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British African-Caribbean people are an
ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. They are British citizens whose ancestry originates from 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 ...
or they are nationals of 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 ...
who reside in the UK. There are some self-identified Afro-Caribbean people who are multi-racial. The most common and traditional use of the term African-Caribbean community is in reference to groups of residents continuing aspects 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 ...
culture, customs and traditions in the UK.
The earliest generations of
Afro-Caribbean people
Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...
to migrate to Britain trace their ancestry to a wide range of
Afro Caribbean ethnic groups.
African Caribbean people descend from disparate groups of
African peoples
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 ...
who were brought, sold and taken from
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
as
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
to the
colonial Caribbean.
In addition British African Caribbeans may have ancestry from various
indigenous Caribbean tribes, and from settlers of
European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
and
Asian ethnic groups
The ancestral population of modern Asian people has its origins in the two primary prehistoric settlement centres – greater Southwest Asia and from the Mongolian plateau towards Northern China.
Migrations of distinct ethnolinguistic groups ...
.
According to the National Library of Medicine the average African Caribbean person has on average 20% European Admixture.
Arriving in small numbers to reside in port cities in England and Wales since the mid-18th century, the most significant wave of migration came after
World War II
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 ...
, coinciding with the
decolonisation
Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on separatism, in ...
era and the dissolution of the British Empire. Known as the Windrush generation, they had arrived as
citizens of United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKCs) in the 1950s and 1960s owing to birth in the former
British colonies
A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Counci ...
of 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 ...
. Although those who settled in the UK prior to 1973 were granted either
right of abode
The right of abode is an individual's freedom from immigration control in a particular country. A person who has the right of abode in a country does not need permission from the government to enter the country and can live and work there withou ...
or
indefinite leave to remain
Indefinite leave to remain (ILR) or permanent residency (PR) is an immigration status granted to a person who does not hold the right of abode in the United Kingdom (UK), but who has been admitted to the UK without any time limit on their stay a ...
by the
Immigration Act 1971
The Immigration Act 1971c 77 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning immigration and nearly entirely remaking the field of British immigration law. The Act, as with the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, and that of 1968, re ...
, a series of governmental policies had caused some to be erroneously labelled as unlawfully residing in the UK in the 2000s and 2010s, which subsequently became known as the
Windrush scandal.
The population has a diverse background, with origins 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 ...
,
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...
,
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain of ...
,
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
,
Grenada
Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...
,
Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda (, ) is a sovereign country in the West Indies. It lies at the juncture of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the Leeward Islands part of the Lesser Antilles, at 17°N latitude. The country consists of two maj ...
,
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindian ...
,
Dominica
Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...
,
Montserrat
Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...
,
Anguilla
Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The territo ...
,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea wh ...
,
Guyana
Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...
, and
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
.
In the 21st century, African-Caribbean communities are present throughout the United Kingdom's major cities, and the surviving members of this generation, sometimes called the Windrush Britons, and their descendents, constitute the multi-ethnic cultural group residing in the country. As there isn't a specific
UK census
Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the Second World War), Ireland in 1921/Northern Ireland in 1931,https://www.nisra.gov. ...
category which comprehensively covers the community, population numbers remain somewhat ambiguous. 'Black Caribbean' (under a '
Black British
Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British citizens of either African or Afro-Caribbean descent.Gadsby, Meredith (2006), ''Sucking Salt: Caribbean Women Writers, Migration, and Survival'', University of Missouri Press, pp. 76–7 ...
' heading), and 'Mixed: White and Black Caribbean' (under a '
Mixed' heading) denote full or partial descent, and recorded 594,825 and 426,715 persons, respectively, at the
2011 United Kingdom census
A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...
. '
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
: White Caribbean', 'Mixed: Caribbean Asian' and 'Mixed: White Caribbean' are census categories which were also utilised.
In this regard, and illustrating complexities within African Caribbean peoplehood, there are notable examples of those with a parent or grandparent of African-Caribbean ancestry identifying with, or being perceived as,
white people in the United Kingdom
White people in the United Kingdom are a multi-ethnic group of UK residents who identify as and are perceived to be white people. White people constitute the historical and current majority of the people living in the United Kingdom, with 87.2% ...
.
Terminology
A glossary published in the ''
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
The ''Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health'' is a peer-reviewed public health journal that covers all aspects of epidemiology and public health. It is published by the BMJ Group.
History
The journal was founded in 1947 by John Ryle, a ...
'' with the intention of stimulating debate about the development of better and more internationally applicable terms to describe ethnicity and race, suggests a definition of Afro-Caribbean/African Caribbean as, "A person of African ancestral origins whose family settled in the Caribbean before emigrating and who self identifies, or is identified, as Afro-Caribbean (in terms of racial classifications, this population approximates to the group known as Negroid or similar terms)". A survey of the use of terms to describe people of African descent in medical research notes that: "The term African Caribbean/Afro-Caribbean when used in Europe and North America usually refers to people with African ancestral origins who migrated via the Caribbean islands". It suggests that use of the term in the UK is inconsistent, with some researchers using it to describe people of Black and of Caribbean descent, whereas others use it to refer to those of either West African or Caribbean background. Furthermore, as
immigration to the United Kingdom
Since 1945, immigration to the United Kingdom, controlled by British immigration law and to an extent by British nationality law, has been significant, in particular from the Republic of Ireland and from the former British Empire, especiall ...
from Africa increased in the late 20th century, the term has sometimes been used to include British residents solely of African origin or as a term to define all
Black British
Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British citizens of either African or Afro-Caribbean descent.Gadsby, Meredith (2006), ''Sucking Salt: Caribbean Women Writers, Migration, and Survival'', University of Missouri Press, pp. 76–7 ...
residents, though the phrase African and Caribbean has more often been used to cover such a broader grouping.
The
British Sociological Association
The British Sociological Association (BSA) is a scholarly and professional society for sociologists in the United Kingdom, and was founded in 1951. It publishes the academic journals ''Sociology'', '' Work, Employment and Society, Sociological R ...
's guidelines on ethnicity and race state that "African-Caribbean has replaced the term Afro-Caribbean to refer to Caribbean peoples and those of Caribbean origin who are of African descent. There is now a view that the term should not be hyphenated and that indeed, the differences between such groups mean the people of African and Caribbean origins should be referred to separately". ''
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 ...
'' and ''
Observer
An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment.
Observer may also refer to:
Computer science and information theory
* In information theory, any system which receives information from an object
* State observer in con ...
'' style guide prescribes the use of "African-Caribbean" for use in the two newspapers, specifically noting "not Afro-Caribbean".
Sociologist
Peter J. Aspinall Peter J. Aspinall is a social scientist whose research focuses on health services, the terminology and classification of ethnicity, and the relationship between ethnicity and health. He is Emeritus Reader in Population Health at the Centre for Hea ...
argues that the term "Black" has been reclaimed by people of African and Caribbean origin in the UK, noting that in a 1992 health survey, 17 per cent of 722 African–Caribbeans surveyed, including 36 percent of those aged 16 to 29, described themselves as "
Black British
Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British citizens of either African or Afro-Caribbean descent.Gadsby, Meredith (2006), ''Sucking Salt: Caribbean Women Writers, Migration, and Survival'', University of Missouri Press, pp. 76–7 ...
". This, he suggests, "appears to be a pragmatic and spontaneous (rather than politically led) response to the wish to describe an allegiance to a 'British' identity and the diminishing importance of ties with a homeland in the Caribbean".
Census
There isn't one particular 'ethnic group' census category used 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 ...
, within the
UK census
Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the Second World War), Ireland in 1921/Northern Ireland in 1931,https://www.nisra.gov. ...
, which comprehensively describes or encompasses persons who are a part of, or identified with, the African-Caribbean community in the United Kingdom.
'Black Caribbean' is the category which recorded the highest population figures (associated with African Caribbean heritage) at the
2011 United Kingdom census
A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...
. 'Black Caribbean' is under a '
Black or Black British' heading in the census. 'Mixed: White and Black Caribbean' also had a significant recorded population within the country, denoting unquantified partial African Caribbean descent, as well as 'White' ancestry. This ethnic group category was listed under a '
Mixed' heading in the census.
Other 'Mixed' subcategories which identify some form of Caribbean descent are 'Mixed: Caribbean Asian' and 'Mixed: White Caribbean'.
'White Other: White Caribbean', a write-in ethnic group under the
White Other
The term Other White is a classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom and has been used in documents such as the 2011 UK Census to describe people who self-identify as white (chiefly European) persons who are not of the English, Welsh, ...
census subcategory, may also denote partial or distant African Caribbean heritage.
Outside of censuses, there are notable examples of people with African Caribbean ancestry (often via a grandparent or great-grandparent) who are perceived as, or identified with, being
white people in the United Kingdom
White people in the United Kingdom are a multi-ethnic group of UK residents who identify as and are perceived to be white people. White people constitute the historical and current majority of the people living in the United Kingdom, with 87.2% ...
.
Demographics
In the
2011 Census of England and Wales, 594,825 individuals specified their ethnicity as "Caribbean" under the "Black/African/Caribbean/Black British" heading, and 426,715 as "White and Black Caribbean" under the "Mixed/multiple ethnic group" heading.
In Scotland, 3,430 people classified themselves as "Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British" and 730 as "Other Caribbean or Black" under the broader "Caribbean or Black" heading.
In Northern Ireland, 372 people specified their ethnicity as "Caribbean".
The published results for the "Mixed" category are not broken down into sub-categories for Scotland and Northern Ireland as they are for England and Wales.
[
In the UK Census of 2001, 565,876 people classified themselves in the category 'Black Caribbean', amounting to around 1 per cent of the total population.] Of the "minority ethnic" population, which amounted to 7.9 per cent of the total UK population, Black Caribbean people accounted for 12.2 per cent. In addition, 14.6 per cent of the minority ethnic population (equivalent to 1.2 per cent of the total population) identified as mixed race, of whom around one third stated that they were of mixed Black Caribbean and White descent.
Birthplace
The Census also records respondents' countries of birth and the 2001 Census recorded 146,401 people born in Jamaica, 21,601 from Barbados, 21,283 from Trinidad and Tobago, 20,872 from Guyana, 9,783 from Grenada, 8,265 from Saint Lucia, 7,983 from Montserrat, 7,091 from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 6,739 from Dominica, 6,519 from Saint Kitts and Nevis, 3,891 from Antigua and Barbuda and 498 from Anguilla.
Detailed country-of-birth data from the 2011 Census is published separately for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England and Wales, 160,095 residents reported their country of birth as Jamaica, 22,872 Trinidad and Tobago, 18,672 Barbados, 9,274 Grenada, 9,096 St Lucia, 7,390 St Vincent and the Grenadines, 7,270 Montserrat, 6,359 Dominica, 5,629 St Kitts and Nevis, 3,697 Antigua and Barbuda, 2,355 Cuba, 1,812 The Bahamas and 1,303 Dominican Republic. 8,301 people reported being born elsewhere in the Caribbean, bringing the total Caribbean-born population of England and Wales to 264,125. Of this number, 262,092 were resident in England and 2,033 in Wales. In Scotland, 2,054 Caribbean-born residents were recorded, and in Northern Ireland 314. Guyana is categorised as part of South America in the Census results, which show that 21,417 residents of England and Wales, 350 of Scotland and 56 of Northern Ireland were born in Guyana. Belize is categorised as part of Central America. 1,252 people born in Belize were recorded living in England and Wales, 79 in Scotland and 22 in Northern Ireland.[
Based on a variety of official sources and extrapolating from figures for England alone, Ceri Peach estimates that the number of people in Britain born in the West Indies grew from 15,000 in 1951, to 172,000 in 1961 and 304,000 in 1971, and then fell slightly to 295,000 in 1981. He estimates the population of West Indian ethnicity in 1981 to be between 500,000 and 550,000.][
]
Education
Black Caribbeans are more likely than White Britons to have formal qualifications. In 2001, around 29% of White Britons had no qualifications, compared to 27% for Black Caribbeans. In 2011, 24% of White British had no qualifications, higher than the national average of 23%, compared to 20% for Black Caribbeans.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, a disproportionate number of Caribbean migrant children were (often wrongly) classified as "educationally subnormal" and placed in special schools and units. By the end of the 1980s, the chances of white school leavers finding employment were four times better than those of black pupils. In 2000–01, black pupils were three times more likely than white pupils and ten times more likely than Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
pupils to be officially excluded from school for disciplinary reasons.
