• Reference Number: DX-624/6/30
• Ref No: DX-624/6/30
• Date: Apr 2000
• Level: Item
• Extent: 1 item
• Format: Mini-dv (video)
• Description: Language: English
  Running time: 60 minutes 00 seconds
  
  0:00
  place of birth guyana probably british guy you know we'll talk
  0:06
  about family life in guyana
  0:11
  the family life in guyana it's really loving and the sort of life
  0:19
  you have in guyana really it's by far better than what i
  0:26
  personally have experienced here though poor but he was
  0:34
  loving and quite enjoyable life amongst the family
  0:41
  caring for each other okay how many children
  0:48
  did your parents have it was five of us three boys and two girls
  1:05
  i was the baby of the five yeah it's all about extended family did you have a big
  1:11
  extended family quite large because i have a hunch she had about
  1:17
  10 children and my uncle one of my uncle had about
  1:24
  five so the extended family was quite large
  1:30
  were you close families yes very close as it says very closely related always
  1:35
  communicating with each other you'll find that some some of the aunts on on cruise was
  1:40
  living a good distance apart from where we were
  1:46
  but still we communicate and we visit each other regularly what about grandparents yes my
  1:53
  grandparents there was all right i i never saw
  2:00
  my grandmother my mother mother but i saw my grandfather her father
  2:08
  what happened to your mother mother oh she did she died before i mean
  2:14
  i really er
  2:20
  i never experienced her when i was born she had already died
  2:26
  i don't know i saw i know and you're my grandfather my granddad i knew my father's dad as well
  2:34
  but i never got role of my father's mother as well unfortunately the mothers that died
  2:40
  before i really get to adult stage yeah so what was the relationship like with
  2:46
  your grandfathers oh that was brilliant it was very good
  2:52
  others says uh that loving and cooperative spirit that was there
  2:59
  among us he was very close family yeah what what sort of things you remember
  3:06
  doing with your grandfather your fathers and brothers that sort of thing
  3:14
  the understanding that my father had for his children it was fantastic
  3:22
  as i said no poor but he was lover of cricket and he always be an interest in it
  3:29
  whereby having make like butts maybe out of wood and wickets out of
  3:38
  wood sticks as well but he always encourages you he never disagree with us in that
  3:46
  shape or form he's always willing to support you in whatever you wish to do
  3:52
  okay so did most of the boys in your family most most of the boys in my family
  4:00
  play cricket and you find that i have relations that went down even
  4:06
  further they played represent the country and they were called to practice as a
  4:11
  matter of fact they he was involved in playing uh like a
  4:17
  presidential level against a touring side so he went very far in his quickly he
  4:23
  came over here and he played a couple of seasons for lancashire league as well
  4:30
  what about school when did he attend school well i leave school maybe around the age
  4:37
  of 16. i had my exams or this is um an equivalent to
  4:44
  the gcses yeah and i had that and then unfortunately i leave school
  4:53
  when i leave school i went to i was an apprentice
  5:01
  tealer that one by foreign yes
  5:11
  but i didn't know i'm continuing that field very much very long unfortunately but
  5:17
  uh when i become older then i was involved i was working
  5:24
  with a contractor properly on that i worked for several years
  5:30
  yes and i had many jobs
  5:38
  because during the war i was um employed not only as a military police but working in the
  5:45
  marine department for the american indiana i was british uh at the time
  5:52
  okay it was british going at the time because uh this america at least that base
  5:59
  for a hundred years and they are the bees there because at the time at that wall
  6:10
  you know what the technology was not there was see whether to flynn could be
  6:15
  refueled in the air so the nearest foot the near of the nearest port where
  6:23
  the action was it was in dhaka and they found that the base in ghana
  6:29
  was the nearest base so it was that this was quite active
  6:37
  so do you have do you have any memories of being at school before 16 when he was
  6:43
  like a boy you know things used to get up to something
  6:49
  good memories well as as everything else yes i i enjoy a lot of activities
  6:56
  when i was a boy the school days was a happy times we get along
  7:03
  quite well in school i enjoy going to school and as it says at recreation time we
  7:10
  just find a lot of fun and wanting the access that we had you know at that
  7:18
  time it was uh very good the teacher was quite encouraging and
  7:26
  with the teacher and parents the cooperation that uh was with the teacher and the parents it
  7:33
  makes your life in school very happy what can you remember about
  7:39
  getting beatens and did they get beaten of course we are now well but we had
  7:45
  little scraps no one done we had a little scraps get there were you being with the teachers
  7:51
  yeah no i was not that naughty okay i did have many beating and i think uh
  7:57
  much exaggeration i wasn't that quite back backward in school so has to be flagler caution
  8:06
  so being the smallest one in your family were you spoiled by the parents i would say i was
  8:13
  spoiled on to noah i realized that looking back
  8:19
  on my life i think i was a bit spoiled
  8:24
  because uh i was given
  8:30
  so many chances and i was never being pressured
  8:36
  as to do anything not even when i started to work all my concentration was to buy clothing
