shortly after being honoured to share her thoughts and enduring aspirations.

VG: “So Miss Inez, lovely to speak to you again! How are you?”

IH: “One of my daughters hasn’t been too well recently but

she’s bearing up and I am too.”

VG: “How do you feel about Windrush celebrations now with so much more emphasis on the achievements of the socalled ‘Windrush Generation?”

IH: “It’s really good to see it celebrated much more. It is important to share information about it with those coming up.”

VG: “You were a major part of founding the Association, alongside your late husband Granville and other friends. How does it make you feel to know that it is still going through the Elders’ Group.”

IH: “I’m so happy! We have new members coming now to the Group every week on Wednesdays. It is growing again after coming back together after covid.”

VG: “How did you all manage during that time?”

IH: “That was really sad, a hard time for us all. We had to stop in our houses and make phone calls!

We lived on the phone, but we had to cope with it! Only close friends and family (only essential caregivers, as attending daughter Molly HenriquesDillon BEM interjected) came around. It was a struggle but we managed. We were so keen for the telephone calls to keep in touch.”

VG: “And what is it like now with the Group?”

IH: “Oh! Lovely! I really look forward to it. I go on Wednesdays. We have bring and share, keep fit and do different activities like dominoes and have more members.”

VG: “If someone said to you in 1958 when you helped set up the Association you would one day get an MBE, would you have believed them?”

IH: “Oh no! No, we just came here to work. I’m very proud and happy of what the Association achieved. It was a big achievement, not just for me but also my community.

The Association helped people get along but now the Group is helping me along. I’m glad to still be a part of it. I’m happy for my achievement and with Molly following on (by getting

a British Empire Medal for her contribution to nursing during the pandemic in 2021), and also her children achieving good things too.”

VG: “With your years of experience and success in pioneering and inspiring, how would you advise those generations coming up to live long and prosper as you have?”

IH: “Do something with their lives, get a profession. Work hard. Pass your good work and knowledge along to other young people coming up and support them in what they want to do. I’m still here to give as much support as I can, even at 97, and I always will until the end of my time.

I’m a great believer in the Bible, go to church and receive blessings to achieve more. I am trying my best to still do that with my family’s support. They strengthen and take good care of me!”

STILL GOING STRONG: Inez pictured in 2018 – a year later she was awarded an MBE in the late Queen’s New Year’s Honours List; below left, Inez in 1959

Next generation leading by example

WHILE Inez and Molly can brandish their MBE and British Empire Medals respectively, the family’s next generation is looking to continue the family’s awardwinning legacy.

While far too young to have experienced the Association during its heyday, the seeds of aspiration, hope and ambition it planted in generations of local people decades ago are evidently still bearing fruit today. Inez’s granddaughter and Molly’s daughter Sommer Stringer recently received an inspirational leader award for her role as Quality Lead at the national Changing Lives charity. Ear-

lier this year, her brother Daryl Dillon nailed an Exceeding Expectation in his role as Clinical Information Manager at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospital.

“These are amazing achievements which we must celebrate and share,” said Molly, fresh from attending the coronation of King Charles III alongside fellow British Empire Medal winners.

“We are so very proud of them. I was also so proud to have been invited to attend the coronation and witness history. It was good to see a multicultural group of people there, mixed together with VIPs, not set apart.”

Co-founder Inez Henriques talks about her work down the years at the West Midlands Caribbean Parents’ and Friends’ Association

I am very proud and happy of what the Association achieved

Windrush75 Midlands News

POWER OF COMMUNITY

THE NOW historic docking of the SS Empire Windrush at Tilbury

Docks was still comfortably within the collective memory in 1958 when Inez and Granville Henriques, along with some similarly aspirational friends, started advocating for fellow new arrivals from the Caribbean.

Their philanthropic efforts to connect those who were isolated, providing welfare and citizenship advice, which began in the front room of their new home in Wolverhampton, was soon formalised under the banner of the West Midlands Caribbean Parents’ and Friends’ Association.

By the mid-1960s, the Association became a registered company with a charitable arm and bought a house — at 372 Newhamp ton Road West, in the district of Whitmore Reans — at a time when the number of Caribbean-born homeowners were few and far between.

The abode grew to achieve legendary local status among the newly arrived from the Caribbean as a resource to aid their battles against the endemic discrimination and injustice that commonly stifled learning, employment and housing opportunities for those who were invited to the ‘Mother Country’ to build the UK economy and their lives.

The house remains under the Association’s ownership, still providing funds for its muchreduced programme which consists of a weekly Elders’ Group, which just like the Association it emerged from, is a rare and valued lifeline for a new section of the community for whom the social, economic and political climates have again conspired to limit access to opportunities.

The Group’s growing membership includes Association cofounders Inez and Eula Hibbert, both now 97, while their daughters, Molly and Althea, serve as chair and treasurer respectively.

Althea told The Voice: “Both of my parents were founder members of the Association — my father Aston died in 1996. I remember going with them to the Association every Sunday at 6pm with other members.

“We met up with other mainly Black children for parties, trips, summer schools, etc. This was the mid-60s, there wasn’t a lot for Black kids: our parents made us aware of the society we were living in, that we had to work harder, that some people didn’t like us because of the colour of our skin.

“We were young but were aware that we were part of a Black organisation that was helping us. It was wonderful to be a part of.

“My dad was always interested in young people. He would often contact the police and visit young Black people who had been arrested, at a time when many of us were so wary of the police.

“I remember when he was taking me to school, he’d stop and encourage those children who were going to be late to try to be on time! He trained as a carpenter in Jamaica, worked here for a local company, enjoyed it so much and taught the trade to young boys. People still tell me how much they regarded him.

RESPECT

“Mum didn’t have a formal role at the Association, just supported Dad. They used to link with other Associations like in Telford, we’d go to their events too. It was quite a rich upbringing. It made you value your fellow Black people and gave us respect for elders.”

Althea’s involvement began to wane as she matured, although she volunteered at its summer schools during her late teens. Infused by her parents’ aspirations, she went on to amass nearly 40 years’ service in the NHS, working up to hospital

ward manager and currently parlays working in elderly care with Group work since returning several years ago, at Molly’s request.

“I think we’ve lost some of that community spirit, especially with some of our younger people, who commonly don’t want to be involved. There is still a need for the Elders’ Group. Mum’s frail and needs to be taken to her appointments. She loves the Group. It’s so very rewarding, and each week I see more people coming.”

Citing the challenges facing the Association today, Althea, now 64, added: “Funding is hard to come by but the NHS and the

government are keen for older people to get help to combat conditions like Alzheimer’s, dementia and depression.

Another with a strong legacy to the work is Group volunteer Angela Johnson, 62, a former employee of the Association who worked there for a decade until

FOCAL POINT: Members of the Elders’ Group meet every Wednesday; below left, original West Midlands Caribbean Parents’ and Friends’ Association members; below right, the Association’s historic office base at 372 Newhampton Road West in Whitmore Reans; inset, Molly Henriques-Dillion was awarded a British Empire Medal

2009, officially as an admin officer, but did much more: “At the time we ran various projects like a prison link befriending service and harmony group for separated families’ contact centre) as well as the Elders’ Group.

“There was a lot to be done: accounts, PAYE, etc. It was a very busy project and extremely rewarding. People would just drop-in to ask for support, like with passport and citizenship applications. We helped a lot of people over the years. We’ve also lost a lot of them who had become like family.”

Made redundant when Council funding ended, Angela pitched up again a year later as a vol-

unteer! “They won’t let me go! It felt a nice obligation to be there for them still, even though I wasn’t getting paid for it. It was like I was still working there! I can do so many things, which is probably why my body’s knackered now!!”

Angela reflected on the Association’s impact: “Without somewhere to guide people who came from the Caribbean, they would have been lost. It was a beacon and a signpost to those in need of support. I don’t like to see people used or taken advantage of. So often those who came to us left with peace of mind. It made me feel good to be helping then and now.”

It was a beacon and a signpost to those in need of support

Daughters carry on the good work of parents who created a ‘home from home’ for their fellow new arrivals from the Caribbean

Windrush75

Turning back the clock

BBC’s Repair Shop fixes some very special and sentimental items from the Windrush era

THE BAFTA award-winning series The Repair Shop returns on June 7 to BBC One with four new peak episodes, including a special programme marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush to the UK.

To mark National Windrush Day, the barn team fixes four items that celebrate the contribution and achievements of members of the Windrush generation and their descendants.

First into the barn is Beverley with a memento that tells a tale of her father’s heritage. The British passport was issued to Beverley’s father, Alfanso, in Jamaica in 1948 and served as his legally binding document to come to the UK to help rebuild the ‘Mother Country’ after the Second World War.

CHERISHED

In 1950, he travelled on the SS Eros and, after settling in London, sent for Beverley’s mother who travelled from Jamaica to be reunited with him. The passport has been cherished for nearly 80 years but is sadly now showing its age.

Beverley hopes bookbinder

Chris Shaw can restore it to remind her elderly dad of his pioneering bravery moving and settling in a new country as a young man.

Next to arrive is Keithly with a suitcase owned by his trailblazing mother, Locita. Known as a Grip, the case holds memories of a journey filled with opportunity, adventure and resilience. Locita travelled from the island of Nevis to the UK in 1956.

PRECIOUS: Right, Bookbinder

Chris Shaw, Beverley and presenter Jay Blades take a look at a very special passport that belonged to her father; far right, sister and brother Dorcas and Stephen with a clock that means so much

The journey was arduous, with Locita spending a long time aboard the SS Irpinia on very rough seas before eventually docking in Southampton.

She started her life in the UK in menial jobs, but her tenacity and drive meant she worked and studied hard, eventually becoming a local councillor in Manchester, helping many in the community.

Keithly is now hoping the barn’s leather expert Suzie Fletcher can repair the Grip so that Locita can take it back to the West Indies with her when she returns later this year.

Sister and brother Dorcas and Stephen bring a precious clock to the barn for the attention of the barn’s horologist, Steve Fletcher.

The clock belonged to the siblings’ parents, Hermann and Keturah, and was one of the first items they saved up to buy after arriving in the UK from Antigua.

The plan was to stay for five years and return home, but the couple soon put down roots and ended up remaining in the UK for the rest of their lives.

The pair worked hard and went from living in a single bedroom in a shared house to eventually owning their own home in Birmingham.

The chiming clock took pride of place in their front room and served as a status symbol of the fact they had ‘arrived’ and established themselves.

Now, the siblings would love to hear the broken chime ringing again, to remind them of their parents’ tenacity and what they did to not only help rebuild the UK but also to build a new life for subsequent generations of

their own family. The barn’s final visitor is Patrick Vernon OBE who led a successful campaign for June 22 to be recognised annually as Windrush Day.

He brings along a radiogram that once belonged to his late friend Eddie Noble, a Second

World War British-Jamaican veteran who settled in the UK following his service in the RAF. The radiogram was one of Eddie’s most prized possessions and he gifted it to Patrick in his later years.

Electrical whizz Mark Stuckey

acts with military precision to get the radiogram back to its former glory for Patrick.

Alongside their hard-working schedule filming for the next series of the much-loved programme, The Repair Shop team is reaching out to a wide range of communities for the future series.

Presenter Jay Blades said: “We are looking for unique items for our new series. They don’t have to be antique, it can be absolutely anything, but it must have that sentimental value and it must mean something to you

and it needs repairing. We want you to get in contact because we want to get these things fixed for you.”

Ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsay added: “In the previous series we’ve fixed a whole host of items, traditional instruments, garments, books, crockery and more. So, please get in touch about your amazing items in need of some love.”

Email therepairshop@ricochet. co.uk or log on to www.bbc.co.uk/ takepart for more information.

PRIZED POSSESSION: Jay Blades, left, Patrick Vernon, centre, and Mark Stuckey with the radiogram

What we repair doesn’t have to be antique, it can be absolutely anything, but it must have that sentimental value

Montel Gordon

Reggae and resistance

Music was the soundtrack to Black British rebellion

MUSIC HAS often been a coping mechanism for the oppressed, which is evident when exploring the history of music across the Black Atlantic.

For example, with reggae music, we often connotate the genre to the rise of the Rastafarian movement.

Birthed in the 1930s under the leadership of Lennard Howell, they were inspired by the Pan-African philosophies of Marcus Garvey, viewing Africa as the promised land or Zion and Jamaica (in addition to the rest of the West), as Babylon, the symbol of oppression.

For the first generation of the Windrush, Rastafarianism was quickly adopted in Britain.

It allowed Black youths to reject their parents and/or grandparents’ traditional Christian ‘assimilationist’ values and adopt a more ‘conscious’, rebellious and anti-establishment stance.

As a result, Rastafari became a symbol for the alienated mass of marginalised Black youth in 70s Britain.

However, it was also a potent symbol for the moral panic created around ‘mugging’, as dreads were synonymous with ‘muggers’ and criminalised Black cultural protest.

