Exiled to Poland for 28 Years

George Lee, Windrush Scandal Survivor

When George Lee approached MPs and the UK Home Office for help with his immigration status, they failed to assist him.  This was in 2018, when the Windrush scandal was emerging.  

Mr. Lee was among the thousands of British citizens from Africa and the Caribbean who had lived in Britain since childhood, but were misidentified as illegal immigrants after the Home Office destroyed their immigration documents.  Mr. Lee was working as a teacher in Poland at that time.  

Last November, he approached Desmond Jaddoo, a Windrush campaigner in Birmingham, who helped him to access the assistance he needed to return home.  He still has not received the pension payments which he was entitled to claim from the time he turned 65, eight years ago.  

Mr. Lee reckons there are many more people stuck in different countries who have not been able to return to Britain, and are largely unknown.  They continue to be ignored by the UK government unless they receive help from campaigners like Mr. Jaddoo, as the Home Office appears to be deaf to their pleas.  

Mr. Lee is now struggling to adjust to life in his home country, which he has not seen for nearly 30 years.  Go here to read more.   

 

 

Small Axe: The Mangrove at the BBC

The Real Mangrove NIne

Imagine you are sitting in a local Caribbean cafe, enjoying a meal with your friends and loved ones, and the police come in and smash the place up.  I heard about the Mangrove  many years ago.  

 

This is the first of four films which The BBC will be screening on the BBC under the heading of "Small Axe".  

These films by Steve McQueen, who directed Twelve Years a Slave, will explore the experience of Black people in Britain.  

All the proprietor, Frank Crichlow, wanted was to run a Caribbean restaurant which reflected his culture and that of his local community.  But the racism of the police turned it into a battleground.  They are shown brutally trying to close down the Mangrove and even assaulting Frank Crichlow in the courtroom. 

This film, The Mangrove, is still available on iplayer.  This article about the Mangrove and the Mangrove Nine contains footage of the events described.  It also gives background information, including the fact that drugs, which apparently came from a police lab, were found on the premises.  

Black activists, including Darcus Howe, got involved in the struggle around the Mangrove.  This was an education for many people, not least Frank Crichlow.  

If you have not seen this film, you definitely need to see it.  I hope it will be shown internationally.  

Plus journalist Peter Kellner talks about giving evidence at the Old Bailey trial of the Mangrove Nine. 

See also:  Injustice:  The Film the Police Tried to Ban.  

Plus, we discussed television showing films about the Black experience here.  

Please share this with your networks and please comment below.  Thanks.  

 

Black History: Malians and Moors in America before Columbus

The Columbus Map from 1490

We all know and understand that Columbus DID NOT discover America, despite what we were taught in school.  As my Dad would say, there were people already living there.  

Columbus had maps which some people say he bought from the Moors, others say he bought them from the Vikings.  He was NOT searching for a route to the East via the West; he knew exactly where he was going.  He landed first in the Bahamas, and subsequently in Hispaniola, which is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  On his third voyage, Columbus landed in what is now Trinidad. 

It would have been easy for Columbus to obtain maps, hanging around the ports, in particular Bristol, while waiting for Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to finance his venture.  He would have met many other sailors and heard tales of their adventures. 

The Columbus Map was drawn in Columbus's studio in 1490.  See above.  By Bartolomeo and Christopher Colombus - This image comes from Gallica Digital Library and is available under the digital ID btv1b59062629/f1 Public Domain.    

It is said that his sailors were required to keep quiet about the maps on pain of having their tongues cut out.  

There is a great deal of evidence that many peoples had visited the Americas prior to Columbus's "discovery" of them. 

Malians/Mandinkas from West Africa were among the peoples who travelled to the Americas.  The Moors from North Africa are also said to have sailed to the Americas.  Africans had sailed there from 100,000 BC and stayed for tens of thousands of years. 

The Carthiginians from the country now called Tunisia, in North Africa, also travelled and produced a gold coin which showed the Americas on the reverse. 

The Chinese, Japanese and Vikings are also said to have travelled there, as are other Europeans. 

The Malians brought elephants with them, and a Malian inscription found in Arizona states that "the elephants are sick and angry".   

Go here for more Black history blogs and African history blogs.  

Please leave your comments below and please share this with your networks.  Thanks.  

 

 

African Remembrance Day Film: Poto Mitan

On Saturday, the BFI screened “Pto Mitan” as part of its African Remembrance Day programme. This documentary depicts the lives of five Haitian women living in abject poverty in urban Haiti. Each woman tells her own story.

Remember, this film was made before the earthquake disaster. The situation now is even worse.

In traditional Haitian religion, Poto Mitan is a pole around which all activity centers. The film makes the point that in Haitian society, everything rests on the women.

In Haiti, the majority of families are single-parent families with female heads of households. So when women are struggling, the whole of the family and thus the whole of the society struggles.

To read more about this striking documentary, see: Two Films about Haiti.

Click here for the African Remembrance Day show on What U Need to Know.

See also: Jamaica for Sale.

Modern-Day Slavery: Jamaica for Sale

Today, 23rd of August, is African Remembrance Day, which celebrates the Haitian Revolution.

On Saturday, the BFI screened “Jamaica for Sale” as part of its African Remembrance Day programme. This documentary by Esther Figueroa explores the way the hotels and tourism industry in Jamaica is destroying the island’s coastline and with it, its wildlife, and a whole way of life for many people.

Large sections of Jamaica’s coast have been sold off to private developers who build vast hotel complexes, restricting access to the beaches where people used to rest and relax.

The construction workers work 12-hours days, for which they are paid a pittance. Their working conditions are often unsafe, and accidents have led to injuries and deaths. The workers often have to wait weeks to be paid at all. Then, they spend up to a third of their wages transport to and from work.

This is modern-day slavery.

Meanwhile, the hotels are exempt from paying taxes for up to 15 years, which means that their profits are not benefiting the local economy.

The lack of access to the beaches is impacting on the fishing industry. Not that this matters, as the fish are dying off. The coral reefs are dying, so the fish have nowhere to breed. The trees are cut down to make way for the hotels, which means that birds have nowhere to nest. We see a shot of a pelican picking its way around debris in the sea.

The images in this film will shock and disturb you. The combination of greed, short-sightedness and wanton disregard both for the people of Jamaica and for the environment leaves me speechless (for once).

There are trade unions, as well as people organising locally around the environmental issues. The film raises many questions but provides no answers and, unfortunately, at the screening I attended, no answers were forthcoming. But you need to see this film.

Click here for the African Remembrance Day show on What U Need to Know.

See also:
Two Films about Haiti
Jamaica: Paradise Lost
Jamaica for Sale on Facebook

Do Black People Know Our History?

My guest on tonight's show is Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, founder of the Law and Policy Group and author of Race, Law and American Society 1607-Present. She has a lot to say about Black history and how the law has affected us in Britain and the U.S.A.

I had a fascinating conversation with Gloria last night. She lectures in law in New York City and she told me that some of her students from Caribbean backgrounds were not aware that slavery had even happened there - they thought African people were indigenous to their islands. They had never been taught about slavery. (These are NOT Jamaicans, she assures me.)

Similarly, I was told by a previous guest, Tony Warner, that people in African countries are not aware of their history because the education system does not tell them about it. Click here to read more about that.

Tonight's show is going to be lively, informative and thought-provoking. I hope you will join us at 8:00 p.m. UK time. Click here to join us.

Black/African British Identity and Young People

I read a piece in the Voice the other day which argued that young people in Britain lack a sense of identity.

They may have been born in the UK or come here at an early age. When they go back to visit their parents’ homes in Africa or the Caribbean, the place seems foreign to them. But in Britain, they don’t feel as if they belong.

Identity is clearly an important issue. In the 1970s, many young people turned to Rastafarianism as a way of reclaiming their cultural identity.

The article glossed over some factors. For example, a young person living in a big city might feel out of place on a farm, whether that farm is in a rural area of Britain or in the Caribbean or Africa.

Still, the article states that “nearly all youth projects only offer musical or sports-related activities”, which “reinforces the stereotype that Black males can only be successful if they are sports figures or musicians”.

It is so important that we reinforce positive cultural values and a sense of their African heritage and identity with our young people. Without this, many of them are lost. They often don’t do well in school, join gangs which offer a feeling of belonging, get involved in crime and end up behind bars.

In my book, Black Success Stories, I made a conscious decision to avoid featuring people in the fields of sports or entertainment. After all, people of African heritage are good at everything. I celebrate Black success across a wide range of fields. All of the people I feature in the book are based in Britain. To order your copy today, visit: http://www.blacksuccess1.com/blacksuccessstories.htm

We also celebrate Black success and talk about the need for positive Black role models on my Success Strategies radio show every Tuesday. To listen in, and to hear recordings of previous shows, visit: http://www.blacksuccess1.com/radioshow.htm