  8:44
  go out and sport there was no added pressure to us to say contribute you know that's
  8:50
  the way family lives in in the west indies i was no pressured into saying well look
  8:58
  you have to subscribe to this and you have to subscribe well did it cause any conflicts between
  9:05
  your brothers and sisters sometimes a bit of jealousy crept in but
  9:11
  uh that was mentioned before we got along very well myself on my brothers was very very
  9:18
  close and i mean i don't think that he took any notice
  9:25
  of the attention yes myself and my brother some scrap at times you know and that one that i
  9:31
  was closer to that one uh of course people used to take us for twins you
  9:38
  know it was about a year apart but i got along better with him although
  9:44
  we had a lot here yeah so when you fight
  9:51
  your parents would stick up for you more than they would have well there was a caution not to hit me
  9:58
  because they're bigger than me so if i had done anything wrong to them not they should
  10:04
  complain okay so you don't always be the one to doing things
  10:09
  because you know you want the caution for it yes i could get away with it
  10:16
  what about religion it was a very religious family
  10:23
  um i when i
  10:29
  get from a child there was christian that they met at this church
  10:35
  and my mom was working at the baptist church for some of the resident ministers
  10:41
  and we actually grew up in that church we all went to sunday schools and there
  10:46
  are different little organizations from that where you call gill wesley gill
  10:51
  and they used to have a junior guild now you have to attitude part in that under
  10:56
  many concerts and all that was involved with but did you feel that you were forced to go to church
  11:03
  no it was never forced it becomes automatic choice the parents everybody was going
  11:10
  there and guys again we enjoyed that there was a lot of pleasure doing that
  11:18
  do you enjoy going to church of course i enjoy going to church well you know some people do resent the
  11:25
  idea after a while that because they're they're growing up in church they don't feel like they
  11:31
  wanted to go so i'm thinking is there any resentment that after a while when you got big when
  11:37
  you're 16 you didn't feel that you wanted to go to church with my belief i know as i said
  11:46
  we started very young and i never had that feelings i've never never had that feeling
  11:52
  because i always says i'm a true believer and i think i have experienced a lot of things you
  12:00
  know so well like in prayer i am convinced that things have happened that i prayed
  12:07
  sincerely on somewhere ariad of my prayer was being answered
  12:14
  so yes i'm a true believer and i believe it works it might be my belief but there
  12:21
  is a belief of mine
  12:31
  of course i would i would baptize maybe it's a bit
  12:38
  late but it's never too late but as everything else if i should retire
  12:45
  home i think i would be more relaxed i think there would be no harder
  12:52
  pressure and of course then i would count them please holy and solely for the rest of my life
  13:01
  it was always a desire of mine to even get closer to the religion
  13:09
  okay going back to um employment what was the last job indiana that you
  13:16
  can remember yes my last job being by guy i know us to work as a construction worker
  13:24
  you know there were not many uh like buildings but we
  13:31
  did things like sluices and aqueducts it always bridges and all that
  13:38
  was that your dream to become i feel like very well
  13:46
  not exactly my dream and again that i enjoy and i went far into that
  13:53
  i had quite a lot of experience at one time and i was made like a charge on or a
  14:00
  supervisor in the job okay coming into um
  14:08
  immigration why did you decide to come to england
  14:15
  it's funny coming from british ghana
  14:23
  all the emphasis was being on england as our mother country
  14:31
  this is the teaching we had and we felt that we would be better looked after coming
  14:38
  to england than any other country in the world
  14:50
  i had a good job at the time but to me the opportunities there and it sounds excitable and now we decide
  14:59
  i had an opportunity i could have gone to america as a family but but he says no i didn't know much about
  15:06
  america but i says it's better for me if i want to leave ghana
  15:11
  to come to england so what year did he actually arrive
  15:17
  i arrived i can't remember the exact date
  15:24
  in may but it was 1956. i arrived in england
  15:32
  we came by boat well unfortunately that the boat was
  15:38
  about the first trip and it was very fast and we took 10 days
  15:44
  to get we landed at plymouth what was the journey like on the board
  15:49
  what was the experience well i enjoy it uh there was a lot of
  15:56
  west indian people that have been at sea sick but fortunately for me i never had any
  16:04
  other thoughts what about the treatment were there segregations on the boats
  16:10
  there were no segregations because in the first time you traveled and the food the type of food you really
  16:16
  prepared it was a bit strange but still you had to come to talks to it if you want to
  16:22
  survive and funny enough for me you know because in the west it
  16:27
  is everything was sweet the wine we had a lot of dry wine
  16:34
  and we soon discovered that if we put that low sugar inside and we use the
  16:39
  sweetener so i enjoy the wine in a way because we never accustomed to the dry wine
  16:47
  so you learn too much and how do you get we get we get to
  16:53
  plymouth and uh we travel by trade from plymouth
  16:58