The fractured relationship between Black communities and the police worsened during the 1960s.

The police already expected Black involvement in ‘trouble’ and ‘crime’ in ‘immigrant’ areas. This was further exacerbated by a moral panic around ‘black muggers’.

Howell argues that crime statistics were manipulated to create public anxiety around street crime to better ‘police the crisis’ in the economy and broader society.

The tension between Black youth and police boiled over during the infamous 1976 Notting Hill carnival — Junior Murvin’s Police and Thieves became the soundtrack that articulated police relations.

Police and Thieves has a somewhat prophetic feel about it. Murvin sings “peacemak-

ers become war officers” foreshadows the police brutality of Carnival ‘76, and the song, produced by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, has been given unofficial status as the Carnival anthem.

A closer examination of Police and Thieves, the circumstances surrounding its creation, and the significance of the record, however, reveals a more comprehensive narrative that encompasses and places the summer of 1976 in its historical and social context, much like Carnival ‘76 as a singular event was indicative of the more significant issue of systemic overpolicing of Black communities in the UK.

Jamaica was in a state of emergency and disorder because Michael Manley’s administration failed to assist the nation in resolving its economic problems.

RECESSION

Similarly, the growing socioeconomic crisis and global depression following the Yom Kippur War in 1973-74 decimated inner-city Black communities.

As the recession deepened, unemployment hit Black labour first, hardest, and longest, with a shortage of economic opportunities forcing Blacks down the hierarchy of skilled occupations.

Reggae music attacked the West’s capitalist, bourgeoise structure, which exploited Black

people worldwide. Black British youth found solace in the lyrics of Tosh, Wailer and Marley, who spoke of cultural resistance against a Babylonian system and a mobilisation of Black people. The growth of reggae was an attempt by Rastafarians

to spread race consciousness inspired by the social conditions of Black Jamaicans and Black people worldwide.

The ‘roots, culture and resistance’ dynamic of the late 6070s was an expression of and response to weight put upon

the sufferers in Jamaica and the UK. The political culture that reversed the triangular trade connected Black people and politics in Africa, the Caribbean and Europe, inspiring them to ‘get up, stand up’.

PROPHETIC FEEL: Junior Murvin is best known for the single Police and Thieves which has been given unofficial status as the Notting Hill carnival anthem (photo:

For example, Steel Pulse’s Handsworth Revolution is commonly lauded as optimising this cultural resistance with the fight Black youth were facing from racism in all societal sectors; right-wing populist groups such as the National Front, police, and the government as they sing: “Doesn’t justice stand for all mankind; we find society putting us down…” and “Handsworth means us the Black People”

This cultural resistance of reggae music on both sides of the Atlantic was the strife against imperialism and revolutionised the hearts and minds of the dispersed Black diaspora.

My latest magazine of the Nostalgia’99 series, titled

The Black British Experience Through Music, above, examines events such as Notting Hill 1976 and the dynamics of genres such as reggae and sound system culture. Additionally, on the 75th anniversary of Windrush, this magazine celebrates the musical contribution of Black Brits to this island and why it’s vital to tell our history from a musical standpoint.

Nostalgia’99 issue 002 is available to purchase at: www.nostalgia99.uk

Getty Images)

TENSIONS BOILING OVER: The infamous 1976 Notting Hill carnival saw Black youth and police clash in the streets

(photo: Getty Images)

Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin

Courage and faith of pioneers

We should all honour a special generation

OVER THE years, as I have watched the images shown on our television screens of those arriving on the Windrush and seen the expressions on the faces of the adults and the children as they alighted, I’ve tried to imagine what was going through their minds.

What were their hopes and fears? What and who were the significant relationships being left behind, and how would this play out in the future?

Although my mother did not arrive on the SS Empire Windrush, she, her brothers and another sister, are within that category being described as the Windrush Generation. All those who came to Britain in those

early post-war years came with their differing dreams which were about helping to rebuild the mother country, making a better life for themselves and their families. And, for some too, it may well be that this was an adventure being embarked upon or an escape from personal circumstances such as difficult family relationships.

My mother left behind my father (her partner – they were never married who she told me had no intention of marrying her). It is possible on her departure she knew this would be the end of their relationship, the consequences of which my sister and I, as two and threeyear-old children, would pay in the scars we still carry.

She found someone else in London, also of Jamaican heritage, got married, and the union produced five children.

In reflecting on the Windrush Generation, I want to recognise them as courageous pioneers (including my mother). As I have delved deeper into that generation and all they achieved, I am more and more grateful to them for their resilience, their courage, and their pioneering spirit.

For many, their families would have made sacrifices, financial and otherwise, to enable them to make the journey. Not dissimilar to the experiences of many migrants today.

They came full of hope carrying ‘the dream’, and they kept the flame burning even when

the winds of political rhetoric threatened, with its numerous engineered laws, to have their lights extinguished. The Windrush Generation persevered and survived because they wanted their children to thrive. We have a saying, “When yuh hand in alligator mout, tek time pull ih out.” (When your

hand is in an alligator’s mouth, take your time to pull it out).

Not only their hands, but their whole being from time to time can be likened to being in the “belly of the whale”! They have skilfully navigated this at some cost to their well-being. They have contributed to the National Health Service,

NEVER FORGET: Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin during the unveiling of the Windrush monument last year

to transport systems and just about every industry one can think of, including the church. As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Windrush, I raise my glass in thanksgiving and with a deep appreciation for that generation who stepped out in faith and with courage, leaving a trail for us to follow.

L’Myah Sherae Windrush scandal must be tackled

MOST OF us are aware of the horrors of the Windrush scandal. The Home Office atrocity began to surface in 2017 after it emerged that thousands of Black Britons who arrived in the UK after the Second World War, many of whom were from the Windrush generation, had been wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights.

Despite the fact the Home Office said it was “committed to righting the wrongs of Windrush”, the government’s compensation scheme, which was established to right these wrongs, is still continuing to fail the very same generation.

Research by Human Rights Watch shows that as of January 2023, only 12.8 per cent of the estimated 11,500 eligible claimants have been compensated. This lack of action, care, and remedial support is shameful. As a result of the Windrush scandal, some Black Britons remain un-

Government inertia over paying victims reminds us of decades of oppression

employed due to being pushed out of the labour force for an extended period of time. Others are in temporary housing or facing eviction due to unpaid bills.

Many are deeply in debt, and some victims still have unmet physical and psychological needs, as well as a sense of loss and depression.

Imagine if this was your grandmother, your great aunt or your uncle? And, what makes matters even worse, is that this is the sad reality for many of us.

The government’s poor and careless decisions have had a monumental impact on the lives of an entire Black generation. Yet, they’re brazen enough to act with little urgency, dragging

their heels and failing to pay out the compensation they publicly promised to provide.

The Home Office itself has revealed that over 20 people have died whilst waiting for their Windrush compensation claims to be paid.

HARM

But the exploitation and disproportionate harm towards Caribbean communities does not stop there. Time and time again, the UK has carved out an extremely problematic relationship with Black groups of Caribbean heritage, and it needs to be discussed. Let’s take the issue of deportation for example – in the last two decades, the UK government has deported thousands of people to the Caribbean.

Many of these ‘deportees’ left the Caribbean as infants and grew up in the UK. In fact, I’m going to dig a little deeper and highlight the specific example that hit headlines in 2020, when the UK Home Office attempted to deport 50 people on a flight to Jamaica.

The flight was disrupted at the 11th hour because four people were recognised as potential victims of trafficking. And, another 29 were also allowed to stay after a last-minute challenge.

In my opinion, all of this suggests the painful notion that Black Caribbean people are disposable in the UK, and can be

banished by political leaders at any given time; which is ironic, considering the fact that political leaders are literally the ones who are meant to protect our rights.

And does racism in UK institutions only impact adults of Caribbean heritage? No, it impacts our children, too. Figures show that the fixed-term exclusion rate for Black Caribbean children is more than six times higher compared to white British children in schools.

For Black Caribbean girls, research highlights that they are often excluded from education after having experienced unaddressed sexual harassment and abuse, poor mental health, and racism from peers and teachers.

Studies also suggest that negative stereotypes, discrimination, and the adultification of Black girls in particular, play huge roles in their exclusion from school.

A

Many of the same issues relating to structural racism disproportionately affect Black Caribbean groups throughout our lives.

Caribbean students are one of the least likely groups to attend university and if admitted to university, Black students in general have some of the highest dropout rates.

DEFENDANTS

The UK government itself states that “Black Caribbean and Black Other groups consistently had the highest rates” of being stopped and searched, and if charged by police, Black defendants were more likely to have their cases terminated due to weak evidence.

Research by Parliament even states “this may suggest that incorrect decisions were being made by police officers to charge more frequently in cases involving Black offenders”. This

brings me back full circle to how sinister the Windrush scandal truly is. Some of the Black children, students and adults previously highlighted in the statistics will be the descendants of those who migrated to the UK during the ‘Windrush era’.

They travelled to support, help and rebuild Britain, to then only be exploited, denied legal rights, and some were even deported against their will. So when we demand compensation for the Windrush generation, let’s remember we’re setting a precedence.

We want to ensure that the next generation of Black children refrain from having to suffer the same barriers we Caribbean people endure today.

And pushing the government to give Windrush scandal victims the compensation they are owed, and deserve, is a crucial first step.

TAKING

STAND: A young girl marches in protest against the treatment of the Windrush generation (photo: Getty Images)

Lyndon Mukasa

Windrush began the Caribbean brain drain

THE SIGNIFICANCE of Caribbean migration to post-war Britain cannot be understated.

Over half a million people from 1948 to 1973 had been invited to fill the labour shortages in various sectors that had been created from the devastation of the Second World War.

What is often left out of the story is the impact that this migration had on the English-speaking Caribbean itself.

The story of the modern Caribbean can be understood as a story of migration and settlement. It’s a story that hasn’t quite finished as the region accounts for the largest per capita migration of educated people in the world.

This has had significant con-

Until 10 June

sequences for countries in the region that are stuck in what has been described as a middle income trap where many Caribbean countries struggle to develop past a certain threshold because they don’t have the skilled labour or high value industries to provide its educated population.

This is part of the brain drain, a term to describe the emigration of skilled, educated people to richer countries where they can get work that reflects their

skills and education, and find opportunities that don’t exist in their home countries.

The brain drain can be devastating for a developing country since they lose people who are potentially crucial towards diversifying the labour force.

When people from the Caribbean were invited to settle in Britain, there was a similar drain of key people from the region. Despite the Caribbean being described as “the slum of the Empire” in the first half

of the 20th century, countries such as Jamaica experienced a significant depletion out of key sectors such as the civil service.

Other territories such as Montserrat had lost over a quarter of its population by the 1960s while over the course of the second half of the 20th century. Countries such as Grenada would lose 55 per cent of its skilled labour force and Guyana would lose almost 70 per cent.

What must be noted is that the region has contributed so much to Britain often at the expense of its own development.

While Windrush is understood in terms of what Britain gained, we must also consider what the Caribbean lost during that same period.

book & lyrics by music by LYNN

AHRENS STEPHEN FLAHERTY

Based upon the novel ‘MyLove,MyLove’by Rosa Guy

LEFT BEHIND: A woman walks down the street holding her son’s hand in Kingston in the 1950s (photo: Getty Images)

While Britain benefited, the islands they migrated from struggled to develop

In2023,WindrushCaribbeanFilmFestival (WCFF)willexplorethecomplexrelationship betweenthebigscreenandtheWindrush erasettlersfromtheCommonwealththrough screening filmsfromacrossthespanofthe theWindrusherathroughaprogrammethat speaksto75yearsofBlackBritishCinema.

6JUNE|19:00–22:00 MASTMAYFLOWERSTUDIOS

ANDSTILLWERISE CHRISSMITH

NOREGRETS ARTHURTORRINGTON

WHENIWASAYOUNGER NOELLAMINGO

PANELDISCUSSION

SMALLISLANDSTORIES2 JAMESBATCHELOR, BENJAMINHARRAP

AVERYBRIT(ISH)VOICE JAHABROWNE

ASUNDER JANETMARRETT

21JUNE|17:00-22:00 HARBOURLIGHTS PICTUREHOUSE

HERO:INSPIREDBYTHE EXTRAORDINARYLIFEANDTIMES OFMR.ULRICCROSS FRANCESANNESOLOMON ULTRAVIOLENCE

KENFERO

This captivatingcinematicexperience will onceagainhighlightthecontributionsof the originalpioneersandtheirdescendants whoareshapingBritaintoday.

