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The Story of Britain’s Black Nurses
This new children’s book: The Story of Britain’s Black Nurses by Bajan author Kandace Chimbiri was published by Scholastic on 26th September 2024. The publication of The Story of Britain’s Black Nurses coincides with the start of Black History Month in the UK on 1st October. This book which is illustrated by Jael Umerah-Makelemi and…
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Windrush 75 – Pioneers & Champions
The HMT Empire Windrush is best remembered for bringing one of the first large groups of post-war Commonwealth citizens from the Caribbean to the UK in June 1948. The ship’s name is used to denote what in the UK is known as the Windrush Generation. These are the estimated 500,000 Commonwealth citizens who immigrated from…
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Remembering Olaudah Equiano’s time in Barbados
I have often sat on the boardwalk on Wharf Road watching tourists walking into the centre of Bridgetown. Each of them will pass a memorial. It isn’t particularly small but most people walk by without a single glance. Some slow their stride to ‘skim read’ the wording. No one ever seems to stop and study…
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John Richard Archer – the first black mayor of a London borough in 1913
John Richard Archer was the first black mayor of a London Borough. In November 1913 he was elected for a one year term as Mayor of the London Borough of Battersea. The the first black person to be elected as a Mayor in England was: Dr. Allan Glaisyer Minns. Born in the Bahamas in 1858,…
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Errol Barrow and his commanding officer Sholto Douglas
This is the story of the deep bond that developed between Errol Barrow and his commanding officer Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir William Sholto Douglas who was the Military Governor of Germany after World War II. From 1945 to 1947 Errol Barrow served as a Navigator within the Commander-in-Chief, Military Governor’s Flight with…
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The game of Warri
“Warri is a game with several different names, including wari (or owari), wao, awèlè, awela, ayo, aji, awari, oware and ouri. This game is of the pit-and-pebble family, which originated in Ancient Egypt some 3,500 years ago, making it one of the oldest games in the world. The word “warri” means houses and this game…
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World War I Commonwealth War Graves – Barbados
On 25th August 2021 it will be exactly 100 years since the death of Wendell Valentyne Byer. Who was Wendell you may ask? A famous cricketer? A politician perhaps? No, he was none of these, Wendell was once a trainee schoolteacher in St George. He was strong and fit – 5 feet 11 and a…
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Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? The Empire Windrush story
Only five of the 1,027 passengers on board the Empire Windrush began their journey in Barbados. Bill Hern writes about them here and explodes some myths about the iconic ship and its historic journey to England in June 1948. Background:The Windrush scandal erupted in 2018 where people mainly of Caribbean descent were wrongly classified as…
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Black Bajan footballers who were English Football League Club pioneers
Thanks to a select group of pioneering black Bajan footballers, no country in the world has had a greater impact on the history of English football than Barbados. That statement might come as a shock to some. After all, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica have reached the World Cup Finals whereas Barbados has never come…
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Alan Emtage – the Bajan who invented the ftp search engine in 1989 while a post-grad student at McGill University
Bajan Alan Emtage in 1989, aged 25, invented the first internet (ftp) search engine – Archie. The name Archie is derived from Archive with the v removed. At the time Alan was a post graduate student at McGill University working as a volunteer systems administrator for the School of Computer Science where he conceived and…
BajanThings
Bajan history. Interesting Bajan people. Hiking in Barbados and Overseas. International Travel…
Category: Black History Month
The theme of Black History Month is to focus on celebrating being Black or Brown, and to inspire and share the pride people have in their heritage and culture.
Black History Month happens in the USA in February and is also known as African-American History Month.
In the UK Black History Month happens in October.
In addition in the United Kingdom, Windrush Day was introduced in June 2018 on the 70th anniversary of the disembarkation of passengers of HMT Empire Windrush on 22nd June 1948 at Tilbury Docks who were migrating to the United Kingdom. 2023 was the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks.
Though Windrush Day is not a bank holiday in the UK, the 22nd June is an observed day. According to the United Kingdom Government the purpose of Windrush Day is to encourage “communities across the country to celebrate the contribution of the Windrush Generation and their descendants”.