''West Indian Gazette'' (''WIG'') was a newspaper founded in Brixton, London,
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 ...
, by
Trinidadian
Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...
communist & black nationalist activist
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 ...
(1915–1964) in March 1958. The title as displayed on its masthead was subsequently expanded to ''West Indian Gazette And Afro-Asian Caribbean News''."West Indian Gazette" Lambeth Landmark. ''WIG'' is widely considered to have been Britain's first major black newspaper. Jones, who originally worked on its development with
Amy Ashwood Garvey
Amy Ashwood Garvey (''née'' Ashwood; 10 January 1897 – 3 May 1969) was a Jamaican Pan-Africanist activist. She was a director of the Black Star Line Steamship Corporation, and along with her former husband Marcus Garvey she founded the ''Neg ...
, was its editor. ''WIG'' lasted until 1965, but always struggled financially, closing eight months and four editions after Claudia Jones's death.Donald Hinds, "Claudia Jones and the 'West Indian Gazette'" ''
Race & Class
''Race & Class'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on contemporary racism and imperialism. It is published quarterly by Sage Publications on behalf of the Institute of Race Relations and is interdisciplinary, publishing material across the h ...
'' (
Institute of Race Relations
The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) is a think tank based in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1958 in order to publish research on race relations worldwide, and in 1972 was transformed into an "anti-racist think tank".
Proposed by ''Sund ...
), 3 July 2008.
History
Started as a monthly, it quickly gained a circulation of 15,000. The offices of the newspaper were located in the centre of the then developing Caribbean community in London, at 250
Brixton Road
Brixton Road is a road in the London Borough of Lambeth (south London, England), leading from the Oval at Kennington to Brixton, where it forms the high street and then forks into Effra Road and Brixton Hill at St Matthew's church at the junction ...
, above a record shop.
Impact
Carole Boyce Davies, biographer of Claudia Jones, ascribes to the ''West Indian Gazette'' "a foundational role in developing the Caribbean diaspora in London".Boyce Davies (2007), p. 92. According to
Donald Hinds
Donald Hinds (born in 1934) is a Jamaican-born writer, journalist, historian and teacher. He is best known for his work on the '' West Indian Gazette'' and his fiction and non-fiction books portraying the West Indian community in Britain, parti ...
, who worked as a journalist on ''WIG'': "It was not merely a vehicle to bring the news of what was happening back home and in the diaspora to Britain. It also commented on the arts in all their forms.... It published poems and stories. Its trenchant editorials did not stop at Britain but had an opinion on the what, where and why of the cold war’s hot spots."
Jones herself, in her last published essay, "The Caribbean Community in Britain", said of ''WIG'': "The newspaper has served as a catalyst, quickening the awareness, socially and politically, of West Indians, Afro-Asians and their friends. Its editorial stand is for a united, independent West Indies, full economic, social and political equality and respect for human dignity for West Indians and Afro-Asians in Britain, and for peace and friendship between all Commonwealth and world peoples."Claudia Jones, "The Caribbean Community in Britain", ''
Freedomways
''Freedomways'' was the leading African-American theoretical, political and cultural journal of the 1960s–1980s. It began publishing in 1961 and ceased in 1985.
The journal's founders were Louis Burnham, Edward Strong, W.E.B. Du Bois and its f ...
'' V. 4 (Summer 1964), 354–55. Quoted in Boyce Davies (2007), p. 88.