9JUNE|16:00–22:00 WATERSHED

BABYLON FRANCOROSSO

PANELDISCUSSION

HERO:INSPIREDBYTHE EXTRAORDINARYLIFEAND TIMESOFMR.ULRICCROSS FRANCESANNESOLOMON

10JUNE|16:00–22:00 WATERSHED

THEFIRSTBLACKTRAIN DRIVERGLENNCLARKE

THEHOMEMAKER

JOANNAALEXANDER

DEATHOFENGLAND: FACETOFACE CLINTDYER

HOSTILE SONITAGALE

*Allscreeningsandevents

=FEATUREFILM

Everythingstartswithajourney.Justasforthe thousandsfromtheCaribbeanwhoanswered thecallfromtheBritishGovernmentin1948, thisyear’sWindrushCaribbeanFilmFestival marksadiamondjubileewithadifference— 75yearsandcounting,75yearsofmemories,5 yearsofhopesanddreams,75yearsofwaiting forjustice.

WCFFwasfoundedonstorytelling in2019whencommunitypartners delivered40+nationwide screeningsofthefeaturefilm HERO.Inresponsetodemandfor ourstories,theFestivallaunchedin2020. Ifyouwantthejourneytocontinue, donatewhateveryoucanto theFestival.

13JUNE|17:00–23:00

MIDLANDARTSCENTRE(MAC)

BUCKRAMASSAPICKNEYLIFEOFENRICOSTENNETT WINDRUSHELDER LALDAVIES

STRICTLYPROHIBITED JOSHUA‘RTKAL’HOLNESS ANDFREDDIESTEWART

SHANTAYE’SWORLD MATHURINEEMMANUEL, GUILLAUMERICO

THEHOMECOMING:ASHORTFILM ABOUTAJAMU TOPHERCAMPBELL

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14JUNE|20:00–23:00

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15JUNE|20:00–23:00

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16JUNE|19:00-22:00

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JAMESBATCHELOR,BENJAMINHARRAP

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17JUNE|13:00–22:00 THERIVERFRONT

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16JUNE|12:00-21:00

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17JUNE|14:30–22:30

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18JUNE|13:00-19:00

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Windrush75

The Black cops who forced the force to change

By Lester Holloway

IT TOOK almost 20 years after the arrival of the Windrush ship in 1948 for Britain to get its first Black police officer.

There were many immigrants from that pioneer generation who had a background in law enforcement back in the Caribbean, and applied to join the force only to face rejection.

The British police, who were in conflict with the newly-arrived Black community from the start, simply didn’t want cops who looked like the people they were oppressing, it seemed.

Then, in 1967, came the breakthrough. Twenty-one year-old Anguilla-born Norwell Gumbs enlisted, and was first stationed at Bow Street in Covent Garden, London. A year later, he changed his surname to Roberts after colleagues consistently misspelled and misspoke his name.

Five years after Roberts became the first Black officer, there were 11 across Britain. Still a tiny fraction of the 28,000 force, but those early pioneers each went through their own battles.

One of the 11, and the first Black officer in Lewisham, was David Michael. Born in Dominica, he was fascinated with police at a very young age since witnessing cops dealing with a road traffic accident.

After moving to Luton, in Bedfordshire, he became an avid watcher of TV police drama series like Z Cars and The Sweeney He recalls two detectives visiting his secondary school, who “forced a very positive impression on me”.

The schoolboy then went on a three-day summer course put on by the Bedfordshire and Luton Constabulary, which involved

being part of a motorway patrol in a panda car and observing an underwater search unit at a local canal.

After joining the Cadets in 1971, the 19-year-old opted to start his policing career in London, initially at Woolwich before moving to Lewisham.

During his first days on the beat he encountered a mixed reaction from the local Caribbean population. “I met people who said they were really proud to see me wearing the Metropolitan Police uniform on the streets of Lewisham. But young Black people who are actually at the brunt of heavy handed policing, they were not opposed to me, but they really asked me the question ‘do you really think you as one person can make a difference in the policing environment that we’re in?

joined Lewisham’s Ladywell station, Monica Goode started at Catford, and the late Ron Hope followed.

Mr Michael recalled being inspired by meeting Roberts, the first Black officer in Britain, and Clayton Neblett who was also a policing pioneer based in Peckham. But life inside the police was hard. “The police environment was inherently racist”, he said. “So 24/7, I would hear the most vile racist language you can imagine and the behavior.

“It permeated every aspect of the police environment; it was in the police station, in the canteen,

in police vehicles. And the most vile racist language you may have heard, or could imagine, was just regular.

“Nobody in a position of leadership management or supervision ever challenged it. So later on, when I spoke out vociferously about police racism, I had all the information and intelligence to be able to speak authoritatively about police racism.”

In the years before the 1976 Race Relations Act, Mr Michael was painfully aware he had no legal protection against racism at work, and fearful that if he spoke out he would almost cer-

tainly be sacked.

“Many people asked me, ‘how on earth did you manage 30 years in that environment? I used coping mechanisms. I didn’t respond to every single thing but one of my sergeants said to me he could see me clocking everything.

“I used to smile a lot to mask my disapproval. I had a steely determination. I was not letting anybody distract me from a career that I was already good at.”

Mr Michael became a cofounder, and first elected chair, of the National Black Police As-

BREAKTHROUGH:

Norwell Roberts became Britain’s first Black police officer when he enlisted in 1967

(photo: Getty Images); below left, David Michael on the beat in Lewisham in 1973, and, below right, the late Ron Hope (photos: South East London Mercury, Getty Images)

sociation in 1994, working with the likes of Mike Fuller, George Rhoden, Paul Wilson, Jennifer Donaldson and others.

And he got into hot water with his first speech to the Association’s conference, when he said the Metropolitan Police had its own Mark Furman’s — a reference to the famous case of OJ Simpson, in which Furman, who was revealed as a racist, had planted evidence.

His remarks were widely reported across the media, and Mr Michael — by then a Detective Sergeant — was hauled in to Scotland Yard for a meeting with top brass. But he knew he had said nothing wrong and escaped without punishment.

tive Sergeant — was hauled in had said nothing wrong and es-

“I have real satisfaction about my part in forming and leading the Black Police Association and the legacy that’s left for others to continue”, he told The Voice

the Black Police Association and the legacy that’s left for others policing

because of the atmosphere in policing at the time, especially

“I think they had every right because of the atmosphere in policing at the time, especially in Lewisham and certain other areas of London.

“In my heart I knew that we had to start somewhere and it transpired as time went on, I think one person can make a difference and 11 people can make a big difference.”

Soon after constable Michael

been singled out, and the body track record of achievement in-

The NBPA quickly became a major player in policing and although some members have been singled out, and the body has struggled with some chief constables, they can point to a track record of achievement inside the force.

Mr Michael retired in 2002 after serving three decades, and became a Labour councillor in Lewisham before retiring back to Luton where he unsuccessfully bid to be the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner.

became a Labour councillor in Lewisham before retiring back to

David Michael endured “24/7 racism” but is still proud to be one of the first to wear blue.

POSTIVE: David Michael

Dyke and Dryden - business icons of Windrush generation

Len Dyke and Dudley Dryden inspired the community and gave young people the chance to shine.

THE WINDRUSH generation has often been hailed for its role in helping to rebuild Britain’s economy after the Second World War.

Thousands of men and women came to Britain from the Caribbean to work in sectors such as manufacturing, public transport and the NHS.

Those who migrated to Britain in the 1950s faced huge challenges in the form of discrimination, limited job opportunities, and difficulty finding places to live. In the face of adversity, some Caribbean migrants embraced entrepreneurship in an effort to create a better future for themselves and their communities.

The 1960s saw Windrush generation entrepreneurs establish businesses such as travel agencies, hairdressing salons, takeaways, bakeries and record shops.

However, many struggled to find the financial resources needed to expand their businesses.

Limited access to capital and credit, coupled with a lack of understanding by banks about the potential of enterprises that served Black consumers posed significant challenges.

Among those who successfully overcame these obstacles were Len Dyke and Dudley Dryden.

The two entrepreneurs started out providing a range of products and services, shipped in “from home”, for the emerging Caribbean community in the 1960s. Dyke managed a record distribution company and a travel agency while Dudley sold cosmetics and hair products from a stand in Ridley Road Market in Dalston, London.

In 1965, the two entrepreneurs teamed up and opened a shop on Tottenham’s West Green Road

They were later joined by fel-

By Vic Motune

low entrepreneur Tony Wade in 1968. It was Wade’s decision to cut out the record business and travel service in order to concentrate on promoting hair and beauty products with which the name Dyke & Dryden became synonymous.

As the first Black-owned multimillion-pound firm in Britain, Dyke & Dryden set a high standard for the Black British enterprises that were to follow in their footsteps. Wade told the company’s story in the 2001 book How they made a million: The Dyke and Dryden story

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, the company expanded rapidly opening new branches and warehouses that enabled them to compete in the lucrative international Black hair and beauty market.

The three pioneering entrepreneurs were fully aware of the business opportunities that good publicity brought and went on to create the hugely successful Miss Dyke & Dryden beauty contest.

Their promotional flair was again seen in the launch of the Afro Hair and Beauty Show which remains a hugely influential industry event.

While Dyke & Dryden won plaudits for its achievements, business success was only one part of its story. It was a company whose objectives reflected those of Britain’s growing Black minority.

Dyke, Dryden and Wade were equally committed to supporting community organisations that campaigned to tackle the lack of opportunities faced by the Windrush Generation.

They provided trade credit to other Black-owned firms and supported organisations like the Standing Conference of West

Indians, the Association of Jamaicans, and the UK Chamber of Commerce.

At the 2020 unveiling ceremony of a blue plaque celebrating their achievements, Rudi Page, who worked as the company’s sales and marketing manager, described the three entrepreneurs as “very determined men” who were “really important” to Black Britons.

He said: “They inspired the community at the time and they were really focused on the development of young people and giving them opportunities. And I was one of those.”

In the early 1980s, many of those young people were at the sharp end of discriminatory policing particularly through the use of stop and search laws.

In 1981, mounting tensions fuelled riots across the country.

At the time, then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher championed an entrepreneurship drive for poorer areas such as Brixton, Handsworth and Toxteth which saw the worst of the rioting. This presented new opportunities for Black entrepreneurs.

Following the riots, several initiatives were launched by organisations like the former Greater London Council and other local government agencies to address the barriers faced by Black entrepreneurs.

The Economic Development Units of most local authorities with a larger than average black population such as Lambeth, Brent, Haringey, Hackney and

Camden, employed Ethnic Minority Business Officers. They helped identify businesses that could be supported with grants, premises, business training, and advice on competing for contracts.

This sharing of knowledge and resources also saw the rise of Black Business associations and fairs. One of the most significant events during this time was the Caribbean Business Focus 86, hailed as the biggest ever Black business fair in Britain.

TRENDS

By the early 1990s, Black business associations began to expand beyond London into regions such as Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham.

Ade Saywerr, a management consultant with several years’ experience working on enterprise and community development issues, says that by this period, other important new trends were beginning to emerge.

“In the nineties, the focus

shifted from helping Black entrepreneurs to set up in business towards opening up markets. Procurement assistance and networking became crucial in ensuring businesses could secure contracts and tap into government procurement opportunities.”

Sawyerr continues: “The 1990s also saw the emergence of a new type of Black entrepreneur. They benefited from working at senior levels in skill-based jobs and then used that experience and expertise to branch out on their own.

“The new Black business person has expertise in management, can talk finance and knows the intricacies of production and service management and is able to apply all the social marketing and web-based tools available to get quality products or services to a client or customer be they small or large.

“They have sophisticated business models with huge doses of disruptive technologies and in-

novation and counterintuitive strategies and with that has come a different more positive can do attitude. They are bolder and younger and ready for the cross over into mainstream markets.”

The efforts of the pioneering Windrush entrepreneurs has laid the foundation for the success that Black business owners enjoy today. According to research from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and Aston University, businesses run by entrepreneurs from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds have become major players in the UK economy contributing as much as £25 billion to the UK economy.

Access to finance remains a significant barrier. However, recent years have seen the emergence of initiatives that played a crucial role in promoting and supporting Black-owned businesses. One of the most influential is Black Pound Day, launched by So Solid Crew rapper Swiss in the wake of worldwide protests over the killing of George Floyd.

For Swiss, economic empowerment through entrepreneurship is a key tool in tackling racial inequality.

Speaking to The Voice ahead of the inaugural Black Pound Day in June 2020 he said:

“When we have control of our economic agenda it means we can effect change politically. This is really important. If we’re a community that’s not in a position of power, we can’t effect change in a way that can have a positive outcome for us.”

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT: Bush Man, co-owner of Brixton-based Caribbean takeaway Bush Man Kitchen, serves a customer on Black Pound Day in 2020 (photo: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images); left, how The Voice reported the growth of a Black business association in Leeds, one of a growing number outside London in the early 90s; below, Len Dyke, Dudley Dryden and Tony Wade

Business and Wealth

We’ve got down to business and succeeding

Look how far we’ve come in the world of business

LLOOK HOW far we have come! The Windrush Generation — most of our parents and grandparents if you’re from the Caribbean community — came to this country with a single suitcase and little more than hope.

