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British Jamaicans (or Jamaican British people) are
British people
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mo ...
who were born in
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
or who are of Jamaican descent.
The community is well into its third generation and consists of around 300,000 individuals, the second-largest
Jamaican population, behind the United States, living outside of Jamaica.
[ The majority of British people of Jamaican origin were born in the United Kingdom as opposed to Jamaica itself. The ]Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament.
Overview
The ONS is responsible for th ...
estimates that in 2015, some 137,000 people born in Jamaica were resident in the UK. The number of Jamaican nationals is estimated to be significantly lower, at 49,000 in 2015.
Jamaicans have been present in the UK since the start of the 20th century; however, by far the largest wave of migration occurred after the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.[ During the 1950s, Britain's economy was suffering greatly and the nation was plagued with high labour shortages.][ The ]British government
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal Arms
, date_es ...
looked to its overseas colonies for help and encouraged migration in an effort to fill the many job vacancies.[ Jamaicans, alongside other ]Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
, African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
and South Asian
South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, ...
groups, moved in their hundreds of thousands to the United Kingdom. Almost half of all the men who came from the Caribbean to the UK throughout the 1950s had previously worked in skilled positions or possessed excellent employment credentials. The majority of Jamaicans settled in Greater London
Greater may refer to:
*Greatness, the state of being great
*Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality
*Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film
*Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record
*Greater (song), "Greate ...
and found work in the likes of London Transport, British Rail and the NHS
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
.[
]
History and settlement
The Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
island nation of Jamaica was a British colony between 1655 and 1962. More than 300 years of British rule changed the face of the island considerably (having previously been under Spanish rule, which depopulated the indigenous Arawak
The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Great ...
and Taino communities) – and 92.1% of Jamaicans are descended from sub-Saharan Africans who were brought over during the Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
.[ Jamaica is the third most populous English-speaking nation in the ]Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
and the local dialect of English is known as Jamaican Patois
Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with West African influences, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. A majority of the non-English wo ...
. The tight-knit link between Jamaica and the United Kingdom remains evident to this day. There has been a long and well established Jamaican community in the United Kingdom since near the beginning of the 20th century.[ Many Jamaicans fought for Britain in World War I, with the ]British West Indies Regiment
The British West Indies Regiment was a unit of the British Army during the First World War, formed from volunteers from British colonies in the West Indies.
Formation
In 1915 the British Army formed a second West Indies regiment from Caribbean ...
recruiting solely from the British overseas colonies in the Caribbean.
Volunteers originally only came from four nations (excluding Jamaica), however as the regiment grew thousands of Jamaican men were recruited and ultimately made up around two-thirds of the 15,600 strong regiment. The British West Indies Regiment fought for Britain in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign as well as the East African Campaign. Many of these men became the first permanent Jamaican immigrants in the United Kingdom after World War I, some of whom also subsequently fought for the country in World War II.[ Despite this, by far the largest wave of Jamaican migration to the United Kingdom including people of all genders and ages occurred in the middle of the 20th century. A major hurricane in August 1944 ravaged eastern Jamaica leading to numerous fatalities and major economic loss after crops were destroyed by flooding. This acted as a push factor in the migration of Jamaicans and at the time by far the largest pull factor was the promise of jobs in Britain.][ Post-war Britain was suffering from significant labour shortage and looked to its overseas colonies for help, British Rail, the ]NHS
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
and London transport were noted as being the largest recruiters.
On 21 June 1948, the arrived in Britain with, among other migrants from the Caribbean, 492 Jamaicans on-board who had been invited to the country to work; they officially disembarked from the ship on 22 June 1948. Many more followed, as the steady flow of Jamaicans to the United Kingdom was maintained due to the continuing labour shortage.[ Between 1955 and 1968, 191,330 Jamaicans settled in the UK.][ These first-generation migrants created the foundation of a community that is now well into its third if not fourth generation.
Jamaicans continued to migrate to the United Kingdom during the 1970s and 1980s, albeit in smaller numbers, the majority of these people were from poor households and went to extreme lengths to get to Britain.][ There is an uneven distribution of household wealth throughout Jamaica and during the economic crisis of the 1990s lower class Jamaicans continued to migrate in significant numbers. A lot of these later arrivals came from Jamaica's capital and largest city, Kingston where the divide between rich and poor is much more evident than other places on the island.][ Most first-generation immigrants moved to Britain in order to seek and improved standard of living, escape violence or to find employment. Almost half of all the men who came from the Caribbean to the UK throughout the 1950s had previously worked in skilled positions or possessed excellent employment credentials. However, many found their access restricted to jobs the local population considered undesirable, such as general labouring, or to jobs that demanded anti-social hours. Over half the men from the Caribbean initially accepted jobs with a lower status than their skills and experience qualified them for.] Jamaicans, therefore, followed the pattern of other irregular immigrant groups where they tended to work in poorly paid jobs in poor working conditions as these were often the only ones available to them.[ Throughout the late 20th century, the Jamaican community in the United Kingdom has been brought into the spotlight due to the involvement of Jamaicans in race-related riots. The first notable event to occur was the ]1958 Notting Hill race riots
The Notting Hill race riots were a series of racially motivated riots that took place in Notting Hill, England, between 29 August and 5 September 1958.
Background
Following the end of the Second World War, as a result of the losses during the wa ...
when an argument between local white youths and a Jamaican man, alongside increasing tensions between both communities lead to several nights of disturbances, rioting and attacks.
Due to instances of police brutality
Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...
by the Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
, the sus law which overwhelmingly targeted British Jamaicans to be stopped and searched, and the unprovoked shooting of a Jamaican woman in her Lambeth home after police believed she was hiding her wanted son, a riot broke out in Brixton in 1985. In 2005, another series of race riots in Birmingham occurred as a result of the alleged rape of a 14-year-old Jamaican girl by a group of up to 20 South Asian men including the Pakistani store owner it was reported she initially stole from. The Murder of Stephen Lawrence
Stephen Lawrence (13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993) was a black British teenager from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall Road, Eltham on the evening of 22 Apri ...
occurred in 1993, the London teenager of Jamaican parentage was stabbed to death in a racially motivated attack. The murder was handled in such a bad way by the Metropolitan Police that an inquiry into this established that the force had been institutionally racist, the investigation has been called 'one of the most important moments in the modern history of criminal justice in Britain' and contributed heavily to the creation and passing of the Criminal Justice Act 2003
The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a wide-ranging measure introduced to modernise many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland a ...
. Many Jamaicans live in the UK having no legal status, having come at a period of less strict immigration policies. Some Jamaican social groups have claimed asylum under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, this only continued until 2003 when Jamaica was placed on the Non-Suspensive Appeal list when restrictions on UK visas came into place, making it more difficult for Jamaicans to travel to the UK.[
]
Demographics
Population and distribution
The 2011 UK Census recorded 159,170 people born in Jamaica resident in England, 925 in Wales, 564 in Scotland and 117 in Northern Ireland, making a total Jamaica-born population of 160,776. According to the previous census, held in 2001, 146,401 people born in Jamaica were living in the UK, making them the seventh-largest foreign-born group in the UK at the time. The equivalent figure for 2015 has been estimated at 137,000 by the Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament.
Overview
The ONS is responsible for th ...
, making them the 16th-largest foreign-born group. The Jamaican High Commission in London estimates that there are around 800,000 British people of Jamaican origin in the UK.[ Jamaicans in the UK are fairly widely dispersed, although there are some locations with much larger numbers and higher concentrations of Jamaican people than others – namely London.] The Greater London area is home to some 250,000 Jamaicans, whilst the second largest number which is 45,000 individuals can be found in the West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
.[ 25,000 Jamaicans are thought to live in ]South West England
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...
, 18,000 in the East Midlands
The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...
, 40,400 in South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level, ITL for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of england, ...
, 14,000 in North West England
North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...
and 11,500 in Yorkshire and the Humber
Yorkshire and the Humber is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The population in 2011 was 5,284,000 with its largest settlements being Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, and York.
It is ...
.[ Much smaller numbers are located in ]Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
(3,000) and Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, which the International Organization for Migration
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is a United Nations agency that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrant workers.
The IOM was ...
suggests that a mere 40 Jamaicans call home.[ Within the stated regions of the United Kingdom, most people of Jamaican origin can be found in the larger cities and towns. The largest Jamaican communities in the UK are listed below (all figures are 2007 estimates by the IOM, as there is not a specific "Jamaican" tick-box in the UK census to identify where Jamaicans live within the country).][
* London – 250,000]
Brent, Croydon, Hackney, Haringey, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Waltham Forest and Enfield.
* Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
– 35,000
Handsworth, Winson Green, Aston, Ladywood, Newtown and Lozells
* Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
– 20,000
St. Paul's and Redfield
* Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
– 12,200
Hyson Green, St. Ann's
* Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
– 10,000
Old Trafford, Moss Side, Cheetham Hill, Chorlton, Didsbury, Wythanshawe, Urmston and Sale
* Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
– 4,000
Barton, Tredworth
* Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
– 4,000–5,000
Chapeltown and Harehills
* Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
– 3,000–4,000
Highfields and St Matthews
* Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
– 2,000
* Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
– 1,000–2,000
Granby and Toxteth
* Preston – 800
Besides the above locations, the IOM has also identified the following towns and cities as having notable Jamaican communities: Bath, Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
, Bradford
Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
, Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
, Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
, Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
, Doncaster
Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...
, Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...
, Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...
, Liskeard
Liskeard ( ; kw, Lyskerrys) is a small ancient stannary and market town in south-east Cornwall, South West England. It is situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Plymouth, west of the Devon border, and 12 miles (20 km) eas ...
, Luton
Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...
, Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
, Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...
, Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
, Swansea
Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe).
The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...
, Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
, Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...
and Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...