In 2004, 23.2 per cent of Black Caribbean pupils in England achieved five or more GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...
s or equivalent at grades A* to C including English and mathematics, compared with 41.6 per cent of White British pupils and 40.9 per cent of all pupils regardless of ethnicity. In 2013, the equivalent figures were 53.3 per cent for Black Caribbean pupils, 60.5 per cent for White British pupils and 60.6 per cent overall. Black Caribbean pupils from low income backgrounds tend to academically perform better than White British pupils from low income families. Amongst pupils eligible for free school meals (used as a measure of low family incomes), Black Caribbean pupils outperformed White British pupils by 36.9 to 27.9 per cent for boys and 47.7 to 36.8 per cent for girls in 2013. A report published by the Department for Education in 2015 notes that "Black Caribbean and Mixed White & Black Caribbean students have...shown very strong improvement, from being half as likely sWhite British students to achieve the benchmarks of educational success in the early 2000s to near parity in 2013, although stubborn gaps do remain".
Black Caribbean pupils have a higher university entry rate than White British students.
Socio-economics
Socio-economic status is based on the type of work a person does, or what they used to do if they are retired. According to data based on the 2011 Census, 40.7% of Black Caribbeans placed in the top 3 socio-economic groups (higher/lower managerial, professional and intermediate). This ranked as the fifth highest combined percentage out of the 18 ethnicities featured.
In terms of occupational class, research by Professor Yaojun Li finds that ''second-generation'' Black Caribbean men (i.e. those born in the UK or arrived before the age of 13) are more or less on par with White British men, while Black Caribbean women had a higher occupational class than White British women from the 1970s to the 1990s. Second-generation Black Caribbean women have now surpassed White British women. Further research by Dr Richard Norrie of ''Civitas
In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on th ...
'' noted a growing Black middle class, with around 35.7% of Black Caribbean men in “middle class” jobs in 2020 (compared to only 7% in the 1970s/1980s). The corresponding 2020 figure for White British men is 35.8%. The report claims that this convergence is "testimony to the accomplishments of black Caribbean men, as well as the openness of British economic life".
In 2007, a study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is a charity that conducts and funds research aimed at solving poverty in the UK. JRF's stated aim is to "inspire action and change that will create a prosperous UK without poverty."
Originally called the ...
found that Black Caribbeans had one of the lowest poverty rates among the different main ethnic minority groups in Britain. Of the largest non-white ethnic minority groups, Bangladeshis (65%), Pakistanis (55%) and Black Africans (45%) had the highest poverty rates. Black Caribbeans (30%) and Indians (25%) had the lowest rates. For families where at least one adult was in paid work, Black Caribbeans and Indians again had the lowest poverty rates of 10-15%, compared to around 60% for Bangladeshis, 40% for Pakistanis and 30% for Black Africans. In 2011, a further comparison found that Black Caribbeans (with British Chinese and Indians) had lower child and adult poverty rates than Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Black Africans.
White British households tend to have the highest net wealth. Estimates of Black Caribbean household wealth vary, according to source. A 2020 report by the Resolution Foundation
The Resolution Foundation is an independent British think tank established in 2005. Its stated aim is to improve the standard of living of low- and middle-income families.
Appointments
In June 2015, the former Conservative MP David Willetts to ...
found Black Caribbean households have an approximate median total wealth of £120,000 (higher than Chinese, Black African, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Other White households), placing them in third place out of the major ethnic groups in the UK. Civitas’s study found that Black Caribbean citizens have average wealth or assets of £85,000 - again placing them in third place out of the major ethnic groups in the UK:
Between 1972-2020, of the largest ethnic minority groups in Britain, Black Caribbeans (and Indians) had the highest employment rates overall. For much of the 1970s, Black Caribbeans had the highest employment rates - even higher than the White ethnic group.
Between 2004-2008 and 2013-2014, Black Caribbeans earned more than their White British counterparts. In 2015, the Equality and Human Rights Commission
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a non-departmental public body in Great Britain, established by the Equality Act 2006 with effect from 1 October 2007. The Commission has responsibility for the promotion and enforcement of eq ...
conducted research into ethnic minority pay gaps between 1993-2014. The report found that UK born Black Caribbean men had closed much of the pay gap to White British males, while UK born Black Caribbean women consistently out-earned White British women.
In 2019, Black Caribbeans had a higher hourly median wage than Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Black Africans, White other and the other Asian ethnic group. Black Caribbean women continued to earn more on average than White British women.
Population distribution
The greatest concentration of 'Black Caribbean' people is found in London, where 344,597 residents classified themselves as Black Caribbean in the 2011 Census, accounting for 4.2 per cent of the city's population.[ Other significant concentrations were (not in order) ]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 ...
,[Assessment for Afro-Caribbean people in the United Kingdom](_blank)
Minorities at Risk (MAR) Project. University of Maryland. 2004. Accessed ''6 October 2006'' 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 ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
, Watford
Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne.
Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...
, Slough
Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
and 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 ...
. In these cities, the community is traditionally associated with a particular area, such as Brixton
Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...
, Harlesden
Harlesden is a district in the London Borough of Brent, North West London.
Located north of the Grand Union Canal and Wormwood Scrubs, the Harrow Road flows through the centre of the area which goes eastwards to Central London and west towards ...
, Stonebridge, Hackney, Lewisham
Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...
, Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
and Peckham
Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720.
History
"Peckham" is a Saxon p ...
in London, West Bowling
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 R ...
and Heaton in Bradford, Chapeltown in Leeds, St. Pauls in Bristol, Handsworth and Aston
Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre.
History
Aston wa ...
in Birmingham, Moss Side
Moss Side is an Inner city, inner-city area of Manchester, England, south of the Manchester city centre, city centre, It had a population of 20,745 at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census. Moss Side is bounded by Hulme to the north, Cho ...
in Manchester, St Ann's in Nottingham, Pitsmoor in Sheffield and Toxteth
Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Merseyside.
Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Dingle, and Edge Hill.
The area w ...
in Liverpool. According to the 2011 UK Census
A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...
Birmingham was home to the largest Black Caribbean population, followed by Croydon
Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...
, Lewisham
Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...
, Lambeth
Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...
, Brent and Hackney.
Religion
The vast majority of African-Caribbeans in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
follow Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, but there are around 30,000 African-Caribbean Muslims, 20,000 of those reside in London. Some of them are born to Muslim families, while others converted to Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
in various circumstances including marriage.
History
Early pioneers
Beginning from the 16th century until the early 19th century, Africans were purchased by European slave traders and shipped across the Atlantic to work as slaves in the various European colonies in the Americas. Approximately thirteen million Africans came to the Americas this way, to various locations such as Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...
, New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
, Colonial Brazil
Colonial Brazil ( pt, Brasil Colonial) comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Durin ...
and the Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...
. Historians estimated approximately two million Africans were shipped to various British colonies
A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Counci ...
in the Caribbean and South America. These slaves would be given new names, adopt European dress and Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, and be forced to work on plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
s which produced cash crop
A cash crop or profit crop is an Agriculture, agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate marketed crops from staple crop (or "subsistence crop") ...
s to be shipped back to Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, completing the last leg of the triangular trade
Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset t ...
. Conditions on these plantations were harsh, and many escaped into the countryside or showed other forms of resistance.
One impact of the American War of Independence
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
was the differing historical development of African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
and African-Caribbeans. Whereas the American colonists had legalised slavery via their colonial assemblies, slavery was never legal under British common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
and was thus prohibited in Britain.
The much lauded black Briton
Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British citizens of either African or Afro-Caribbean descent.Gadsby, Meredith (2006), ''Sucking Salt: Caribbean Women Writers, Migration, and Survival'', University of Missouri Press, pp. 76–7 ...
Ignatius Sancho
Charles Ignatius Sancho ( – 14 December 1780) was a British abolitionist, writer and composer. Born on a slave ship in the Atlantic, Sancho was sold into slavery in the Spanish colony of New Granada. After his parents died, Sancho's owner t ...
was among the leading British abolitionists
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
in the 18th century, and in 1783 an abolitionist movement spread throughout Britain to end slavery throughout the British Empire, with the poet William Cowper
William Cowper ( ; 26 November 1731 – 25 April 1800) was an English poet and Anglican hymnwriter. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scen ...
writing in 1785: "We have no slaves at home – Then why abroad? Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs receive our air, that moment they are free. They touch our country, and their shackles fall. That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud. And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then, And let it circulate through every vein." There are records of small communities in the ports of 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 ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
and South Shields
South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...
dating back to the mid-18th century. These communities were formed by freed slaves following the abolition of slavery in 1833. Typical occupations of the early migrants were footmen
A footman is a male domestic worker employed mainly to wait at table or attend a coach or carriage.
Etymology
Originally in the 14th century a footman denoted a soldier or any pedestrian, later it indicated a foot servant. A running footman deli ...
or coachmen
A coachman is an employee who drives a coach or carriage, a horse-drawn vehicle designed for the conveyance of passengers. A coachman has also been called a coachee, coachy, whip, or hackman.
The coachman's first concern is to remain in full c ...
.
19th century
Prominent African-Caribbean people in Britain during the 19th century include:
* William Davidson William or Bill Davidson may refer to:
Businessmen
* Bill Davidson (businessman) (1922–2009), Michigan businessman and sports team owner
** William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan, named in honor of Bill Davidson
* William Davidson ...
(1781–1820), Cato Street Conspirator
* Rev . George Cousens, a Jamaican who became minister of Cradley Heath Baptist Church
Cradley Heath Baptist Church, also known as Four-ways Baptist Church, was the first Church of any denomination to build a chapel in Cradley Heath, West Midlands. The first meeting was in December 1833, in Grainger's Lane. Later, land was bought ...
in 1837
* 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 ...
(1805–1881), a nurse in the Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
. Voted the greatest ever Black Briton.
* Walter Tull
Walter Daniel John Tull (28 April 1888 – 25 March 1918) was an English professional footballer and British Army officer of Afro-Caribbean descent. He played as an inside forward and half back for Clapton, Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Tow ...
, footballer and soldier,
* Andrew Watson, footballer.
* Robert Wedderburn (1762–1835/6?), Spencean revolutionary
* Nathaniel Wells
Nathaniel Wells (10 September 1779 – 13 May 1852) was a British land owner and magistrate of Afro-Caribbean descent. Born on a Saint Kitts plantation to a white father and black mother, Wells inherited his father's plantations. He was sent to ...
, landowner and yeomanry officer.
Early 20th century
The growing Caribbean presence in the British military
The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, su ...
led to approximately 15,000 Afro-Caribbean immigrants arriving in the north-west of England around the time of 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 ...
to work in munitions factories.
During the First World War, Sergeant William Robinson Clarke travelled from his native Jamaica and became Britain's first black pilot.
The 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 ...
n poet and communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
, Claude McKay
Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ (September 15, 1890See Wayne F. Cooper, ''Claude McKay, Rebel Sojourner In The Harlem Renaissance (New York, Schocken, 1987) p. 377 n. 19. As Cooper's authoritative biography explains, McKay's family predated ...
came to 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 ...
following the First World War and became the first Black British
Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British citizens of either African or Afro-Caribbean descent.Gadsby, Meredith (2006), ''Sucking Salt: Caribbean Women Writers, Migration, and Survival'', University of Missouri Press, pp. 76–7 ...
journalist, writing for the ''Workers' Dreadnought
''Workers' Dreadnought'' was a newspaper published by variously named political parties led by Sylvia Pankhurst.
