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emphasis on the ‘myth of the mother country … shattered’ by the experience of sudden proximity. 7 In Lovers and Strangers , historian Clair Wills assembles the key elements of what has become the conventional Windrush narrative: West Indian immigrants had been brought up to believe they were guaranteed a welcome in the
a Spanish fleet claiming he had no right to be in the New World. The English claimed Spanish gold ships that docked at Portsmouth. Seven Protestant provinces of the Netherlands revolted against Spain with English sympathies. These events changed the outlook between Spain and England and ultimately led to the 1573 Convention of Nijmegan, where the English agreed to end support for West Indian raiding
by this very aspect of conquest. Portal civilisations create institutions and practices of power capable of extensive contacts and relationships without conquest of vast territories. To be sure, they build empires and extend spheres of commerce, culture and travel in which explicit power is created. My synopses of the Venetian Mediterranean (during the era of Venice’s naval dominance) and the Omani West Indian Ocean (with its flows of slave trading) are indicative of the balance of engagement and explicit power. Nonetheless, they are distinct from oceanic
the way down to Madagascar are underestimated in the historiography (Paine, 2013: 268–72). Undoubtedly, as Nicolini has argued, they contextualised Swahili integration into Omani commerce. Conjoined circuits of Saharan trade, created by the empires of the Niger Delta and Ethiopia in earlier centuries, formed the backdrop of zones of contact, communication and exchange with Islamic and Christian civilisations. The importance of historical trades for commerce and state formation in the West Indian Ocean has also been underestimated. As elsewhere, cross
to have been circulating at the time, although only Ron Ramdin, who wrote that he was given the number by a black NUM official during the 1972 miners’ strike, provides any source. See R. Ramdin, The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain (Aldershot: Wildwood House, 1987), p. 474; ‘Black Miners Seek Support’, Caribbean Times, 24 August 1984, p. 3; O. Vassell, ‘The Boys from the Black Stuff’, West Indian World, 19 September 1984, p. 6. Gary Morris, who interviewed black miners in Nottinghamshire during the strike, believed there were at least 1,000 across the
7/7 London had been awarded the 2012 Olympic Games. London’s successful bid had emphasised the ethnic diversity of London and Londoners’ contentment with it. It is easy to point to examples of Londoners enjoying London’s diversity – the crowds at the (West Indians’) Notting Hill carnival, for example; and it is easy to cite examples of objections to it, such as the hostility
their pupils about this British multi-racial society. 65 A few years later, the 1981 Rampton Report explored the causes of educational underachievement amongst West Indian schoolchildren, exposed the prevalence of racism in the education system, and made a series of recommendations pertaining to a range of areas, including the curriculum, teaching materials, and the relationship between schools and the wider community. 66 Yet it was with the publication of the Swann Report in 1985 that a multicultural approach to the education of ethnic minority schoolchildren
either the UK or the Irish Republic and this perhaps provides some indication of the absence of migrants from other parts of the world. Post-war immigration The most significant growth in the minority ethnic population within the UK came after the Second World War. In England, large numbers of West Indian families sailed to London on ships like the Empire Windrush (Phillips and Phillips 2009 ; Olusoga 2016 ) but in Scotland, most of the migrants were from Asia. As well as reflecting previous trade links, it also reflected an expansion in the Scottish economy
asserts: most come from working-class families and at least half are minorities. Jihadist converts are more often named Kevin than Jean-Eudes. And when they are named Jean-Edouard, Jean-Michel or Willy, they are generally West Indian. The proportion of those raised in Christian homes from sub-Saharan immigration, or from Portuguese households, or, to a lesser extent, from Asian families (Korean or Vietnamese), is very high. France’s overseas territories are also well represented among jihad converts. Recruits from the Travelers community have
Education Committee report from April 1970, Swindon had 533, 572, 650 and 603 immigrant pupils in 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970 who constituted 2.65%, 2.84%, 3.17% and 2.89% of the total number of pupils, respectively, and who were predominantly of Indian, Italian, Pakistani, Polish and West Indian backgrounds. 18 Needless to say, the situation in Swindon was a far cry from Birmingham’s primary and secondary schools that were 9.6% and 8% immigrant, respectively, in 1968, the Inner London boroughs of Islington and Hackney that had 24% and 26% immigrant children on roll in