  to liverpool street station and we traveled with a couple of friends
  17:05
  from guyana and they had relatives came to meet them at liverpool street station
  17:12
  i left um contact with my friend in wolverhampton
  17:19
  so those relatives they encouraged me to go to ipswich
  17:24
  there they were and i went there i spent a week
  17:32
  you know ipswich then i made contact with my friend in wolverhampton
  17:38
  then i traveled to world warancing coming from the from plymouth
  17:46
  to fountain what was the first impression of the place the building
  17:51
  it was strange because we had never customers seen houses and seen a lot of smoke you know and these
  17:58
  chimneys so my first impression was these were a lot of industries and we shouldn't
  18:04
  have any problem getting a job so did you how did you feel about
  18:13
  you know what the place looked like when you you know compared to the caribbean you
  18:19
  know well it was quite different because it's because you know in the caribbean
  18:24
  there's a lot of wooden buildings so it was quite different it was quite
  18:30
  strange seeing the houses that close together see that is one thing in the
  18:38
  west indies you have lots i know this isn't a building just generally built
  18:44
  that clothes they separate what about the weather
  18:54
  okay first it was bitter cool and i know that uh on one occasion one of my friends
  19:01
  he went to about that was in ipswich and he was that well he was ignorant of the fact that
  19:07
  the water was that cool and he went into our body not using that
  19:14
  water and he took hill
  19:19
  he was hospitalized yes he was
  19:24
  so your first journey is to vamping you didn't have any family here now we're not just the friend yeah
  19:32
  so you leave to come and stop with your friends yeah we were close friends at all we
  19:37
  worked together at home and he came away before me
  19:42
  so we started to communicate with each other yes he encouraged me to come do whatever
  19:50
  i'm doing so you stuck with your friends
  19:55
  yeah i snapped with that friend and i was very fortunate
  20:02
  when i came here i had to rest nearing the weekend so i had a rest for the couple of days
  20:08
  saturday and sunday on the monday i went to the labor exchange on right
  20:15
  away i was sent give my card went to good years and i accepted the job and i started to
  20:23
  work at good years they never worked anywhere else i worked for good years for 25 years
  20:33
  monday morning yes i went i had a job right away and straight away yeah things are
  20:39
  looking up yeah so you didn't go to college or anything yes in the night i went and i started
  20:48
  out on a motor vehicle mechanic
  20:54
  by the college see but it the world front college you know that
  21:01
  is where the um university is the old building
  21:06
  i went there for a period of time but the job was so hard it was difficult for
  21:14
  me to keep up with them and then at the time i had no family here
  21:20
  you know that could assist me i had to come and do my own meals and everything so you
  21:26
  will find it very difficult to go to study college
  21:31
  at the evening classes and to work because you work in good years of a shift so i
  21:39
  find it very difficult to continue but i must admit that
  21:45
  that course that motivated vehicle mechanic was something i had dreamed about i had love really to
  21:53
  complete that course okay so that was or did you find the education
  21:59
  system different from
  22:05
  yes well i think the education system in guyana i think it was
  22:13
  a bit richer than in england i had proof of that
  22:21
  with my sons when they started to go to school things like the grammar
  22:29
  like english when we talk about english we started from making sentences
  22:36
  where you use punctuation marks it depends on where you have to use
  22:42
  capital letters and we had to use um convert sentences
  22:47
  so like analysis and parsing not the way we've been um taught in
  22:52
  school and i tried to question my sons and they hadn't a clue
  22:58
  you know you had to know what was a noun what is a pronoun what is an adjective what is an adverb and
  23:03
  they didn't know anything so at the basic of our teaching i think it was
  23:09
  by far sad to say superior so you don't have that much of the
  23:15
  educational system well that is their system but the thing that i was surprised about
  23:24
  why was it different because our all our legislation
  23:31
  all our training all our teachings was from england because remember that
  23:36
  time it was british ghana we was colonial rule and all our teaching was coming and we was observing
  23:44
  um the holidays that is in england the queen body empire day and all that
  23:50
  we those are things that we observe in british again
  23:56
  so you decided it was too much working and going to college so you had to give up college
  24:01
  yeah sadly
  24:07
  well i did a lot of i did some short courses i did some short courses you know where
  24:13
  i got involved in this unemployment group i took some short courses and i had um
  24:19
  yes i had them so certificate i had some certificates here for you yes like manage managerial skills and
  24:29
  so on yes okay so i'm talking about goodyear i'm just gonna stop you there a
  24:36
  minute i'll give you
  24:48
  okay can you tell me a bit more about the san diego's unemployment group
  24:58
  at the time about 1987 unemployment the rate of unemployment
  25:04
  especially in in 10 was very high but particularly higher
  25:12
  in saint peter's ward so with a european funding truly
  25:18
  polytechnic it was decided to create an unemployment
  25:23
  group which we have established since 1987.
