The Community afro-caribéenne of the United Kingdom

The community afro-caribéenne of the United Kingdom indicates the British black population originating in the the British Antilles, which was itself downward of the people brought of Africa to Americas as slaves between the 16th century and the 19th century.

Because of rise in the Years 1990 of immigration to the the United Kingdom coming from the countries of Africa, one employs also this name to designate the British citizens of African origin, so that the term gathers today at the same time the concepts of African origin and caribéenne. The most current use of this term refers to any group of anybody residing on the British ground and adopting the customs, traditions and habits of the culture caribéenne.

The great majority of the British population afro-caribéenne is of origin jamaïcaine. However, the afro-caribéens are originating in a multitude of other States of less importance, of which the République of Trinity-and-Tobago, Saint-Christophe-and-Niévès, the Barbados, St Lucia, the Grenade, Montserrat, the Dominique, Anguilla, Antigua-and-Barbuda, Saint-Vincent-and them Grenadian, and the Guyana, all located in South America, having a culture caribéenne and considered historically as belonging to the British colonies of this part of the sphere.

The community is dispersed in all the the United Kingdom, even it is mainly and massively concentrated with London, Birmingham and in the the Midlands of the West. Communities important Afro-Americans also exist in other urban cities, in particular with Manchester, Nottingham, Leicester, Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool and Cardiff. In these cities, the community is traditionally associated with a district or a particular zone, such as for example Chapeltown with Leeds or St Pauls in Bristol.

History

The afro-caribéens are at the origin of the descendants of people of West Africa, captured or bought with owners of African slaves. The Africans was then off-set on board ships towards the English colonies, French, Dutchwomen, Spanish or Portuguese. On their arrival, the majority of the Africans were condemned to the forced labors in vast the Plantation S of Canne to sugar, characteristic of the countries caribéens, for the benefit of the colonial powers.

The emigration caribéenne towards the Great Britain was a phenomenon of little width before the Second world war, and rare are the cases having lived this experiment. One has information on the existence of small black communities in the ports of Cardiff, Liverpool and South Shields, in the middle of the 19th century. These communities were made up free slaves following the Abolition of slavery. These immigrants of the first hour were mainly employed as a domestic or Cocher, with however an increasingly strong presence of caribéens in the British Armée, so that the presence of caribéens in military industry with 15.000 men at the dawn of the First World War rose.

After the Second world war, number of afro-caribéens immigrated in North America and Europe, precisely with the the United States, the Canada, in Great Britain and with the Netherlands. Following the consequences of the many British human losses at the time of the war, the government then encouraged the massive immigration of the residents of the countries of the British Empire and the the Commonwealth in order to stage with the shortage of labor. British Nationality Act of 1948 gave the British citizenship to all the people resident in the countries of the the Commonwealth, as well as the import duties, of exit and residence on the British ground. Many residents of the British colonies were attracted by the new prospects that offered to them what they indicated under the name of “Métropole”.

The “Windrush generation”

The ship Empire Windrush forwarded the June 22nd 1948 with Tilbury, located to the town of London, a first group of 492 immigrants. Windrush carried out the route Australia - England by the Atlantic Ocean, by making stopover with Kingston in Jamaica. An advertisement appeared in a newspaper jamaïcain offering transport at a ridiculous price for any person eager to emigrate and work in the United Kingdom. The new arrivals were temporarily lodged in the air-raid shelters of Clapham South, in the south-west of London, with less than two kilometers of the road of Coldharbour Lane with Brixton.

Even if number of them had envisaged to remain in Great Britain only a few years, and although some of them were turned over from there to the Caribbean rejoindrent RAF, the majority had planned to settle definitively. The arrival of these immigrants constituted a big step in the history of contemporary Great Britain and the images of these black immigrants taken with the descent of the boats symbolize the beginnings of the British multicultural company. Even if the government, through immigration campaign, encouraged the arrival of afro-caribéens on the British ground, those lately arrived were to undergo a discrimination and a fort Racisme on behalf of certain parts of the British company. This rejection will mark deeply and lengthily the community afro-caribéenne, and its relationship with the very whole company. The immigrants afro-caribéeens of the first hour found work in the private one, but housing was refused to them because of their skin color. The shortage of housing of post-war period brought to the appearance of first conflicts between the afro-caribéens and the white British population. The conflicts continued and developed during the Années 1950, and of the riot S burst in cities like London, Birmingham or Nottingham. In 1962, the British government adopted the the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, a decree limiting the entry of immigrants on the British ground,

Culture afro-caribéenne in the United Kingdom

Carnivals

The communities afro-caribéennes organize and take part annually in Carnaval S through all the the United Kingdom. Most famous of them is the Carnaval of Notting Hill, become a multi-cultural event today attracting up to 1,5 and foreigner British million of the Whole world, and constituting the greatest festival of street of Europe. The first edition of this carnival took place in 1964, and was not whereas a simple Trinidadian procession of in memory with the festivals of their country of origin. Other carnivals afro-caribéens take place in the United Kingdom, in particular the Leicester Caribbean Carnival, the Leeds West Indian Carnival and the Birmingham International Carnival.

