The Caribbean Windrush Generation, Colonialism and the Idea of Home

            I was born in Jamaica, a former colony of Great Britain. When I was growing up, I did not really understand what that meant.  I knew only that we spoke English and Jamaican patois but English was the official language. I knew too that we learned a lot about British history  in and out of school.  I knew we celebrated British holidays like Boxing Day – the day I was born.  Boxing day is the day after Christmas which was traditionally celebrated like a second Christmas day, particularly for household staff in England who had to work on the day itself.   

Growing up in Jamaica, I had no knowledge of the the specifics of this history and I suspect it was the same for many around me. We just knew that Boxing day was a holiday and it meant additional time with family since all places of business were closed.   These things were just traditional and they spoke to us of home.  Likewise, we ate elaborately decorated buns at Easter and rich wine soaked fruit cake at Christmas—again because that is what the British used to do and that is legacy they left; that is the legacy we kept.  That too spoke to us of home.

So when hundreds of Caribbean residents embarked the MV Empire Windrush on May 28 1948, they got on that ship as British subjects—as knowledgeable about Britain as anyone who lived in the “mother country." Some of them had even fought alongside Britons in World War II.  Certainly, they had literally learned more about Britain than they had about Jamaica or Africa or anywhere else for that matter.   Noted African author, Ngugi wa Thiong'o in his memoir, In the House of the  Interpreter, writes eloquently about that phenomenon. As another person with a British colonial legacy, in his case, Kenya, he wrote about going to an elite school called Alliance where he learned much about Britain but very little about his place of birth.

And so for these and other reasons, Britain was not an unfamiliar place for these African descended Jamaicans and other Caribbean peoples.  They were not strangers.  So much of their lives had been influenced by England that it might only have been the weather that was unfamiliar.

But they forged on.  They built a life there and called Britain home in a new way. They became nurses, bus drivers, railroad engineers. Others laid railroad tracks, and still others took care of the elderly.  They bought homes and settled down. Yet now, since a new policy was put in place in 2013, this Windrush generation, many of whom are now seniors, have been asked to leave. They have been asked to pack their bags and find another home because Britain –the Britain that they helped to rebuild after the ravages of war – is no longer to be their home.

Reportedly, this situation is now to be resolved but when?   And what about those who are already in Barbados and Jamaica  in a kind of no man’s land of citizenship? Will their situation also be sorted out?  Will they be able to come back to Britain as citizens if they choose or go back and forth as they please?

Who will compensate them not only financially but emotionally for that sense of being ripped from their home because of new and more pressing political agendas?  Even if and when all is rectified, will they ever feel again like they are truly home?  To be clear, up until recently, for a number of Caribbean descended nationals, returning to the Caribbean was a goal -- but it was their choice to return to the Caribbean, not because they were being deported.

These are the questions I am asking as I think about the idea of home and what the legacy of colonialism really means; how that legacy disrupts ideas of home in the past and as it turns out, also in the present.

But the good news is that it is not too late to make things right.  The  British Home Secretary apologized and promised on March 30 that the policy would be overturned and that amends would be made in two weeks.  I was very glad to hear about this commitment and hope that indeed all benefits of citizenship will be restored to every one of these British citizens.  As of  this writing, many are still waiting for the promised change.  I remain hopeful, however, that the office of the British Home Secretary will honor their word. 

A little universal thing called home.  It truly matters.  May Britain in this new era also remember its history, and in so doing, set an example for the world.

Easter Bun and Christmas cake, Jamaican holiday traditions

http://www.sams247.com/jamaican-recipes_jamaican-easter-bun-recipe.aspx
By Mrudit161187 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons


Anne C. Bailey
Author of The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History.(Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Selected Sources:
Articles by Sarah Marsh, Amelia Gentleman and Josh Halliday of The Guardian.

“Slavery was not a choice but listening to Kanye West is."

First of all, I want to thank Kanye West for reminding us this week that money will not buy you wisdom.  The good book says: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all your getting, get understanding. (Proverbs 4:7)

These words could never be more true than they are in the current moment when the nation is divided and there are numerous troubling situations here and around the world – sporadic terrorism, global refugee crisis, gendered violence, school shootings and the ever widening gap between rich and poor.  People are literally searching for wisdom, trying to understand the moment we are in.

In the midst of all this, Mr. West has weighed in with the incredible statement,“Slavery was a choice.” To that he added something about mental slavery as if one was not a consequence of the other as Bob Marley tried to tell us.  Many have responded quickly and vociferously but none better than Russ Bengston who said: “Slavery wasn’t a choice but listening to Kanye is.”

I was not going to weigh in on this controversy when one of my students while handing in her final paper just assumed I would have something to say. After all, one of the questions on the final was about the public memory of slavery.

