Windrush 70th anniversary: a blog by Des Coleman

Blog: The Windrush 70th anniversary, by Des Coleman

Well, the idea simply was to do a piece to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Windrush and then move on to the next job. But from the moment I picked up the phone and made that initial call, I knew that I’d cracked the seal on a huge problem that didn’t just affect an individual or even a community, but one that was on a national scale and had been there for decades.

There are words that when spoken evoke a sense of pride, loss, suffering elation, but few that to an entire race of people strike such a multiplex of emotions as Windrush. Because for a generation of Black British people it meant lies, opportunity, mistrust and success. It sums up a period where the governing ruling authority in the UK was so far out of step withits indigenous people that the decisions made then still recoil today.

It’s a story where so few have become so much a part of, intrinsically and forever transforming this country's culture through dance, food, clothing, music and speech.

It’s the 70th anniversary since the ship of that name sailed with its cargo of people from the small islands of the Caribbean and answered the call coming to the Motherland to help rebuild the UK after the war. The dream was to facilitate in the rebuild and head back home to family and friends.

But that is where this rather one-dimensional story takes a dramaticturn. Now to get a real sense of what went on, you have to speak to the many, and not just that, because then you then have to speak to the generations. And in the three that have passed since Windrush, each will give you a different view altered through the passage of time.

The Originals

For those that came first it still seems as though the dream, the desire to go back, is still there, even in death. The overt discrimination felt by all whether being spat at in the street, turned down for a job through the colour of their skin or though facing mobs of incensed men, women who daub ‘Go Home You B*****" on street walls hasn’t fuelled this decision.

Yes, initially it made them feel angry, unsafe, fearful even but the desire to go back to their family and friends after a job well done has simply remained a constant. Although this strength wanting to go back home has subdued for some of those originals.

The first generation

The first generation of this era including myself can understand in part what the "Originals" feel. Torn with one foot back in the homeland brought up hearing the flux and tone of the Jamaican language fed with a diet of rice and peas, fish and chips and ackee and salt fish.

Conflicted, as the cultural divide defined itself with 1970's racist television and blaxploitation films, but having white best friends with white values muddied the colours red white and blue so much so, that when pressed together bled a new dawn. Children who by birth are mixed.

And so, this proliferation of first generation black British Caribbeans brought to bear a new mix of black, one that social comment has only recently started to take into account.

So, what does any of this mean ? In the grand scheme of things mass migrations have been happening across the world for centuries, at its base it brings change that can take the form of an immediate tectonic shift in culture, belief and way of life, or it can beat a constant pulsethrough its social structure that takes years to resonate.

The prominence of black people in British society has a legacy from the 2nd century through to today’s academics. Artists, peers, entrepreneurs, Lords, sports men and women, the list goes on. But for most Windrush is thestart.

The question - What is Windrush?

The answer - The United Kingdom of today

Watch the full reports and extended coverage and interviews from our Windrush 70th anniversary series here.