It was 75 years ago that the Empire Windrush docked in the UK.
Its voyage from Jamaica to Essex, carrying passengers hopeful of a new life in the 'mother country', came after a plea by the UK government.
In the smouldering embers of World War II, the nation desperately needed rebuilding - and the country turned to citizens across the British colonial heartlands for the necessary labour.
But as we pay tribute to a generation that shaped the country, DARREN LEWIS has travelled to Jamaica to find out what its modern-day society feels about the Windrush project...
Here in Jamaica, they don’t call it Windrush Day. It is simply Thursday.
No pomp, no ceremony, few pictures of that ship and even fewer events to mark the day.
After decades picking up the pieces of the seduction, followed by the betrayal of West Indians by the British government, there is little or no appetite here to mirror the festivities in England.
Memories of families here torn apart, mothers, fathers and siblings treated like second class citizens in a country they had been actively encouraged to leave for and the ongoing UK hostile environment don’t exactly inspire Caribbeans to break open
the bunting.
So while the idyllic harbour from which the Empire Windrush took off from in 1948 remained drenched in sunshine, while seagulls circled and tankers trawled in the distance, the silence spoke volumes.
Walking through the beating heart of downtown Kingston, life continued as normal. The roads around Saint William Grant Park buzzed as normal with the feverish intensity of market day.
At restaurants, coffee shops and other establishments too, it was business as usual.
Life has always had to go on here in the Caribbean. It has been plundered forever, of resources and people who were enslaved then hoodwinked. What is there to celebrate about that?
There is an appreciation of the barrels sent back by those who had migrated to England. Jumbo-sized containers, typically 4ft tall and 2ft wide, packed with food, books, clothing and provisions, then shipped overseas to family and friends living in places like Kingston, Jamaica, or Port of Spain, Trinidad.
I have vivid memories of my parents filing them as a child, three or four times a year. But the idea that the West Indies even remotely mirrors the party on the other side of the world is fantasy. Ask anyone in Jamaica about Emancipation Day on August 1 or Independence Day on August 6 and their eyes light up.
Both events spark massive celebrations across the country for obvious reasons.
June 22? Windrush Day? Not so much.
“We celebrate Independence Day because we know the whole thinking behind it,” said tradesman Winston Christian, a father of four. “We have our own money, our own government and you’re supposed to be – quote, unquote – free of the English monarch.
“Emancipation Day received even more traction once it became a public holiday.
“Windrush Day doesn’t have that. Nor is it a significant day.
“You have to remember, it was a lot of ships that left here over a long time.
“People do remember the barrels because that was part of the point to it. To go and try to send help.
“But some people will never know the roughness those people in England went through. It was no bed of roses.
“It’s not my story to tell because I never left but you hear about how people were treated when they landed. It leaves you to think.”
Sashane Small, a journalist at the Jamaican Gleaner newspaper, said: “For Independence Day, we have a big gala at the National Stadium where we highlight different aspects of Jamaican culture: the music, the sports, the food and the overall energy of the people.
“It’s a big thing. People in different parishes and communities find different ways to celebrate.
“Emancipation Day is similar. But there isn’t a Windrush Day here.
“We acknowledge it, we’ll hear about it. But we’ve been affected economically and in terms of a brain drain for a long time now.
“So we don’t talk about this Windrush and in terms of celebrating it? Well, what exactly are we in Jamaica celebrating?