The paper was started by Pankhurst at the suggestion of Zelie Emerson, after Pankhurst had been expelled from the Women's Social ...
''.
Bahamian Dr Allan Glaisyer Minns became the first black mayor in Britain when he was elected Mayor of Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340 ...
, Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
, in 1904.
World War II
In February 1941, 345 West Indian workers were brought to work in and around 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 ...
. They were generally better skilled than the local Black British
Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British citizens of either African or Afro-Caribbean descent.Gadsby, Meredith (2006), ''Sucking Salt: Caribbean Women Writers, Migration, and Survival'', University of Missouri Press, pp. 76–7 ...
population. There was some tension between them and West African
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Ma ...
s who had settled in the area.
The "Windrush generation"
After World War II
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 ...
, many Caribbean people migrated to North America and Europe, especially to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands. As a result of the losses during the war, the British government began to encourage mass immigration from mainland Europe to fill shortages in the labour market; this was not enough and citizens from the former countries of the British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
and Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
also began to seek work in the UK. The British Nationality Act 1948
The British Nationality Act 1948 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on British nationality law which defined British nationality by creating the status of "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies" (CUKC) as the sole national ci ...
gave Citizenship of the UK and Colonies to all people living in the United Kingdom and its colonies, and the right of entry and settlement in the UK.[National Archives](_blank)
Citizenship 1906–2003. Retrieved 6 November 2006. Many West Indians were attracted by better prospects in what was often referred to as the mother country.
The ship brought a group of 802 migrants to the port of Tilbury
The Port of Tilbury is a port on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London, as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for contai ...
, near London, on 22 June 1948. ''Empire Windrush'' was a troopship
A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...
en route from Australia to England via the Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
, docking in Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...
, in order to pick up servicemen who were on leave. An advertisement had appeared in a Jamaican newspaper offering cheap transport on the ship for anybody who wanted to come and work in the United Kingdom. Many former servicemen took this opportunity to return to Britain with the hopes of rejoining the RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
, while others decided to make the journey just to see what England was like. The arrivals were temporarily housed in the Clapham South
Clapham South is a station on London Underground's Northern line between and Balham. The station is located at the corner of Balham Hill (A24) and Nightingale Lane, at the southern edge of Clapham Common. It is in both Travelcard Zone 2 and Tr ...
deep shelter in southwest London, about away from Coldharbour Lane
Coldharbour Lane is a road in south London, England, that leads south-westwards from Camberwell to Brixton. The road is over long with a mixture of residential, business and retail buildings - the stretch of Coldharbour Lane near Brixton Ma ...
in Brixton
Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...
. Many intended to stay in Britain for a no more than few years and a number did return to the Caribbean, but the majority remained to settle permanently. The arrival of the passengers has become an important landmark in the history of modern Britain, and the image of West Indians filing off the ship's gangplank has come to symbolise the beginning of modern British multicultural
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
society.
The arrival of West Indian immigrants on the ''Empire Windrush'' was not expected by the British government, and not welcome. George Isaacs
George Alfred Isaacs JP DL (28 May 1883 – 26 April 1979) was a British politician and trades unionist who served in the government of Clement Attlee.
Isaacs was born in Finsbury to a Methodist family. He married Flora Beasley (1884–1 ...
, the Minister of Labour and National Service
The Secretary of State for Employment was a position in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. In 1995 it was merged with Secretary of State for Education to make the Secretary of State for Education and Employment. In 2001 the employment functions w ...
stated in Parliament that there would be no encouragement for others to follow their example. In June 1948, 11 Labour Members wrote to British Prime Minister
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...
complaining about excessive immigration. In the same month, Arthur Creech Jones
Arthur Creech Jones (15 May 1891 – 23 October 1964) was a British trade union official and politician. Originally a civil servant, his imprisonment as a conscientious objector during the First World War forced him to change careers. He was el ...
, the Secretary of State for the Colonies
The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British Cabinet government minister, minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various British Empire, colonial dependencies.
Histor ...
noted in a Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
memorandum that the Jamaican Government could not legally prevent people from departing, and the British government could not legally prevent them from landing. However, he stated the government was opposed to this immigration, and all possible steps would be taken by the Colonial Office
The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...
and the Jamaican Government to discourage it.
In June 1950, a Cabinet committee was established with the terms of reference of finding "ways which might be adopted to check the immigration into this country of coloured people from British colonial territories." In February 1951, that committee reported that no restrictions were required.
There was plenty of work in post-war Britain, and industries such as British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
, 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 " ...
and public transport recruited almost exclusively from Jamaica and Barbados. Though African-Caribbean people were encouraged to journey to Britain through immigration campaigns created by successive British governments, many new arrivals were to endure prejudice, intolerance and racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
from sectors of white society. This experience was to mark African-Caribbean people's relations with the wider community over a long period. Early African-Caribbean immigrants found private employment and housing denied to them on the basis of race. Trade unions would often not help African-Caribbean workers and some pubs, clubs, dance halls and churches would bar black people from entering. Housing was in short supply following the wartime bombing, and the shortage led to some of the first clashes with the established white community. Clashes continued and worsened into the 1950s, and riots erupted in cities including London, 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 ...
and 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 ...
. In 1958, attacks in the London area of Notting Hill
Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road M ...
by white youths marred relations with West Indian residents, and the following year as a positive response by the Caribbean community an indoor carnival event organised by '' West Indian Gazette'' editor Claudia Jones
Claudia Vera Jones (; 21 February 1915 – 24 December 1964) was a Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist. As a child, she migrated with her family to the US, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist and black national ...
took place in St Pancras Town Hall, and would be a precursor to what became the annual Notting Hill Carnival
The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean festival event that has taken place in London since 1966 . Some of the racism and intolerance was stoked by explicitly fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
or anti-immigration
Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, has become a significant political ideology in many countries. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory ...
movements including Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...
's Union Movement
The Union Movement (UM) was a far-right political party founded in the United Kingdom by Oswald Mosley. Before the Second World War, Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) had wanted to concentrate trade within the British Empire, but the Uni ...
, the League of Empire Loyalists
The League of Empire Loyalists (LEL) was a British pressure group (also called a "ginger group" in Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations), established in 1954. Its ostensible purpose was to stop the dissolution of the British Empire. The League ...
, the White Defence League
The White Defence League (WDL) was a British neo-Nazi political party. Using the provocative marching techniques popularised by Oswald Mosley, its members included John Tyndall.
Formation
The WDL had its roots in Colin Jordan's decision to spl ...
, the National Labour Party and others. Influenced by this kind of propaganda, gangs of Teddy Boy
The Teddy Boys or Teds were a mainly British youth subculture of the mid 1950s to mid 1960s who were interested in rock and roll and R&B music, wearing clothes partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, which Savil ...
s would sometimes attack black people in London. Historian Winston James argues that the experience of suffering racism was a major factor in the development of a shared Caribbean identity among immigrants from a range of different island and class backgrounds. The shared experience of employment by organisations such as London Transport and the National Health Service also played a role in the building of a British African-Caribbean identity.
Social Geographer Ceri Peach
Guthlac Ceri Klaus Peach (26 October 1939 - 3 October 2018) was a geographer from Bridgend, Wales. He was an undergraduate (BA 1961), graduate student (DPhil, 1964), and lecturer at Merton College, Oxford before being appointed to a lectureshi ...
estimates that the number of people in Britain born in the West Indies grew from 15,000 in 1951 to 172,000 in 1961. In 1962, the UK enacted the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, restricting the entry of immigrants, and by 1972 only holders of work permits, or people with parents or grandparents born in the United Kingdom, could gain entry – effectively stemming most Caribbean immigration. Despite the restrictive measures, an entire generation of Britons with African-Caribbean heritage now existed, contributing to British society in virtually every field.
Recession and turbulence, 1970s and 1980s
The 1970s and 1980s were decades of comparative turbulence in wider British society; industrial disputes preceded a period of deep recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...
and widespread unemployment
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...
which seriously affected the economically less prosperous African-Caribbean community. During the decades of the 1970s and 1980s, unemployment among the children of Caribbean migrants ran at three to four times that of white school leavers. By 1982 the number of all people out of work in Britain had risen above three million for the first time since the 1930s. Societal racism
Societal racism is the theory of formalization of a set of institutional, historical, cultural and interpersonal practices within a society that places one or more social or ethnic groups in a better position to succeed and disadvantages other g ...
, discrimination, poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...
, powerlessness and oppressive policing sparked a series of riots in areas with substantial African-Caribbean populations.[Q&A: The Scarman Report 27](_blank)
BBC Online. April 2004. Retrieved 6 October 2006. These "uprisings" (as they were described by some in the community) took place in St Pauls
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
in 1980, Brixton
Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...
, Toxteth
Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Merseyside.
Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Dingle, and Edge Hill.
The area w ...
and Moss Side
Moss Side is an Inner city, inner-city area of Manchester, England, south of the Manchester city centre, city centre, It had a population of 20,745 at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census. Moss Side is bounded by Hulme to the north, Cho ...
in 1981, St Pauls again in 1982, Notting Hill Gate
Notting Hill Gate is one of the main thoroughfares of Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically the street was a location for toll gates, from which it derives its modern name.
Location
At Ossington Street/Ke ...
in 1982, Toxteth in 1982, and Handsworth, Brixton
Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...
and Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
in 1985.
The riots had a profoundly unsettling effect on local residents, and led the then Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
William Whitelaw
William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, (28 June 1918 – 1 July 1999) was a British Conservative Party politician who served in a wide number of Cabinet positions, most notably as Home Secretary from 1979 to 1983 and as ''de fac ...
to commission the Scarman report
The Scarman report was commissioned by the UK Government following the 1981 Brixton riots. Lord Scarman was appointed by then Home Secretary William Whitelaw on 14 April 1981 (two days after the rioting ended) to hold the enquiry into the riots. ...
to address the root causes of the disturbances. The report identified both "racial discrimination" and a "racial disadvantage" in Britain, concluding that urgent action was needed to prevent these issues becoming an "endemic, ineradicable disease threatening the very survival of our society". The era saw an increase in attacks on black people by white people. The ''Joint Campaign Against Racism'' committee reported that there had been more than 20,000 attacks on non-white Britons including Britons of Asian origin during 1985.
1990s and 21st century
The police response to the 1993 murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence
Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; h ...
led to outcry and calls to investigate police conduct. The ensuing government inquiry, the Macpherson Report, concluded that there was institutional racism
Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, health ...
in London's Metropolitan Police Service
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 ...
.
In 2009, 1.2% of British children under 16 were Black Caribbean and 1.1% were mixed white and black Caribbean. Among those children who were living with at least one Caribbean parent, only one in five was living with two Caribbean parents.
In 2015 Catherine Ross, who came to the UK from Saint Kitts
Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...
as a child, founded the SKN (Skills, Knowledge and Networks) Heritage Museum, which became Museumand: The National Caribbean Heritage Museum, a "museum without walls" based in Nottingham.
Windrush scandal
From November 2017 British newspapers reported that the Home Office had threatened Commonwealth immigrants who arrived before 1973 with deportation if they could not prove their right to remain in the UK. In April 2018, Prime Minister Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
apologised to leaders of Caribbean countries about the way immigrants had been treated, promising compensation to those affected. In what has become known as the Windrush Scandal, Home Secretary Amber Rudd
Amber Augusta Rudd (born 1 August 1963) is a British former politician who served as Home Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2018 to 2019. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Hastings and Rye, fi ...
initially denied the existence of, and later denied being aware of aggressive departmental deportation targets, but eventually resigned on 29 April 2018 after news outlets published documents indicating that she knew of the targets. Prior to Rudd's resignation, Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer f ...
, her successor as Home Secretary, had expressed sympathy for the victims of the scandal, telling the ''Sunday Telegraph'' that "I thought, 'That could be my mum ... my dad ... my uncle ... it could be me.'" Landing cards relating to earlier passenger arrivals in the United Kingdom had been destroyed in October 2010. A public inquiry ordered by 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. ...
, titled the ''Windrush Lessons Learned Review'', was published in March 2020.
