‘Migrant stories are filled with individual heroism’

My parents did not arrive in England via the Empire Windrush but were part of the influx from the Caribbean during that period.

My father left Georgetown, Guyana’s capital, for England in 1958 travelling for thirty days via plane and boat through the Caribbean and sent for his wife and my two sisters, Laurice and Marilyn, two years later.

He joined my Uncle Varney who had already been in London for two years and had paid his fare to Britain for £65 (£1,6425.00 today). My parents joined the quest of many to build a new life for themselves and this generation was preoccupied with negotiating the difficulties of a new life and the local territory of which racism was always in the background.

Theirs was a stoic generation, ironically and indelibly imprinted with the British stiff upper lip in their armour of braving a new environment. They rarely talked openly or publicly bemoaned their treatment and never complained to their children about their experiences; however, we children couldn’t fail to note their brooding sense of resentment and frustration.

Roger Griffith’s mum and dad were part of the influx of people from the Caribbean during the Windrush period – photo: Roger Griffith

My father had a wide range of skills and was in turn a tailor, made repairs at the harbour and worked at the bank in Georgetown.

“You turned your hand to anything you could to either help or make a shilling,” he would say.

He cut his brothers’ and my hair before the age of high-top fades and No 1’s haircut designs became fashionable for black youth in 1980s. For him, coming to England was a chance to learn a full trade and prestige to make a better life for his young family and help the motherland.

These were some of the reasons behind why this generation left the natural beauty of the Caribbean to come to Britain. My father moved from sweeping the floors on the London Underground to becoming a station manager, greeting Prince Charles at the opening of the Jubilee Line in 1979.

After my parent’s divorce when I was ten, Mum and I moved to Bristol to start a new life living in Whitehall, ironically Colston Road in Easton. Mum a former nurse gained work in office administration at the newly-rebranded British Telecom.

Through poverty and circumstance, we were briefly neighbours on a tough council housing estate in Lawrence Weston where she became friends with Janet Rees, mother of the mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees. Marvin is a proud heir of his Jamaican heritage which has led to him becoming the first mayor in Europe of African-Caribbean descent.

This is just one personal story from the multitude of tales of migration who have chosen Bristol as their sanctuary city over the centuries.

From the Saxons to peoples of the Commonwealth nations after World War Two. From the Romans to the present-day migration from East Africa and Eastern Europe. The ongoing tension between protecting a nation’s borders and respecting human rights is complex.

However, it should never be forgotten that these stories are filled with individual heroism by those who arrive and add much more to what was there. This always benefits the host nation just like this tale from a proud descendent of the Windrush Generation.

Roger Griffith moved to Bristol at the age of ten with his mum – photo: Roger Griffith

Roger Griffith MBE is a writer, lecturer, social entrepreneur and CEO of  community consultancy Creative Connex

Main photo: Thomas Katan

Read more: Launch of Garfield McKenzie’s photobook of Bristol’s Windrush generation

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