Through first-hand interviews and testimonies, Homecoming will explore how West Indians succumbed to the fever to leave their islands between 1948 and 1962, and how they navigated this bewildering new cultural landscape when they arrived.

 

Far beyond the early Windrush pioneers, this was a period of unprecedented migration. How did the new arrivals weave themselves into the fabric of British society, while retaining – and in some ways creating – a distinct culture of their own?

 

The oral testimonies also reveal the darker side of the times as attitudes dramatically changed and the so-called ‘immigrant problem’ became recast as a ‘colour problem’, culminating in race riots and changes to the immigration laws.

 

With many of the surviving West Indian pioneers now in their 70s and 80s, it is essential that their accounts, marking this hugely important and fascinating moment in British history, are recorded and savoured.

 

Published Summer 2019