Genetics
Genome-wide studies
Genome-wide research of Afro-Caribbean people
Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...
have shown that the grouping, on average, have 77.4% African, 15.9% European, and 6.7% Asian DNA. This 2010 study represented African Caribbeans living within 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 ...
. Within the United Kingdom, men and women of African Caribbean origin or ancestry were also found to have around 13 percent of their DNA from sources other than Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. In the research, only volunteers who had all four grandparents of Afro-Caribbean origin were sampled. Researchers have been able to attribute this partly to historic European males' sexual exploitation of enslaved African women.
Notable contributions
Academia
There are a number of African-Caribbean academics who are especially prominent in the arts and humanities. Professor Paul Gilroy
Paul Gilroy (born 16 February 1956) is an English sociologist and cultural studies scholar who is the founding Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Race and Racism at University College, London (UCL). Gilroy is the 2019 ...
, of Afro-Guyanese
Afro-Guyanese are generally descended from the enslaved people brought to Guyana from the coast of West Africa to work on sugar plantations during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Coming from a wide array of backgrounds and enduring condition ...
and English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
heritage, is one of Britain's leading academics, having taught sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
at Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
as well as Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...
and the London School of Economics
, mottoeng = To understand the causes of things
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £240.8 million (2021)
, budget = £391.1 millio ...
. The Jamaican-born cultural theorist Professor Stuart Hall has also been a highly influential British intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
since the 1960s. Dr. Robert Beckford
Robert Beckford (born 1965) is a British academic theologian and currently Professor of Black Theology at The Queen's Foundation, whose documentaries for both the BBC and Channel 4 have caused debate among the Christian and British religious co ...
has presented several national television and radio documentaries exploring African-Caribbean history, culture and religion.
Other prominent academics include Guyanese born Professor Gus John
Augustine John (born 11 March 1945)[Biography](_blank)
, Gus John website. is a Grenada, Grenadian-born writer, e ...
, who has been active in education, schooling and political radicalism in Britain's inner cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and London since the 1960s. He was involved in the organising the "Black people's day of action", a response to the 1981 New Cross Fire
The New Cross house fire was a conflagration, fire that occurred during a party at a house in New Cross, south-east London, in the early hours of Sunday, 18 January 1981. The blaze killed 13 young black people aged between 14 and 22, and one su ...
. In 1989 he was appointed Director of Education in Hackney and was the first black person to hold such a position. He has also worked as an education consultant in Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. John was the co-ordinator of the Black Parents Movement The National Association of Black Supplementary Schools (NABSS) is a resource, information and advice centre for supplementary schools aimed at Black children and parents in the United Kingdom.
Supplementary schools for the children of Caribbean a ...
in Manchester, founded the Education for Liberation book service and helped to organise the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books in Manchester, London and Bradford. He has worked in a number of University settings, including a visiting Faculty Professor of Education at the University of Strathclyde
The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...
in Glasgow and is currently an associate professor of the Institute of Education at the University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
. Dr "William" Lez Henry works with young people, particularly black boys. He is the founder of Black Liberation Afrikan Knowledge (BLK Friday) a platform for people to give presentations to the community. In 2005, he received an Excellence in Education Award at the Challenging The Genius: Excellent Education for Children: "Our Future is Not a dream", Conference in Chicago, USA. He is one of the founding members of the National Independent Education Coalition (NIEC). Henry previously hosted a fortnightly talk show on popular London pirate radio station Galaxy 102.5FM (formerly 99.5 FM) and who is also a former lecturer of Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...
. Prof. Harry Goldbourne is a former member of the radical group the Black Unity and Freedom Party who went on to teach at the University of the South Bank.
Acting and entertainment
The 1970s saw the emergence of independent filmmakers such as Trinidadian-born Horace Ové
Sir Horace Shango Ové (born 1936) is a Trinidad and Tobago-born British filmmaker, photographer, painter and writer. One of the leading black independent filmmakers to emerge in Britain in the post-war period, Ové holds the ''Guinness World R ...
, the director of ''Pressure
Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country and e ...
'', among others. London's was founded in the 1985 by Jamaican-born Yvonne Brewster
Yvonne Jones Brewster (née Clarke; born 7 October 1938) is a Jamaican actress, theatre director and businesswoman, known for her role as Ruth Harding in the BBC television soap opera ''Doctors''. She co-founded the theatre companies Talawa in ...
, their first production being based on C. L. R. James
Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, ''The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are in ...
's historical account of the Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution (french: révolution haïtienne ; ht, revolisyon ayisyen) was a successful insurrection by slave revolt, self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt ...
, ''The Black Jacobins
''The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution'' is a 1938 book by Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James, a history of the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804. He went to Paris to research this work, where he met Haitian ...
''. Since the 1980s, the Blue Mountain Theatre's productions have offered a more earthy style of populist comedy, often bringing over Jamaican artists such as Oliver Samuels
Oliver Samuels (born 9 November 1948) is a Jamaican comedian and actor. He is often described as the Jamaican "King of Comedy", performing both stand-up and comic theatre.
Career
Samuels found fame on the popular Jamaica Broadcasting Corporat ...
.
While Guyanese actor Robert Adams became the first African-Caribbean dramatic actor to appear on British television on 11 May 1938 (in a production of Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...
's play ''The Emperor Jones
''The Emperor Jones'' is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed, ...
''), African-Caribbean entertainers were first widely popularised on British television broadcasts with the postwar resumption of 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. ...
...
television in 1946 (pre-war Black entertainers on the BBC – the first in the world – had primarily been
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
stars). The profile of African-Caribbean actors on
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
, such as
Lennie James
Lennie Michael James (born 11 October 1965) is a British actor, screenwriter, and playwright. His work includes playing Morgan Jones in the television series, '' The Walking Dead'' and in its spin-off, '' Fear the Walking Dead'', and starring ...
,
Judith Jacob
Judith Jacob (born 13 December 1961) is a British actress best known for her role as the health visitor Carmel Roberts in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', a role she played from 1986 to 1989.[Diane Parish
Diane Parish (born 1 November 1969) is an English actress, who has been portraying the character Denise Fox on the BBC One soap opera ''EastEnders'' since 2006
Born in Chelsea, London and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Pari ...]
, has widened substantially since 1970s programmes such as: ''
Love Thy Neighbour Love Thy Neighbor or Love Thy Neighbour refers to the Biblical phrase "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" from the Book of Leviticus 19:18 in the Old Testament about the ethic of reciprocity known as the Golden Rule or the Great Commandment.
...
'' (
Rudolph Walker
Rudolph Malcolm Walker (born 28 September 1939) is a Trinidadian-British actor, known for his sitcom roles as Bill Reynolds in ''Love Thy Neighbour'' (1972–76) and Constable Frank Gladstone in '' The Thin Blue Line'' (1995–96). Since 2001, ...
) and ''
Rising Damp
Structural dampness is the presence of unwanted moisture in the structure of a building, either the result of intrusion from outside or condensation from within the structure.
A high proportion of damp problems in buildings are caused by ambient ...
'' (
Don Warrington
Don Warrington MBE (born Donald Williams, 23 May 1951) is a Trinidadian-born British actor. He is best known for playing Philip Smith in the ITV sitcom ''Rising Damp'' (1974–78), and Commissioner Selwyn Patterson in the BBC detective series ...
) when their role was often to act simply as either the butt of, or foil to, racist jokes made by White characters. The most influential programme in moving away from this formula was the 1989–94
Channel Four
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service i ...
barbershop sitcom ''
Desmond's
''Desmond's'' is a British television situation comedy broadcast by Channel 4 from 1989 to 1994. Conceived and co-written by Trix Worrell, and produced by Charlie Hanson and Humphrey Barclay, ''Desmond's'' stars Norman Beaton as barber Desmond ...
'', starring
Norman Beaton
Norman Lugard Beaton (31 October 1934 – 13 December 1994) was a Guyanese actor long resident in the United Kingdom. He became best known for his role as Desmond Ambrose in the Channel Four television comedy series ''Desmond's''. The writer S ...
and
. In 1982, at the time, the youngest ever actor to play
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
,
Peter Davison
Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett (born 13 April 1951), known professionally as Peter Davison, is an English actor with many credits in television dramas and sitcoms. He made his television acting debut in 1975 and became famous in 1978 as Tristan ...
is of
Afro-Guyanese
Afro-Guyanese are generally descended from the enslaved people brought to Guyana from the coast of West Africa to work on sugar plantations during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Coming from a wide array of backgrounds and enduring condition ...
and English descent.
[*
*]
One of the biggest African-Caribbean names in
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
is
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 ...
, who began his career as a stand-up comedian but whose television sketch shows, where he often caricatured Caribbean
émigré
An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French ''émigrer'', "to emigrate".
French Huguenots
Many French Huguenots fled France followi ...
s, made him popular enough to headline numerous primetime comedy shows from, for instance, ''Lenny Henry'' in 1984 to ''The Lenny Henry Show'' in 2004. Becoming a prominent television personality between 2002 and 2009 after appearing on series ''
Big Brother'',
Jade Goody
Jade Cerisa Lorraine Goody (5 June 1981 – 22 March 2009) was an English television personality. She came to public prominence in 2002 when she appeared on the third series of the Channel 4 reality show '' Big Brother''. She went on to s ...
was of
Afro-Jamaican
Afro-Jamaicans are Jamaicans of predominant Sub-Saharan African descent. They represent the largest ethnic group in the country. Most Jamaicans of mixed-race descent self-report as just Jamaican.
The ethnogenesis of the Black Jamaican people st ...
and English descent.
[*
*] Another ''Big Brother'' contestant'',''
Alison Hammond
Alison Hammond (born 5 February 1975) is an English television personality and actress. She competed in the third series of the reality show '' Big Brother'' in 2002, in which she was the second housemate to be evicted. She has since become a ...
, has appeared on many television programmes and in 2020,
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
announced a shake-up of ''
This Morning'' presenters, with Hammond replacing
and
Ruth Langsford
Ruth Wendy Holmes (née; Langsford; born 17 March 1960) is an English television presenter. She has presented various television shows, including '' This Morning'' (1999–present) in which she is the longest serving presenter, '' Gift Wrapped ...
on a Friday, presenting alongside
Dermot O'Leary
Seán Dermot Fintan O'Leary Jr. (born 24 May 1973) is an English broadcaster who currently works for ITV and BBC Radio 2. His radio career began when he worked as a disc jockey at Essex Radio, but he is best known for being the presenter of ''T ...
. Hammond is of Afro-Jamaican descent.
Another big African-Caribbean name 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 Paddingto ...
, 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 br ...
,
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 Caribbean heritage, taking part in the genealogy documentary series,
Who Do You Think You Are?.
Other television personalities and presenters include
Angellica Bell
Angellica Bell (born 24 March 1976) is a British television and radio presenter, best known for her presenting on CBBC between 2000 and 2006. She is also known for providing occasional cover on ''The One Show'' and for co-presenting ''The M ...
,
Andi Oliver
Andrea "Andi" Oliver (born 1964) is a British chef, television and radio broadcaster, and former singer. She is best known for her appearances on the BBC cooking show the ''Great British Menu''.
Early career
Oliver is a former member of the b ...
,
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 ...
,
Josie d’Arby,
Diane-Louise Jordan
Diane Johnson (born 28 June 1960), better known by her stage name Diane Louise Jordan, is a British television presenter. She was the first black presenter of the children's television programme ''Blue Peter'', being involved in the programme fro ...
,
Floella Benjamin
Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin, Baroness Benjamin, (born 23 September 1949GRO Register of Marriages: SEP 1980 14 0207 LAMBETH – Keith D. Taylor=Floella K.Y. Benjamin) is a Trinidadian-British actress, singer, presenter, author, businesswoman, ...
,
Margherita Taylor
Margherita Taylor (born 26 April 1972) is an English TV and radio presenter. She is a freelancer with Global Group and currently presents on stations Smooth Radio and Classic FM.
Taylor studied media and communications at the University o ...