OOK HOW far we have come! The Windrush Generation — most of our parents and grandparents if you’re from the Caribbean community — came to this country with a single suitcase and little more than hope.

Now, 75 years later, they have left us a great legacy to build on.

Now, 75 years later, they have left us a great legacy to build on.

With all the difficulties they had accessing finance or premises, Windrush Generation entrepreneurs started their businesses in their homes.

With all the difficulties they had accessing finance or premises, Windrush Generation entrepreneurs started their businesses in their homes.

Most of these businesses were barbers, hairdressers, or providing a service like cooked food. From an initial customer base of friends and family, they slowly expanded through word of mouth.

Most of these businesses were barbers, hairdressers, or providing a service like cooked food. From an initial customer base of friends and family, they slowly expanded through word of mouth.

In the 1970s, Black entrepreneurs started opening high street shops in significant numbers, mainly in major cities like London and Birmingham. But too many also closed down as cash flow and lack of business knowledge caught up with them.

In the 1970s, Black entrepreneurs started opening high street shops in significant numbers, mainly in major cities like London and Birmingham. But too many also closed down as cash flow and lack of business knowledge caught up with them.

Almost all these businesses were exclusively targeted at our own community. This is normal among immigrant communities. We see this in the Asian or Eastern European communities.

Almost all these businesses were exclusively targeted at our own community. This is normal among immigrant communities. We see this in the Asian or Eastern European communities.

However, these business owners have been able to scale while too many of us have not.

However, these business owners have been able to scale while too many of us have not.

Examples include ‘Afro’ hairdressers; Black barber shops; Caribbean takeaways; Black nightclubs; sound systems; Black bookshops; and record shops (usually little booths). We know while customers bought from us, they didn’t do so in large enough numbers.

Examples include ‘Afro’ hairdressers; Black barber shops; Caribbean takeaways; Black nightclubs; sound systems; Black bookshops; and record shops (usually little booths). We know while customers bought from us, they didn’t do so in large enough numbers.

One of my early memories growing up in Harlesden, north west London, was that of Me Amigos, a business that supplied Black hair products. But sadly, I do not remember any other hair product suppliers until very recently.

One of my early memories growing up in Harlesden, north west London, was that of Me Amigos, a business that supplied Black hair products. But sadly, I do not remember any other hair product suppliers until very recently.

While there have always

While there have always

been ‘self-employed’ business people, most did not employ anyone else or have an ‘outlet’ that was visible to the community.

been ‘self-employed’ business people, most did not employ anyone else or have an ‘outlet’ that was visible to the community.

This lack of visibility led to many in our community underestimating the number of Black people in business.

This lack of visibility led to many in our community underestimating the number of Black people in business.

However, in recent years frustration at the lack of opportunities in the workplace has led to increasing numbers moving into self-employment and running their own companies.

However, in recent years frustration at the lack of opportunities in the workplace has led to increasing numbers moving into self-employment and running their own companies.

There is now a huge diversity of Black businesses.

There is now a huge diversity of Black businesses.

The Black Report 2020 was “the first qualitative report about UK black startup founders, working with 60 black founders at the pre-seed stage.” It identified a very positive picture of these Black start-ups.

The Black Report 2020 was “the first qualitative report about UK black startup founders, working with 60 black founders at the pre-seed stage.”

It identified a very positive picture of these Black start-ups.

They were roughly 50:50 male and female. Eighty-eight per cent were self-funded averaging an initial £14,000 and then accessing additional investments averaging £166,000, with 38 per cent from ‘People of Colour’.

They were roughly 50:50 male and female. Eighty-eight per cent were self-funded averaging an initial £14,000 and then accessing additional investments averaging £166,000, with 38 per cent from ‘People of Colour’.

We also know of venture capitalists, like Impact X, that target Black-owned businesses for investment that could lead to huge multi-million-pound growth.

We also know of venture capitalists, like Impact X, that target Black-owned businesses for investment that could lead to huge multi-million-pound growth.

Today, we have an incredibly diverse range of Black businesses that reaches well beyond our communities, considerably moving away from the ethnocentric approaches when we first started owning businesses in the UK.

Today, we have an incredibly diverse range of Black businesses that reaches well beyond our communities, considerably moving away from the ethnocentric approaches when we first started owning businesses in the UK.

We have far more Black professionals working for ourselves in a range of fields that includes architects, structural engineers, surveyors, construction companies, mechanic workshops and vehicle valets.

barristers, IT engineers, bookkeepers and accountants. There has also been a huge growth in Black people working in personal services like social care, coaching, therapy, beauty, and in retail, selling products in

barristers, IT engineers, bookkeepers and accountants. There has also been a huge growth in Black people working in personal services like social care, coaching, therapy, beauty, and in retail, selling products in

MAKING AN IMPACT: Windrush Generation entrepreneurs slowly expanded through word of mouth in a host of professions (photo: Getty Images)

We have far more Black professionals working for ourselves in a range of fields that includes architects, structural engineers, surveyors, construction companies, mechanic workshops and vehicle valets. There are many other fields — you’ll find Black entrepreneurs in such as florists, cake makers, photographers, videographers, drivers, tailors and dressmakers. Plus, dentists, GPs, solicitors,

There are many other fields — you’ll find Black entrepreneurs in such as florists, cake makers, photographers, videographers, drivers, tailors and dressmakers. Plus, dentists, GPs, solicitors,

both shops and online, such as candles, skin care, dolls, clothes, sauces, drinks, honey and much more.

both shops and online, such as candles, skin care, dolls, clothes, sauces, drinks, honey and much more.

I have even come across a Jamaican man who owns a parts manufacturer that supplies nuclear power stations.

I have even come across a Jamaican man who owns a parts manufacturer that supplies nuclear power stations.

What is great about all these newer businesses is we now serve all communities. A significant number of Black-owned businesses now have a majority of customers who are not Black.

What is great about all these newer businesses is we now serve all communities. A significant number of Black-owned businesses now have a majority of customers who are not Black. This is great news as these

This is great news as these

Black areas. For example, many African and Caribbean restaurants have opened all over the UK.

Black areas. For example, many African and Caribbean restaurants have opened all over the UK.

The post-George Floyd era and Black Lives Matter campaigns have extended the opportunities offered by corporates to Black-owned suppliers.

The post-George Floyd era and Black Lives Matter campaigns have extended the opportunities offered by corporates to Black-owned suppliers.

For example, Netflix, Sky TV and the BBC have commissioned far more original content produced by Black writers, producers and starring Black people. This can also be seen in the large number of Black people and families in TV adverts.

For example, Netflix, Sky TV and the BBC have commissioned far more original content produced by Black writers, producers and starring Black people. This can also be seen in the large number of Black people and families in TV adverts.

Black-owned businesses have income from a much broader base, leading to more stable cash flow and, therefore, longer term viability.

Black-owned businesses have income from a much broader base, leading to more stable cash flow and, therefore, longer term viability.

Even the ‘ethnocentric’ businesses have often expanded into areas that are not majority

Even the ‘ethnocentric’ businesses have often expanded into areas that are not majority

These have led to more opportunities to Black professionals and Black-owned businesses to thrive with additional exposure and more lucrative contracts. There is far more to be done, as we know there are also too many token gestures. Too

These have led to more opportunities to Black professionals and Black-owned businesses to thrive with additional exposure and more lucrative contracts. There is far more to be done, as we know there are also too many token gestures. Too

often, corporates are not offering opportunities that lead to substantial contracts so we can scale our businesses.

often, corporates are not offering opportunities that lead to substantial contracts so we can scale our businesses.

However, with the huge expansion of technology, professions and home working, we are better placed than ever to develop and scale businesses that allow us to compete in bigger markets.

However, with the huge expansion of technology, professions and home working, we are better placed than ever to develop and scale businesses that allow us to compete in bigger markets.

Enjoy Windrush 75 celebrations, but also commit to buying more goods and services from Black-owned businesses — not just getting your hair done or buying food!

Enjoy Windrush 75 celebrations, but also commit to buying more goods and services from Black-owned businesses — not just getting your hair done or buying food!

If you would like business advice from Asari St.Hill — ActionCOACH Business Coach and Founder of the Black Business Club, you can contact him: asarist-hill@actioncoach.com / www.actioncoach. com/asaristhill

If you would like business advice from Asari St.Hill — ActionCOACH Business Coach and Founder of the Black Business Club, you can contact him: asarist-hill@actioncoach.com / www.actioncoach. com/asaristhill

The Windrush Generation have have left a great legacy for entrepreneurs to build on

Today, we have a diverse range of Black businesses that reaches well beyond our communities

The Windrush Generation have have left a great legacy for entrepreneurs to build on

Today, we have a diverse range of Black businesses that reaches well beyond our communities

MAKING AN IMPACT: Windrush Generation entrepreneurs slowly expanded through word of mouth in a host of professions (photo: Getty Images)

CELEBRATE WINDRUSH

LAMBETH IS COMMEMORATING 75 YEARS OF THE WINDRUSH GENERATION WITH EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE BOROUGH.

Windrush 75: Library programme 2023

This year marks the 75th Anniversary of the docking of the HMT Empire Windrush, arriving in Britain on 22 June 1948. To celebrate the lives of this generation that contributed so much, Lambeth Libraries will be celebrating throughout our libraries with a programme of events and activities for all the family.

Windrush Wriggle and Rhyme

Lambeth Libraries brings you Windrush Wriggle and Rhyme at the library! Join our librarians for songs, stories and rhymes for the under 5s. All with a Windrush theme.

Windrush Stories with authors Tony Fairweather and Alexis Keir

Wednesday 21 June, 6.30pm. Brixton Library, SW2 1JQ

Booking via Eventbrite: https://www. eventbrite.com/e/601344125467

After WW2 England was on its knees, so the call went out to the British Empire for volunteers to rebuild the “Mother Country”. Young men and women from different Caribbean islands were quick to respond. In this 75th Anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush and its passengers, join Tony and Alexis to discuss the importance of Windrush. Event in partnership with Spread The Word.

A celebration of the Windrush Generation with Drums and Dance

Saturday 24 June, 10.30am. Brixton Library, SW2 1JQ

Tony B will present the story of Windrush through drum and dance for all the family to join in and have fun.

The Place for Me: Stories About the Windrush Generation with the Black Cultural Archives

Monday 26 June, 10.30am. Brixton Library, SW2 1JQ

Schools Booking: Contact Caroline for more details at CGraham@ lambeth.gov.uk

The Black Cultural Archive gives an interactive storytime for local schoolchildren based around the book: The Place for Me: Stories About the Windrush Generation.

Empire Windrush: Reflections on 75 Years & More of the Black British Experience with Onyekachi Wambu

Tuesday 27 June, 6.30pm. Brixton Library, SW2 1JQ

Booking via Eventbrite: https://www. eventbrite.com/e/633254851307

Onyekachi Wambu wrote one of the first books on the Windrush Generation – here he returns to the book he first published and discusses what has changed and what remains.

Jim Grover Windrush photographic Exhibition

Launching 22 June 2023. Clapham Library, SW4 7DB

Award winning photographer Jim Grover has photographed the Windrush Generation over decades and presents an exhibition of his work at Clapham Library.

Alexis Keir

Onyekachi Wambu

Tony Fairweather

Tony Fairweather

Windrush75

The legacy of Windrush

Four community leaders speak on how we can honour the Windrush generation in the future.

By Richard Sudan

WHAT DOES the legacy of Windrush mean for Britain today?

As we mark Windrush 75, experts and voices from our community offer their thoughts on how the Black community can make sure the struggles of the pioneers were not in vain.

In an increasingly hostile political landscape, honouring the foremothers and fathers is crucial to preserving the culture and traditions of the past.

The experts say Britain’s Black Caribbean communities must seek an economic foundation to become the bedrock of the very

cultures and gains which our ancestors fought so hard for. It’s no longer simply about fighting for a seat at the table, following the old 20th century political model which we are attuned to.

It’s now about recognizing that we built the table, that there is no table without us, recognising our power in that regard, and moving forward collectively and accordingly.

It’s now about much more than simply becoming the change we want to see.

Because, we’ve already changed the world. We now need to cement our futures by protecting our culture, as much as celebrating it.

Amina Taylor

AMINA TAYLOR is a journalist and broadcaster. Her mother arrived in the UK in the 1960s, but then returned to Jamaica, where Amina was born in the 1970s before moving to the UK in the 1990s.

It’s an experience which has given her a unique perspective. Taylor is both the daughter of a Windrush era arrival, but is Jamaican born, and has lived in the UK through some of the country’s most tumultuous periods.

“At the moment being a Jamaican in Britain is a complicated affair,” she explains.

“It’s about the very complex relationship we share with the country which many still see as the ideal.

“Being Jamaican in Britain means you have a front seat to all of the politics, the social and political conversations – maybe more so

Mackayla Forde

ACADEMIC and poet Mackayla

Forde is a third generation Windrush descendant.

Forde’s grandmother arrived in the UK from Barbados in the late 1950s, and describes remembering Britain being cold and grey. Her mother and aunt at one point were the only Black students in their school in Sydenham.

Forde has a clear message about the best way to pay homage to our communities as we mark Windrush 75, and in the light of the Windrush scandal.

“They could honour the Windrush generation by giving all black families, their children, and their children’s children, uninterrupted and unconditional access to learning and higher education.”

‘COMPLEX AFFAIR’: Journalist Amina Taylor

than a Jamaican living in Jamaica. You get to be in the belly of the beast, to understand how it works.

“We have that history of colonisation. When I was younger, I didn’t understand why we had a Governor General. I didn’t understand that that was the Queen’s representative in my country.

“Britain is often still seen as the ‘motherland’. But it’s the kind of mother land which still sees you as an errant step-child.

“You’re not really welcome, but you stay out of some strange sense of responsibility and there’s an umbilical cord that we still haven’t cut. Whether or not Britain accepts us as that, Jamaicans to a large extent still feel that connection. But Britain has shown us that it’s kind of one-way traffic.”

PAUL OBINNA is an historian, born in Preston in the late 1950s, and is of Nigerian Igbo and British heritage. Obinna is not a Windrush descendant, but is an expert on the dynamics of race and race relations in Britain.

“Black people from the Windrush generation? There is no nursing without them,” he told The Voice “The transport infrastructure falls down flat without their work. There’s been contributions made left right and centre to this society.

“But you just became part of the norm, you’re absorbed into the norm of society, and now you’re an oversight unless you’ve done something wrong.”

Obinna added that the future survival of Windrush communities and safeguarding the Windrush legacy, depends on communities investing in themselves and focusing less on assimilation.

“The African-Caribbean community is the only one that’s actually reducing in presence. The reason is that most people in the community, the first thing they want to do, is get out of that community and integrate into another community.

“In the sense of that, what it means is that down the line there will be no African Caribbean community. The effect of that is that you don’t exist anymore, you’re absorbed into the white society.”

Maxie Hayles MBE

MAXIE HAYLES MBE arrived from Jamaica to the UK as a 16-year-old boy in 1960, following his father and step-mother who’d arrived in 1955.

Hayles first worked in a factory in Birmingham, experiencing hardship in the early days, which would compel him to spend years on the frontlines fighting racial injustice.

There wasn’t enough room for the young Hayles to stay with his father and step-mother when he first arrived in the country, and so a room was rented for him in tough conditions.

It was not until the Race Relations Act in 1968 that refusing lodging to individuals on the basis of skin colour became illegal.

FOCUS: Human rights activist Maxie Hayles MBE

“People my age used to go around in groups for safety, because the Teddy Boys were out, and if you had any argument with them they would soon want to fight you. Carrying knives is not new. We had to carry knives to protect ourselves – by any means necessary – because the police would not protect us.”

Hayles says he was once stopped six times by police in one evening alone. He’s adamant that ongoing injustices still felt by the Windrush community must give new energy and renewed focus on challenging racial profiling, and continue the strong legacy and proud traditions grounded in the battles fought by the first Caribbean arrivals.

Paul Obinna

SURVIVAL: Historian Paul Obinna

CLEAR MESSAGE: Poet Mackayla Forde

Lifestyle

GARY CROSBY

Jazz Jamaica All Stars lead Windrush

Day 75th anniversary celebrations p75

Personal stylist follows in dad’s footsteps p80

Bute Town Carnival honours Windrush p77

Remembering the Indo-Caribbean p78

‘Whispers of the Windrush’ ABritish-Jamaicanlegacy

Fashion stylist Charmaine McKoy traces the history of Jamaican fashion and its impact on the world

IWAS 10 when my parents announced we were moving to Jamaica to live with my grandparents.

I remember feeling shellshocked and apprehensive about the impending move.

Growing up in South London, I was accustomed to the hustle and bustle of Brixton market on a Saturday morning, holding my aunt’s hand whilst she selected a new weave in the various hair shops that lined the high street, but nothing could prepare me for my new home.

It was in the parish of St Thomas where my cultural awakening began. Spawning musical talent from Popcaan, Tarrus Riley, Morgan Heritage, ‘the original Don Dada’ Louie Rankin, to sports star Carrie Russell and former Miss World Toni-Ann Singh, St Thomas, despite its phenomenal talent, is often perceived as a backwater.

Nevertheless, from it has emerged some of the most significant figures in history including freedom fighter Nanny of the Maroons and Paul Bogle, whose statue still stands proudly in the centre of Morant Bay town square.’

Jamaica is known for its delicious food, sandy beaches and tropical sun and its most famous export, reggae music. Indeed, Jamaican music has long been synonymous with fashion.

One of the most innovative cities in the world, modern-day Kingston hosts many dancehall parties where men show off their ‘crepes’ and pride themselves on displaying their Clarks shoes.

Tracing back in time to the late 1940s, fashion was a source of pride for the first wave of Jamaican immigrants who landed on English shores in 1948.

Jamaicans turned out in their best clothes to board the boat.

Women dressed conservatively in blouses and long skirts and men wore zoot-style suits with the popular trilby or fedora cap.

The church has always been a fundamental aspect of life for many Jamaicans. Music, fashion and the church are inextricably linked in Jamaica. Hats were an important accessory for female churchgoers, and this has influenced my styling.

I also love working with vibrant colours, but I also like the simplicity of black clothing as it highlights the cut and fit of tailoring and avantgarde pieces.

I am passionate about clothes telling the story of who we are, where we come from and who we aspire to be. I enjoy working with clients to find out

what makes them shine, how clothes make them feel and what clothing helps them to put their best foot forward and accomplish their life goals.

The act of dressing is a ritual we all follow daily and yet our unique style of dressing is deeply personal. Indeed, rituals would form a large part of the Jamaican experience in Britain. Having put down roots in England, the living room became a place of joy for most Jamaican families and provided a comforting link to back home. They were characterised by doilies, ornaments, portraits of Jesus, artificial flowers and floral carpet. To this day, my grandmother has the same style living room and it inspired me to create the editorial

The Whispers of the Windrush

Playing dominoes, enjoying a glass of rum, and preparing your Sunday best alongside your Bible were all treasured Jamaican pastimes which models Stanley McCauley and Sylvia Johnson depict beautifully in these images.

Decades after the first wave of migrants, Jamaicans were blending a British clothing aesthetic with their Jamaican culture. I highlighted this by styling the models using popular flared trousers and wool vests accompanied with berets, hallmarks of Jamaican fashion.

I turned to British designers of Jamaican heritage, sourcing pieces from Grace Wales Bonner and Taneshe Oliver-Lodge, whose dress featuring a passport imprint with the words ‘ Immigration Department, September 1954’ is a superb creation, lest we never forget the dev-

astating Windrush scandal of 2018 in which many British citizens of Jamaican heritage had their passports confiscated and were illegally deported back to Jamaica.

Such is the ongoing allure of Jamaican culture, in 2018 Levi’s produced a Jamaican ‘Rockers’ collection and, this year alone, Adidas and Wales Bonner designed the Jamaican Football Federation kit and Clarks has produced special edition Jamaican wallabies.

In the words of its national anthem, it is fitting that we proclaim ‘Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica land we love.’

With special thanks to Sandra Bynoe and Janine Simpson at the Windrush Generation Legacy Association for allowing us to create this editorial in their museum in The Whitgift Centre, 1036-1037,Croydon.

TURNING BACK THE CLOCK: Models Stanley McCauley and Sylvia Johnson depict beautifully how those Jamaicans who had arrived in England as part of the Windrush Generation would have decorated and arranged their homes to remind them of home (photos: Simona Sermont)

Stanley Cardigan - Wales Bonner; Trousers; Wales Bonner; Shirt - Ralph Lauren; Tie - John Henric; Boots - Rodd & Gunn; Flat cap - &SONS Sylvia: Jumper - Sandro; Beret - GANNI; Skirt - Filiarmi; Boots - Guess; Rings - Vintage

Cardigan - Needles; Trousers - Our Legacy; Shoes - Grenson; Flat hat - Borges & Scott

Vest - Kapital; Trousers - Folk; Shirt - Farah Brewer; Boots - Lanx Shoes

Lifestyle

‘It was positive for everyone’

Gary Crosby OBE reflects on the musical impact of Windrush on the British jazz scene. By Joel Campbell

GARY CROSBY OBE says in his conversations over the years with musicians who landed on these shores before and after the Windrush, the only conclusion he can draw is that the pivotal period in history was ‘positive for everyone’.

Crosby, 68, knows a thing or two about music having become the first-ever jazz musician to be awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2018, and he’s also the nephew of Jamaica’s legendary guitarist Ernest Ranglin.

The bassist and bandleader will perform this month at a special Jazz Jamaica All Stars & Brinsley Forde: Catch A Fire, Windrush Day Celebration of Bob Marley & The Wailers at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall.

Taking place on the 75th anniversary of Windrush Day, June 22, Crosby told Lifestyle that few speak about how the Windrush landing on these shores inspired those who were already here.

He enthused: “It means a lot to me because, obviously, my family mem bers came up in that period but also, it means a lot to me because I met a lot of musicians that have told me about the difference of what Windrush had done.”

He added: “For Jamaican musicians that were based here before that time, those that had been here from the 1920s, they said when the Windrush landed, it was almost like you were receiving an energy blast from your history, like you plugged back into the Caribbean and Africa and they said that they became more confident, the way they approached the music they felt was more indicative of its roots.”

Ahead of the Jazz Jamaica

All Stars & Brinsley Forde event, produced by Tomorrow’s Warriors, a pioneering talent development agency, creative producer, learning and training provider, charity and consultancy specialising in jazz, Crosby says as well as ‘good vibes’ and ‘jump

up’, there will be moments of reflection and ‘education’. “It’s important to acknowledge the way music was influenced by the Windrush”, he says.

“On the history of the Windrush and its effect on our people, I guess we all have a view and it’s all the same view and we use the same terms like, maybe colour changed in the country, the acceptance of colour changed.”

He added: “Definitely the drum. I believe the drum became more prominent in British Jazz and I believe the Caribbeans played a big part in that.

“If you look at some of the interests of the British-born white Jazz musicians after the Windrush, it’s slightly different.

“They’re more aware of Caribbean and African rhythms after that.

So the Windrush was positive for everybody.”

Formed in 1991 by Crosby, the mighty Jazz Jamaica is revered for their many exuberant live performances and dynamic album releases over the past three decades.

Crosby’s concept was to create a quintessential fusion of mento, ska, reggae and jazz, playing classic and modern jazz standards alongside Jamaican folksongs, and it is drive that continues to ensure the evolution of Jazz Jamaica.

After extensive international touring, and the recording of four great albums, Crosby was ready to move Jazz Jamaica forward to the next stage and, in March 1999, he expanded the core lineup to big band status by adding a raft of guest soloists.

The result was Jazz Jamaica

All Stars, the creation of what was originally a 23-piece big band with an expanded repertoire that was soon filling concert halls and delighting audiences across the country, including a tour with Hugh Masekela in 2004, marking the tenth anniversary of democracy in South Africa.

This Windrush Day at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall features the legendary reggae vocalist Brinsley Forde leading the 35-piece Jazz Ja-

COMPETITION

For a chance to win two tickets to Jazz Jamaica All Stars & Brinsley Forde: Catch A Fire, Windrush Day Celebration of Bob Marley & The Wailers at the Royal Festival Hall check out our competitions page at: www.voice-online.co.uk

maica All Stars, plus the sweet sounds of Dem Three (Cherise Adams-Burnett, Cara CrosbyIrons and Kianja Harvey-Elliot) on backing vocals. They will also be joined by the stunning 246-strong community choir

Jazz Jamaica All Stars Choir (aka Southbank Centre Voicelab Choir), led by Mark de Lisser, which will be bringing their collective voice to the celebration.

Looking ahead to the event, Crosby said: “We’re honoured

to lead the Southbank Centre’s Windrush Day 75th anniversary celebrations with the mighty Jazz Jamaica All Stars, a huge milestone we can’t wait to mark.

“We love bringing our vibes to the concert hall, it creates a very special, joyous moment for audiences. Jamaica is a musical island – from mento, calypso, ska, rocksteady and through to reggae, Jamaica has always rocked to its own beat… and Windrush was the beginning of that beat and sound being heard and felt worldwide.”

He added: “People should expect some good music of course because that is what we are starting with. There will be a little bit of story telling by Brinsley who fortunately throughout his life has engaged with Bob Marley and the Wailers from their times that they spent in London. And just the joyfulness of that music and not only joyfulness, because there are a lot of social statements in that music that are still functional and resonate today.