  25:28
  there were three groups five in all as a matter of fact you have saint
  25:34
  peter's unemployment group break null unemployment scheme
  25:41
  the odd word in bradley you are the one in bushby you had one at full doses
  25:48
  yes and bushby and your body then oxley
  25:54
  because the rate of unemployment in wolverhampton especially was far way higher
  25:59
  than the great the country these groups were set up specifically
  26:07
  to encourage unemployed people not to sit idly but to try
  26:14
  and get themselves involved not to be active and to learn something to their benefit
  26:24
  we the unemployment group we've been funded by the local authority after the european funding had run out
  26:31
  the local authority have to crop the funding the phone is unemployment group
  26:38
  and we have decided in other words to link with other groups we were the first
  26:45
  group our organizations in wolverhampton and had a bi-national link
  26:52
  and we had that with a group in west germany dortmund we had a link with a similar
  27:00
  group in france as well
  27:06
  we had many exchange visits our experiences and what we found very interesting it
  27:13
  was only the difference in languages but the problems was received with
  27:20
  unemployment people in europe as it is in england
  27:29
  in wolverhampton we had to cater sadly because the
  27:35
  population of ethnic minority was large so we had to cater predominantly
  27:42
  who asian and afro-caribbean people that is the way we establish it
  27:50
  because we found like it's in peter's ward and in blatanal where the ethnic
  27:57
  minority was the percentage of unemployment was greater than
  28:04
  anywhere else in wolverhampton these two areas where the unemployment
  28:11
  was more severe we find that it was um the ethnic minority was residing in
  28:18
  these areas and that was one of the things where we
  28:25
  went to france we had a chart and that
  28:30
  coordinator in france quickly asked us that question why is there so much a difference
  28:37
  between blake now the percentage of unemployment annex and peter's word why the gap is so
  28:45
  wide with the rest of wolverhampton so we have to explain
  28:50
  in these two areas it was predominantly ethnic minority so this is the cause
  29:01
  but why do you think there's so much minority why there were so many minority
  29:08
  people unemployed at the time
  29:14
  you'll find that um not given the opportunity you don't you
  29:21
  didn't have the opportunity to put you a test you came here and you you're
  29:27
  thinking about your family and all you was looking forward to was a job
  29:33
  and you'll find that most of the jobs that existed industries the israeli ethnic countries went for
  29:40
  because all what do you desire was to work on honor living under
  29:46
  either to return back home or to bring the family here
  29:53
  to be honest with you as far as i know
  29:58
  west indians and they all had never intended to stop in england for that long people was
  30:04
  talking about five years and 10 years and they'll return back
  30:12
  but as it is you'll find that you get caught up all i think
  30:19
  in a sense to us is it was a kind of a trap conditions you find itself
  30:26
  so you are to concentrate on bringing the family and to make the best of it
  30:33
  what about your family your wife when were you married
  30:40
  yes when they came it was a bit easier for you on your own
  30:49
  and a wife came and she she was working at a botton road maternity hospital
  30:58
  she worked there for 25 20 years as well she worked as a
  31:04
  nourish at the maternity ward so you were actually married from ghana
  31:10
  you were married before you came to this country now it was my we married here my mother
  31:15
  yeah i have two sons there was body they lost two sons that was born here
  31:21
  the rest of the children how many children do you have well we had we had um five
  31:28
  all together you had five children all together
  31:36
  we had three boys and two girls and two were born in this country two
  31:42
  two was born in this country the rest was born again so they came when your wife came here
  31:47
  the girl came when the wife came he had whoever years in ghana still
  31:55
  they never left okay so what's if your family life has
  32:01
  been your two sons and you're downtown here it's been like growing them up in
  32:08
  england well yeah their life was good for them because we made the sacrifices
  32:14
  we laid the foundation to them and this is one of the things i would like our
  32:21
  our kids and our grandchildren to know the sacrifices and the pain we suffer
  32:28
  to make them you know by far happier and better you know in the
  32:36
  future it was difficult very difficult for us at first
  32:43
  but we made that sacrifice and that was we made that sacrifice because of our
  32:49
  children okay what about the housing conditions when you actually
  32:55
  had your family here what was the house's life
  33:00
  then again there was the the living conditions was terrible
  33:06
  i didn't expect as it says how it was portrayed to us about england i
  33:13
  didn't expect it would have been so antiquated
  33:19
  but at the time there was no centrality there was one fire 89 and all
  33:29
  and there was a fuel not coal they had one car coke it was difficult
  33:36
  to get it going and you'll find that in winter we all used to huddle
  33:43
  against this fireplace but when you leave that room to go upstairs then you'll find it was
  33:49
  bitter cool then that is why so many accidents happen among west indian
  33:56
  because we used to have paraffin lamps and there was a few accidents that
  34:02
  happened that people die of suffocation smoke suffocation because they fell to sleep
  34:10
  the paraffin run out and this film
  34:15
  but that was the way it was there was nothing like central italy it was very very difficult to live i must tell
  34:23
  you it was very hard and that alone put a lot of waste in you
  34:28
