Interview Nos. 30 (part 2) and 31 DR and Mrs M (Mrs M - African-Caribbean female)
- Reference Number: DX-624/6/31
- Date: Mar 2000
- Level: Item
- Extent: 1 item
- Format: Mini-dv (video)
-
Description: Language: English
Running time: 10 minutes 00 seconds (DR) and 25 minutes 00 seconds (Mrs M)
Mrs M is not to be identified by name
Transcript (DR) (copyright BEME):
Intr - Okay could you tell me your name?
DR - My name is DR
Intr - Where are you from?
DR - Originally I'm from Ghana but formally it was British Ghana.
Intr - What's your date of birth?
DR - Mt date of birth is the twentieth of May nineteen hundred and twenty three.
Intr - How old are you?
DR - I'm still in my seventy seventh year.
Intr - We're going to talk about before you actually came to this country, talk about your family in Ghana?
DR - Yes, I came from a very ordinary family, it was a strict upbringing because in those days they believe in religion, had to go to churches but it was a life that I enjoyed and I gained a lot of experience from it.
Intr - Okay, how many brothers and sisters do you have?
DR - I had three brothers and two sisters.
Intr - Are you from a big family, a big extended family?
DR - Yes family is quite big, quite large. But our immediate family is about seven of us altogether.
Intr - Okay, what about education , school in Ghana?
DR - Oh yes, I went to school, I went to school in Ghana and I took school leaving, probably equivalent to the GCSE here. Yes I went to school.
Intr - So you have qualifications from?
DR - Oh yes, I have qualifications from there.
Intr - Okay what about your childhood? Any good childhood memories that you have?
DR - Childhood memories, I enjoy, I enjoy being in the Literal Association that branch off from the churches. We have organisation that was called guild, junior guild where they use to in turn when the role was called you had to recite a passage from the bible, a verse from the bible. And that in itself brought you in the line of Christianity.
Intr - Was that like a young people's meeting?
DR - Young people yes, they use to get the senior guild and the junior guild, so the young people use to go to the junior guild coming up.
Intr - So your life was around church? Mostly it was around going to church?
DR - Yes, that was the type of life I should think. I don't know if I should go so broadly as to say the third world countries, but the west Indian Islands and like in British Ghana as well. That is the way we been brought up, that is the way we've been taught.
Intr - Did you do any jobs? Did you work over there?
DR - Oh yes, I was involved in construction work a lot, I did quite few years of that but after I finished that I went, I was employed at the base at the time during the war, 1945 war, I did a bit of that anyway in programme. And I was employed as auxiliary military police on the base
Intr - Okay we coming to England now, What year did you come to England?
DR - 1956, I came to England nineteen hundred and fifty six.
Intr - You came by yourself?
DR - Yes at the time I came by myself.
Intr - Okay did you come by boat or??.?
DR - I came by boat, yes, the time that I came the boat. We had some boats that had just started to transport passengers from these islands, like from Ghana and from Trinidad and Barbados.
Intr - What was the experience of travelling on the boat and arriving here?
DR - Well I enjoyed the travelling by boat because that was one of my jobs in Ghana, working on board a ferry ship. I was employed as, I don't think you'd understand the term but when you say a donkey man, on board ship in the engine room is one who can do utility work, can use them as an , as a second engineer, a fireman and that is the term they cal. So I was employed on board that ferry boat for a considerable time. So travelling on board that ship it didn't affect me.
Intr - Why did you decide to come to England?
DR - I had an opportunity where I could have gone to America but being colonised and in our teaching it always portrayed to us that this is our mother country and I felt I would have had a better opportunity coming here with the teaching I and in order to get accustomed to England rather than America
Intr - What were your first impressions when you arrived in this country? Was it what you expected?
DR - Well one of my first impressions because we landed in Plymouth and travelling on board the train from Plymouth to Liverpool St station and seeing all the houses I felt all there was industry and factories ( laugh) I wasn't accustomed to seeing these chimneys puffing a lot of smoke, I said we're well off here because of so many industries we must find a job.
