2 Caribbeans in the UK Reading: Caribbean London a) Look at the pictures and the headline and guess what the following text could be about. Make a short list of your ideas. b) Then read the text and check. 1 Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and St Lucia are just a few of the Caribbean islands represented in London. The strength of Caribbean culture can be felt across the capital – from arts to food to language. London would be quite different if Caribbean people had not come here. The relationship between the Caribbean and Britain has been long and sometimes very difficult. The slave trade, and later the colonisation of the Caribbean by the British Empire have contributed greatly to the prosperity of Britain today. The distance between Britain and the Caribbean soon closed when Caribbean people were invited to work for British industries to help rebuild the country after WWII. When people started to arrive in larger numbers from the Caribbean in the late 1940s, they left the ships with a passion and excitement for the place they considered to be the “Motherland”. First encounters with London were often less than welcoming. Finding a home or a room to rent was often difficult for Caribbeans. If they managed to find a home, rooms were often in bad condition and the rents were usually very high. Caribbean people would experience physical and racial abuse and found it hard to get work. Some had to accept jobs with low wages that no one else wanted to do. When British industries did start to employ Caribbeans in larger numbers, they often came into conflict with trade unionists who objected to working with Caribbean people. Police protection was not adequate, some Black people were even badly treated by the police themselves. Caribbean children had to deal with verbal and physical abuse in schools and the education system in general. Such harsh treatment may have inspired London’s Caribbeans to develop self-help organisations. The failure to achieve recognition in the mainstream press led to the launch of The Voice newspaper – one of the first aimed mainly at a Black audience in Britain. The lack of information about their history and origins led Caribbean activists to press for Black History Month, which has now become part of the education calendar for many schools and institutions every October. Over half a century later, many people from the Caribbean consider London to be their home. Brixton and Notting Hill were the first areas to house Caribbeans. To this day, Brixton is often considered to be the Caribbean Capital of Britain, though the Caribbean influence is not limited to just a few areas but spreads right across the city. Many of today’s Caribbean Londoners have become business people, running their own restaurants, barbers, nightclubs, bookshops and grocers. Others have achieved high positions in big business and public life. The strength of the Black pound is so great that it can no longer be ignored and so Caribbean Londoners have become the target group of advertisers. Now, more than 70 years later people from the Caribbean started to arrive in London in large numbers, their influence is widespread throughout London’s social and cultural life. A growing number of actors, musicians, presenters, sportspeople and politicians who are second and third generation Caribbeans have become dynamic role models for future generations. (www.bbc.co.uk, adapted) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 22 Multi-ethnic society Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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