  know the living conditions was terrible [Music]
  34:36
  that's the next thing again what you wasn't the custom of we had to share rooms you know you had
  34:44
  to share room with somebody when i came first i had to share with somebody and you can imagine how difficult that
  34:50
  was because one of the understanding that unfortunately that
  34:55
  people doesn't have with england is never mind we all are west indians we all have different upbringing
  35:04
  so now that is another difficult thing to understand each other it takes your time before you
  35:10
  really get to grips with that see but as time goes on we all live
  35:17
  together as half of people so what about family life the sort of outgoing that
  35:25
  you haven't gone do you put that into your kids as well
  35:30
  do you try to bring them up the same way
  35:36
  well it it was difficult it is difficult to bring them up the way we was brought up number one we have
  35:44
  we had more access we had more room and we had more tolerance in our
  35:52
  our west indian family you find our way stadium formally have more tolerance here they haven't got the opportunity
  36:00
  to what you it says um to blow some of the energy away we have
  36:08
  in in guyana we have larger playing fields
  36:13
  at easter time they you could roam you could fly a kite without no obstruction in england it's
  36:19
  different they could play marbles they could play
  36:25
  cricket many streets are anywhere without any interference
  36:31
  now the difference is they talk about the environment in the noise
  36:36
  they could go and play the outro and nobody take i didn't notice but in england you're restricted
  36:45
  see so that is the difference i took one of my son's hope
  36:50
  and he found that it was completely different he didn't know what to expect but when
  36:57
  when uh on taking him for a walk to the market he soon discovered he
  37:04
  asked that all these people are relatives he says no
  37:09
  they want to know why everybody's person say morning and want to stop to have a conversation
  37:14
  but i said that's the way we are oh you said these people manually see that was a different he he
  37:22
  quickly grasped that so um
  37:30
  what about religion did you you all go to church just the same way
  37:37
  i took them to church and i showed them when they have attended church and they went to sunday
  37:44
  schools and i spoke to them about it but as they grew up they wasn't as scared as we were well i
  37:51
  said it's a different environment probably we were more relaxed we were
  37:56
  more at ease as there well i have to respect the decision
  38:02
  but i keep reminding them you know there is a supreme being and sometime or the other day in their
  38:09
  life they must concentrate and try at least to pursue that
  38:14
  religious way of life so do you think that it would have been much much better to
  38:20
  have them brought up in guyana the discipline was better
  38:27
  and that is one of the things something about it the discipline that kids had to have
  38:35
  in guyana here they talked about freedom what is not religious freedom they have more
  38:41
  freedom i mean you know but they are to be disciplined they have to respect elders
  38:46
  not the way we've been brought up you must have to respect elders and it suddenly
  38:51
  uh to hear sometimes when i see on television you get old people being butted
  38:58
  and that wasn't the way we've been brought up it was being brought up to assist elders
  39:05
  and that will treat them so that again is a is a difference and the discipline
  39:11
  is completely different did you find that the sort of
  39:17
  relationship you had with your grandfathers and brothers and so on you have the same relationship with
  39:23
  your sons doing things together
  39:29
  well i am lucky the way things uh happening in england i must say i
  39:35
  consider myself fortunate with a relationship with my children and i myself
  39:44
  when i always think i thank god for that i consider myself very fortunate
  39:49
  because not many parents have experienced that western then
  39:57
  on the old you must have discipline i'll give you an instant
  40:06
  in in like indiana british ghana of course we have many what we call
  40:14
  they call it vaudeville well you know it's something similar to like the london palladium performances
  40:20
  and i have heard the type of jokes that these uh
  40:27
  performance make you know these comedians may be about the queen are you know in british gardener they're
  40:34
  not one of those performers with big any sort of joke about the royal family
  40:41
  they would be prosecuted then again this is what i'm surprised about
  40:46
  why is it that different you know these are things that i have
  40:51
  experienced you know and i think you come here and
  40:56
  people says that they don't know why we call it we were more patriotic
  41:03
  i tell you to the royal family we won't be disciplined towards them we had more respect
  41:10
  towards the royal family than english people
  41:16
  thinking about your kids do they have certain hopes for them things that you
  41:21
  wanted them to achieve and you'd help them push them towards
  41:27
  doing so i would have rather
  41:35
  sit there developed you know a bit more academically
  41:42
  i am not totally disappointed because they are willing to make the future
  41:50
  as solid as they possibly can my lesson he was
  41:56
  a lead developer which i'm quite pleased with the progress he's making quite
  42:02
  pleased about it and funny funny enough we had a talk before and he had to uh
  42:10
  he made a decision that he don't see much future in
  42:15
  so he decided to buff to sheffield and he made good for himself he's doing
  42:23
  very well one day we had a conversation a family
  42:28
  conversation a teenager at the time when i said
  42:35
  i felt you all would have progressed more in school you know what you told me we
  42:42
  were stalking seriously openly unfairly
  42:48
  what he says he says if i had listened to you all that probably i would have