.[ The majority of British Jamaicans are in the age range of 18 and 45, and investigation by the IOM into the ages of community members found that it is more or less on par with the general makeup of the British population. Around 8% of people investigated were under the age of 25, around 13% were in between the ages of 25 and 34. 22% were between 35 and 44, 27% were between 45 and 54 whilst 18% of respondents were aged between 55 and 64. The remainder were 65 years of age or older. As stated earlier, this investigation only involved a few hundred community members it is a balanced representation of the Jamaican community in the UK.][ Evidence that the Jamaican British community is a long established one is the fact that only around 10% of Jamaicans in the UK moved to the country in the decade leading up to 2007.][ In terms of ]citizenship
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
, all Jamaicans who moved to the UK prior to Jamaican Independence in 1962 were automatically granted British citizenship
British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...
because Jamaica was an overseas colony of the country. Jamaican immigrants must now apply for citizenship if they wish to become British nationals. The above table shows the number of Jamaicans granted citizenship in recent years.
Religion
The 2001 UK Census showed that 73.7% of Black Caribbeans adhered to the Christian faith, whilst 11.3% of respondents claimed to be atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
. This ranks as a higher percentage of Christians per head compared to Black Africans (68.8%), but a slightly lower percentage than White British
White British is an ethnicity classification used for the native white population identifying as English, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Northern Irish, or British in the United Kingdom Census. In the 2011 census, the White British population wa ...
Christians (75.7%). Jamaicans and people of Jamaican descent are regular religious worshippers and the majority of them worship across a wide range of mainly Black led Christian denominations as well as in the more mainstream Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
and Roman Catholic churches. Over recent years the number of regular White worshipers in Anglican churches in particular have decreased significantly, numbers however have been maintained by Black Caribbeans and (mostly Jamaicans) who have taken their places.[ Other common Christian denominations followed by Jamaicans in the UK include ]Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement , the Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...
, Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
, the Pilgrims Union Church, the Baptist church
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
and Methodism
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...
.[
]
Culture
Cuisine
The earliest Jamaican immigrants to post-war Britain found differences in diet and availability of food an uncomfortable challenge. In later years, as the community developed and food imports became more accessible to all, grocers specialising in Caribbean produce opened in British high streets
High may refer to:
Science and technology
* Height
* High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area
* High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory
* High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...
. Caribbean restaurants can now also be found in most areas of Britain where Jamaicans and other such groups reside, serving traditional Caribbean dishes such as curry goat
(''hseik-tha hnat'')
hi, Bakri curry id, kari kambing ms, kari kambing
, country = Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia
, region = Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia) and the Caribbean (Tri ...
, fried dumpling
Dumpling is a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of dough (made from a variety of starch sources), oftentimes wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, flour, buckwheat or potatoes, and may be filled with meat, fi ...
s, and ackee and saltfish
Ackee and saltfish is the Jamaican national dish prepared with ackee and salted codfish.
Background
The ackee fruit ('' Blighia sapida'') is the national fruit of Jamaica. It was imported to the Caribbean from Ghana before 1725 as 'Ackee' or ' ...
(the national dish of Jamaica). " Jerk" is a style of cooking from Jamaica in which meats (including pork and chicken) are dry-rubbed or wet marinated with a very hot spice mixture. The best known Caribbean food brands in the UK are Dunn's River, Tropical Sun, Walkerswood and Grace Foods
Grace and Grace Foods are brand names of GraceKennedy Limited, a multinational entity involved in food processing and distribution, banking and finance, insurance and remittance services, and building materials retailing. It was established in 1922 ...
. Grace Foods is originally from Jamaica but is now a multi national conglomerate.
In March 2007, Grace Foods bought ENCO Products, owners of the Dunn's River Brand, as well as "Nurishment", a flavoured, sweetened enriched milk drink, and the iconic Encona Sauce Range. Grace Foods supplies around one third of products in the UK and has global headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica. Tropical Sun products and ingredients have been widely available in the UK for over 20 years and were originally known as Jamaica Sun with products mainly sourced from the Caribbean. Walkerswood, also of Jamaican origin, is now owned by New Castle Limited and has a range of sauce and marinade products. In 2001, Port Royal started manufacturing Jamaican patties in London, which are available in supermarkets and Caribbean takeaways across the UK. A patty is the Caribbean version of a Cornish Pasty, pastry with a meat filling. Following its success in 2007 on TV show ''Dragons' Den
''Dragons' Den'' is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it is k ...
'', the Levi Roots brand has grown into a multi-million pound enterprise. Reggae Reggae Sauce
Reggae Reggae Sauce is a barbecue sauce that incorporates Jamaican jerk spice, popularised by creator Levi Roots' appearance on BBC Two's ''Dragons' Den'', on which he used a song to sell his product.
Dragons' Den investor Peter Jones has sinc ...
and other Levi Roots products are now stocked in all major UK supermarkets. In 2021, Grace Foods launched its ''Irie Eats Caribbean'' street food range at Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
. This came in response to 2021 Mintel
Mintel Group Ltd is a global, privately owned market research firm based in London. The corporation also maintains offices in Chicago, Mumbai, Belfast, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dusseldorf, Bangkok, and Seoul. ...
data, which revealed that nearly half (49%) of Brits would like to try Caribbean cuisine at home. Various other Jamaican brands have expanded their presence in the UK food and grocery market.
Jamaican and Caribbean cuisine is becoming increasingly popular in the UK. Caribbean food topped a (2015) list of cuisine types that British diners want more of on menus. According to a report by the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export), the number of Caribbean restaurants in the UK tripled in the 12 months leading up to August 2019. Jerk chicken
Jerk, The Jerk, Jerks, or Jerking may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film, stage, and television
* ''Jerk'' (play), a 2008 puppet play by Dennis Cooper
* ''Jerk'' (TV series), a 2019 British sitcom
* ''The Jerk'', a 1979 American film
* "Jerk ...
has been named as the UK's favourite Caribbean dish.
Fashion
There have been a number of British Jamaicans who have made their mark in the world of fashion. Supermodel
A supermodel, also spelled super-model or super model, is a highly paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in ''haute couture'' and commercial modeling. The term ''supermodel'' became prominent in the po ...
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...
was the first black model to appear on the front cover of ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', '' French Vogue'', ''Russian Vogue'' and the September issue of ''American Vogue
''Vogue'' is an American monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine that covers many topics, including haute couture fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway. Based at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, ''Vog ...
''. Jourdan Dunn
Jourdan Sherise Dunn (born 3 August 1990) is a British model. She was discovered in Hammersmith Primark in 2006 and signed to The Squad Management in London. She began appearing on international runways in early 2007. In February 2008, she was t ...
became the first black model to walk for Prada
Prada S.p.A. (, ; ) is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1913 in Milan by Mario Prada. It specializes in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, and other fashion accessories. Prada licenses its name and branding t ...
since Naomi Campbell and was chosen as the face of Maybelline New York in 2014. Dunn became the first black British model to enter the '' Forbes model rich list'' and is considered an icon and supermodel. Munroe Bergdorf
Munroe Bergdorf ( Beaumont; born 11 September 1987) is an English model and activist. She has walked several catwalks for brands including Gypsy Sport at both London and NYC Fashion Weeks. Bergdorf was the first transgender model in the UK for L ...
has walked several catwalks for brands including Gypsy Sport
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
and was the first transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
model in the UK for L'Oréal
L'Oréal S.A. () is a French personal care company headquartered in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine with a registered office in Paris. It is the world's largest cosmetics company and has developed activities in the field concentrating on hair color, sk ...
. Leomie Anderson has walked in various Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was an annual promotional event sponsored by and featuring Victoria's Secret, a brand of lingerie. From 1995 to 2018, Victoria's Secret used the show to market its goods in high-profile settings. Models unde ...
s and became first black British Victoria's Secret Angel
Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing, and beauty retailer known for high visibility marketing and branding, starting with a popular catalog and followed by an annual fashion show with supermodels dubbed Angels. As the largest ret ...
. Bruce Oldfield
Bruce Oldfield, OBE (born 14 July 1950) is a British fashion designer, best known for his couture occasionwear. Notable clients have included Sienna Miller, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Diana Ross, Emmanuelle Seigner, Rihanna, Kelly Brook, Taylor S ...
is best known for his couture
Couture may refer to:
People
* Couture (surname)
Places
Belgium
* Couture-Saint-Germain, a village in the municipality of Lasne, Belgium
Canada
* Couture crater and Lac Couture, an impact crater and the lake that covers it in Quebec, Canada
...
and bridalwear designs and has a client list that includes Queen Rania of Jordan
Rania Al-Abdullah ( ar, رانيا العبد الله, ; born Rania Al-Yassin, 31 August 1970) is Queen of Jordan as the wife of King Abdullah II.
Rania was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents. She received her bachelor's degree in busi ...
, Jerry Hall
Jerry Faye Hall (born July 2, 1956) is an American model and actress. She began modelling in the 1970s and became one of the most sought after models in the world. She transitioned into acting, appearing in the 1989 film ''Batman''. Hall was th ...
, Samantha Cameron
Samantha Gwendoline Cameron (; born 18 April 1971) is an English businesswoman. Until 13 May 2010, she was the creative director of Smythson of Bond Street. Her husband, David Cameron, was the British prime minister from 2010 to 2016. She took ...
, Charlotte Rampling
Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model.
She was cast in the role ...
, Jemima Khan
Jemima Marcelle Goldsmith (born 30 January 1974; known as Jemima Khan for work) is an English screenwriter, television, film and documentary producer and the founder of Instinct Productions, a television production company. She was formerly a j ...
, Sienna Miller
Sienna Rosie Diana Miller (born December 28, 1981) is an American-British actress. Born in New York City and raised in London, she began her career as a photography model, appearing in the pages of Italian ''Vogue'' and for the 2003 Pirelli cal ...
, Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...
, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones (; born 25 September 1969) is a Welsh actress. Known for her versatility, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Tony Award. In 2010, she was appointed C ...
and the late Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...