VOCALS: Legendary reggae vocalist Brinsley Forde will lead the All Stars

“So it’s going to touch on everything that you want, a bit of fun, a bit of education, a bit of jump up, you know, niceness really, good vibes.”

Watch the full interview with Gary Crosby on our website

BANDLEADER: Gary Crosby is looking forward to the All Stars event; inset, he received the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2018

“Maybe the acceptance of colour changed in the country after Windrush”

SO TALENTED: Olivia Dean’s tribute to her Windrush Generation grandmother is one of the many highlights on her first album (Photo: PETROS)

Nothing is Messy about Olivia Dean!

The singer’s debut album helps to underline her incredible talent.

By Joel Campbell

FEATURING SINGLES

Dive, Danger and UFO, Olivia Dean’s debut album Messy cements her as one of the most versatile voices in UK pop.

Crafting classic yet conversational hooks with genre-fluid tinges, she’s honed a way of exploring universal themes of love, loss, and everything in between, with razor-sharp but open-hearted storytelling.

Her latest single from the project, which drops on June 30, is Carmen, the album’s closing track and a love letter to her grandmother who moved to the UK as part of the Windrush Generation from her home country of Guyana.

On the track, Dean sings: ‘You transplanted a family tree, and a part of it grew into me’, an ode to her grandmother’s strength and the imprint she’s made on this island, as steel pan drums and horns fuse together to form a uniquely modern British backdrop.

She explains: “Carmen is a love letter to my granny, and an ode to the Windrush Generation. I wanted to write a song of celebration that encapsulated the beautiful cross-culture that was created by the Caribbean community in the UK.

“Steel pan is such a power-

ful and emotional instrument for me, so having that feature throughout the song makes it that extra special.

“I am a product of her bravery, and I want her to be remembered forever.”

Born and raised in Walthamstow, Olivia Dean is one the UK’s brightest rising stars, praised for her endearing, down-to-earth lyrics and magnetic, feelgood live performances.

During the pandemic, Dean connected with fans by performing from the side of her bright yellow truck, which she toured in, offering free shows to communities around the UK.

Her first official gig back at the Camden Jazz Cafe sold out instantly and went on to be watched over seven million times after it went viral on Tiktok.

To date, Dean has released three acclaimed EPs, Ok Love You Bye What Am I Gonna Do On Sundays? and Growth, and in 2021 she achieved her first top 20 single with her cover of

The Christmas Song, recorded for Amazon Originals.

She recently announced a run of intimate acoustic performances, signings and Q&As across the UK in celebration of the release of Messy

This summer sees Dean headline a sold-out show at London’s Somerset House and play festivals including Glastonbury, Montreux Jazz Festival, Barn on the Farm and more.

On her upcoming album, we gain a refreshingly textured snapshot of a young woman embracing the beauty in freedom and acceptance of life, of love, of mess.

“Even with the sonics of the record, I’ve left a lot of sound in there, of talking, of the piano pedals,” Dean says, explaining the feel of Messy

“I like that it sounds human. On the title track, there’s a layer of me doing mouth trumpet sounds that was just meant to be a placeholder, and I was like, let’s just keep it! There’s no rules.”

She added; “I tried to just expel people’s voices from my mind about what I was supposed to make or what would be cool or what would be the most successful thing for me to make and made stuff that I want to listen to.”

TAKING CENTRE STAGE: Olivia Dean is a great live performer, and will feature at some of the biggest music festivals this summer (photo: Getty Images)

“With the record, I’ve left a lot of sound in there, of talking, of the piano pedals”

Carnival honours original arrivals

Beating heart of Wales’ Black community celebrates historic milestone. By Richard Sudan

THE ANNUAL Butetown Carnival, which is taking place in the beating heart of Wales’ Black community in south Cardiff, this year has a very special theme.

While showcasing an unmissable mosaic of African and Caribbean music, 2023 is dedicated to honouring the original Windrush arrivals that first introduced carnival to the UK, changing the cultural landscape forever.

Organiser Hilary Brown explained the motivation behind this year’s festivities, taking place at the end of August which will celebrate South Wales’ rich and diverse communities, while paying homage to the first arrivals from the Caribbean.

“This celebrates everything that’s great about migration into the UK, particularly Caribbean migration,” Brown told The Voice

“Windrush are the people who brought carnival to the UK. Trinidadians were the first to bring it, quickly joined by all of the Caribbean islands bringing their own flavour. The roots of any Caribbean music is Africa. It’s only right that we come together as one diaspora. We will be playing current music but also calypso and ska, all of the joyful music that made up that first carnival.”

Speaking about the success of last year’s event, she added: “I wanted you to be able to stand in the park, close your eyes and listen to the music feeling that you could be anywhere in the Caribbean or Africa. We brought artists from Jamaica, Ghana, and Europe. Local performers, too, were able to go away at the end of the day and say wow; ‘I shared the stage with an international artist’.”

One of this year’s international headliners is Ghanaian dance-

hall sensation Kahpun, set to release his highly anticipated The Dice Album on June 10.

Kahpun’s already known for hits such as Makeup, featuring Stonebwoy, which has gained more than a quarter million views on YouTube.

Kahpun is one to watch. And he’s not just blessing the mic at this year’s Windrush-dedicated Butetown Carnival. He’s been actively supporting events alongside Cardiff South MP Stephen Doughty and Ghanaian Deputy UK High Commissioner Rita Tani Iddi, to raise awareness of the injustices around the Windrush scandal, impacting commonwealth nations beyond the Caribbean, and highlighting the schemes available to support those affected.

He also plans to create a foundation for young people in the UK and Ghana to support their educational and artistic ambitions. Ghana’s Independence Day was celebrated at the Butetown Community Centre.

Speaking about his own musical journey leading to this point,

having performed at last year’s carnival, he said:

“I love Wales and I love the response. I’ve played stadiums before but this was a new experience with different people. I would really love to come back and be honoured to be part of it every year.”

Kahpun has also graced some big venues back in Ghana with some memorable moments.

“Cape Coast Stadium, the commissioning of the new stadium, was one of them. I hosted Shatta Wale live in Cape Coast and that was one of the biggest because the stadium was full, 64,000. And I come from Cape Coast so my people were all over to support me.”

Ghanaians back home and those in Wales are proud of the solid work from one of their own.

With many other great artists set to share the stage with Kahpun, this year’s Butetown Carnival is surely not to be missed.

AWARENESS: Kahpun with Cardiff South MP Stephen Doughty

SUPPORT: Kahpun, pictured with Ghanaian Deputy UK High Commissioner Rita Tani Iddi, has raised awareness of the injustices around the Windrush scandal

Lifestyle

Different story, same narrative

Remembering the difficult voyages on the SS Chenab, Hesperus and Whitby. By Joel Campbell

INDO-CARIBBEAN CULTURE continued to thrive against Britain’s colonial rule and grew to represent both celebration and resistance,” says Makiya DavisBramble, who was speaking on the free exhibition Indo + Caribbean: The creation of a culture, taking place at the Museum of London Docklands.

Working together with Londoners of Indo-Caribbean descent, the exhibition will tell the underrepresented history of Indian indenture in the British Caribbean and explore Indo-Caribbean culture in London today.

Following the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, British planters in the Caribbean devised a new scheme to source cheap labour for their plantations, recruiting workers from India to work for three to five years in return for transport, a minimal wage and some basic provisions.

Having successfully petitioned the British government for their support, the first indenture ships – Hesperus and Whitby –set sail in 1838.

Between then and its end in 1917, around 450,000 Indians undertook the long and difficult journey, taking up to five months, to the British Caribbean.

Davis-Bramble, display CoCurator and Curator at Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum, said: “Understanding the history of Indian indenture in the Caribbean is essential to unpack perceptions of Caribbean heritage. The harsh indenture system

led to the creation of entwined cultures and hyphenated identities. This in turn created displacement, with the Indo-Caribbean diaspora seeking to carve out their own cultural traditions whilst honouring their Indian an-

cestry. Indo-Caribbean culture continued to thrive against Britain’s colonial rule and grew to represent both celebration and resistance. This display helps us explore the untold stories of indenture and showcases the variety of culture in Caribbean communities today.”

Shereen Lafhaj, curator at the Museum of London, said: “As we mark the 75th anniversary of Windrush this year, Indo + Caribbean is a chance to learn more about Britain’s colonial footprint and the diverse communities from the Caribbean that have enriched our city.

“Exploitative and often shockingly cruel, Indian indenture was a system that nonetheless produced a unique culture, where individuals found agency to forge a new life. We hope this will be a starting point for people to find out about this lesser known aspect of our history.”

Dr Saurabh Mishra, academic advisor to the display and Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Sheffield, said: “The question of indenture has been an emotionally charged issue right from its initial days, when rumours circulated about the cruel

FORGING A NEW LIFE: Indian indenture ship SS Chenab (photo: A.G Linney, Museum of London); above left, Mohamed Ismile (Danny) Gani in RAF uniform, London, 1950s (photo: the Gani Family)

treatment meted out to Indian migrants in plantation colonies.

“This intensified in the early 20th century, championed by critics including Gandhi and the nationalist movement in India. Their campaigning helped bring the degrading conditions and abuses to a much wider audience. This, alongside other factors including resistance by Indian indentured labourers themselves, led to widespread condemnation and pressure to finally put an end to the system after almost 80 years.”

Indo + Caribbean: The creation of a culture is the result of a call for ideas to feature in the museum’s London, Sugar and Slavery gallery.

The display will run until November 19, 2023

The display will explore:

l The transition between enslaved African labour and the start of Indian indenture, including letters petitioning the government from planter Sir John Gladstone.

l The journey from India to the Caribbean, examining the poor conditions on board and strong bonds forged between migrants as they crossed the Kala Pani or ‘dark waters.’

l Life in the Caribbean for indentured labourers, addressing the difficult conditions faced by migrants and the impact of their arrival.

l Indo-Caribbean London-

ers today, exploring migration to the United Kingdom and drawing on personal stories of London’s Indo-Caribbean community. In addition to Gladstone’s letters, the display will feature contracts, shipping company records, postcards, and papers from the Parliamentary Archives that give insights into the realities of life under indenture.

l The display will also draw on photos, jewellery, film and artwork to uncover personal stories and family memories from London’s Indo-Caribbean community.

“This display helps us explore the untold stories of indenture”

All prose leads to home

Windrush passenger Alford Gardner pens his experiences

WRITTEN WITH the help of his son Howard, Alford Gardner, one of the few remaining passengers who took the journey on the Empire Windrush in 1948, shares his story from childhood to his adult life spanning 97 years, in his book.

The book, Finding Home, will be launched at the Bradford Literature Festival on June 23.

It looks at his time in the RAF, and after returning home to Jamaica, then coming back to the UK where he found a different country and attitudes to him and other after the war had ended.

In 1943, at the age of 18, Alford was called up to serve in the RAF after responding to an advertisement for volunteers to help with the war effort.

He arrived at Liverpool docks in June 1944 and was sent to a training camp in Yorkshire where he trained as a motor mechanic and was later posted to RAF

Moreton-in-Marsh and then to RAF Colerne after completing an engineering course.

After the war, he returned to Jamaica but was unable to find suitable employment and so returned with his older brother Gladstone on the MS Empire Windrush, which docked at Tilbury on June 22, 1948. On

disembarking the Windrush, Alford, Gladstone and two other passengers went straight to Leeds.

The book highlights the problems in finding accommodation and employment, and how they overcame the numerous challenges that they faced.

Despite these challenges Al-

JENNY MEIN DESIGNS

ford had a family and over the years he has travelled extensively with his only hindrance being the Covid pandemic.

In June last year Alford along with John Richards, a fellow passenger on HMS Windrush in 1948, unveiled the National Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station in London. They were joined by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, now Prince and Princess of Wales, and four school children including Alford’s great granddaughter.

The book may be one man’s story, but it is really a story of many people from the Caribbean and beyond helping to rebuild this country after a devastating war.

The launch of Finding Home, the memoirs of Alford Gardner, takes place at Bradford Literature Festival on the June 23 at the John Stanley Bell Theatre, University of Bradford, from 4.15pm to 5.45pm.

Celebrating Windrush Day 2023

To honour the legacy of the Windrush generation and their descendants.

The iconic Windrush Commemorative Tankard makes the perfect commemorative gift to cherish for a lifetime.

To order visit: www.jennymeindesigns.com or telephone: 0207 243 2182 Email: jenny.mein@btinternet.com

PRECIOUS MEMORIES: Alford Gardner visited the Windrush Monument when it opened in June last year

“Beautiful bone china inspired by fruit & owers of the Caribbean”

STORIES FOR GENERATIONS TO COME: Alford, left, and his son Howard, who helped him with his memoirs

Father’s Windrush legacy continues with style

Janette ditched her 15-year career in property to pursue fashion.