Gastronomy

Religion

The surge of afro-caribéens in the United Kingdom was accompanied by the arrival of religious practices close to the North-American religious tradition. In Great Britain, many afro-caribéens adheres to Protestant mobilities evangelic nonconformist, within currents such as the Pentecôtisme or the adventist Église of the seventh day. They also have, in many places in England, constant of the new churches, which often progressively took of their development a function of relay and social center for the community. The course of the worship in some of these churches is connected more with the practices Afro-américain are than with the catholic liturgy Anglican or English traditional. The music Gospel also played an important role in the British cultural life. The afro-caribéens often were of the actors of foreground in the emergence of the British choruses of Gospel, most famous of them being London Community Gospel Choir.

Some afro-caribéens continue the worship of religious beliefs such as the Rastafarisme, which is originating and developed in Jamaica. The beliefs rastafariennes, symbols associated with the movement rastafari such as the Dreadlocks and the ganja, " the grass of the sagesse" , largely the borders of the community exceeded and were adopted by many white British young people like by other ethnicities.

Languages and dialects

The English was the Official language the British Antilles, so that the immigrants afro-caribéens lately made at the the United Kingdom encountered less difficulties of communication than the immigrants of other regions. A study of the University of Lancaster highlighted the appearance in certain areas of Great Britain of an accent distinct loan from sonority Creoles jamaïcaine. This phenomenon, pejoratively indicated under the name of “Jafaican” and meaning “false jamaïcain literally”, is parodied by the actor Sacha Baron Cohen through his character Ali G.

The subjects tackled by this literature were at the beginning the difficulties encountered by these new immigrants in Great Britain. This question is in particular tackled in a novel of 1954 of George Lamming, The Emigrants , in which it recalls the daily newspaper of immigrants originating in the island in Barbados and their difficulties of being integrated in the British life. Another poet dub, Benjamin Zephaniah, born with Birmingham of relative jamaïcain, after having overcome a stay in Prison, became a recognized writer and a public personality in the United Kingdom. In 2003, it declined the Ordre of the British Empire, declaring on this subject that it pointed out to him the “thousands of years of brutality”, and “the way in which our mothers were violated and our ancestors were maltreated”.

In 2004, the novel Small Island of Andrea Levy gained the Orange price of fiction, one of the most prestigious literary prizes of Great Britain. The exploit was reiterated in 2006 with the novel One Beauty of Zadie Smith. Adrea Levy, born with London parents jamaïcains, is the author of four novels, each one exploring - different manners - the problems lived by the black children born in England of relative jamaïcains immigrant. The first literary success of Zadie Smith, Smiles of wolf ( White Teeth , Guardian price and Whitebread of the first novel), is a contemporary portrait of London multicultural seen by a woman of English father and mother jamaïcaine. The United Kingdom abounds to a lesser extent in a Littérature of kind afro-caribéenne, of which one of the most popular examples is probably “ Yardie ”, a whodunnit of Victor Headley published in 1992 on a trafficker jamaïcain who delivers Cocaïne from Jamaica to London. The novel was published by Steve Pape and Dotun Adebayo with the Xpress editions.

Afro-caribéens in the British sport

Athletics

The first Olympic medals in sprint were obtained by Harry Edward, British of Guianese origin, with the Olympic Games of summer of 1920 in Antwerp. Years after, the sprinter Linford Christie, born with Holy Andrew in Jamaica, gained 23 medals in championship, more than any British athlete so far. The culminating point of the career of Christie was probably its gold medal with the competition of the 100 meters with the Olympic Games of Barcelona in 1992. The Welsh of origin jamaïcaine Colin Jackson is one of the best runners of 110 m hedges of the history. There gained 2 European world titles and 4 titles, also obtaining many certificates of merit, and remained holder of the world records during eleven years with a time established into 12,91 in 1993 with Stuttgart.

Tessa Sanderson, born parents jamaïcains, became the British first afro-caribéenne to gain an Olympic gold medal the proof javelin to the Olympic Games of Los Angeles of 1984. Denise Lewis, of origin jamaïcaine, gained the gold medal with the Heptathlon with the Olympic Games of Sydney of 2000, a test in which thirteen of the eighteen athletes in string had origins jamaïcaines. At the time of the same plays, the British team of the 4 X 100 meters, made up of Marlon Devonish, Darren Campbell, Mark Lewis-Francis and Jason Gardener, all of origin jamaïcaine, beat the American favorite team and gained Olympic gold.

Cricket

With its stars black and Asian, the Cricket with the the United Kingdom is much more representative of the British multiracial company which can the being the Football or the Rugby. The cricket was in the the British Antilles like in the United Kingdom a sport extremely practiced by the afro-caribéens, although this one loses in popularity since the Années 1980. After the period of massive immigration of afro-caribéens in England, the sporting meetings with the selection of the team of the Indies Occidentales of cricket constituted the mark of the cultural assertion afro-caribéenne in the British sport, this being particularly visible at the time of the matches at the stage The Oval in the south of London. Devon Malcolm (born in Jamaica) and Phillip DeFreitas (born in Dominique) represented England with international, producing significant results to the team.

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