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 is the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush at 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”.
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 …
Errol Barrow and his commanding officer Sholto Douglas Read More »
Errol Barrow’s crew in RAF 88 Squadron, “B” Flight, Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) during World War II consisted of: English pilot Andy Cole and the two Australian rear wireless operator and air gunners (WAGs): Leo Schultz and Allen “Shorty” Stewart. BajanThings has covered both Errol Barrow’s time in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and his …
Here is a BajanThings 101 on AI Chatbots – using Errol Barrow’s time in the RAF from 1940 to 1947 as the reference source. Artificial Intelligence (AI) ChatBots like ChatGPT and Bard are being promoted as the “next BIG thing”. With any new technology, there are bound to be some teething problems and issues that need …
A BajanThings 101 on AI Chatbots: ChatGPT and Bard. Why you MUST fact check the output… Read More »
“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 …
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 …
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 …
Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? The Empire Windrush story. Read More »
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 …
Black Bajan footballers who were English Football League Club pioneers Read More »
Bajan Alan Emtage in 1989, aged 25, invented the first internet (ftp) search engine – Archie (Archive without the v). At the time he was a post graduate student at McGill University working as a volunteer systems administrator for the School of Computer Science where he conceived and implemented: Archie, a pre-web internet search engine …