,
Trisha Goddard
Patricia Gloria Goddard (born 23 December 1957) is an English television presenter and actress. She is best known for her television talk show ''Trisha Goddard (TV series), Trisha'' (1998–2010), which was broadcast on a mid-morning slot on I ...
,
Shaun Wallace
Shaun Anthony Linford Wallace (born 2 June 1960) is an English barrister, lecturer and television personality. He is one of the six "chasers" on the ITV quiz show '' The Chase''. Wallace is a part-time lecturer and visits schools, colleges and ...
,
Mr Motivator,
Alex Scott,
Marvin and
Rochelle Humes
Rochelle Eulah Eileen Humes (née Wiseman; born 21 March 1989) is an English singer and television presenter. Humes began her career in British pop groups S Club Juniors and The Saturdays, and has gone on to co-present the ITV entertainment se ...
.
The highest professional achievement by a British African-Caribbean actor was
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste (born 26 April 1967) is an English actress. She is known for her role in the 1996 comedy-drama film '' Secrets & Lies'', for which she received acclaim and earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Sup ...
's 1996 nominations for an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
(Oscar),
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 ...
and
British Academy Award (bafta) for her feature-film debut role in ''
Secrets & Lies''.
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 ...
replicated this in 2017, with nominations for a Golden Globe, BAFTA and Oscar for her performance in ''
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 ...
''. Numerous British African-Caribbean actors have become successful in United States, US film and television. In 2009 portraying Lord Voldemort#Portrayals within films, Lord Voldemort – one of the most famous characters in cinematic history – Frank Dillane has
Afro-Jamaican
Afro-Jamaicans are Jamaicans of predominant Sub-Saharan African descent. They represent the largest ethnic group in the country. Most Jamaicans of mixed-race descent self-report as just Jamaican.
The ethnogenesis of the Black Jamaican people st ...
and English heritage. Oxfordshire-born Wentworth Miller of ''Prison Break'' fame is also of partial Jamaican descent. Miller earned a Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe Award nomination for his ''Prison Break'' role and won a Saturn Awards, Saturn Award for his guest appearance in the critically acclaimed ''The Flash (2014 TV series), The Flash.'' Actor Stephen Graham, who has featured in three Martin Scorsese directed productions, has
Afro-Jamaican
Afro-Jamaicans are Jamaicans of predominant Sub-Saharan African descent. They represent the largest ethnic group in the country. Most Jamaicans of mixed-race descent self-report as just Jamaican.
The ethnogenesis of the Black Jamaican people st ...
, Swedish people, Swedish and English ancestry.
[*
*] Delroy Lindo earned a Satellite Awards, Satellite Award for his role in American docudrama television film ''Glory & Honor and'' won numerous accolades for his role as Paul, in Spike Lee, Spike Lee's highly praised ''Da 5 Bloods.'' Lindo is of Jamaican heritage''.'' Colin Salmon, who is also of Jamaican descent, is known for playing Charles Robinson (James Bond), Charles Robinson in three James Bond in film, James Bond films and James "One" Shade in the Resident Evil (film series), ''Resident Evil'' film series. Marsha Thomason, who is of mixed Jamaican and English heritage, has appeared in Disney's ''The Haunted Mansion (film), The Haunted Mansion,'' opposite Eddie Murphy, and US television series ''Las Vegas (TV series), Las Vegas,'' Lost (TV series), ''Lost'' and ''White Collar (TV series), White Collar''. Ashley Walters (actor), Ashley Walters, of Jamaican ancestry, played the role as Antoine in ''Get Rich or Die Tryin' (film), Get Rich or Die Tryin'
'' David Harewood, who is Barbadian descent, played David Estes, Director of the CIA's Counter-terrorism Centre in the highly successful television series ''Homeland (TV series), Homeland.'' He also played a lead role in the popular American superhero TV series ''Supergirl (TV series), Supergirl.'' Harewood was honoured with the ''Variety (magazine), Variety'' Outstanding Achievement Award in recognition of his work and success in both the U.K. and U.S. Lashana Lynch featured opposite Brie Larson in 2019’s ''Captain Marvel (film), Captain Marvel'' and played the role of Nomi, the secret agent who replaces Daniel Craig, Craig’s retired James Bond (literary character), Bond ''in No Time to Die.'' Lynch won a BAFTA for her role in ''No Time to Die,'' thanking her Jamaican parents while accepting the award. Adrian Lester, who is of Jamaican descent, featured in the political blockbuster ''Primary Colors (film), Primary Colors,'' directed by Mike Nichols, Mike Nicholls and co-starring John Travolta, Kathy Bates, Billy Bob Thornton and Emma Thompson. This part earned Lester a Chicago Film Critics Association award nomination for "Most Promising Actor".
Art and design
![Tate Britain (5822081512) (2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Tate_Britain_%285822081512%29_%282%29.jpg)
One of the most influential African-Caribbean people in the British art world has been Prof. Eddie Chambers (writer and artist), Eddie Chambers. Chambers, along with Donald Rodney, Marlene Smith (artist), Marlene Smith and curator, artist, critic and academic Keith Piper (artist), Keith Piper, founded the BLK Art Group in 1982, when they were initially based in the West Midlands conurbation, West Midlands. According to Chambers, significant artists such as the Guyanese-born painters Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling and the Jamaican sculptor Ronald Moody initially found that, despite achieving worldwide renown, it was difficult to find acceptance in the highest echelons of the art establishment. Chambers worked with Donald Rodney and Sonia Boyce, both of whose work is represented in the permanent collections of the London's Tate Britain museum. In 1986 the Hayward Gallery presented the exhibition ''The Other Story (exhibition), The Other Story'', which provided a survey of African-Caribbean, African and Asian artists working in the UK.
Other African-Caribbean artists of note include Faisal Abdu'allah of Jamaican heritage, Guyanese-born Ingrid Pollard, British-based Jamaican painter Eugene Palmer (artist), Eugene Palmer, the sculptor George "Fowokan" Kelly, and Tam Joseph, whose 1983 work ''Spirit of Carnival'' was a vivid depiction of the
Notting Hill Carnival
The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean festival event that has taken place in London since 1966 . The movement was also part of the impetus that led to the founding of the Association of Black Photographers by Mark Sealy and others. In 1999 the filmmaker Steve McQueen (director), Steve McQueen (not to be confused with the Hollywood filmstar) won Britain's most prestigious art prize, the Turner Prize, for his video ''Deadpan''. The artist and producer Pogus Caesar was commissioned by Artangel to direct a film based on McQueen's work. ''Forward Ever – Backward Never'' was premiered at the Lumiere in London in 2002. Caesar has also established the OOM Gallery Archives, based in Birmingham, which has in excess of 14,000 images including photographs of contemporary
Black British
Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British citizens of either African or Afro-Caribbean descent.Gadsby, Meredith (2006), ''Sucking Salt: Caribbean Women Writers, Migration, and Survival'', University of Missouri Press, pp. 76–7 ...
culture.
Music
In 1983, Cleo Laine won the Grammy Awards, Grammy Award for Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female, Best Female Jazz Vocal Performance for ''Cleo at Carnegie: The 10th Anniversary Concert''. Laine has Jamaican heritage. Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run), ''Caribbean Quee''n scored Billy Ocean two Grammy Award nominations and won him the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards, 1985 Grammy Awards. Ocean was born in Trinidad but has lived in Sunningdale, Berkshire since 1978. In 1987, Steel Pulse won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album, ''Babylon the Bandit, Babylon The Bandit.'' Original band members (David Hinds, Basil Gabbidon and Ronald McQueen) are all of Jamaican descent. Formed in 1988, Soul II Soul gained significant popularity in the United States, U.S. and achieved two Grammy Awards. Founding member Jazzie B is of Antiguan descent, while lead singer, Caron Wheeler, has Jamaican ancestry. With worldwide record sales of over 70 million, Grammy Award nominated UB40 has various members of Caribbean heritage. With multiple UK number-one achievements between 1999 and 2001, S Club 7 had two members of African-Caribbean heritage. Bradley McIntosh was born to Afro-Jamaican, African-Jamaican parents, who had been members of funk group The Cool Notes, and Tina Barrett, who has Afro-Guyanese, African-Guyanese and English ancestry. Mel B, Melanie Brown was an integral part of the 90s girl group Spice Girls, The Spice Girls, reportedly the List of best-selling girl groups, best-selling female group of all time. Brown was born to a father from Saint Kitts and Nevis. Leigh-Anne Pinnock is a member of Little Mix, one of the List of best-selling girl groups, best-selling girl groups of all time. Pinnock has Barbadians, Barbadian and Jamaicans, Jamaican ancestry.
Estelle (musician), Estelle, who has a Grenadian father, picked up a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in 2009. Corinne Bailey Rae, achieved Grammy Awards in 2008 and 2012. Her father is from Saint Kitts and Nevis. Part-Jamaican, Ella Mai, won Grammy Award for Best R&B Song, the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 2019. A Mercury Prize and 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, Grammy Awards-nominated artist, rapper Slowthai has Afro-Barbadian, English and Irish people, Irish ancestry.
Nilüfer Yanya has the same background, and also Turkish people, Turkish heritage. Other Grammy nominated British-Caribbean artists include Joan Armatrading, Aswad, Craig David, Eddy Grant, Lianne La Havas, Leona Lewis, Mahalia (singer), Mahalia, Julian Marley, Musical Youth, Nao (singer), Nao, Maxi Priest and Jorja Smith.
Politics
![Official portrait of Ms Diane Abbott](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Official_portrait_of_Ms_Diane_Abbott.jpg)
African-Caribbeans have made significant contributions to British politics and trade unionism. Labour MP Diane Abbott became the first black female to be elected to 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. ...
in 1987 United Kingdom general election, 1987. Elected alongside her was one other African-Caribbean Labour MP, Bernie Grant, who had Afro-Guyanese, Guyanese heritage. Linda C. Douglas was the first black member of the party's National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, National Executive Committee, representing the later expelled Militant tendency. Jamaican-born Bill Morris, Baron Morris of Handsworth, Bill Morris was General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union from 1992 to 2003, and became the first black leader of a major British trade union. Jamaican-born Lurline Champagnie became the first black woman to stand as a parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party in1992. Guyana-born Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos, Valerie Amos became the first black woman to serve as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in 2003 Dawn Butler, who has Jamaican ancestry, became the first black female to speak from the despatch box in the House of Commons in 2009. Dominican-born Patricia Scotland was elected the first female Commonwealth Secretary-General in 2015. Marvin Rees, who has partial Jamaican heritage, is the UK’s first directly elected black mayor. In 2022, Paulette Hamilton won the Erdington by-election to become Birmingham, Birmingham's first Black MP. Hamilton has Jamaican ancestry.
Other notable contributors include David Lammy, Jennette Arnold, Jocelyn Barrow, Doreen Lawrence, Alison Lowe, Shakira Martin (NUS president), Shakira Martin, Lydia Simmons, Henry Gunter, Sam Beaver King, Harold Moody and
Stuart Hall.
Sport
British African-Caribbean people are well represented in traditional British sports such as football (soccer), football and rugby football, rugby, and have also represented the nation at the highest level in sports where Caribbean people typically excel in the home countries such as cricket and sport of athletics, athletics. Some British African-Caribbean people have gone on to become international sports stars and top global earners in their chosen sporting field.
Athletics
Britain's first Olympic Games, Olympic sprint medals came from Harry Edward, born in Guyana, who won two individual bronze medals at the 1920 Summer Olympics, 1920 games in Antwerp.
["Fast and loose"](_blank)
''The Guardian''. Retrieved 14 November 2006. Many years later, sprinter Linford Christie, born in Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica, won 23 major championship medals, more than any other British male athlete to date. Christie's career highlight was winning a gold medal in the immensely competitive 100 metres event in the 1992 Summer Olympics, 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Welsh people, Welsh hurdler Colin Jackson, who went to considerable lengths to explore his Jamaican heritage in a BBC documentary, held the 110 metres hurdles world record for 11 years between 1993 and 2004.