. Oldfield collaborated with McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
in 2008 and received an OBE for his services to the British fashion industry. Another notable contributor is Grace Wales Bonner
Grace Wales Bonner (born 1990) is an English fashion designer, whose work "proposes a distinct notion of cultural luxury that infuses European heritage with an Afro Atlantic spirit". who founded the London-based label Wales Bonner. Originally specialising in menswear, her designs have earned several prestigious awards. Bianca Saunders is the British holder of the ANDAM
ANDAM is a French fashion award established in 1989 by Nathalie Dufour as a joint venture between the French Ministry of Culture and the Defi Mode fashion organisation. It has been recognised as a benchmark for designers, fashion professionals, and ...
Fashion Award for young talent and her designs have been picked up by Ssense
SSENSE is a multi-brand retailer based in Montreal, Canada specialising in the sale of Designer clothing, designer fashion and high end streetwear. It was founded as an e-commerce platform in 2003 by three brothers: Rami, Bassel and Firas Atalla ...
, matchesfashion.com and Machine-A. Other notable contributors include Nicholas Daley and Martine Rose.
Literature
British Jamaicans have also contributed to British literature. Poet James Berry was among the first Caribbean writers to come to Britain after the 1948 British Nationality Act. Berry's writing often explored the relationship between black and white communities and he was in the forefront of championing Caribbean/British writing. In 1981, he won the Poetry Society's National Poetry Competition
The National Poetry Competition is an annual poetry prize established in 1978 in the United Kingdom. It is run by the UK-based Poetry Society and accepts entries from all over the world, with over 10,000 poems being submitted to the competition ...
, the first poet of Caribbean origin to win the prestigious prize. Andrew Salkey
Andrew Salkey (30 January 1928 – 28 April 1995) was a Jamaican novelist, poet, children's books writer and journalist of Jamaicans, Jamaican and Panamanian origin. He was born in Panama but raised in Jamaica, moving to Britain in the 1952 to pu ...
was another leading figure of the first wave of post-war Caribbean writers who settled and worked in London. He was the main presenter of BBC's '' Caribbean Voices'' and was a key figure in the formation of the Caribbean Artists Movement The Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) was an influential cultural initiative, begun in London, England, in 1966 and active until about 1972,[Hall
In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...]
and other first wave writers gave Caribbean literature
Caribbean literature is the literature of the various territories of the Caribbean region. Literature in English from the former British West Indies may be referred to as Anglo-Caribbean or, in historical contexts, as West Indian literature. Most o ...
an international audience for the first time and helped establish Caribbean writing as an important viewpoint within English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
.
More contemporary contributions come from authors including Andrea Levy
Andrea Levy (7 March 1956 – 14 February 2019) was an English author best known for the novels '' Small Island'' (2004) and ''The Long Song'' (2010). She was born in London to Jamaican parents, and her work explores topics related to British ...
whose novel '' Small Island'' won the Whitbread Book of the Year
The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...
and the Orange Prize for Fiction
The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–12), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017)) is one of the United Kingdom's m ...
, one of Britain's highest literary honours. The book also earned Levy the 2005 Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...
and was voted Best of the Best Orange prize novel ''Small Island'' tells the tangled history of Jamaica and UK through the eyes of characters who in 1948 arrive at Tilbury, London, on the HMT ''Empire Windrush''. ''BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
'' included ''Small Island'' on its list of the 100 most influential novels and it was made into a two-part television drama of the same title. Levy became the first writer of colour whose pen would join the Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...
's historic collection, which includes pens belonging to Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
, George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wro ...
, T. S. Eliot and Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
.
Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith FRSL (born Sadie; 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She has been a tenured professor ...
won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...
, the Commonwealth Writers' Best Book Award (Eurasia Section) and the Orange Prize for ''On Beauty
''On Beauty'' is a 2005 novel by British author Zadie Smith, loosely based on ''Howards End'' by E. M. Forster. The story follows the lives of a mixed-race British/American family living in the United States, addresses ethnic and cultural dif ...
''. Smith's acclaimed first novel, ''White Teeth
''White Teeth'' is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. It focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones—and their families in London. The novel centres on Britain' ...
'' (2000), was a portrait of contemporary multicultural London, drawing from her own upbringing with an English father and a Jamaican mother. ''White Teeth'' was an international best seller and won multiple accolades, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...
for fiction, the Whitbread Book Award
The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...
in category best first novel, the Guardian First Book Award
The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspap ...
and the Betty Trask Award. ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005 and the novel was adapted for television in 2002.
At the 2020 British Book Awards
The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by '' The Bookseller''. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the Nationa ...
, Candice Carty-Williams
Candice Carty-Williams (born 21 July 1989) is a British writer, best known for her 2019 debut novel, '' Queenie''. She has written for publications including ''The Guardian'', '' i-D'', ''Vogue'', ''The Sunday Times'', ''BEAT Magazine'', and ''B ...
became the first black woman to win the "Book of the Year" accolade, for her novel '' Queenie''. The novel, which describes the life and loves of Queenie Jenkins, a vibrant, young British-Jamaican, received positive reviews and was marketed as "a black ''Bridget Jones
Bridget Rose Jones is a fictional character created by British writer Helen Fielding. Jones first appeared in Fielding's '' Bridget Jones's Diary'' column in ''The Independent'' in 1995, which did not carry any byline. Thus, it seemed to be an act ...
''". ''Queenie'' entered the ''Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' Bestseller hardback chart at number two and went on to win numerous accolades. A TV adaptation of ''Queenie'' has been announced as being in development for Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
.
In July 2020, Linton Kwesi Johnson
Linton Kwesi Johnson (born 24 August 1952), also known as LKJ, is a Jamaica-born, British-based dub poet and activist. In 2002 he became the second living poet, and the only black one, to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series. His p ...
received the PEN Pinter Prize and was described as "a Living legend", "a poet, reggae icon, academic and campaigner, whose impact on the cultural landscape over the last half century has been colossal and multi-generational".
Other notable contributors include Ferdinand Dennis
Ferdinand Dennis (born 18 March 1956)["Ferdinand Dennis"]
, ...
, Winsome Pinnock
Winsome Pinnock FRSL (born 1961) is a British playwright of Jamaican heritage, who is "probably Britain's most well known black female playwright". She was described in ''The Guardian'' as "the godmother of black British playwrights".
Life
Wins ...
, Victor Headley
Victor Headley (born 1959) is a Jamaican-born British author. He is the author of the bestselling novel ''Yardie'' (1992), which gained cult status upon publication and "heralded a new wave of black British pulp fiction". Other books by Headley in ...
, Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (born 15 April 1958)Gregory, Andy (2002), ''International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002'', Europa, p. 562. . is a British writer and dub poet. He was included in ''The Times'' list of Britain's top 50 post-wa ...
and Raymond Antrobus
Raymond Antrobus is a British poet, educator and writer, who has been performing poetry since 2007. In March 2019 he won the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry.[Rathbones Folio Prize
The Rathbones Folio Prize, previously known as the Folio Prize and The Literature Prize, is a literary award that was sponsored by the London-based publisher The Folio Society for its first two years, 2014–2015. Starting in 2017 the sponsor is ...]
for his collection ''The Perseverance''.
Media
An investigation by the IOM found that in general Jamaicans in the UK don't have a particular preference of favourite newspaper, many choose to read local newspapers and the national British press (such as ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' the ''Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' and ''Metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
''), however the investigation also showed that some 80% of British Jamaicans show an interest in Black or ethnic minority newspapers. The '' Weekly Gleaner'' which as its name suggests is a weekly publication distributed in the UK and contains specific news from the ''Jamaica Daily Gleaner''.[ '']The Voice
The Voice may refer to:
Fictional entities
* The Voice or Presence, a fictional representation of God in DC Comics
* The Voice (''Dune''), a fictional ability in the ''Dune'' universe
* The Voice, a character in the American TV series ''Cleo ...
'' closely follows in terms of readership; this weekly tabloid newspaper, based in the UK but owned by the Jamaican GV Media Group and established by Val McCalla
Val Irvine McCalla (3 October 1943 – 22 August 2002) was a Jamaican accountant and media entrepreneur who settled in Britain in 1959. He is best known as the founder of ''The Voice'', a British weekly newspaper aimed at the Britain's black com ...
(who was born in Jamaica), covers a variety of stories that are aimed solely at the British African-Caribbean community.[ Other popular newspapers and magazines aimed at the Jamaican and Black British populations in the UK in general include the '']New Nation
''New Nation'' was a weekly newspaper published in the UK for the Black British community. Launched in 1996, the newspaper was Britain's Number 1-selling black newspaper. The paper was published every Monday.
''New Nation'' was initially la ...
'', ''The Big Eye News'', ''Pride Magazine
''Pride Magazine'' is a magazine targeting Black British, mixed-race, African and African-Caribbean women in the United Kingdom. This lifestyle magazine has been in publication since 1991.
The magazine has a circulation of more than 30,000 copie ...
'', ''The Caribbean Times
''The Caribbean Times'' was a British weekly newspaper that was first published in 1981 by Hansib Publications, a publishing house for Caribbean, African and Asian writers and their communities, founded in London by Guyanese-born businessman A ...
'' and formerly '' Black Voice''.[
Radio is the most popular form of media within the British Jamaican community: approximately 75% of Jamaicans in the UK listen to the radio on a daily basis or very often.][ Statistically ]pirate radio stations
Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license.
In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially w ...
(which are stations which have no formal licence to broadcast) are by far the most popular within the community. The same investigation as stated above showed that around one quarter of people surveyed preferred to listen to a specific pirate radio station.[ Most pirate stations are community based, but there are some that broadcast to the whole country, the most frequently listened to pirate stations by British Jamaicans include ''Vibes FM'', ''Powerjam'', ''Irie FM'' and ''Roots FM''.][ Out of all legally licensed radio stations in the UK, the single most popular one prevailed as '']Premier Christian Radio
Premier Christian Radio is a British Christian radio station, part of Premier (a Christian communications organisation), owned by the charity Premier Christian Media Trust.