  42:56
  done better what he says in school we tend to listen
  43:01
  to the teacher more than you all and he says what i have experienced if i had listened
  43:08
  to you all i would have made it because he said at times
  43:15
  even they excel in a subject the teacher would advise her well now
  43:21
  you're not very good at this they put them off now without and soul on this subject but only to be told by the
  43:28
  teacher this is not good it's better you take that
  43:34
  at the time they try to especially ethnic minority kids i know that they
  43:41
  try to encourage them in too much a sport rather to get them involved seriously
  43:46
  into education in guyana british ghana it was different
  43:53
  if a teacher sees you have the potential he encourages you at times he would pick about six from a
  44:00
  class and he'll ask you to come in early on friday morning or step over free tuition
  44:09
  because you see you have the potential and encourage you that way
  44:14
  so what do you think actually in over until in the schooling of your kids that they push them towards
  44:21
  sports and nuts into um other subjects that they're
  44:26
  interested in i think the first problem with west indian kids are always
  44:34
  ethnic minority kids is the discipline people have at home it
  44:39
  confuses the kids but when the kids they go to school it's
  44:44
  something different they've been torn between these two now
  44:50
  you got this straight discipline at home when they start to become teenager then teachers tell them they're old enough to
  44:56
  make their own decision and that cause misunderstanding between the parents and the kids
  45:03
  we're not accustomed to that we're not pushing them but we want them to maintain that
  45:09
  discipline on that order but you'll find now they went they've been encouraged to make their
  45:16
  own decisions they become rude if the parents called them it never
  45:21
  happened to me but i have known where it happened to other parents they got to school all sulky the teacher
  45:29
  was what's the matter that smacked me the next thing we do listen either the
  45:34
  police or they send somebody to investigate now they give the child that power
  45:40
  and i have experience with your parents try to scold children after only to be told by that child
  45:47
  if you touch me i'll go to the police station which is ridiculous we're not accustomed to that so you
  45:54
  think schools did not support black minorities culture
  46:01
  i should they didn't support it that is one of the unfortunate things
  46:08
  that doesn't understand it properly and nobody try to ex understand it
  46:16
  as it should so that was difficult they took it as we are these are immigrants are you
  46:23
  coming here they're not took it as the way that we've been colonized right and we've been taught nothing else
  46:28
  yes we might be speaking faster we have a different accent but we knew
  46:34
  nothing else besides english language right and if they take time and if they
  46:40
  had the experience that is next thing again i want to know what happened to history
  46:47
  a lot of history has been withheld from our children and grandchildren
  46:56
  and i think more of that should come forward more of that should come to life
  47:03
  because it's sudden i i would like our children to know
  47:08
  what we underwent to make them what they are today all that was been well your nature it
  47:15
  has been hidden from them and we came here we knew about white
  47:21
  people and why people look at us as if we are immigrants we come from outer space
  47:28
  and uh i want the same books that we was reading in guyana coming from england
  47:34
  why was these people not acquainted with these sort of things but why do you think that
  47:40
  they've actually taken away history and haven't
  47:45
  taught people actually tell them about this dream why do you think this has been hidden
  47:52
  from black and minority children in school well that is a
  47:58
  i think that is a political maneuver if if everything being taught and
  48:05
  everybody had known the truth things should have been completely different
  48:11
  but if they want to get control of everybody they want to rule everybody you must
  48:16
  have to have some flaws in it they make it as easy as possible for
  48:22
  them to have fun control
  48:28
  now in british ghana i know
  48:33
  that is an instance i know that uh mostly early third world countries the
  48:39
  chief product but when we does geography the truth
  48:44
  product from all these islands was sugar wrong molasses rice and box right come
  48:51
  later but the chief products for these places and ghana you have minerals but i never
  48:58
  come to the fore why because this sugar industry was dominated by england
  49:05
  this sugar industry the black workers was only doing the menial
  49:12
  jobs the overseer the engineers they all was coming
  49:18
  from england you see that was the chief product after
  49:25
  independence what happened these places that was in control of the
  49:30
  sugar industry the cease to operate there was a referral plant in
  49:35
  um in liverpool that was being closed now the sugar unfortunately went
  49:43
  on the world market where the price has been controlled
  49:48
  so there is no way where they could have existed without having to borrow from
  49:55
  the world bank there is nothing so there is insufficient money
  50:01
  to go wrong and they've been talking about wages when you borrow money from the loan from
  50:08
  the world bank you're being controlled dictate to you what you must do and what
  50:13
  you must not do so you're in control of that now you'll find that the population
  50:18
  suffer because of that education which is the most important part of one's life
  50:24
  they start you cannot give free books and you know the poverty exists there because remember
  50:30
  what i told you about these industries it was sugar rum and molasses
  50:37
  now that being crippled because the buck was thrown against us