Ethel Scott (1907–84), who had a Jamaican father and an English mother, was the first black woman to represent Great Britain in an international athletics competition. She was a sprinter active in international competitions for a brief period in the 1930s. Jamaican-born Tessa Sanderson became the first British African-Caribbean woman to win Olympic gold, receiving the medal for her javelin throw, javelin performance in the 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Denise Lewis, of Jamaican heritage, won heptathlon gold in the 2000 Summer Olympics, 2000 Sydney Olympics,
["Yardies who built Britain"](_blank)
Guardian Online. 6 August 2002. Retrieved 6 October 2006. a games where 13 of Britain's 18 track and field representatives had Afro-Caribbean roots.
Four years later in the 2004 Summer Olympics, Athens Olympics, Kelly Holmes, the daughter of a Jamaican-born car mechanic, achieved the rare feat of taking gold in both the 800 metres, 800 and 1500 metres races. In the same games, Britain's Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 100 metres relay, men's 4 × 100-metre relay team of Marlon Devonish, Darren Campbell, Mark Lewis-Francis and Jason Gardener, all of African-Caribbean heritage, beat the favoured United States quartet to claim Olympic gold. Jessica Ennis-Hill, the daughter of a Jamaican self-employed painter and decorator, won heptathlon gold in the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012 London Olympics.
Boxing
British boxing, boxers of a Caribbean background have played a prominent role in the national boxing scene since the early 1980s. In 1995 Frank Bruno, whose mother was a Pentecostalism, Pentecostal laypreacher from Jamaica, became Britain's first List of heavyweight boxing champions, world heavyweight boxing champion in the 20th century. Bruno's reign was shortly followed by British-born Jamaican Lennox Lewis, who defeated Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson to become the world's premier heavyweight during the late 1990s. Middleweights Chris Eubank, who spent his early years in Jamaica, and Nigel Benn, of Barbadian descent, both claimed world titles and fought a series of brutal battles in the early 1990s. In the 2000 Summer Olympics, Sydney Olympics of 2000, Audley Harrison (who has Jamaican heritage) became Britain's first Boxing at the 2000 Summer Olympics, heavyweight gold medalist. Other boxing champions from the British African-Caribbean community include the welterweight Lloyd Honeyghan, nicknamed "Ragga, Ragamuffin Man" by boxing superstar Donald Curry in 1986, in reference to his (in comparison to Curry's extravagance) normal appearance; Honeyghan subsequently spectacularly defeated Curry. James DeGale, who is of Afro-Grenadians, Afro-Grenadian and English descent, represented Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics as an Amateur boxing, amateur, winning a gold medal in the middleweight division. He became the first British boxer in history to win both an Olympic gold medal and a professional world title after landing the IBF super-middleweight crown in April 2015. David Haye, who has English and Jamaican heritage, was the first British boxer to reach the final of the World Amateur Boxing Championships. Haye is one of only three boxers in history to have unified the cruiserweight world titles and become a world heavyweight champion. Jamaican-born Dillian Whyte, has held the World Boxing Council, WBC Interim championship, interim heavyweight title since March 2021.
Cricket
Cricket has long been a popular pastime among African-Caribbean people in both the West Indies and the United Kingdom, though this has waned somewhat since its peak during the 1960s–1980s.
[Not-cricket cricket](_blank)
''Catalyst'' magazine. "Test match ticket prices have risen beyond most working class pockets and, some years ago, the ground authorities banned the drums, whistles and klaxons that once created an atmosphere of Caribbean carnival at the Kennington Oval, particularly. The ban has since been slightly relaxed, but probably too late. First, and even some second, generation Caribbean immigrants went to cheer the all-conquering West Indies team, now in decline." Accessed 21 November 2006. After the period of widespread immigration, tours of England by the combined West Indian cricket team became cultural celebrations of Caribbean culture in Britain, particularly at cricket grounds such as The Oval in South London.
Almost all the great List of West Indian Test cricketers, West Indian cricketers became regular features of the County Championship, domestic county game, including Garfield Sobers, Vivian Richards and Michael Holding. In turn, British cricketers of Caribbean origin also began to make an impact in English cricket. In the 1980s–1990s, players including Gladstone Small (born in Barbados), Devon Malcolm (born in Jamaica) and Phillip DeFreitas (born in
Dominica
Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...
) represented English cricket team, England, making significant contributions to the side. Phillip DeFreitas, Devon Malcolm and Gladstone Small made 44, 40 and 17 test cricket, test match appearances for England respectively. DeFreitas also played 103 One Day Internationals for England. Malcolm made 10 appearances and Small made 53 appearances in the shorter format. Small and DeFreitas also represented England in the final of the 1987 Cricket World Cup against Australia.
Football
The inaugural West Indian-born football (soccer), footballer to play football at a high level in Britain was
Andrew Watson, who played for Queen's Park F.C., Queen's Park (Glasgow) and went on to play for Scotland national football team, Scotland. Born in May 1857 in British Guiana, Watson lived and worked in Scotland and came to be known as one of the best players of his generation. He played in 36 games for Queen's Park and also appeared for the London Swifts in the English FA Cup championship of 1882, making him the first Black player in English Cup history. Watson earned two Scottish Cup medals and four Charity Cup medals during his career; ''Who's Who'' also acknowledged his performances in international matches. Watson's place in football history included a spell in management as Club Secretary for Queen's Park – making Watson the first Afro-Caribbean man to reach the boardroom.
Other early Caribbean footballers included
Walter Tull
Walter Daniel John Tull (28 April 1888 – 25 March 1918) was an English professional footballer and British Army officer of Afro-Caribbean descent. He played as an inside forward and half back for Clapton, Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Tow ...
, of Barbadian descent, who played for the north London club Tottenham Hotspur in the early 20th century. Some years later, Jamaican-born Lindy Delapenha, Lloyd "Lindy" Delapenha made an impact playing for Middlesbrough Football Club, Middlesbrough between 1950 and 1957, becoming a leading goal scorer and the first Black player to win a championship medal. However, it was not until the 1970s that African-Caribbean players began to make a major impact on the game. Clyde Best (West Ham 1969–1976), born in Bermuda, paved the way for players such as Cyrille Regis (born in French Guiana),
[Football Unites, Racism Divides](_blank)
Cyril Regis. Retrieved 6 October 2006. and Luther Blissett (footballer), Luther Blissett (born in Jamaica). Blissett and Regis joined Viv Anderson to form the first wave of Black footballers to play for the England national football team, England national team. Although the number of players of African-Caribbean origin in the English league was increasing far beyond proportions in wider society, when Black players represented the English national team, they still had to endure racism attacks at home and abroad. When selected to play for England, Regis received a bullet through the mail with the threat: "You'll get one of these through your knees if you step on our Wembley Stadium, Wembley turf."
By the 1980s the British African-Caribbean community was well represented at all playing levels of the game. John Barnes (footballer), John Barnes, born in Jamaica, was one of the most talented players of his generation and one of the few footballers to win every honour in the domestic English game including the PFA Players' Player of the Year.
[Society has to change – Barnes](_blank)
''Alan Green (broadcaster), Alan Green talks to John Barnes.'' BBC Online. 4 November 2002. Retrieved 6 October 2006. Although Barnes played for England on 78 occasions between 1983 and 1991, his performances rarely matched his club standard.
[John Barnes profile. Football-England](_blank)
"His international career began when there was a definite hooligan element among England's support. There was also a definite racist element. Famously, a group of travelling supporters was heard remarking, after Barnes had scored his wonderful goal in Brazil, that England had only won 1–0 because his goal didn't count. It is true that the consistent brilliance he showed for Liverpool always eluded him in an England Shirt but for everybody who thought the problem lay with him there was as many again who felt it was the inadequacy of his teammates." Accessed 21 November 2006. Subsequently, Barnes identified a culture of racism in football during his era as a player.
Players of African-Caribbean origin continued to excel in English football, in the 1990s Paul Ince – whose parents were from Trinidad – went on to captain Manchester United F.C., Manchester United, Liverpool F.C. and the English national team. The contribution was reciprocated when a number of British born footballers including Robbie Earle, Frank Sinclair and Darryl Powell represented the Jamaica national football team in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, 1998 World Cup finals.
At the turn of the millennium, British-born Black footballers constituted about 13% of the FA Premier League, English league, and a number of groups including "Kick It Out" were highlighting issues of racism still in the game. In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, 2006 World Cup finals, Theo Walcott, a striker of English and Jamaican parents, became the youngest ever player to join an 2006 FIFA World Cup squads#England, England world cup squad – a side that included African-Caribbean players in every department, goal-keeping, defence, midfield and attack. The England football squad for the 2006 world cup also contained Ashley Cole (Barbadian father), Rio Ferdinand (father from Saint Lucia, St. Lucia) Sol Campbell (Jamaican parents)
alongside goalkeeper David James (footballer), David James, Jermaine Jenas and Aaron Lennon, all with ancestors from the Caribbean. Tyrone Mings, Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling and Kyle Walker are some of the British African-Caribbeans who represented England in 2021.
Lewis Hamilton, whose paternal grandparents immigrated from
Grenada
Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...
, won the 2008 Formula One World Championship, in only his second season in the sport; and, after narrowly finishing second in his debut season. He won the Drivers’ Championship again in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 becoming the most successful British driver in the history of Formula One. Hamilton is of Afro-Grenadian and English descent.
Rugby league and union
Clive Sullivan, who had both Jamaican and Antiguan heritage, captained the Great Britain team which won the 1972 Rugby League World Cup. Sullivan was the first black captain for a Great Britain team, in ''any'' sport. Part of the 2003 Rugby World Cup victory, Jason Robinson (rugby), Jason Robinson was the first African-Caribbean to captain the England rugby union side. He is of
Afro-Jamaican
Afro-Jamaicans are Jamaicans of predominant Sub-Saharan African descent. They represent the largest ethnic group in the country. Most Jamaicans of mixed-race descent self-report as just Jamaican.
The ethnogenesis of the Black Jamaican people st ...
and Scottish people, Scottish descent,
and his biological son Lewis Tierney has the same background with also English ancestry. Ellery Hanley, who has Jamaican heritage, became the first man to captain his side to three consecutive Challenge Cup victories. Hanley is the only player to win the coveted Man of Steel Awards, Man of Steel award on three occasions and is widely considered to be one of the greatest players in rugby league history.
Jimmy Peters (rugby), Jimmy Peters, who was of partial Jamaican descent, was the first black man to play rugby union for England national rugby union team, England. Another England international rugby union player, Danny Cipriani is of Afro-Trinidadian and Tobagonian, Afro-Trinidadian, Italian people, Italian and English ancestry.
Jeremy Guscott, who is of
Afro-Jamaican
Afro-Jamaicans are Jamaicans of predominant Sub-Saharan African descent. They represent the largest ethnic group in the country. Most Jamaicans of mixed-race descent self-report as just Jamaican.
The ethnogenesis of the Black Jamaican people st ...
and English descent, played for Bath Rugby, Bath, England national rugby union team, England and the British and Irish Lions. Other professional players of Afro-Jamaican heritage include Ashton Golding, Michael Lawrence (rugby league), Michael Lawrence, Umyla Hanley, Anthony Sullivan (rugby), Anthony Sullivan, Des Drummond and Ben Jones-Bishop.
Cultural influence
Carnivals and celebrations
African-Caribbean communities organise and participate in Caribbean Carnivals (Caribbean-style carnivals) throughout the UK. The best known of these is the annual
Notting Hill Carnival
The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean festival event that has taken place in London since 1966 , attracting up to 1.5 million people from Britain and around the world, making it the largest street festival in Europe. The carnival began in 1964 as a small procession of Trinidadians in memory of festivals in their home country, and today is regarded as a significant event in British culture.
[Professor David Dabydeen, "Notting Hill Carnival"](_blank)
, Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies, Warwick. In 2006 the carnival was voted onto the list of icons of England.