Intr - What about employment?
DR - Well I was fortunate because I never had a day. I came to Wolverhampton, no, I landed at Liverpool St train station and I went to Ipswich. I spent one week in Ipswich but had somebody, a friend, I use to keep in Wolverhampton. And we soon get in touch with one another and I travel to Wolverhampton. From the day I came I had One day's rest and I went straight to Goodyear's and I work for Goodyear's for 25 years as a tyre builder
Intr - What about family? Were you already married?
DR - Well yes, I sent for wife and she came and with the children. Fortunate for me when we had to make do with rooms. But after working and we decided to have a home then we settled we bring the kids and wife of course and get all the family together. There all grown up now and thy married.
Intr - And how many kids do you have?
DR - I have three.
Intr - Were they all born in this country?
DR - All born in this country. One born in Ghana.
Intr - One came over with your wife?
DR - Yeah, yeah, she came over after.
Intr - When was that?
DR - That was about nineteen, what year was that, she came over 1976.
Intr - What was the housing? Did you have good housing? What was the conditions like?
DR - You mean when I came. No it wasn't satisfactory at all. That's why it was difficult to think about bringing the family right away because it was a bit rough. It wasn't something that you had expected. It was not comfortable at all.
Intr - Were you sharing?
DR - You share, you share with other people and the houses at the time all the toilets was outdoors.
Intr - What about religion, are you a strong believer ?
DR - Yes, I still attend church today because I strong believe in the faith. I respect all religion I won't criticise no religion whatsoever I respect whatever people go for, you know, because I think at the end of the day there's one god regardless of what name you call it, the supreme being and I respect everybody's beliefs.
Intr - And do you still follow the same beliefs and go to church?
DR - I go to church, I go to church here. When I go back to Ghana, I go to my traditional Methodist church. I fit is convenient I go to a Methodist church here, if not, I go to any church.
Int - Okay, What about racism? What are your experiences of racism here in Wolverhampton?
DR - I was a bit disappointed really but its not something that I totally didn't expect, What I was surprised about is how the English people didn't know much about us. And the teaching we had we knew about white people and as I say all of our legislation use to come from Britain and when you think about was we've been taught. Well, this England is the supreme to us and I felt okay we was backward according to that we was not in power and when I came here it was surprising to me that people didn't know. So I wanted to know this was one of the tings, we had this conversation that I would like to know where after this interview, where it would end up because I think the history it must have been hidden somewhere, why you find so many people did not. I won't say everyone did not know anything about black people. Because it should have been known that Britain had colonised all of these places and most of these places the population was predominantly African Caribbean and from the Asian background. So, that was a surprise to me.
Int - What do you feel about Wolverhampton and the changes that have been made since you've been here?
DR - Well, Wolverhampton has changed immensely . I think its changed for the better. Things are getting better everyday I should think. When you look at the environment especially the housing there's great improvement with the roads and everything. Okay but I think much more could be done. Much more could be done as I mentioned people must have to respect other people's culture and there's a reluctance as I say it's a pity that for so long as in term immigrants in Wolverhampton and still you find the some people are not quite comfortable. Because that is a shame in itself because its about time that you realise that people came here, critics say we came here as immigrants and sometimes I get annoyed when I hear remarks like 'before the war'. Of course that is what I'm saying what happened to history, we got people, look people from the West Indies, I lost an uncle in 1918 war, nothing has been mentioned about this, I myself was involved in that base. The transmitting station was there it was quite active at the time. Because at the time the technology wasn't there and the plane could not have refuelled in the air and the closest base was the base in Ghana so it was quite active there. People do not recognise this, people do not realise this, now when you hear and you know how dangerous it was and when you know that you took pert in the activity and people say no - yes we was in the war and they came here and take all our work and that, it annoys me.