  50:43
  and came to europe and they did they beat sugar so they're no longer
  50:50
  right interested in the sugar you have to compete now you have to compete with this market
  50:57
  that you're not was even being prepared for so this is a struggle in itself
  51:06
  okay thinking about what i'm telling live here so long do you see any changes had to
  51:12
  change over the years for black in it
  51:20
  it changed a bit you know i think environmentally because some of the
  51:26
  homes i mean they change significantly
  51:31
  but welcome one of the things as i said politics is a lot to do one of the
  51:36
  things that i do not like happen and probably that game happened
  51:41
  for political reasons you find when the buildings come slowly
  51:46
  on a hypnic minority of course and go for these houses they
  51:52
  tried to put you directly in this place so they made this particular area they
  52:00
  know these are ethnic minorities area that's what i'm saying they don't try to mix
  52:05
  you now like how they have these mental mentally ill people they said put
  52:12
  them out in the community right that that they could get accustomed to the community life
  52:18
  they don't think about us like that places like eton they put you there like
  52:24
  blatant anything happen they know directly where you are you see they don't put you they don't won't put
  52:30
  you like in technology or they won't put you like in another
  52:36
  place where where the community's community is mixed now they put you directly in a particular area
  52:43
  you understand and you find where to put you in that area that area at times had been neglected
  52:50
  and the living days become rough but why do you think they've segregated
  52:56
  people so much why i don't know is just you just to get uh
  53:04
  rule is not what i'm saying this is one of the uh
  53:09
  political disaster the the place you were there at least when anything happened and oh
  53:15
  they know where where you are they could come down happy ending then the law comes in and when you're in
  53:22
  this sort of area then you'll find that you would go in tongue or you would go
  53:28
  to a bank to have a loan or to have in a credit system going
  53:35
  like the first thing the actual ways you live where you give them that address they say sorry
  53:41
  you see these are the pressure that we people have as soon as you go there you put your
  53:48
  address though tell you being sorry you know you taxi drivers at some of these areas
  53:54
  you can't get them to go in the night you know when you look when you look at
  54:00
  this segregation when you look at how that becomes you see it's a stigma
  54:06
  you know the picture you paint on us it's not so it's a wrong picture
  54:13
  you because of political reasons you encourage it all right you're the cause of of this
  54:20
  place being random you're because of this behavior because these people been trapped
  54:27
  so as have they done all this segregation from when they first came to
  54:33
  this country and living in front has it been like that up to you it gets worse it's not enough then i it's getting
  54:40
  worse when i came first i mean we could have had a house we were aboard or seen
  54:45
  island road and we had a mixed convenience it is people in that street that makes haitian
  54:52
  italians english people people from ukraine
  54:58
  and west indian we all live together as neighbors for what i'm saying i knew a family at
  55:05
  barthouse and which is streeting with marines and after they started to build these nice
  55:11
  cogs houses they felt that oh that was better that was new and they went to utah
  55:19
  then after after a few years you'll find that you don't become a bad place to live in
  55:26
  why because the ethnic minority you go go to the council now to get a
  55:33
  please the first place to point you there so it actually hasn't
  55:39
  improved it hasn't improved that to me that hasn't been proven i think i think it is worse than when i
  55:46
  was here that when i came here i don't know what the it was no
  55:52
  what about racism what about racism what can you
  56:00
  remember about racism well racism for me i think it exists
  56:06
  because i i think i have myself experienced as i says you know working on good years i enjoy
  56:13
  work here because all i have achieved is through working but good here
  56:20
  but the most significant thing at no time at times i always been told by the man
  56:28
  injury full month oh dan is having the experience but i was never given the opportunity to
  56:35
  become a labor trainer but if you get a recruit they will send them to dan's machine
  56:42
  and that's it and they had an official laboratory you know who didn't know how wouldn't they have
  56:49
  the ability to trade okay i feel happy because i'm not particularly they are the weak
  56:56
  i won't be working hard because i have this recruit and i would be paid but this is the
  57:02
  difference why was i not being given a chance to become then unofficially an official
  57:10
  labor trainer saying that i have the skill and the experience but i was never given that opportunity
  57:19
  why because um oh well nick bargin unfortunately die now but we
  57:26
  had a meeting with him and i find this out to you i says you
  57:31
  should never allow management to say there are no discrimination
  57:37
  if we have someone from the government to come and investigate them get somebody not
  57:44
  somebody from the factory because they would always tell you no there's no discrimination here
  57:51
  but if you get an independent person from the government coming and they see for themselves well you see
  57:57
  this is the problem the government oh they got a policy but they sit back and relax on it
  58:06
  but they are discrimination even to today there is a lot of discrimination
  58:13
  why do you think there's so much discrimination and it will never change
  58:20
  i don't think it i have every confidence on the younger generation because i
  58:27