By Joel Campbell

JANETTE MILLER is a personal stylist, transformation coach and mum of two – but she’s also the daughter of Lloyd Miller, a well-known bespoke tailor who came from Jamaica as part of the Windrush Generation.

Lloyd, inset right, served in the British Army before opening his first high street menswear shop in an affluent part of south London in the 1970s, he was also one of the few Black tailors to operate out of a Savile Row fitting room.

Janette admits she didn’t know it at the time, but her father’s influence and insistence that she figured in the family business, would influence her career decisions years later – not that her dad encouraged her to follow in his footsteps.

She explains: “He (Lloyd)

wanted me to go to university and study to be a doctor, accountant or lawyer and have a career where I would be in an office all day. I was a people pleaser, so I went to college after college and did course after course. I was always seeking his approval.”

Course after course left Janette pursuing the road of prop-

erty management, but a seminal moment made her stop and pivot back to her roots.

“I’ve always had a flair for style and know what I like, even though I didn’t always feel confident to wear what I wanted.

“After 15 years in the property industry, I felt really unfulfilled and knew that I was meant for more. I was listening to an audiobook by Carrie Green, and she mentioned a book called the E-Myth which I had read before, but what I heard her say from the book changed my life.

“’What do you want someone to say about you at your funeral? What do you want to be known for?’ I knew that no one was going to say that I was a good property manager at my funeral and I didn’t want to be known for that.

I knew I wanted to change women’s lives in some way. I wanted women to say, ‘If it wasn’t for Janette, I wouldn’t have...’”

She added: “So after a few months of soul searching, I asked myself: ‘What would I do if money was no object?’ I love styling, my friends and family always ask for my advice. I’m that woman in the fitting rooms that wanted to help customers because I knew the staff didn’t always care, or might’ve been too young to give advice to an older woman. So I quickly found a personal styling course online and enrolled.

“After a few years, I knew that I wanted to work on a deeper level with clients. Fashion and style isn’t just about what you’re wearing, it’s about how you feel and your self image. So I then trained in transformation coaching to enhance the work I do and help my clients even more.”

NEW WOMAN: Janette said she had hoped to fulfil her father’s dreams for her in gaining a ‘successful’ career in property – but now she is much happier working as a personal stylist

Speaking on her father’s influence, Janette enthused: “My father is always well-dressed and I knew that I wanted to help women to achieve that polished and impeccable look that I know so many struggle with.

“I’ve never ever seen my dad in a pair of jeans and he would only wear a T-shirt in the gym. Even on family holidays he would wear tailored shorts that he made himself and a short sleeved shirt.

“This is the difference between fashion and style. I was definitely influenced by my dad’s tailoring business. The cut, the stitching and fabrics used, really show how well a garment is made.

“We all want to look elegant at some point in our lives whether it’s for a wedding or a Christmas party and I knew I could help women with this because having an elegant classic style was like a uniform to me. It’s all I knew growing up.”

Detailing her experience growing up working in her father’s shop Janette said: “When I was around 14, I started to help in my dad’s ladieswear shop on Satur-

days. He would take me to the wholesalers with him and fashion exhibitions so I had a good insight into the fashion industry and behind the scenes. I was a very introverted child that lacked self esteem, so working in his shop was hard sometimes, because I didn’t feel good enough or fashionable. It’s lovely to relive the experience I had now, but it took many years to do this.”

Janette says making the transition from a career in property to personal styling wasn’t easy, but she thanks her dad yet again for enabling her to take the leap.

“He (Lloyd) was a huge support when I started my property management business and my

parents even gave me their rental properties to manage.

“It took a long time for my dad to understand how I help women, because he’s not used to the online space. He had a shop on the high street for 40 years, so he didn’t understand how I could style women without a shop.

“I struggled to market myself online at first, because I was used to working on a computer behind the scenes. As an introvert, I really struggled with Instagram. Everyone just seemed so loud and out there, but I’m used to it now.”

Offering her advice to any one who wants to pursue a career in fashion or personal styling, Janette said: “Know the difference between style and fashion.

“It’s easy to not understand the difference, but not every client will want to be styled in the latest trends, so it’s important to know the difference.

“Also decide who your ideal dream client is. I see so many stylists that say they style ‘every age’. When it comes to marketing, I once heard that ‘if you talk to everyone, you’ll talk to no one’, and that really stuck with me.”

“It’s important to know the difference between style and fashion –not everyone wants trends”

WE ARE FAMILY: Janette with father Lloyd and one of her children outside Lloyd’s shop, which closed in 2010 after being open for 45 years

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The long fight for justice

Vernon Vanriel has battled for 13 years to prove his right to remain in the UK and now his story has been turned into a musical.

By Rodney Hinds and Matthew Chadder

ABOXER AND victim of the Windrush scandal who was left stranded in Jamaica for a decade became the subject of musical drama On The Ropes earlier this year.

Vernon Vanriel brought a High Court challenge against the government after he claimed the Home Office refused to fully compensate him for his loss of benefits after he was wrongly prevented from reentering the UK.

The 67-year-old came to London at the age of six in 1962 and went on a trip to Jamaica for two years in 2006.

On his return in 2008, he was denied permission to re-enter the country.

The government, defending against his claim, say he received “appropriate” compensation. Battling for 13 years to prove his right to remain in the UK, suffering homelessness and poverty, Vanriel finally returned in 2018.

He later received a personal apology from former home secretary Priti Patel over the “shameful” injustice and hardship he suffered.

He was one of nearly 100 members of the Windrush generation the Home Office subsequently admitted it had wrongly removed from the UK.

On The Ropes was co-written by the Vanreil, together with sporting playwright Dougie Blaxland. Pulsating with the rhythmic energies of blues, reggae and boxing, On The Ropes is a celebration of how courage, dignity and a fighting spirit can triumph over prejudice and injustice.

Vanriel talked to the Voice of Sport’s Rodney Hinds and Matthew Chadder about his life, career and the upcoming play itself.

The Voice: How incredible is it to tell your story in this

way, after being voiceless for so long?

VV: It has been amazing having the opportunity to work with Dougie Blaxland to tell my story. I knew nothing about theatre other than the kind I experienced in the ring as a boxer, but Dougie and I have worked together on the project for two years now and I have benefited in so many ways.

It has been the first time in many years that someone has listened to me and it has felt that what I say matters. The process has also helped me make sense of my life and feel that it matters too.

The Voice: Just how important was it to be involved with the writing and creative process? Would you have considered this project if you weren’t able to have direct influence?

VV: It is as if being so closely involved in writing the play has given me ownership of my life for the first time since it was stolen from me by the British government when they refused me entry back into the country. It has also been a kind of therapy – working on the play

has restored self-belief and self esteem.

The Voice: How did you communicate your story and vision to the rest of your creative team?

VV: I spent so many hours talking to Dougie – we had a meeting every week for six months and he recorded

everything I said and then sent me notes to check he’d got everything right. We then talked about how to shape everything into a manageable

story and what we would include and leave out. Dougie then went away and produced a script which I helped him edit. It has been a real team effort.

The Voice: What was the decision behind telling such a weighty story in a joyful way? Why was this approach taken?

LIFE IN WORDS: Sporting playwright Dougie Blaxland, who co-wrote On The Ropes, has also written a play about the late Laurie Cunningham

The Voice: What do you hope comes of the play? What is success for you?

VV: I want the play to inspire people to stand up for themselves and their communities.

I want everyone to be aware of how individuals can stand up to governments, but most of all I want audiences to be aware of the injustice that has been enacted in their name by the government.

VV: If I learned anything from my boxing days and the 13 years of banishment from Britain it is that you never give up no matter what. Because of this I wanted the play to inspire hope in the firm belief that this gives us the best chance of triumph over at adversity.

In fact, I think the play is a good reflection of my life – the instinct to keep fighting is what shaped my boxing career and it’s what sustained me through the 13 years of struggle in Jamaica.

The Voice: How were you approached to become involved with this project?

VV: Dougie had written a number of plays about sporting personalities – the last about another Tottenham boy, the late footballer Laurie Cunningham – and this brought him into contact with our MP David Lammy who put him in touch with me with the idea to write a play about my life. I had thought about doing a book but the idea of having a live audience like back in the boxing days was too exciting to resist!

“I want audiences to be aware of the injustice that has been enacted in their name by the government”

COURAGE: Working on the play has restored Vernon Vanriel’s self-belief (photo: Sean Anthony)

Darts legend Deta continuing to defy the odds on world stage

By Rodney Hinds

IN TERMS of sport, the postWindrush generation have made their mark in many disciplines. One woman who has literally made her point in a different way is darts player Deta Hedman.

Deta defied the odds yet again when she toppled superstar Fallon Sherrock and qualified for the PDC World Darts Championship 2021 – at the tender age of 60.

Jamaica-born Deta described her latest win as ‘‘un-

believable’’ as she became the second oldest debutant and the sixth woman to compete on the sport’s grandest stage. She upset the odds and narrowly pipped Sherrock to second position on the 2020 order of merit.

Deta, who has been a role model in the sport for years, told the Voice of Sport: ‘‘I surprised myself, I really did! The week before I played the Challenge Tour and that’s what set me up really, it gave me the belief. I hadn’t been throwing well and I’d been working more days than normal at the Royal

Mail. This meant I hadn’t been able to practice, but when I played the Challenge Tour the week before and got some good wins, it gave me my belief back.”

Despite her achievements, that include over 200 ranking titles, qualifying meant that she and her brother Al become the first siblings to play at the tournament, as he qualified in 2003. Hedman added: “It’s crazy, isnt it? Even at my tender age I’m still getting records.

“I’ve joked to the PDC that I could persuade Al to dust off his darts and we could repre-

sent Jamaica at the World Cup, as they are a team short.”

Deta’s achievements are even more noteworthy as unlike athletics, boxing, cricket and football, she’s generally been on he own.

She told vice.com: “We were in Europe once and someone said in a clear voice, ‘I didn’t know they trained monkeys to throw darts.’ It doesn’t really bother me as such. If they were to say it in my face, then I would tackle them. I would go back in their face. If it continues then obviously I’ll do something about it.”

Be a part of the community

Special Windrush heritage event to offer day of sport for the whole family. By

THE COMMUNITY comes together at the Bridgestone Arena in north-west London on Sunday, June 25.

The day will centre around a special Windrush heritage event that will see football matches, whilst looking at the some of the journeys of former players their upbringing, challenges and success.

The day will be coupled with a day of sport for the whole family in the presence of health professionals and community health wellbeing connectors. There will be an opportunity

Rodney Hinds

to meet old friends make new ones, undergo health checks and a chance to be active on the day via the various activities.

Brent Council and Brent Health Matters and a range of local partners will add a local GP and a range of services of benefit to the whole family

Come watch, play and be active and stay healthy is the order of the day.

When: 25 June

Where: Bridgestone Arena, London NW10 8PL

Time: 12noon-6pm

ROLE MODEL: Deta Hedman in action on the oche

Celebrating Windrush’s contribution to UK life

The England and Wales Cricket Board proudly supports the Windrush 75 campaign and its celebration of the impact of an extraordinary generation of migrants. Former England cricketer Devon Malcolm remembers his own journey from the Caribbean into British sporting history

WINDRUSH 75 is a much-needed campaign because the contribution the Windrush generation made to UK life is enormous.

My dad’s aunt and his eldest sister came to England before him. He followed in 1964, and right across the world there was a call from Mother England to come and help out. A lot of people packed up and made the sacrifice to help rebuild Britain after the Second World War, working in hospitals, construction and the transport system.

They did a tremendous job, but it was also very tough for those arriving here.

My sister and I came from Jamaica to join my dad in Sheffield in 1980. When we arrived, it was quite a culture shock. As we travelled to our new home from Heathrow Airport there were clumps of snow on the side of the motorway, which was exciting to see for the first time.

Back then, Sheffield was an industrial city, dominated by steelworks, and I noticed the smoke that was coming from the chimneys of most buildings. I instantly thought Sheffield must be a place with lots of bakeries, since they were the only place you would see that amount of smoke in Jamaica.

HELP

We lived in a multicultural, multiracial part of the city; a real melting pot. We were not far from Brendan Ingle’s boxing gym, and seeing the likes of Herol ‘Bomber’ Graham in training was common.

One of the first people we went to see was a family friend, Des Smith, who had emigrated to England from Jamaica in the 1960s. Des was a very good cricketer and a huge help in our new lives. He got all our immigration papers in order and got us set up with things like National Insurance numbers.

Later I went to Richmond College, which had a diverse mix of students. At first I played a lot of football, but in the early 1980s when the mighty West Indies were touring England, someone asked me if I had ever played cricket. That’s how I got back

into it. Cricket in the African-Caribbean community was a major part of life in Sheffield. I played a few games in the parks before Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club heard of a young tearaway fast bowler frightening the daylights out of batters. They recruited me and it went from there.