Premier Christian Radio broadcasts Christian programming, including ne ...
''; the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
also has a relatively large Jamaican listening audience. Jamaican-born Neil Kenlock
Neil Emile Elias Kenlock (born 1950) is a Jamaican-born photographer and media professional who has lived in London since the 1960s. During the 1960s and 1970s, Kenlock was the official photographer of the British Black Panthers, and he has be ...
co-founded ''Choice FM
Capital XTRA (formerly Choice FM) is a Global-owned radio station that broadcasts on 96.9 FM and 107.1 FM in Greater London. Nationally, it is heard on DAB Digital Radio, Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media and Global Player. It specialises in ...
'' in London, the first successful radio station granted a licence to cater for the black community in Britain. '' New Style Radio 98.7FM'' in Birmingham are also popular within the community (both of which are Black orientated).[
]
Music
A wide variety of music has its origins in Jamaica and in the 1960s when the UK's Jamaican community was beginning to emerge there was one hugely popular music genre, ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
. The genre which combines elements of Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
mento
Mento is a style of Music of Jamaica, Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. It is a fusion of African rhythmic elements and European elements, which reached peak popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. ...
and calypso with American jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
and rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
became a major part of Jamaican mid-20th-century culture, and the popularity of it also became evident in the Jamaican expatriate community in the UK. Despite the presence of Jamaicans in a number of countries at that time (such as the United States), ska music only really triumphed in the UK.[ In 1962 there were three music labels releasing Jamaican music in the UK (Melodisc, ]Blue Beat Records
Blue Beat Records is an English record label that released Jamaican rhythm and blues (R&B) and ska music in the 1960s and later decades. Its reputation led to the use of the word ''bluebeat'' as a generic term to describe all styles of early Jama ...
and Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...
), as more and more Jamaicans moved to the UK, the country became a more lucrative market for artists than Jamaica itself.[ "]My Boy Lollipop
"My Boy Lollipop" (originally "My Girl Lollypop") is a song written in the mid-1950s by Robert Spencer of the doo-wop group The Cadillacs, and usually credited to Spencer, Morris Levy, and Johnny Roberts. It was first recorded in 1956 by American ...
" by Millie
Millie is a feminine given name or diminutive form of various other given names, such as Emily, Millicent, Mildred, Camilla or sometimes Amelia.
People with the given name
Notable people with the given name include:
* Millie Bailey (1918–20 ...
was one of the first ska records to influence the British population in general having charted at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
in 1964.[ ]Reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
music is another genre that was introduced to the UK through migrating Jamaicans.
The influence of Jamaicans in the UK has had a profound effect on British music over the last 50 years. By the end of the 1960s, Jamaican culture had participated in the birth of the ''first wave'' UK skinhead
A skinhead is a member of a subculture which originated among working class youths in London, England, in the 1960s and soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in th ...
movement and had impacted on punk rock in the 1970s. Significantly, this led to new genres of music coming out of London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
and Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
.
In Birmingham in the 1970s and '80s, reggae was very popular and three of the leading British reggae groups of the time hailed from the city; UB40
UB40 are an English reggae and pop band, formed in December 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. They have been nominated for the ...
(who have now sold over 70million records worldwide), Musical Youth
Musical Youth are a British-Jamaican reggae band formed in 1979 in Birmingham, England. They are best remembered for their 1982 single " Pass the Dutchie", which was a number 1 in multiple charts around the world. Their other hits include "Yout ...
and Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
winners Steel Pulse
Steel Pulse are a roots reggae band from the Handsworth area of Birmingham, England. They originally formed at Handsworth Wood Boys School, and were composed of David Hinds (lead vocals, guitar), Basil Gabbidon (lead guitar, vocals), and Ron ...
. The large Jamaican population was also a massive influence on the emerging genre of Indian music, called "bhangra", that grew out of the city's large South Asian community.
Off the back of punk and reggae came "Two Tone". Often regarded as the second wave of Ska, many of the Two Tone bands had been inspired by Jamaican Ska records of the 1960s. With a faster tempo than Jamaican Ska, Two Tone "Ska" was commercially successful in the UK from 1979 until the early eighties. The Specials
The Specials, also known as The Special AKA, are an English Two-tone (music genre), 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall (singer), Terr ...
from Coventry, The Beat from Birmingham, The Selector
''Selector Radio'' is a weekly two-hour radio show produced by Folded Wing for the British Council. It covers a variety of music genres, ranging from grime, indie, soul, and dance and features live sessions and DJ mixes.
Launched in 2001, as ' ...
from Coventry, and Madness from Camden in London, are the best known examples of Two Tone bands.
In late 1970s London, a fusing of Jamaican reggae with a more British pop sensibility led to "lovers' rock
Lovers' rock is a style of reggae music noted for its romantic sound and content. While love songs had been an important part of reggae since the late 1960s, the style was given a greater focus and a name in London in the mid-1970s.Larkin, Col ...
", a melodic but distinctively British version of reggae.
In Bristol, a decade later, sound-system culture combining with the emerging digital sampling technology led to the emergence of trip hop
Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...
. A distinctive mixture of heavy baselines and sometimes complex arrangements and samples, trip hop was born in the St Paul's area of Bristol from the likes of Smith and Mighty, Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol by Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall.
The debut Massive Attack album ''Blue Lines'' was release ...
and Portishead.
After the first wave of house music in the early 1990s, the rhythmic influence of reggae produced the dance music genre "jungle
A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century.
Etymology
The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅ ...
", in which sped-up beats became popular in clubs combined with reggae sounding "dub" baselines and MC chants. This genre of music became more widely known as "drum 'n bass" by the close of the decade, with the former incarnation now being referred to as "oldschool jungle".
Other genres of British-based music spawned through the influence of Jamaicans living in the UK, are Grime
Grime may refer to:
* Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust
* Grime (music genre), a genre of music
* ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity
* ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game
* "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...
, Funky House
Funky house is a subgenre of house music that uses disco and funk samples, a funk-inspired bass line or a strong soul influence, combined with drum breaks that draw inspiration from 1970s and 1980s funk records. The use of disco strings are als ...
and Dub Step.
The influence London-born Julian Marley
Julian Ricardo Marley (born 4 June 1975) is a British-Jamaican reggae musician, songwriter, producer and humanitarian. He is the son of reggae music icon Bob Marley, and Lucy Pounder. He follows in his father's footsteps and is a devout Rasta ...
son of legendary Bob Marley
Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...
and member of the Rastafari movement
Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control o ...
is just one of the musicians who helped popularise reggae and Jamaican music in general in the UK. A number of other British Jamaican musicians specialise in reggae and traditional Jamaican music, including Grammy Award nominees Maxi Priest
Max Alfred "Maxi" Elliott (born 10 June 1961), known by his stage name Maxi Priest, is a British reggae vocalist of Jamaican descent. He is best known for singing reggae music with an R&B influence, otherwise known as reggae fusion. He was one ...
and Musical Youth
Musical Youth are a British-Jamaican reggae band formed in 1979 in Birmingham, England. They are best remembered for their 1982 single " Pass the Dutchie", which was a number 1 in multiple charts around the world. Their other hits include "Yout ...
. It should however be noted that although reggae music originated in Jamaica, reggae musicians and reggae-influenced musicians now belong to a variety of ethnicities and nationalities in the UK (see white reggae and mixed race reggae). Second-, third- and fourth-generation British Jamaican musicians have helped bridge the gap between traditional Jamaican music and contemporary global music. ''The X Factor'' Series 5 winner Alexandra Burke
Alexandra Imelda Cecelia Ewen Burke (born 25 August 1988) is a British singer, songwriter and actress. She won the fifth series of the British television series ''The X Factor'' in 2008, and has been signed to Epic Records, RCA Records and Syc ...
focuses mainly on the R&B, pop, soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
genres, Chip Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a type of immunoprecipitation experimental technique used to investigate the interaction between proteins and DNA in the cell. It aims to determine whether specific proteins are associated with specific genom ...
primarily focuses on the hip-hop, grime
Grime may refer to:
* Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust
* Grime (music genre), a genre of music
* ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity
* ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game
* "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...
, R&B and pop rap
Pop rap (also known as pop hip-hop, hip pop, melodic hip-hop or melodic rap) is a genre of music fusing the rhythm-based lyricism of hip hop music with pop music's preference for melodious vocals and catchy tunes. This genre gained mainstrea ...
genres whilst Goldie
Clifford Joseph Price MBE (born 19 September 1965), better known as Goldie, is a British music producer and DJ.
Initially gaining exposure for his work as a graffiti artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musician in th ...
is a popular electronic music artist. This shows the diverse array of music produced by the current generation of British Jamaican musicians. Amongst some other current contemporary British musicians of Jamaican ancestry are Keisha Buchanan
Keisha Kerreece Fayeanne Buchanan (; born 30 September 1984) is an English singer and a founding member of the girl group Sugababes alongside Mutya Buena and Siobhán Donaghy. With the Sugababes, she had six number one singles and two number ...
, Academy Award nominee Celeste, Alesha Dixon
Alesha Anjanette Dixon (born 7 October 1978) is an English singer, rapper, dancer, television personality, and author. She gained recognition in the early 2000s as a member of the R&B, garage and hip hop group Mis-Teeq. The group disbanded in ...
, Jade Ewen
Jade Louise Ewen (born 24 January 1988) is a British singer, actress and a former member of the girl group Sugababes. She began her singing career in a girl group named Trinity Stone, which signed with Sony BMG in 2005 but disbanded in 2007 wit ...
, Jamelia
'
Jamelia Niela Davis (born 11 January 1981) is an English singer, songwriter and television presenter. She has released three studio albums, each of which has reached the Top 40 in the UK, which collectively have spawned eight UK top-ten singl ...