  think they start to understand and i think that is what we should work on
  58:33
  try to educate our younger people so that they could make a difference it
  58:39
  would be difficult but it had to happen because we have
  58:44
  laid the foundation hopefully they'll take it up in farmer
  58:49
  education because that's important and where they consolidate themselves
  58:55
  so it would be very difficult to push them around because though it's difficult i know it
  59:01
  would be still difficult for them but they should pursue that they must know how important it is
  59:07
  to have that education right and i have every confidence that as isis
  59:13
  they start to understand and we should teach them we should never fail to encourage them
  59:19
  we should never tell them of the suffering and the pain we have had and we hope that they would be able to
  59:24
  correct it at the end you've been here since 1950s
  59:33
  as you said before most people said they came here for five years
  59:38
  to go back why didn't it happen to you well as soon as you get involved in
  59:46
  purchasing a home then it becomes so difficult you have
  59:52
  that mortgage to pay and you have all these other overheads to pay and if you want
  59:58
  to bring the kids up properly then you have to give them the necessary convenience
  1:00:05
  and it's not easy to send a kid to school you know you have to have the proper uniforms you have to have the
  1:00:11
  sports gear for gym on all different things that you see the expense becomes more
  1:00:16
  and more so did you plan to buy a house or
  1:00:22
  because you have the family you decide it was the best way to go to buy
  1:00:28
  to buy a house i think it was the best way to bring a
  1:00:35
  family up is to have a private home because as i mentioned before
  1:00:44
  if you go in home where different families are it would be difficult because
  1:00:52
  of different maybe religion or you know the culture it's different so
  1:00:58
  if you have a private room then you have a better chance to explain to the kids and to impart in
  1:01:05
  them your way of life and what you felt
  1:01:10
  they should be you know you have to have your private home to do that
  1:01:17
  well didn't you consider going back home with your family even though the kids were born here
  1:01:25
  i mean i would not this is what i'm saying i would never try to twist
  1:01:34
  my children arm to go back to guyana it's up to them i'll take them back
  1:01:41
  and let them see for themselves the decision is on them i would never put any
  1:01:48
  pressure on them to do that as i would say to any
  1:01:54
  young person i says the opportunity is here for you to repeat yourself there
  1:02:01
  is a lot of ridiculous temptation and a lot of obstacles
  1:02:07
  but you try to overcome that because your goal is to have a proper education because
  1:02:15
  it's most important if you leave england and you go elsewhere you haven't got that foundation it doesn't make any
  1:02:22
  sense so i would never discourage though i have experience i would never
  1:02:29
  encourage any kid to do otherwise there is an opportunity yes
  1:02:35
  get as much education as you possibly can and as you experience it then you come to your own decision
  1:02:42
  so what are your plans now are you planning to go back home yes my
  1:02:48
  plan is to retire now really i think i have done enough
  1:02:55
  not only for the family who community at a large i think i have done
  1:03:04
  as much good for the unemployment group and i have seen where i've been
  1:03:11
  the commitment was justified and i'm pleased that i'm satisfied about that
  1:03:18
  see i had some people there was all distracted they was all confused and i soon
  1:03:25
  had them involved in making things and we had a junior minister came at the center and
  1:03:31
  when they had all these things on display you could see there was a different change their face all lit up you know this was
  1:03:39
  a great relief for these people to see what they could have done and how well we invited some conscious
  1:03:45
  as well and they are the prayers that they hip on them you see they make they all become different because
  1:03:53
  they had never realized they were so depressed you know of being unemployed and i mean
  1:03:59
  and they're always um quite happy to see what they have achieved see that
  1:04:05
  make a difference in their life so now you've reached the head where
  1:04:11
  you have done a lot for your community you think it's time to i think it's time for whom i to uh
  1:04:19
  pack up well i think the best place once i'm having the health is to go home and
  1:04:24
  relax i find i have no relaxation at all
  1:04:30
  in ghana right here i would say it's a it's a better roses but i know i have
  1:04:36
  visited guyana uh about six or seven times and i know i can make
  1:04:43
  it here peacefully so i think i'll go and relax as i say
  1:04:49
  concentrate on more things and live the rest of my days do i might not have
  1:04:54
  many but at least i would have a sense of satisfaction because that it's all
  1:05:02
  was my hard desire doesn't matter what happened because i even make brain center you
  1:05:08
  said so if anything should happen to me here take the body back to guyana
  1:05:13
  and that is one of my heart's desire and pro and i think i would live a few more
  1:05:20
  years when i realized that at least i have
  1:05:26
  achieved what i have seen well good luck going back thank you very
  1:05:34
  much for this interview
  
• Terms:Religion
• Terms:Schools
• Terms:Construction industry
• Terms:Marriage
• Terms:Housing
• Terms:Immigration
• Terms:Racial discrimination
• Terms:Afro-Caribbean peoples
• Terms:Cricket
• Terms:Employment
• Terms:Second World War (1939-1945)
• Terms:Family
• Terms:Childhood
• Access Status: Open
• Publication Notes: For part 2 of this interview see DX-624/6/31 below. For another interview with DR see DX-624/6/26 above
• Contact: Wolverhampton Archives, Wolverhampton Archives & Local Studies

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