Luton Carnival, which has taken place since 1976, is the largest one day carnival in the U.K. (it is second only to Notting Hill carnival, which takes place over two days). Leeds West Indian Carnival is Europe's oldest West Indian carnival and now attracts around 130,000 people. Other carnivals include the Leicester Caribbean Carnival and the Birmingham International Carnival.
In 2018, following campaigns and a petition started by Patrick Vernon for 22 June to be recognized as a national day to commemorate and celebrate migration and migrant communities in Britain, and at the height of the Windrush scandal, it was announced by the British government that an annual Windrush Day would be held, supported by a grant of up to £500,000, to recognise and honour the contribution of those who arrived between 1948 and 1971 and to "keep their legacy alive for future generations, ensuring that we all celebrate the diversity of Britain’s history."
Th
Windrush Festivalin London was created in 2018 as a way for home-grown Black businesses and Caribbean-British born Windrush Generation performers to have a platform to celebrate their culture and presence in Britain. The main event Radiate Windrush Festival is always held on the last weekend of June to follow on from National Windrush Day, other festivals across the country are held generally in the month of June or July.
Cuisine
The earliest Caribbean 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 Street, high streets. Caribbean restaurants can now also be found in most areas of Britain where West Indian communities reside, serving traditional Caribbean cuisine, Caribbean dishes such as curried goat, fried dumplings, ackee and Dried and salted cod, salt fish (the national dish of Jamaica), Pelau (the national dish of Trinidad and Tobago), Cou-Cou and Flying fish, Flying Fish (the national dish of Barbados), Pudding and Souse, as well as Fish Cakes from Barbados, the spices known as "Jamaican jerk spice, jerk," and the traditional Sunday West Indian meal of rice and peas.
The best-known Caribbean food brands in the UK are Jamaican Sun, Tropical Sun, Dunn's River and Grace (food company), Grace. In March 2007, Grace foods bought ENCO Products, owners of the Dunn's River Brand, as well as Nurishment, and the Encona Sauce Range. Tropical Sun products have been widely available in the UK for over two decades and there is a sister brand, Jamaica Sun, with products sourced exclusively from Jamaica. The most popular brands can now often be found in the large supermarkets; although the full range continues to be offered only by the local ethnic stores, the interest by the mainstream supermarkets reflects the wider population's interest in ethnic and more lately Afro-Caribbean foods. Caribbean food topped a (2015) list of the types of cuisine British diners would like to see 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.
Community centres
In many parts of Britain, African-Caribbean people have been recognised as being part of a distinct community.
In the 1950s and 1960s, community centres and associations sprung up in some British towns and cities with an aim to serve African-Caribbean populations. One such example was the African Caribbean Self Help Organisation (ACSHO), founded in 1994 in the district of
Handsworth in Birmingham. Responsibilities included arranging social events, such as festivals, carnivals and coach trips, which helped bring the communities together.
Large centres presently operating include the Leeds West Indian centre and the Manchester West Indian centre. Typical of present-day centres is the Afro Caribbean Millennium Centre in Birmingham, which was established with National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lottery funding to support principally Caribbean people in areas such as employment, housing, education, immigration, and cultural issues.
Religious activity
The influx of African-Caribbean people to the United Kingdom was accompanied by religious practices more common to the North American continent. In Britain, many African-Caribbean people continued to practise Nonconformist (Protestantism), Non-conformist Protestantism, Protestant denominations with an Evangelicalism, Evangelical influence such as Pentecostalism and Seventh Day Baptist, Seventh Day Baptism. African-Caribbean people have supported new churches in many areas of the country, which have grown to act as social centres for the community. Mike Phillips (writer), Mike Phillips, writing for the UK national archive project, described the influences of the new churches thus; "[they] gave the entire Caribbean community a sense of stability. At a time when migrants were under severe psychological pressure and distrusted the official services, or were misunderstood when they went to them, the Black church groups offered invaluable advice and comfort." In 2005, ''The Economist'' magazine discussed the growth of evangelical churches in London and Birmingham; "Another reason is that Britain's most prominent Afro-Caribbean institutionsthe Black evangelical churchesare dominated by the urban poor. That has to do with the way the Caribbean was missionised: the hotter brand of Christianity gained most converts among the dispossessed, who then re-exported it to Britain." The manner of worship in some of these churches is more akin to that of
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
practices than to traditional Roman Catholicism in Great Britain, English Catholic or Church of England, Anglican liturgy. Gospel music also came to play a part in British cultural life. African-Caribbean people played a central role establishing British gospel choirs, most notably the London Community Gospel Choir.
Some British African-Caribbean people continue to practise other religious beliefs such as the Rastafari movement, which developed in Jamaica. The Rastafarian belief system, associated personal symbols such as dreadlocks and cultural practices concerning cannabis (drug), cannabis have influenced British society far beyond the African-Caribbean community, being adopted by both white British and others.
Language and dialect
English language, English is the English-speaking world, official language of the former British West Indies, therefore African-Caribbean immigrants had few communication difficulties upon arrival in the UK compared to immigrants from other regions.
As integration continued, African-West Indians born in Britain instinctively adopted hybrid dialects combining Caribbean and local List of dialects of the English language, British dialects.
[British Afro-Caribbean English: A bibliography](_blank)
Compiled by Peter L. Patrick. Retrieved 6 October 2006. These dialects and accents gradually entered mainstream British vernacular, and shades of Caribbean dialects can be heard among Britons regardless of cultural origin. A Lancaster University study has identified an emergence in certain areas of Britain of a distinctive accent which borrows heavily from Jamaican creole.
Literature
Jamaican poet James Berry (poet), James Berry was one of the first Caribbean writers to come to Britain after the 1948 British Nationality Act. He was followed by writers including Barbadians George Lamming and Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Trinidadians Samuel Selvon and
C. L. R. James
Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, ''The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are in ...
, Jamaican Andrew Salkey and the Guyanese writer Wilson Harris. These writers viewed London as the centre of the English literary scene, and took advantage of the BBC Radio show ''Caribbean Voices'' to gain attention and be published. By relocating to Britain, these writers also gave Caribbean literature an international readership for the first time and established Caribbean writing as an important perspective within English literature.
[Onyekachi Wambu]
Black British Literature since Windrush
BBC Online. Retrieved 24 November 2006.
Some Caribbean writers also began writing about the hardships faced by settlers in post-war Britain. Lamming addressed these issues in his 1954 novel ''The Emigrants (Lamming novel), The Emigrants'', which traced the journey of migrants from Barbados as they struggled to integrate into British life.
Selvon's novel ''The Lonely Londoners'' (1956) details the life of West Indians in post-World War II London. Writing much later, Ferdinand Dennis both in his journalism and novels, such as ''The Sleepless Summer'' (1989) and ''The Last Blues Dance'' (1996), deals with "an older generation of Caribbean immigrants, whose narratives, stoical and unpolemical, rarely find expression".
By the mid-1980s, a more Extremism, radical wave of writers and poets were addressing the African-Caribbean experience in Britain, promoted by a group of new mainly black-led publishing houses such as Akira, Karia Press (founded by Buzz Johnson), Dangaroo Press, and Karnak House (founded by Amon Saba Saakana), alongside the older established New Beacon Books (founded in 1966 by John La Rose), Allison & Busby (founded in 1967 by Margaret Busby) and Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications (founded in 1969 by Jessica Huntley), and the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books (1982–95).
In 1984, the poet Fred D'Aguiar (born in London to Guyanese parents) won the T. S. Eliot Prize, and in 1994 won the Costa Book Awards, Whitbread First Novel Award for ''The Longest Memory''. Linton Kwesi Johnson's rhyming and socio-political commentary over dub music, dub beats – including such favourites as "Dread Beat An' Blood" and "Inglan Is A Bitch" – made him the unofficial poet laureate of the British African-Caribbean community. Another dub poetry, dub poet, Benjamin Zephaniah, born in
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 ...
to Jamaican parents, overcame a spell in prison to become a well-known writer and public figure. In 2003 he declined an Order of the British Empire, OBE, stating that it reminded him of "thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised".
African-Caribbean British writers have achieved recent literary acclaim. In 2004, Andrea Levy's novel ''Small Island'' won the Whitbread Book of the Year and the Orange Prize for Fiction, one of Britain's highest literary honours. The book also earned her the 2005 Commonwealth Writers' Prize''.'' Levy, born in London to Jamaican parents, is the author of four novels, each exploring the problems faced by Black British-born children of Jamaican emigrants.
[Author Profile Andrea Levy](_blank)
. Retrieved 6 October 2006. In 2005, Dreda Say Mitchell became the first black British writer to be awarded the CWA New Blood Dagger, Crime Writers Association’s John Creasey Dagger for her debut book ''Running Hot''. The book drew upon Mitchell's experiences of working with prisoners and is a chase thriller about a young man trying to break the cycle of going to prison. Mitchell is of Grenadian extraction. In 2006 Zadie Smith won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize#Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best Book (1987–2011), Commonwealth Writers’ Best Book Award (Eurasia Section) and the Orange Prize for ''On Beauty''. Smith's acclaimed first novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), was a portrait of contemporary multicultural London, drawing from her own upbringing with an English father and a Jamaican mother.
[Author Profile](_blank)
Zadie Smith. Retrieved 6 October 2006. ''White Teeth'' was an international best seller and won multiple accolades, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, the Costa Book Awards, Whitbread Book Award in category best first novel, the Guardian First Book Award and the Betty Trask Award. ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine included the novel in its Time's List of the 100 Best Novels, list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.
The UK also has a modest output of African-Caribbean popular fiction. A widely known example is ''Yardie'', a work of Urban fiction written by Victor Headley in 1992, describing the life of a Jamaican courier carrying cocaine from Jamaica to London. The book was published by Steve Pope and Dotun Adebayo of Xpress books. ''Spare Room was'' Dedra Say Mitchell's first psychological thriller. Published in 2019, the book became a critically acclaimed international best seller. At the 2020 British Book Awards, Candice Carty-Williams became the first black woman to win the "Book of the Year" accolade, for her novel ''Queenie (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". ''Queenie'' entered the ''Sunday Times'' Bestseller hardback chart at number two and went on to win numerous accolades.
Media
''The Voice (British newspaper), The Voice'' newspaper was the primary African-Caribbean newspaper in Britain, and was founded in the early 1980s by Val McCalla. However, today it is owned by a Jamaican publisher and has a Caribbean focus. ''Pride magazine'', which has been going for 21 years, is the largest lifestyle magazine for the community and was described by ''
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 ...
'' newspaper as the dominant lifestyle magazine for the black community in the UK for over 15 years. Its owner Pride Media also specialises in helping organisations target the community through a range of media. Other publications have included the ''Gleaner Company, Gleaner'', ''Black Voice'', ''New Editor'' and ''The Caribbean Times''. The growth of such media is a response to the perceived imbalances of "mainstream" media. In 2006, Sir Ian Blair, Chief Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, joined a long list of commentators in branding the mainstream media as Institutional racism, "institutionally racist" for its alleged failure to offer a proper balance in reporting affairs related to the community.
Trinidad-born Sir Trevor McDonald is one of the community's best-known journalists, having been the main presenter (newscaster) for the national
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
network for more than 20 years. Other notable media figures include Gary Younge, ''
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 ...
'' columnist, Clive Myrie, Gillian Joseph, Charlene White, Darren Jordon and Moira Stuart, the veteran BBC news presenter. Trinidadian-born Darcus Howe wrote regularly in the ''New Statesman'' and fronted a number of documentary series including the Channel 4 current affairs programme ''Devil's Advocate''. Much of Howe's work related to the experiences of British African-Caribbean people and racism faced by the Black community. Other notable producer/directors are Terry Jervis (Jervis Media) and Pogus Caesar (Windrush Productions); both have made multicultural, entertainment and sports programmes for Carlton TV, BBC TV and Channel 4.