, Kano
Kano may refer to:
Places
*Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria
* Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State
**Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries
**Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between ...
, Beverley Knight
Beverley Knight (born Beverley Anne Smith, 22 March 1973) is an English recording artist and musical theatre actress. She released her first album, '' The B-Funk'', in 1995. Heavily influenced by American soul music icons such as Sam Cooke an ...
, Lianne La Havas
Lianne Charlotte Barnes (born 23 August 1989), known professionally as Lianne La Havas ( ), is a British singer-songwriter and record producer. Her career began after being introduced to various musicians, including singer Paloma Faith, for wh ...
, Grammy Award nominee Mahalia Mahalia is a given name and may refer to:
* Mahalia Barnes (born 1982), Australian singer-songwriter
*Mahalia Belo, British film and television director
*Mahalia (singer) (born 1 May 1998), English singer, songwriter and actress, better known by th ...
, Grammy Award Winner Ella Mai
Ella Mai Howell (born 3 November 1994) is an English singer-songwriter. Her musical career began at London's British and Irish Modern Music Institute in 2014, during which time she auditioned as part of a trio on the 11th season of ''The X Fa ...
, Grammy Award nominee Nao, Leigh-Anne Pinnock
Leigh-Anne Pinnock (born 4 October 1991) is an English singer, actress and songwriter. She rose to prominence in the 2010s as a member of the girl group Little Mix, one of the world's best-selling girl groups ever. With Little Mix, she release ...
, Grammy Award nominee Jorja Smith
Jorja Alice Smith (born 11 June 1997) is an English singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Walsall, West Midlands, she has been writing songs since the age of 11. In 2012, Smith's friend uploaded her cover of Labrinth's "Earthquake" to YouTube, ...
, and double Grammy Award winner Caron Wheeler.
Sport
British Jamaicans have contributed significantly to UK sporting successes. Tessa Sanderson
Theresa Ione Sanderson (born 14 March 1956) is a British former javelin thrower. She appeared in every Summer Olympics from 1976 to 1996, winning the gold medal in the javelin throw at the 1984 Olympics. She was the second track and field ...
won javelin
A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon, but today predominantly for sport. The javelin is almost always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with th ...
gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...
and is the only British athlete to win an Olympic throwing event. Linford Christie
Linford Cicero Christie (born 2 April 1960) is a Jamaican-born British former sprinter. He is the only British man to have won gold medals in the 100 metres at all four major competitions open to British athletes: the Olympic Games, the World ...
was the first man to win every major 100m title in world athletics (and to this date the only British man to have done so). Denise Lewis
Denise Lewis (born 27 August 1972) is a British sports presenter and former track and field athlete, who specialised in the heptathlon. She won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was twice Commonwealth Games champion, ...
won heptathlon gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a feat that was repeated by Jessica Ennis-Hill
Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill (born 28 January 1986) is a British retired track and field athlete from England, specialising in multi-eventing disciplines and 100 metres hurdles. As a competitor in heptathlon, she is the 2012 Olympic champion, ...
at the 2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
. Kelly Holmes
Dame Kelly Holmes (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British middle distance athlete.
Holmes specialised in the 800 metres and 1,500 metres events and won gold medals for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She set British ...
was one of the success stories of the 2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...
having won multiple gold medals and still holding numerous British records in distance running. Another 2004 success story was Jason Gardener
Jason Carl Gardener, (born 18 September 1975) is a retired British sprint athlete. A fast starter from the blocks, he won an Olympic gold medal leading off Great Britain in the 4 x 100 metres relay at the 2004 Olympic Games, and is also the ...
and Mark Lewis-Francis
Mark Anthony Lewis-Francis, MBE (born 4 September 1982) is a retired British track and field athlete, specifically a sprinter, who specialised in the 100 metres and was an accomplished regular of GB 4 x 100m relay. A renowned junior, his great ...
, who won the gold medal in the 4 × 100 metres relay with Darren Campbell
Darren Andrew Campbell, (born 12 September 1973) is a British former sprint athlete. He was the sprint coach at Wasps Rugby Club for the 2015–16 season. He competed in the 100 metres and 200 metres, as well as the 4 × 100 metres relay.
...
and Marlon Devonish
Marlon Ronald Devonish, (born 1 June 1976) is an English former sprinter who competed in the 100 metres and 200 metres. A prodigious relay runner with particular strength as a 'bend' runner, Devonish ran the third leg for the Great Britain q ...
. Louis Smith won bronze in the men's pommel horse event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...
, Britain's first Olympics gymnastics medal since 1908. Other notable British athletes of Jamaican origin who have successfully competed in the Olympic Games include Olympic silver medalist Colin Jackson
Colin Ray Jackson, (born 18 February 1967) is a Welsh former sprint and hurdling athlete who specialised in the 110 metres hurdles. During a career in which he represented Great Britain and Wales, he won an Olympic silver medal, became wo ...
, Olympic bronze medalist Tasha Danvers and the fastest woman in British history, Olympic bronze medalist, Dina Asher-Smith
Geraldina "Dina" Rachel Asher-Smith, (; born 4 December 1995) is a British sprinter. She is the fastest British woman on record. She won a gold medal in the 200 metres, silver in the 100 metres and another silver in the 4×100 m relay a ...
.
Besides athletics and gymnastics, British Jamaicans have also become heavily associated with the sport of boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
. Frank Bruno
Franklin Roy Bruno, (born 16 November 1961) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1982 to 1996. He had a highly publicised and eventful career, both in and out of the ring. The pinnacle of Bruno's boxing career was winning ...
is one of the more notable individuals, he won 40 out of 45 of his contests and held the title of WBC heavyweight champion
At boxing's beginning, the heavyweight division had no weight limit, and historically the weight class has gone with vague or no definition. During the 19th century many heavyweights were 170 pounds (12 st 2 lb, 77 kg) or less, thou ...
in the mid-1990s. Chris Eubank
Christopher Livingstone Eubank (born 8 August 1966) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 1998. He held the WBO middleweight and super-middleweight titles between 1990 and 1995, and is ranked by BoxRec as the thir ...
also held world boxing titles including middleweight
Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports.
Boxing Professional
In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to .
Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...
and super middleweight
Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports.
Boxing
In professional boxing, super middleweight is contested between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, in which boxers can weigh between 160 pounds ( ...
champion (his son, Chris Eubank Jr. is also a boxing champion). Lennox Lewis of dual British/Canadian citizenship is one of the most successful boxers in the sports history, he is one of only five boxers who have won the heavyweight championship three times. Errol Christie
Errol Christie (29 June 1963 – 11 June 2017) was an English professional boxer and boxing trainer. He was the captain of the English amateur boxing team from 1980 to 1983 and European amateur champion in 1983. After turning professional he wa ...
is also a former boxer, he is the Guinness World Record holder for achieving the most amateur title wins. At the Sydney Olympics of 2000, Audley Harrison
Audley Hugh Harrison, (born 26 October 1971) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2013. As an amateur he represented Great Britain at the 2000 Olympics, winning a gold medal in the super-heavyweight division and be ...
became Britain's first heavyweight
Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling.
Boxing Professional
Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...
gold medalist. In more recent times David Haye
David Deron Haye (born 13 October 1980) is a British former professional boxer who competed between 2002 and 2018. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, and was the first British boxer to reach the final of the World Amate ...
has become the new face of British Jamaican boxing, Haye has won numerous titles and in 2009 beat Nikolai Valuev
Nikolai Sergeyevich Valuev (, rus, Никола́й Серге́евич Валу́ев, p=vɐˈlujɪf; born 21 August 1973) is a Russian politician and former professional boxer. He competed in boxing from 1993 to 2009, and held the WBA heav ...
to become the WBA Heavyweight Champion (the fifth Briton to do so, and the third British Jamaican – the other two being Britons of Nigerian origin). Dillian Whyte
Dillian Whyte (; born 11 April 1988) is a British professional boxer. He has formerly competed as a kickboxer and mixed martial artist. He held the WBC interim heavyweight title twice, between 2019 and 2020, and again from 2021 to April 2022 ...
, another well established British boxer who was born in Jamaica, has held the WBC interim
An interim is a period of temporary pause or change in a sequence of events, or a temporary state, and is often applied to transitional political entities.
Interim may also refer to:
Temporary organizational arrangements (general concept)
*Provis ...
heavyweight
Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling.
Boxing Professional
Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...
title since March 2021.
Clive Sullivan
Clive Anthony Sullivan MBE (9 April 1943 – 8 October 1985) was a Welsh rugby league footballer. A Great Britain and Wales international winger, he played for both Hull F.C. and Hull Kingston Rovers in his career, and also for Oldham ( Herit ...
was the first black captain for a Great British team, in ''any'' sport, and captained the Great Britain team to victory in the 1972 Rugby League World Cup. Jason Robinson was the first black player to captain the England national rugby union team and was part of the 2003 Rugby World Cup
The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...
victory. Ellery Hanley
Cuthwyn Ellery Hanley MBE (born 27 March 1961) is an English former rugby league player and coach. Over a nineteen-year professional career (1978–1997), he played for Bradford Northern, Wigan, Balmain, Western Suburbs and Leeds. He won 36 ...
became the first man to captain his side to three consecutive Challenge Cup
The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...
victories. He is the only player to win the coveted Man of Steel award
A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromos ...
on three occasions and is widely considered to be one of the greatest players in rugby league history. Other notable rugby players of Jamaican heritage include Jimmy Peters, who was England's first black rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
international, Des Drummond
Desmond Lloyd Drummond (17 June 1958 – 29 January 2022) was an England and Great Britain international rugby league footballer who played on the in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Background
Drummond was born on 17 June 1958 in Savanna-la-Mar, ...
and Jeremy Guscott
Jeremy Clayton Guscott (born 7 July 1965) is a British former rugby union outside centre who played for Bath, England and the British and Irish Lions. He also appeared for England on the wing.
Guscott was born in Bath, Somerset, one of the tw ...
.
