Blackening Britain: Caribbean Radicalism from Windrush to Decolonization

The project explores how Caribbean identity formation, political mobilization, cultural expressions, and communication networks developed in Britain from the interwar years to the decolonization era. It shows how colonial migrants developed resistance tools based on their racialized consciousness and how West Indian activists, intellectuals, political actors, and artists conceived of their relationship to Britain.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 270 pages
Publication date: 15 August 2022
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Spanning the interwar years to the arrival of the steamship SS Empire Windrush from Jamaica in 1948 and culminating in the period of decolonization in the British Caribbean by the early 1970s, this project explores the development of communication networks, identification categories, and Caribbean radical politics both in the metropole and abroad. Blackening Britain delves into how articulations of Caribbean identity formation corresponded to themes such as organic collective action, political mobilization, cultural expressions of shared consciousness, and novel patterns of communication. By examining how colonial migrants in Britain developed tools of resistance based on their racialized consciousness, the book also interrogates the ways in which prominent West Indian activists, intellectuals, political actors, and artists conceived of their relationship to Britain. Ultimately, this work demonstrates a shift away from British identity and a radical, revolutionary consciousness rooted in the West Indian background and forged in the contentious space of metropolitan Britain.

Weight: 408g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538148402