The community has a strong tradition of "underground" pirate radio broadcasters. Among the most established are London's Lightning Radio, Genesis Radio and Galaxy Radio, which play a mix of ragga, reggae, dancehall, bashment, hip hop music, hip hop and rhythm and blues, R&B. Pirate radio stations such as Supreme Radio, Galaxy Radio (which calls itself "the only de-brainwashing station"), Genesis Radio (known as "the people's station" or "the black power station") and the more recently emerged radio station Omega FM Radio are particularly highly regarded in the Afro Caribbean community for not only playing a variety of music such as soca, soul, dancehall, jazz, hip hop, Reveail and Funky House, but also for dedicating time to have "talk shows" and "information shows" often taking an uncompromising stance in view. Thus giving the community the opportunity to phone in and participate in an array of subjects that mainstream radio, wider media and even other pirate radio stations refuse to address.
In 2002, the BBC established its digital broadcasting strand, BBC Radio 1Xtra, to focus on new Black music – which in effect means catering to the tastes of the country's African-Caribbean youth. The Internet has afforded the community the opportunity to publish en-masse, and there are now thousands of websites and blogs produced by or for African-Caribbean people in the UK such as the BBC's Family History page, and The African-Caribbean Network, Blacknet UK, launched in 1996.
Award-winning Myrna Loy, a female poet and published writer who has recited poetry alongside Linton Kwesi Johnson is a poet in her own right. Her poetry radiates passion for political situations, rages against hypocrisy and abuse and balances it with appreciation and gratitude. She came second in the Bridport Prize, which is one of the UK's notable and prestigious poetry competitions; and came second for her poem "The Last Poem", performed at the Castillo Centre in Manhattan. Loy is three-times published, her book ''The Other Side of Tourism'' shares her conflict between her British and Jamaican roots, and her two poetry books ''Poetry's Teacher'' and ''Poetry's Promise'' share her person and professional life experiences. As a Black Briton, she says: "British culture teaches us to conform, to hide our light under a bushel, to not sing our praises, so as a result I reveal "my light" through my poetry, paintings and my quarterly magazine called ''Blackbright News'', which celebrates the wonderful works Black People (not only in Britain) have done. I may eventually be relegated to the area where tyrants and revolutions belong, but in the meantime, I intend to shout from the roof-tops what I feel and why I feel it!" Myrna (aka Lady Loy) is a radio presenter on Jamrock Radio, and uses this arena to promote black music and black talent.
Musical impact
The period of large-scale immigration brought many new musical styles to the United Kingdom. These styles gained popularity amongst Britons of all cultural origins, and aided Caribbean music in gaining international recognition. The earliest of these exponents was the calypso music, calypso artist Lord Kitchener (calypsonian), Lord Kitchener, who arrived in Britain on the ''Empire Windrush, Windrush'' in 1948 accompanied by fellow musician Lord Beginner.
[Hall, Stuart]
"Calypso kings"
''The Guardian'', 28 June 2002. Retrieved 6 October 2006. Already a star in his native Trinidad, Lord Kitchener got an immediate booking at the only West Indian club in London. Six months later, he was appearing in three clubs nightly, and his popularity extended beyond the West Indian and African nightclub audiences, to include music hall and variety show audiences.
Kitchener's recording "London is the place for me" exemplified the experience of the ''Windrush generation''.
[London is the place for me](_blank)
Review by Ian Simmons. NthPosition.com. Retrieved 6 October 2006. Other calypso musicians began to collaborate with African Kwela musicians and British jazz players in London clubs.
Jamaican music styles reached Britain in the 1960s, becoming the staple music for young British African-Caribbean people. Tours by ska artists such as Prince Buster and the Skatalites fed the growing British-Caribbean music scene, and the success of Jamaican artists Millie (singer), Millie Small, Desmond Dekker and Marcia Griffiths, Bob and Marcia propelled Caribbean music and people into mainstream cultural life. British African-Caribbean people followed the changing styles of Jamaican music and began to produce homegrown music appealing to both Black and White communities. In 1968, The Cats (reggae band), The Cats released a cover of Swan Lake, which became the first Top 50 by a British reggae group and the following year, the British African-Caribbean ska band Symarip recorded "Skinhead Moonstomp" – a cover of the Derrick Morgan song Moon Hop – which had a huge effect on the British ska scene. The ska sound and rude boy imagery inspired a generation of White working-class youths (especially mod (subculture), mods and skinheads), and later helped spawn Britain's Multiculturalism, multi-cultural 2 Tone (music genre), 2 Tone movement in the late-1970s.
As Jamaican ska gave way to the slower styles of rocksteady and the more politicised reggae, British African-Caribbean people followed suit. Reggae sound system, Sound systems to rival those in Jamaica sprung up throughout communities, and "Blues parties" – parties in private houses, where one paid at the door – became an institution. The arrival of Bob Marley to
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 ...
in 1971 helped spawn a Black British music industry based on reggae. His association with the Rastafari movement, Rastafarian movement influenced waves of young people, reared in Britain, to discover their Caribbean roots. Barbadian British, British Barbadian Dennis Bovell became Britain's prominent reggae band leader and producer, working with many international reggae stars, and introducing a reggae flavour to the British pop charts with non-reggae acts such as: Dexys Midnight Runners and Bananarama. Bovell also worked extensively with London-based dub poetry, dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson.
British music with reggae roots prospered in the 1980s and early-1990s. British African-Caribbean artists Musical Youth, Aswad (band), Aswad, Maxi Priest and Eddy Grant had major commercial successes, and the multicultural band UB40 helped promote reggae to an international audience. Birmingham-based Steel Pulse became one of the world's foremost exponents of roots reggae and accompanying Black Power, black consciousness, their 1978 debut album ''Handsworth Revolution'' becoming a seminal release.
British African-Caribbean music had been generally synonymous with Caribbean styles until the 1990s, although some artists had been drawing on British and American musical forms for several decades. In the 1970s and 1980s, British African-Caribbean artists such as Hot Chocolate (band), Hot Chocolate and Imagination (band), Imagination became leaders of the British disco, soul music, soul and R&B scenes. By the mid-1980s, British African-Caribbean people were also incorporating American hip hop music, hip-hop and House music, House styles, becoming leading figures in Britain's developing dance music culture. This led to an explosion of musical forms. British artists created musical hybrids combining many elements including European techno music, techno, Jamaican dancehall, dub, breakbeats and contemporary American R&B. These unique blends began to gain international acclaim through the success of Soul II Soul and the multi-racial Massive Attack.
British African-Caribbean people were at the leading edge of the Oldschool jungle, jungle and drum and bass movements of the 1990s. Although the fast-tempo drums and loud intricate bass lines sounded fresh, Caribbean roots could still be detected. Two successful exponents of these new styles were DJs Goldie and Roni Size, both of Jamaican heritage.
Later, British African-Caribbean musicians and DJs were at the forefront of the UK garage and Grime (music), Grime scenes.
Social and political issues
Discrimination and racism
Historically, community centres have sought to address issues that arise within the community, including problems of Sus law, police harassment and concerns about the housing of African Caribbeans, which was viewed as discriminatory during the early decades of mass immigration. One such community centre was the Gloucestershire West Indian Association, which was formed in 1962. The formation of this group was in response to a number of issues that arose within the community at this time. These included problems around police harassment and concerns about the housing of Black people on certain council estates in the city, which was viewed as discrimination and segregation. The centres also allowed African-Caribbean peoples to socialise without risking the potential racial discrimination and aggression of "unfriendly public house, pubs".
Many of these associations appointed a Community Relations Officer whose role was to liaise between the community and wider British society including the The Establishment, establishment.
Although the community does not face any official or informal restrictions on participation (decision making), political participation, Britons of Caribbean origin are under-represented in local and Politics of the United Kingdom, national politics.
British African-West Indians have long asserted that they encounter discriminatory barriers to most middle- and higher-status occupations, as well as discrimination in hiring practices at all levels of employment. There is also considerable evidence that African-Caribbean people experience differential treatment at the hands of public officials, the Courts of the United Kingdom, British courts and penal system, and the Policing in the United Kingdom, police.
Studies have proposed that the isolation of certain regional urban areas by financial institutions such as insurance brokers disproportionately affects the community to its detriment.
Britain's Education in the United Kingdom, school system, despite efforts to address issues of discrimination, has often been accused of being racially biased to a perceived lack of representation of Black history and culture in the cirricula. For example, the distinct Caribbean English, Caribbean dialects, English-based creole languages, creoles and patois (''patwah'') spoken by many African-Caribbean immigrants and their descendants, have been problematic in the field of education. In a study by language and education specialist professor Viv Edwards, ''The West Indian language issue in British schools'', language – the Creole spoken by the students – was singled out as an important factor disadvantaging Caribbean children in British schools. The study cites negative attitudes of teachers towards any non-standard variety noting that;
Although there are hundreds of African-Caribbean teachers in the UK, it has been suggested that their under-representation in inner-city schools is a major factor in the failure, particularly of secondary-level schools, to achieve a satisfactory average of achievement for the community's children (see Bernard Coard and the Swann Report of 1985).
Business
In 2004, Greater London Authority Economics produced a report to examine the economic contribution black businesses made to London’s economy. The report found that black businesses made up 4% of all London's businesses, provided over 70,000 jobs and had a total turnover of almost £4.5 billion. Of this total, 42% of the businesses were owned by Black Caribbeans or those of partial Black Caribbean origin.
Businesses owned by Africans and Caribbeans generate more than £10bn for the UK each year, according to the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME).
Notable high profile Black Caribbean business successes include Levi Roots, whose Reggae Reggae Sauce, ''Reggae Reggae sauce'' and ''Levi Roots brand'' has grown into a multi-million pound enterprise. Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones' ''The Black Farmer'' range of food products has annual revenues of over £7m. Pat McGrath (make-up artist), Pat McGrath Labs has an estimated value of $1 billion.
See also
* African and Caribbean War Memorial
* Americans in the United Kingdom#African Americans, African American British
*
Afro-Caribbean people
Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...
* Belizean British
* British Indo-Caribbean people
* Identity Cards Act 2006#Ethnic minorities, British national identity card
*Museumand: The National Caribbean Heritage Museum
* ''New Nation'', an Afro-Caribbean newspaper
References
Further reading
* Hakim Adi, Adi, Hakim, ''The History of African and Caribbean Communities in Britain'', London: Wayland, 1995.
* Bygott, David, ''Black and British'', Oxford University Press (18 April 1996).
* Palmer, Ransford W., ''In Search of a Better Life: Perspectives on Migration from the Caribbean'', Praeger Publishers (21 May 1990).
* Mike Phillips (writer), Phillips, Mike, & Trevor Phillips, ''Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain'', HarperCollins Publishers, 1998.
* Taylor, Simon
''A Land of Dreams: A Study of Jewish and Afro-Caribbean Migrant Communities in England'' Routledge (April 1993).
"Young Blacks, Political Groups and the Police in Handsworth" An examination of police attempts to isolate young Blacks and attempts by leftist political groups to attract Black youth into their political orbit that preceded the Handsworth protests of 1985.
External links
The Black Presence in Britain The Voice NewspaperDigital HandsworthBlack Youth Empowerment UKReassessing what we collect website – The Caribbean Community in LondonHistory of Caribbean London with objects and images
Windrush settlers arrive in Britain, 1948 – treasures of The National Archives (UK).Windrush settlers arrive in Britain, 1948 – TranscriptWindrush Foundation
Carnivals & Celebrations
Leeds CarnivalLondon Notting Hill CarnivalLuton CarnivalRadiate Windrush Festival
Community sites
UK Black Community websiteitzcaribbean.com Afro Caribbean Millennium Centrehttps://web.archive.org/web/20070626010926/http://www.calibbian.com/privacy.htm Caribbean] Website for the Birmingham-based community centre
Community Action ProjectSandwel based community centre website
African and Caribbean Black Community Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:British African-Caribbean People
Afro-Caribbean
Black British people,
British people of West Indian descent,
Caribbean British,
Black British history