John Barnes
John Charles Bryan Barnes MBE (born 7 November 1963) is a former professional football player and manager. He currently works as an author, commentator and pundit for ESPN and SuperSport. Initially a quick, skilful left winger, he moved to cent ...
is the most capped English Jamaican to have played for the England national football team
The England national football team has represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Engl ...
, and a number of the current national team players have origins in Jamaica, including Darren Bent
Darren Ashley Bent (born 6 February 1984) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played in the Premier League and Championship for nine clubs, and at senior international level for the England national team.
...
, Aaron Lennon
Aaron Justin Lennon (; born 16 April 1987) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger.
Lennon began his career at hometown club Leeds United, making his first-team debut in 2003 and becoming the youngest player to play ...
, Raheem Sterling
Raheem Shaquille Sterling (born 8 December 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger and attacking midfielder for club Chelsea. Born in Jamaica, he represents the England national team.
Born in Jamaica to Jamaican parents, S ...
, Theo Walcott
Theo James Walcott (born 16 March 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Southampton and previously for the English national team.
Walcott is a product of the Southampton Academy and started his career with ...
, Daniel Sturridge
Daniel Andre Sturridge (; born 1 September 1989) is an English professional footballer who last played as a striker. As well as representing England, he has played in the Premier League for Manchester City, Chelsea, Bolton Wanderers, Liverpool ...
, Kyle Walker
Kyle Andrew Walker (born 28 May 1990) is an English professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club Manchester City and the England national team.
Walker started his career at his boyhood club Sheffield United which he had join ...
, Danny Rose, Ashley Young
Ashley Simon Young (born 9 July 1985) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger or full-back for Premier League club Aston Villa, where he is club captain.
Young started his career at Watford and made his first senior appea ...
and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Alexander Mark David Oxlade-Chamberlain (born 15 August 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Liverpool.
After rising to prominence with Southampton during the 2010–11 season aged 17, Oxlade-Chambe ...
. In turn, Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
born and raised Wes Morgan
Westley Nathan Morgan (born 21 January 1984) is a former professional footballer who made over 750 professional appearances as a defender for Nottingham Forest, Leicester City and the Jamaican national team, as well as a brief loan spell at Ki ...
chose to represent the Jamaica national football team
The Jamaica national football team, nicknamed the "Reggae Boyz", represents Jamaica in international football. The team's first match was against Haiti in 1925. The squad is under the supervising body of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF ...
which he captained. In 2021 alone in the Jamaican squad there were 11 British born and raised players: Amari'i Bell
Amari'i Kyren Bell (born 5 May 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a left back for club Luton Town and the Jamaica national team.
Bell joined Birmingham City's Academy in 2011 and turned professional the following year. He spen ...
, Liam Moore
Liam Simon Moore (born 31 January 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Reading. Born and raised in England, he plays international football for Jamaica.
Club career Leicester City
Born in the Leicestershire town of ...
, Ethan Pinnock
Ethan Rupert Pinnock (born 29 May 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Brentford and the Jamaica national team.
Pinnock began his career in non-League football with Dulwich Hamlet and Forest Green Rovers ...
, Wes Harding, Michael Hector
Michael Anthony James Hector (born 19 July 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Charlton Athletic. Born in England, he represents the Jamaica national team.
Hector began his career in the youth teams at Millwall an ...
, Adrian Mariappa
Adrian Joseph Mariappa (born 3 October 1986) is a professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Salford City. Born in England, he represents the Jamaica national team.
He progressed through Watford's youth academy, and started p ...
, Kasey Palmer
Kasey Remel Palmer (born 9 November 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Championship club Coventry City. Born in England, he represented England up to U21 level and currently represents the Jamaica national team.
...
, Andre Gray
Andre Anthony Gray (born 26 June 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for Super League Greece club Aris. Born in England, he represents the Jamaica national team.
A product of the Shrewsbury Town youth system, Gray came ...
, Jamal Lowe
Jamal Akua Lowe (born 21 July 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for EFL Championship club Queens Park Rangers on loan from Premier League club AFC Bournemouth and the Jamaican national team. Lowe was born in England ...
, Greg Leigh
Gregory Alex Leigh (born 30 September 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Oxford United. Born in England, he represents the Jamaica national team.
Having come through the Manchester City Academy, Leigh has previous ...
, and Bobby Decordova-Reid
Bobby Armani Decordova-Reid (né Reid; born 2 February 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Fulham. Born in England, he represents the Jamaica national team.
Early and personal life
Decordova-Reid was born in B ...
.
There have been a number of British Jamaican wrestlers
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat spo ...
and weightlifters who have made their mark on the sport. Hailed as Britain's greatest-ever weightlifter, Louis Martin won Olympic medals in weightlifting at Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964 and claimed four World Championship titles, three Commonwealth golds and set two official world records. Ralph Rowe was Britain's first black Paralympian
The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...
and won weightlifting gold at the Heidelberg 1972 Games. Fitz Lloyd Walker was the first black wrestler to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games and achieved a bronze medal for England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
at the 1986 Commonwealth Games
The 1986 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a 'Cho-fhlaitheis 1986) were held in Edinburgh, Scotland, between 24 July and 2 August 1986. They were the second Games to be held in Edinburgh. Thirty two of the eligible fifty nine countries (largel ...
. Walker is in the Guinness Book of World Records for winning the British Wrestling Championships 14 years in a row.
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
has long been a popular pastime among British Jamaicans (though interest has waned since the 1980s). Several British Jamaican cricketers have represented England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, making some pivotal contributions to the side. Norman Cowans
Norman George Cowans (born 17 April 1961) is a former cricketer who played in 19 Test matches and 23 One Day Internationals between 1982 and 1985 for the England cricket team. He played first-class cricket for Middlesex and Hampshire County ...
was the first West Indies-born fast bowler to play Test cricket
Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...
for England and was instrumental in England's victory at the MCG
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hem ...
in 1982. Cowans took a match-winning 6 for 77, following his first innings 2 for 69, in England's dramatic 3 run victory. This victory sent The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, ''The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Te ...
series to Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
for the deciding Fifth Test, which ended in a draw. Devon Malcom played in 40 Test matches for England and took part in 30 One Day International
A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...
s. On the West Indies tour in 1989/90, Malcolm made a major impact and excelled as England won the First Test. He then took ten wickets in the Second Test and was named man of the match in the Third Test. At The Oval
The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...
, against South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, Malcolm would go on to record figures of 9/57- propelling England to a series-levelling eight-wicket victory in August 1994. It remains one of the best bowling figures in Test cricket history. Ebony Rainford-Brent
Ebony-Jewel Cora-Lee Camellia Rosamond Rainford-Brent (born 31 December 1983) is an English former cricketer who is now a commentator and Director of Women's Cricket at Surrey. She was the first black woman to play for England. She was also ca ...
was the first black woman to play for England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and was a member of the England team that won the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup
The ICC Women's Cricket World Cup is the sport's oldest world championship, with the first tournament held in England in 1973. Matches are played as One Day Internationals (ODIs) over 50 overs per team, while there is also another champion ...
in Australia and the 2009 Women's World Twenty20. Mark Butcher
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Fin ...
, David Lawrence and Dean Headley
Dean Warren Headley (born 27 January 1970) is a former English professional cricketer who played international cricket for the England cricket team in the 1990s.
Headley was born in Stourbridge and comes from a famous cricketing family, being ...
all represented England, making contributions to the side.
Television and film
An investigation by the IOM in 2007 found that 67% of British Jamaican respondents reported watching television on a daily basis, 10% had no particular preference as to what channels they watched. 31% of respondents claim-ed to favour the original terrestrial commercial channels such as ITV1
ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...
, Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
and Five
5 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
5, five or number 5 may also refer to:
* AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era
* 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era
Literature
* ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram
* ''5'' (comics), an awa ...
, whilst 23% of people stated a preference to satellite and cable channels such as MTV Base
MTV Base was a British pay television music channel from Paramount Networks UK & Australia that focused primarily on hip hop, R&B, grime, garage, reggae, funk, soul and dance music. It was launched as part of MTV's digital boutique of music cha ...
, the Hallmark Channel
The Hallmark Channel is an American television channel owned by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., which in turn is owned by Hallmark Cards, Inc. The channel's programming is primarily targeted at families, and features a mix of television movies and ...
and Living
Living or The Living may refer to:
Common meanings
*Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms
** Living species, one that is not extinct
*Personal life, the course of an individual human's life
* ...
.[ There are a number of TV channels in the UK aimed at the Black British community, however none specifically at the British Jamaican community. The same IOM investigation found that minimal numbers of British Jamaicans actually watch these black-orientated channels, this is thought to be down to a heavy focus on Black African culture and issues (as opposed to Afro-Caribbean).][ In terms of actual members of the British Jamaican community, a number of individuals have found fame in television and film in the UK. One of the biggest British Jamaican television personalities is ]Ainsley Harriott
Ainsley Denzil Dubriel Harriott (born 28 February 1957) is an English chef and television presenter. He is known for his BBC cooking game shows '' Can't Cook, Won't Cook'' and '' Ready Steady Cook''.
Early life
Harriott was born in Paddin ...
, who has appeared in several shows including ''Ready Steady Cook
''Ready Steady Cook'' is a BBC daytime TV cooking game show. It debuted on 24 October 1994 and the last original edition was broadcast on 2 February 2010. The programme was hosted by Fern Britton from 1994 until 2000 when celebrity chef Ainsley ...
'', ''Can't Cook, Won't Cook
''Can't Cook, Won't Cook'' is a British cooking game show that aired on BBC1
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for bro ...
'', '' City Hospital'', ''Red Dwarf
''Red Dwarf'' is a British science fiction comedy franchise created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, which primarily consists of a television sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009, gaining a cult following. T ...
'' and ''Strictly Come Dancing
''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...
''. In September 2008, Harriott explored his Jamaican heritage, taking part in the genealogy documentary series, ''Who Do You Think You Are?'' Lenny Henry
Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer.
Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ''The Lenn ...
is another prominent name, co-founding the charity ''Comic Relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.