Some have speculated that it was a publicity stunt; West was trying to create some buzz for his upcoming album.  Others say he is unwell or perhaps still grieving the death of his mother. If the latter is true, my hope is that this will not be another Michael Jackson or Prince scenario where someone brilliant truly needs help, but instead of getting help, is encouraged to continue down a dangerous path.

We know the statistics for young black men in the "hood." In hoods created by Federal policies accompanied by a lack of jobs and well resourced schools, black men die at rates higher than their counterparts.

Why, I often wonder, should some rich black men at the top of this society also die young?  If they can not live to be octogenarians, who can?

So if he is unwell, my hope and prayer is that THIS time, people around him will stop profiting from his freefall and get him the help he needs.

If, however, he has said these things consciously and intentionally, may we as a public 1) exercise “free thought” and not listen to his music or buy his apparel or sneakers because freedom works both ways; 2) read all the books and articles that he decided he did not need to read because his money somehow bought him wisdom.

It did not.

If we are truly seeking wisdom, then I would recommend we take a look below at this very partial list of books to read and places to visit.  Others have good lists too. Maybe I will call this the KW Slavery Reading List.  Since the slave narrators of the 19^th century and W.E.B Dubois in the early 20^th century, we have had over one hundred and fifty years of scholars, writers and musicians “dropping knowledge,” as they say. Many struggled and still struggle today to tell to the full story of America and of the Black Atlantic.  And still, the half has not been told.  And still, there is so much more to learn.  I, myself, am still on that journey. 

Finally, I have spent most of my life trying to honor in death those who were not honored in life. Those who suffered so that I could have the life I live now, which while not perfect, is not a life of unending deprivation and servitude.  

Those who were sold on the auction block and separated from their families through no choice of their own. 

Those who were blinded for seeking an education and learning to read the Bible through no choice of their own. 

Those who were raped and sexually exploited through no choice of their own.  

Those who attempted  to run away or to fight and were severely punished or killed through no choice of their own.

Those who in spite of all this suffering, treasured their families and their faith, built schools and churches, fought wars and nobly served their country, created a culture that has influenced the world and whose descendants continue to do the same.

Slavery was not a choice, but listening to Kanye West is.

Get wisdom and as you acquire it, get understanding.

BOOKS TO READ

My Face is Black is true: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations, Mary Frances Berry

Arn’t I a Woman: Female Slaves in the Plantation South, Deborah Gray White

The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition, Manisha Sinha

The Charleston Syllabus, eds. Keisha Blain, Chad Williams, Kidada Williams.

Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology, Deirdre Cooper Owens

Contested Bodies: Pregnancy, Childrearing and  Slavery in Jamaica, Sasha Turner

Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy,  Annette Gordon Reed

Reparations for Slavery and the Slave trade, Ana Lucia Araujo

"The History of Mary Prince as a Historical Document of Slavery in Antigua and the British Empire," in Antigua & Barbuda International Literary Festival Magazine, no. 2., Natasha Lightfoot

Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South, Stephanie Camp

Bound in Wedlock: Slave and Free Black Marriage in the 19^th century, Tera Hunter

The Half has never been told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, Edward E. Baptist

Classic Slave Narratives, ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The Souls of Black Folk and other books by W.E.B. Dubois

Remembering Slavery, Ira Berlin

Black Families in Slavery and in Freedom, Herbert Gutman

Documenting the American south, http://docsouth.unc.edu/ (compilation of slave narratives)

Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom, Catherine Clinton

African American resistance article, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/did-african-american-slaves-rebel/

A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including their Narratives of Emancipation, David Blight

Slavery’s Metropolis: Unfree labor in New Orleans during the Age of Revolutions,  

Rashauna Johnson.

Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities, Craig Wilder

Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market, Walter Johnson 

Liberties Lost: Caribbean Indigenous Societies and Slave systems, Hilary Beckles and Verene Shepherd
The Slave Ship: A Human History, Marcus Rediker

Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. Eric Foner

Other lists:

https://www.carnegielibrary.org/staff-picks/new-books-black-history/

https://www.aboutgreatbooks.com/topics/history/books-about-slavery-nonfiction/

http://www.slaveryfacts.org/best-books-about-slavery

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/seven-notable-new-books-on-slavery_us_58b2e82de4b0658fc20f9698

PLACES TO VISIT

While reading or after, I highly recommend taking trips to various places in the African Diaspora:  Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, Goree Island in Senegal, (slave ports), Egypt, Kenya, Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique, Brazil, Britain, France and so many more.

PEOPLE TO LISTEN TO

Bob Marley and so many many more that I hope to share in another post. Dear readers, please also feel free to add to this list. It is, by definition, incomplete and a work in progress.

 Anne C. Bailey
Author of The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History 

Cape Coast Castle (slave port), Cape Coast Ghana
By Albgoess - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51960131

Balme Library, University of Ghana, Legon/Accra, Ghana
 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons