Caribbean contributions to Britain

NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL

Taking place every year over the August Bank Holiday weekend since 1966, Notting Hill Carnival was cofounded by Windrush passenger Sam King as a way to both protest race relations problems in the country and to celebrate the culture and heritage of the rapidly growing British Caribbean community.

CHURCHES

While churches have been a staple in Britain for hundreds of years, the uniqueness of black majority churches is something the Windrush generation brought with them from the Caribbean. These churches offered a space for black immigrants to not only practice their religion, but meet others with a heritage they could relate to and make friends. These spaces still exist in their thousands today, up and down Britain.

FOOD

Used to well-seasoned foods and hearty dishes packed with meats and vegetables, British cuisine was somewhat shocking to the Caribbean immigrants. As a result, they quickly developed the means to import their own ingredients, and restaurants and stores specialising in Caribbean cuisine began cropping up in immigrant communities around Britain to provide that taste of home.

LITERATURE

Inspired by their experiences living in a postwar Britain, Caribbean writers quickly flourished in the literary community in the mid-1950s and have been doing so ever since. Some particularly poignant examples include 1954’s The Emigrants by George Lamming, Samuel Selvon’s 1956 novel The Lonely Londoners and Victor Headley’s Yardie, which was published in 1992.