I was honoured to be commissioned by the John Hansard Gallery team to write and perform true stories based on the oral histories of Caribbean and East African people living in Southampton. Members of the Windrush Generation had been interviewed and recorded by Padmini Broomfield where they shared memories of their homeland, the beautiful landscape, families and communities they left, the harsh reality of what they faced and the overwhelming talent and passion they brought to the UK.
“We were told the streets of London were paved with gold.”
This project was a collaboration with the University of Southampton, John Hansard Gallery and Black Archives South where me and storyteller Amanda Daepe were invited to perform our stories for the Windrush Legacy Roadshows. After listening to the audio recordings, I crafted a tale mixed with folklore and legend from each of their homelands which helped me bring to life, the stories of Anne Cato from Kenya who specialised in midwifery and contributed to training & improvements for midwives in the NHS, Kerwin Rogers & Gordon Benn from St Vincent & the Grenadines and Andre Fergus from Monsterrat.
So much pride was expressed by audience members after hearing me tell their personal Windrush Legacy stories! Everyone joined in my tales. It was amazing to have children and grandchildren share in these stories too. It was a wonderful multi-generational project. It’s so important for them to learn about this history from their family’s perspective.
Here I am with the legendary Steel pan drummer Gordon Benn and Steven James Weir who is the great nephew of Louise Bennett MBE – Jamaican folklorist/writer/poet.
We were so packed with folks from all quarters of the Caribbean and the local groups. I travelled the islands in their memories.
I met the lovely Guyanese Yvonne Harris and her family (also from the same part of Guyana as my mum) and many others who joined in the Caribbean folktales & rhymes from my book of ‘Caribbean Folktales: Stories from the Islands and the Windrush Generation‘ which was standing proudly next to Floella Benjamin, David Olusoga and Benjamin Zephania’s books.
Listen to these oral histories online at Southapmton Stories or in person at the British Library or the Southampton City Archives.