Definition
Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episo ...
'' and appearing in TV programmes such as ''Broadchurch
''Broadchurch'' is a British crime drama television series broadcast on ITV for three series between 2013 and 2017. It was created by Chris Chibnall, who acted as an executive producer and wrote all 24 episodes and produced by Kudos in assoc ...
'' and ''Dr Who''. Long-running British soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
s such as ''EastEnders
''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...
'', ''Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
'' and ''Emmerdale
''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, '' ...
'' have all had British Jamaican actors including Zaraah Abrahams
Zaraah Clover Abrahams (born 7 January 1987) is an English actress and voiceover artist. She is known for her roles as Magda in '' Girls in Love'' from 2003 to 2005, Michaela White in the BBC school-based drama series '' Waterloo Road'' from 2 ...
, Tameka Empson
Tameka Empson (born 16 April 1977) is an English actress and comedian. She appeared as one of the three protagonists in the hidden-camera comedy sketch show ''3 Non-Blondes''. In 2009, she began portraying the role of Kim Fox in the BBC soap ...
, Angela Wynter
Angela Wynter is a Jamaican-British actress. She is known for her role as Yolande Trueman in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', appearing from 2003 to 2008, with a guest appearance in 2017. In 2021, she joined the cast of the BBC soap opera ''Do ...
, Stephen Graham
Stephen Joseph Graham (born 3 August 1973) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film ''This Is England'' (2006) and its television sequels ''This Is England '86'' (2010), '' This Is England '88'' ( ...
and Jurrell Carter. Away from soap operas, other notable actors include Malachi Kirby
Malachi Kirby is a British actor and writer. He gained prominence through his roles in the 2016 ''Roots'' remake and the ''Black Mirror'' episode " Men Against Fire". He earned a BAFTA for his performance in '' Small Axe'': ''Mangrove''.
Early ...
, who earned a BAFTA for his role in Steve McQueen's highly acclaimed '' Small Axe'', Michael Ward who won the 2019 BAFTA Rising Star Award, Colin Salmon
Colin Salmon (born ) is a British actor. He is known for playing Charles Robinson in three James Bond films and James "One" Shade in the ''Resident Evil'' film series. He has had roles on many television series such as ''Doctor Who'', ''Merli ...
and Ashley Walters, whose role in ''Bullet Boy
''Bullet Boy'' is a 2004 British crime drama film directed by Saul Dibb, written by Saul Dibb and Catherine Johnson, and stars Ashley Walters. The film's original music was composed and performed by Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack, who rel ...
'' earned him a British Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Performance
The British Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Performance is an annual award given by the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA). The award was first presented in the 1998 ceremony, until 2020 the category was presented as Most Promising Newc ...
.
Numerous British Jamaican actors have become successful in US film and television. Antonia Thomas
Antonia Laura Thomas (born 3 November 1986) is a British actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Alisha Daniels in the E4 comedy-drama series ''Misfits'', Evie in the Channel 4/Netflix comedy series '' Lovesick'' and Dr. Claire ...
is famed for her role as Dr. Claire Browne in the award-winning drama series '' The Good Doctor''. Manchester-born Marsha Thomason
Marsha Lisa Thomason Sykes (born 19 January 1976) is a British television and film actress who is best known for playing Sara Evers in Disney's ''The Haunted Mansion'', Nessa Holt in the first two seasons of the NBC series '' Las Vegas'', Naomi ...
is noted for her roles in the US shows ''Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
'' and ''Lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
*Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
* Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
'', whilst Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
-born Wentworth Miller
Wentworth Earl Miller III (born June 2, 1972) is an American-British actor and screenwriter. He rose to prominence following his starring role as Michael Scofield in the Fox series ''Prison Break'', for which he received a nomination for the ...
of ''Prison Break
''Prison Break'' is an American serial (radio and television), serial drama television show, television series created by Paul Scheuring for Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. The series revolves around two brothers, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purce ...
'' fame is also of partial Jamaican descent. Miller earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for his ''Prison Break'' role and won a Saturn Award
The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films be ...
for his guest appearance in the critically acclaimed ''The Flash
The Flash (or simply Flash) is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1 (cover date ...
''. Stephen Graham
Stephen Joseph Graham (born 3 August 1973) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film ''This Is England'' (2006) and its television sequels ''This Is England '86'' (2010), '' This Is England '88'' ( ...
featured in three Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
productions and won two Screen Actors Guild Awards
Screen Actors Guild Awards (also known as SAG Awards) are accolades given by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The award was founded in 1952 to recognize outstanding performances in movie an ...
as part of the cast of the much lauded ''Boardwalk Empire
''Boardwalk Empire'' is an American period crime drama television series created by Terence Winter and broadcast on the premium cable channel HBO. The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and ...
''. Delroy Lindo earned a Satellite Award
The Satellite Awards are annual awards given by the International Press Academy that are commonly noted in entertainment industry journals and blogs. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards. The award ceremonies take place ...
for his role in American docudrama
Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event".
Docudramas typic ...
television film
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
'' Glory & Honor''. Lindo also won numerous accolades for his role as Paul, in Spike Lee's highly praised ''Da 5 Bloods
''Da 5 Bloods'' is a 2020 American war drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Spike Lee. It stars Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Johnny Trí Nguyễn, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hause ...
''. Some British Jamaicans who have starred in Hollywood blockbusters include Naomie Harris
Naomie Melanie Harris (born 6 September 1976) is a British actress. She started her career when she was a child, appearing in the television series ''Simon and the Witch'' in 1987. She portrayed Selena in the zombie film ''28 Days Later'' (2002 ...
in ''Miami Vice
''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo ...
'' and ''Pirates of the Caribbean
''Pirates of the Caribbean'' is a Disney media franchise encompassing numerous theme park rides, a series of films, and spin-off novels, as well as a number of related video games and other media publications. The franchise originated with th ...
''. She also starred in the critically acclaimed film ''Moonlight
Moonlight consists of mostly sunlight (with little earthlight) reflected from the parts of the Moon's surface where the Sun's light strikes.
Illumination
The intensity of moonlight varies greatly depending on the lunar phase, but even the ful ...
'', a performance that earned her a number of accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
, BAFTA, and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Adrian Lester
Adrian Anthony Lester (born Anthony Harvey; 14 August 1968) is a British actor, director and writer. He is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for his work on the Lo ...
appeared in ''The Day After Tomorrow
''The Day After Tomorrow'' is a 2004 American science fiction disaster film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Roland Emmerich. Based on the 1999 book '' The Coming Global Superstorm'' by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber, the film stars De ...
'' and the political blockbuster ''Primary Colors
A set of primary colors or primary colours (see spelling differences) consists of colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamut of colors. This is the essential method used to create the perception of a br ...
'', directed by Mike Nicholls and co-starring John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He came to public attention during the 1970s, appearing on the television sitcom ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes ''Carrie'' (19 ...
, Kathy Bates
Kathleen Doyle Bates (born June 28, 1948) is an American actor and director. Known for her roles in comedic and dramatic films and television programs, she has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over five decades, includ ...
, Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American actor, filmmaker and musician. He had his first break when he co-wrote and starred in the 1992 thriller ''One False Move'', and received international attention after writing, directing, a ...
and Emma Thompson
Dame Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress. Regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation, she has received numerous accolades throughout her four-decade-long career, including two Academy Awards, two British A ...
. The role earned Lester a Chicago Film Critics Association award nomination for "Most Promising Actor". Lashana Lynch
Lashana Lynch (born 27 November 1987) is a British actress. She is best known for playing the role of Rosaline Capulet in the ABC period drama series '' Still Star-Crossed'' (2017), Maria Rambeau in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films '' ...
featured opposite Brie Larson
Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers (born October 1, 1989), known professionally as Brie Larson, is an American actress. Known for her supporting roles in comedies as a teenager, she has since expanded to leading roles in independent films and blockb ...
in 2019's '' Captain Marvel'' and played the role of Nomi, the secret agent who replaces Craig's retired Bond
Bond or bonds may refer to:
Common meanings
* Bond (finance), a type of debt security
* Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States
* Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemica ...
in ''No Time to Die
''No Time to Die'' is a 2021 spy film and the twenty-fifth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, starring Daniel Craig in his fifth and final portrayal of fictional British MI6 agent James Bond. It was directed by Cary Jo ...
''. Lynch won a BAFTA for her role in ''No Time to Die'', thanking her Jamaican parents while accepting the award. The ''James Bond series
James Bond is a fictional character created by British novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. A British secret agent working for MI6 under the codename 007, Bond has been portrayed on film in twenty-seven productions by actors Sean Connery, David Niv ...
'' and Jamaica are inextricably linked. British author Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...
, creator of the super spy, resided at GoldenEye
''GoldenEye'' is a 1995 spy film, the seventeenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Martin Campbell, it was the first in the ser ...
for many years, where he wrote all his James Bond novels. The first Bond film ''Dr No'' (1962), and ''Live And Let Die'' (1973) were both shot mainly in Kingston, Jamaica.
Notable people
''See Main article: List of Jamaican British people
This is a list of notable Jamaican British people.
Academia
* Kehinde Andrews (born 1983), Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University. He is the first black studies professor in the UK and led the establishment of the first b ...
''
Notable trailblazers:
* Diane Abbott - Britain's first black female Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
, the first black female Shadow Home Secretary
In British politics, the Shadow Home Secretary (formally known as the Shadow Secretary of State for the Home Department) is the person within the shadow cabinet who shadows the Home Secretary; this effectively means scrutinising government polic ...
and the longest-serving black MP in the House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
* Sislin Fay Allen
Sislin Fay Allen (20 March 1938 – 5 July 2021), known as Fay Allen, was a British and Jamaican police officer who was the first black woman police constable in the United Kingdom, serving in the Metropolitan Police in London from 1968 to 19 ...
- Britain's first black woman police constable
The history of the Metropolitan Police in London is long and complex, with many different events taking place between its inception in 1829 to the present day.
Pre-1829 London policing
Before the passing of the Metropolitan Police Act 1829, law ...
* Kehinde Andrews
Kehinde Nkosi Andrews (born January 1983) is a British academic and author specialising in Black Studies.
Andrews is a Professor of Black Studies in the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham City University. He is the director of the Centre ...
- Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University
Birmingham City University (abbrev. BCU) is a university in Birmingham, England. Initially established as the Birmingham College of Art with roots dating back to 1843, it was designated as a polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic in 1971 and gai ...
. He is the first black studies professor in the UK and led the establishment of the first black studies programme in Europe at Birmingham City
* Barbara Blake-Hannah - Author and journalist. British television's first black on-camera reporter and interviewer
* Aggrey Burke
Aggrey Washington Burke (FRCPsych, born 1943) is a British retired psychiatrist and academic, born in Jamaica, who spent the majority of his medical career at St George's Hospital in London, UK, specialising in transcultural psychiatry and writi ...
- Psychiatrist and academic. Britain's first black consultant psychiatrist, appointed by the National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
* Dawn Butler
Dawn Petula Butler (born 3 November 1969) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent Central since 2015.
Butler was elected as the MP for Brent South at the 2005 general election. She served in ...
- Member of Parliament and the first black female to speak from the despatch box
A despatch box (alternatively dispatch box) is one of several types of boxes used in government business. Despatch boxes primarily include both those sometimes known as red boxes or ministerial boxes, which are used by the Sovereign and his min ...
in the House of Commons
* Betty Campbell
Betty Campbell (6 November 1934 – 13 October 2017, born Rachel Elizabeth Johnson) was a Welsh community activist, who was Wales' first black head teacher. Born into a poor household in Butetown, she won a scholarship to the Lady Margaret Hi ...
- Community activist and Wales' first black head-teacher
* Naomi Campbell
Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...
- Supermodel
A supermodel, also spelled super-model or super model, is a highly paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in ''haute couture'' and commercial modeling. The term ''supermodel'' became prominent in the po ...
, the first black model to appear on the front cover of ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', '' French Vogue'', ''Russian Vogue'' and the September issue of ''American Vogue
''Vogue'' is an American monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine that covers many topics, including haute couture fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway. Based at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, ''Vog ...
''
* Candice Carty-Williams
Candice Carty-Williams (born 21 July 1989) is a British writer, best known for her 2019 debut novel, '' Queenie''. She has written for publications including ''The Guardian'', '' i-D'', ''Vogue'', ''The Sunday Times'', ''BEAT Magazine'', and ''B ...
- Writer, the first black female to win the British Book Awards
The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by '' The Bookseller''. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the Nationa ...
"Book of the Year" accolade.
* Nira Chamberlain - President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Application. The first black mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
to feature in the biographical reference book ''Who's Who
''Who's Who'' (or ''Who is Who'') is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biography, biographical information on the prominent people of a country. The title has been adopted as an expression meaning a gr ...
''
* William Robinson Clarke - World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
airman
An airman is a member of an air force or air arm of a nation's armed forces. In certain air forces, it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank. An airman can also be referred as a soldier in other definitions.
In civilian aviation usage, t ...
and Britain's first black pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
* Joe Clough - London's first black Bus driver
A bus driver, bus operator, or bus captain is a person who drives buses for a living.
Description
Bus drivers must have a special license above and beyond a regular driver's licence. Bus drivers typically drive their vehicles between bus st ...
* Yvonne Conolly - Britain's first black female headteacher
A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the teacher, staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school ...
* Garth Crooks
Garth Anthony Crooks, (born 10 March 1958) is an English football pundit and former professional player. He played from 1976 to 1990, for Stoke City, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, West Bromwich Albion and Charlton Athletic. Throughout ...
- Footballer, pundit and the first black chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association
The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the trade union for professional association footballers in England and Wales. Founded in 1907, it is the world's oldest professional sport trade union, and has over 5,000 members.
The aims of ...
* Dyke, Dryden and Wade - Britain's first black multi-million-pound business enterprise
* Michael Fuller
Michael Fuller (born 1959), also known as Mike Fuller, is a former Chief Constable of Kent Police and Chief Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service. He was the first (and so far only) ethnic minority chief constable in the United Kingdom ...
- Former Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...
and former Chief Constable of Kent Police
Kent Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the and approximately 1.8 million inhabitants of Kent, a county in the south east of England.
History
On 14 January 1857, a 222-strong 'Kent County Constabulary' was formed u ...
. He was the first (and so far only) ethnic minority chief constable in the United Kingdom
* Henry Gunter - Civil rights leader and the first black delegate to be elected to Birmingham Trades Council
* Paulette Hamilton
Paulette Adassa Hamilton (born ) is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Erdington since 2022. She is the first black MP to represent a constituency in Birmingham. Hamilton was also a councillor ...
- District nurse and manager for the Royal College of Nursing
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is a registered trade union in the United Kingdom for those in the profession of nursing. It was founded in 1916, receiving its royal charter in 1928. Queen Elizabeth II was the patron until her death in 2022. ...
. Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
's first black Member of Parliament
* Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin - The Church of England's first black female bishop. Also the first woman and the first black person to serve as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons
The Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, also known as the Speaker's Chaplain, is a Church of England priest who officiates at services held at the Palace of Westminster and its associated chapel, St Mary Undercroft. The Chaplain a ...
* Eric Irons
Eric George Irons OBE (1921–2007) was Britain's first black magistrate and a campaigner for equal rights.
Early life
Born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, he was recruited into the RAF in Jamaica in 1944 and in 1945 visited RAF Syerston but was ...
- Equal rights campaigner and Britain's first black magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...
* Wilston Samuel Jackson
Wilston Samuel Jackson (17 May 1927–15 September 2018) was Britain's first black train driver. Known as 'Bill', he was born in Jamaica in 1927 and moved to the UK as part of the Windrush generation. After working as a fireman
A firefi ...
- Fireman and Britain's first black train driver
* Neil Kenlock
Neil Emile Elias Kenlock (born 1950) is a Jamaican-born photographer and media professional who has lived in London since the 1960s. During the 1960s and 1970s, Kenlock was the official photographer of the British Black Panthers, and he has be ...
- Co-founder of Choice FM
Capital XTRA (formerly Choice FM) is a Global-owned radio station that broadcasts on 96.9 FM and 107.1 FM in Greater London. Nationally, it is heard on DAB Digital Radio, Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media and Global Player. It specialises in ...
, the UK's first and only licensed, independent black music radio station. Co-founder of the first black British glossy magazine A slick magazine is a magazine printed on high-quality glossy paper. The term may have come into use in the 1930s, and was used to distinguish these magazines from pulp magazines
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive ...
, ''Root''
* Sam Beaver King
Sam Beaver King MBE (20 February 1926 – 17 June 2016) was a Jamaican-British campaigner. He first came to England as an engineer in the RAF during the Second World War but returned to Jamaica in 1947. Failing to settle there, King took passa ...
- Campaigner and Southwark's first black Mayor
* Les Ballets Nègres - Europe's first black dance company, founded in 1946
* Una Marson
Una Maud Victoria Marson (6 February 1905 – 6 May 1965) was a Jamaican feminist, activist and writer, producing poems, plays and radio programmes.
She travelled to London in 1932 and became the first black woman to be employed by the BBC d ...
- Writer, the first black female radio producer at the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
*
Caroline Newman - Best selling author and lawyer, the first black
solicitor
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
to be elected to the
Council of the Law Society of England and Wales
*
Bill Norris - Britain's first black trade union
General Secretary
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
*
Geoff Palmer - Scientist and inventor of the Barley Abrasion Process. Scotland's' first black university professor
*
Jimmy Peters - Rugby player,
England's first black
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
international
*
Heather Rabbatts
Dame Heather Victoria Rabbatts, DBE (born 6 December 1955) is a Jamaican-born British solicitor, businesswoman, and broadcaster, who rose to prominence as Chief executive of the London Borough of Lambeth, the youngest council chief in the UK. She ...
- Solicitor, businesswoman and broadcaster. The first female and ethnic minority person to serve as a
Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...
director
*
Marvin Rees
Marvin Rees (born April 1972) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Mayor of Bristol since 2016.
Early life and education
Marvin Rees was brought up in Bristol, partly in Lawrence Weston and Easton, by his British mother. ...
- Britain's first ''directly elected'' black
Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
*
Jason Robinson - Rugby international, the first black captain of the
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in men's international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. England have won the championship on 29 occasion ...
. Also the first former professional
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
player to captain the England rugby union team
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Tessa Sanderson
Theresa Ione Sanderson (born 14 March 1956) is a British former javelin thrower. She appeared in every Summer Olympics from 1976 to 1996, winning the gold medal in the javelin throw at the 1984 Olympics. She was the second track and field ...
- Athlete, the first and only British woman to win gold at an
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
throwing event, and the first black British woman ever to win Olympic gold
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Mary Seacole
Mary Jane Seacole (;Anionwu E.N. (2012) Mary Seacole: nursing care in many lands. ''British Journal of Healthcare Assistants'' 6(5), 244–248. 23 November 1805 – 14 May 1881) was a British-Jamaican nurse and businesswoman who set up t ...
- Nurse and businesswoman, voted number one in the list of ''
100 Great Black Britons
''100 Great Black Britons'' is a poll that was first undertaken in 2003 to vote for and celebrate the greatest Black Britons of all time. It was created in a campaign initiated by Patrick Vernon in response to a BBC search for '' 100 Greatest Brit ...
''
* Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984), Alex Scott - Sports presenter, pundit and footballer. The first female football pundit at a World Cup for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, the first female pundit on Sky Sports Super Sunday (UK TV programme), ''Super Sunday'', and the first female to be a permanent presenter of ''Football Focus''
* Ethel Scott - Athlete, the first black woman to represent Great Britain in an international athletics competition
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