I soon saw how African-Caribbean communities across the country were using cricket to link themselves together by setting up their own clubs. At the weekend we would travel to play the various Caribbean teams in different cities. Food, music and dominoes was a must so the matches lifted our spirits and reinforced our culture.

Cricket gave my dad and his

generation so much pride, as well as a vehicle to raise their self-esteem in the face of racism. He was an England supporter in every match apart from when they played West Indies – so he may not have passed the Tebbit Test! But when West Indies began to beat England on a regular basis from the late 1970s onwards, it gave him the confidence to walk into work with a voice and his head held high.

Personally, I just loved the game and was interested in world cricket. Growing up in Jamaica I listened to the radio and heard Michael Holding bowling to Geoff Boycott – one of the quickest first overs in Test cricket. I also heard matches when

players like Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes, and Colin Croft were playing, to name but a few.

Like most youngsters I wanted to emulate the best players and tried to improve every time I went out to play or practice. In the early stages I was just trying to bowl quickly; but when I started

TRAILBLAZER: Devon Malcolm came to the UK from Jamaica in 1980; below, Devon played in 40 Test matches for England

various professions, are making positive contributions to their communities.

Before my dad left Jamaica, the stories were that the streets in England were paved with gold and opportunities were abundant. He hoped that hard work would see him return to Jamaica in four or five years, but that was not the case. Like many he faced overt racism daily, and suffered many terrible experiences of isolation at work.

Things have changed for the better now, but that doesn’t mean everything is fine. Racism used to be overt, but it is now subtle, covert and systematic. But I do believe we are making progress, and crucially, our young people are not prepared to tolerate the treatment that the Windrush generation endured.

SACRIFICE

My dad’s generation kept their feelings of hurt undercover as a sacrifice to keep working, provide for their families, and send money home to elderly relatives.

getting good batters out and received encouragement from my coaches, I realised there could be a future in the game for me.

It’s now over 40 years since I arrived in the UK, and as a society we have made great strides forward. My children only know this country as their home, and through education and their

Rainford-Brent appointed to ECB Board

By Rodney Hinds

WORLD CUP-winning England cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent MBE and sports development expert Pete Ackerley have been appointed to the ECB Board as Cricket Non-Executive Directors.

Ebony won the ICC Women’s World Cup and the ICC World T20 with England in 2009, playing 22 One Day Internationals and seven IT20 matches for her country. She was Director of Women’s Cricket for Surrey County Cricket Club until 2022 and founded the successful African-Caribbean Engage-

ment (ACE) Programme, creating opportunities for young cricketers from Black communities. She is also a popular broadcaster. Richard Thompson, ECB Chair, said: “Ebony is a unique talent, a trailblazer who was a winner on the pitch and has achieved so much off it.”

My own generation was influenced to a certain extent to be stoic and to endure unfair treatment, but something changed after George Floyd’s murder. All over the world, people of all races have drawn a line and are no longer afraid to speak out and fight for justice for a human being who lost his life because of the colour of his skin. The integration of races, talents, and skills present in all communities is contributing to a richness of culture that is breaking down barriers.

In cricket, it’s no secret that the number of Black players has declined in England and Wales since 2000. But programmes such as ACE – set up by Surrey County Cricket Club and backed by the ECB – are leading the way in reversing the trend. This, alongside efforts from everyone in cricket to better understand Black lived experiences in the UK, is crucial to the future of the game. We must do all we can to ensure the Windrush migrants’ powerful legacy survives in the sport, and Windrush 75 gives us a brilliant way of doing that.

‘I wanted to prove a point’

AS GOOD AS THEY GET: Hope Powell has worked to obtain her pro managing licence; inset below, with current England Women’s manager Sarina Wiegman

THIS SUMMER the Women’s World Cup takes place in Australia and New Zealand. England will be among the favourites after their stunning Euros success last year.

There have been growing calls for greater diversity among the Lionesses’ squad. However, Black players have played their part in the progression of the women’s game.

Kerry Davis, the first Black player to play for the Lionesses, was recently inducted into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame.

Hope Powell, was the first Black coach of England Women while the likes of veteran Nikita Parris and up and coming Lauren James are likely to be on the plane to Australia and New Zealand for the upcoming global showcase.

Powell talks to the Voice of Sport’s Rodney Hinds about her time in the game…

RH: What were your feelings when appointed as national coach?

HP: I think I experienced every emotion. I was overwhelmed at first. It was very exciting, but a bit scary too.

Then I thought, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I’ve got to do it. Being young, female, and Black, I knew I could be a positive role model for young people. I was keen to help some young Black people in particular to believe in themselves and strive to be the best. I wanted to succeed for myself and as the first black player in such a senior position, I want to do it for everyone else as well.

RH: As a young woman from south London of Caribbean ancestry how was playing football received in your household?

HP: When I first went to Millwall, my friend’s parents took me as my mum didn’t allow me to go. I went but I got back quite late and I wasn’t going again as far as my mum was concerned, but as far as I was concerned, I was going! There was no way I was not going.

My mum was strict, a typical West Indian. My mother’s culture is a very different culture, so it was a bit difficult for her to understand why a girl would want to play football. It doesn’t

happen in Jamaica. Now, she is quite proud, especially after I got the England job, and there was so much media coverage. It’s really funny because sometimes I wonder if she really understands the game and maybe I don’t give her enough credit, Mum will go, ‘How you getting on?’ ‘Who are you playing? Did you win?’ If we don’t win, it’s because the players are not eating enough rice and peas, and she comes back with all of that.

I know she has got a scrapbook, which she tells me about, although I have never seen it. I just think it’s sweet. She follows football on TV now.

RH: How were you received by the wider football industry when you began your journey?

HP: Although I have got the highest coaching qualification in the world, people still look at me as a female and probably don’t give me the credit a man would have, this makes me laugh.

I sit in technical meetings with guys, and they are all very knowledgeable and I listen more. I learn a lot from listening. Whereas a lot of guys want to tell you what they know, and I find it quite comical. The biggest issue is the fact that I’m a female. If I was a man with 66 caps and 35 goals for England and had managed England for seven years, it would be different, but I’m a female in a male world. I’m very cool and calm and have done as much work as anybody else. Actually, no, that is a lie. I have done more

as a woman. I had to go and do my pro licence. I wanted to prove a point.

We worked in groups, and I wanted our group to be the best, I pulled my group together and they gave me credit for it. They couldn’t do it. They went off on a tangent.

I wanted to be successful because I didn’t want to be seen as a token gesture.

RH: Share some of the racism that you have endured?

HP: I remember one game when I was quite young and

someone referred to me as a black bastard, or something of that nature. Luckily, one of my teammates heard and she went absolutely berserk. She was five years older than me.

What she did was good, otherwise, I think I would have had a punch up. I didn’t like it. I was not happy. The second occasion was when I was playing for England against Croatia, and I pulled my hamstring right near the tunnel. The physio came on and we decided I should go and shower because obviously I couldn’t play anymore.

As I was walking down the tunnel, this young boy, no more than 12, made a Nazi salute at me. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. I think I just smiled. It was like ‘Jesus, you are too young to be even going there.’

CHANGING THE FACE OF FOOTBALL: From left, Kerry Davis, centre, alongside her nephew Ryan and brother Wayne, was recently inducted into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame, while Nikita Parris, right, could make England’s Women’s World Cup

RH: You not only managed the senior women’s team, but she also oversaw the under 19s, 17s and 15s development pool and the National Player Development Centre, as well as implementing a female coach mentoring scheme. With England’s Euros success, you clearly left something tangible behind?

HP: I think from a playing perspective, I wanted to develop the game and move it forward and play the game the right way. I think for every-

body on the outside, people that come to watch the game, it has to be entertaining, and just basically move the whole game forward and give the players the opportunity.

The girls were magnificent during Euro 2005. I would argue with anyone that said differently. I think we’ve won over some of our critics. We’ve proved we can compete with the best in the world. There are so many positives to take out of the tournament.

I want the game to be played the right way, I want players to play with the free spirit and not be afraid, and more importantly to enjoy it and certainly have structure.

We have strategies, this is how we are going to play. This is how we have to play and make it more player centred. I want all my players to be free like the Brazilians. You can see that the Brazilians just play with a free spirit and like that. That is what I would like my team to emulate.

I think women’s football is something that is still developing, I think there’s a lot of work to be done, but that excites me. Young kids that are coming through that are so talented and to play a part in their development is great. I would like to do that.

Coach education and attracting more female coaches into the game also appeals to me.

Hope Powell tells Rodney Hinds that not only is she capable of managing a football team, she’s better than some of the men...

“If we don’t win, it’s because the players are not eating enough rice and peas!”

‘Extraordinary resilience’

Geoff Thompson salutes the remarkable achievements of the post-war Windrush generation. By Rodney Hinds

THE WINDRUSH generation provided an extraordinary resilience in the world of sport, according to one of the community’s leading sports administrators.

Geoff Thompson, five times world karate champion and deputy chair of the 2022 Commonwealth Games board, told the Voice of Sport: “The achievements of the post-war Windrush generation came down to extraordinary resilience, but it was an interdependent resilience, we had each other’s backs.

“We knew when you get to a final, it’s your moment of destiny, that represented so many. Whether it was in the qualifications, whether it was the competition, the Commonwealth, European, world, or even the British selections were full of racial intolerance and racial agendas.

“That’s why when we represented Britain, we knew we’d achieved. It was just a case of stepping up with the mental, physical, and emotional behavioural characteristics of what I believed was a golden generation, because things did not faze us.

“I remember competing at Crystal Palace. We all convened in the changing room, and everybody wants to know how you were getting on and what you’re going to be doing.

“There was that knowing look. People look now to social media as validation, we looked to our community, whether it was the churches, and of course, I was there, within the birth of The Voice. My first interview as a world champion was with The Voice

“I don’t think we should underestimate the role that sport played in providing societal relevance, importance, value, and impact.

“Just look at the journey of that post-colonial Britain that saw the Empire Games become the Commonwealth Games. In terms of Birmingham 2022, we also need to review and reflect on who will have benefited from that migrating generation, that I am certainly the product of and so many of us were.”

But there was one sport in particular that gave the Black

community so much more than on-field results.

Thompson adds: “You have to look at cricket predominantly, because that was as football was to this country, cricket was to the Caribbean. When people talk about cricket, all those other nations just had to manage a squad from one nation.

“That’s why I pay huge tribute to Sir Clive Lloyd as the captain of those young, raw talents from the various Caribbean islands.

“He had to bring all of that diversity, divergence of the Caribbean into one cohesive unit of motivation, and excellence, and they will still go down as the most successful sporting team of any era. It is also interesting to note that their influence when they were dominating world cricket at every level, from one day games to Test matches. Their success on the pitch gave immense pride to those of us off the pitch and in society at a time where there was still a great deal of racial intolerance.

“I know this, because representing Britain as I was in the early 80s, the likes of myself, Judy Simpson, Bob Hazell, Cyrille Regis, Garth Crooks, Tessa Sanderson, Vic Charles, Maurice Hope et al, whatever the West Indies cricket team was achieving, gave us an added momentum, of importance, relevance and significance.

“The Black sporting fraternity back then meant that we were each other’s therapists, we compared stories, compared experiences.

“The visionary Al Hamilton founded the Commonwealth Sports Awards, our annual gathering. That is where we said, here is another year of achievement, it was our community, our diaspora.

“That’s why the achievements cannot be understated and not celebrated.

“I felt that the gatherings and receptions, where we were brought together were key. We knew that we were achieving as individuals, but ultimately the collective impact in wider

society was powerful. So that is why when we went back to the barber shops or local markets, or in our communities, or the local track or local martial arts club, we knew what we representing, and that is why the Windrush generation’s sporting achievements for this country, endeared us to society as

MOMENTUM: Judy Simpson competed at three Olympic Games; far right,Geoff Thompson ahead of last year’s Commonwealth Games; left, Al Hamilton founded the Commonwealth Sports Awards

a whole, which in turn, hopefully endeared the diaspora we represent.

“Whenever I got to the semifinals, I knew that I was competing for something more than myself and that is why I believe so much of what was achieved at the Commonwealth Games last year was significant.”

And what of the next 75 years? What does the Black sports fraternity need to do?

Thompson concludes: “I’m seeing lots of talent and potential and all I’d like to have them realise is that they should never be complacent, always be mindful of what it’s taken to get us thus far, never be afraid to constructively challenge.”

UNITING INFLUENCE: Sir Clive Lloyd, left, brought the diversity of the Caribbean into a cohesive unit of motivation

“When you get to a final, it’s your moment of destiny, that represented so many”

“I pay huge tribute to Sir Clive Lloyd as the captain of those young, raw talents”

to celebrate The Voice Newspaper team

WINDRUSH 75 is proud

We stand on the shoulders of giants. We will forever honour your legacy.

Created by BASIL WATSON. CD

Unveiled by Windrush Pioneers Alford Gardner and John Richards

presence of Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge