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, 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.