Int - So you recognise the idea that a lot of black people are ?..?
DR - Of course a lot of black people and Asians. Yeah and I think our youngsters should know that. We didn't come here like that. We came here. We contributed to the liberation because when you look at the war, the Hitler was we always involved.
Int - You fell that you have been left out ?
DR - I feel that enough recognition has not been paid to us and I mean this is what I'm saying what happened to history. All this should have been recorded.
Int - A long time ago.
DR - Yeah
Int - So you are happy to live in Wolverhampton then?
DR - Well so far I'm happy as I say 'cause I have achieved what I set out to achieve, have a family, the lads are all big and married and I'm on the verge of retiring now. 'Cause I have been in unemployment group since '87 we made links with other unemployment groups, we made links in Germany, an unemployed group in France. I went to Poland and the experience that I have gained is tremendous. And sadly enough I don't know probably its politics is the cause but when I go over to Germany and there seminars people pay more attention and are more respectful which is shocking and surprising because I felt that I should have that here. I went to Poland and that again, for some obvious reason I don't know why and when we went to Poland we went Saturday doing some shopping and I had a laugh to myself because people were tripping over, these people never seen black people before. But yes I was comfortable there because I was given a chance to take part.
Int - What about have you returned back home?
DR - Oh yeah I have returned several times. I recently came from Ghana returned the eleventh of February. I'm thinking of retiring now.
Int - Are you thinking of going back to Ghana?
DR - Maybe I go back to live
Int - Maybe?
DR - Yeah
Int - See what the future brings?
DR - I have to, maybe I go back whether it permanent or not but at less I have somewhere where I could relax a bit. Because since 1987 I'm here and it's not easy getting people together and everyone gets further apart and frustrated and the task that I have to attend meetings. Every year its subjected to rigorous changes because I mean we are at a stage where we have that now, the funding for the first six months then we have to prove what we are doing and if it's satisfactory again presumably hey will continue funding if it is not satisfactory that would be the end of it. How amazing it is cause the group started now people are getting older, now this is the thing, I always talk about what happened to the people fifty and over. They can't get a job its difficult for them to find a job because as soon as they apply for a job what they would be told, sorry. Now what would you do with these people and that population is growing.
Int - What does Wolverhampton do with these people?
DR - Yeah, it sad what happening because we been challenged now, I had a letter from the local authority we get a bit of funding, its nothing extraordinary you try to
And there's people would be disappointed.
Int - So what can you tell us about the changes in Wolverhampton?
DR - As I say I think they are coming slowly because even when you look at things like this wind rush project you start to recognise this. And a few weeks ago they had this Africa week at this school, kids involved and I was asked to be a judge, best schools. And what I was pleased about was to see the respect that was shown from these kids, to respect other people's religion. Though it was an African week it was English kids and Asian kids and kids of different nationally and they all join in the celebration which was good, that's the way it should be - we all are one people.
Int - Do you think Wolverhampton is a community that is coming together now?
DR - I think we are coming to recognise it slowly because years ago I could not have seen it happen as I said before. You had the director of education was there he was one of the judges, chief executive came. That I think is a big improvement but it is slow it should have been done ages ago, but I mean you have to start some where. It is a good thing they now start to recognise this.
Int - Are you hapy to live in Wolverhampton? You wouldn't change it for anywhere else in Britain?
DR _ It would be difficult to change to somewhere else after living in Wolverhampton for the past forty years or so. Naturally, if it was that bad I would not have stopped here. I think things are improving.
Int - So are you happy?
DR - Yes I am happy I must have to say that I am happy here for the time being.
Int - Thank you Mr R. Thank you very much , nice to meet you
DR - Okay.
- Terms:First World War (1914-1918)
- Access Status: Open
- Publication Notes: For part 1 of this interview see DX-624/6/30 above. For another interview with DR see DX-624/6/26 above
- Contact: Wolverhampton Archives, Wolverhampton Archives & Local Studies