Aniversaries in 2006

July 1936 Battle of Cable Street, East London

August 1976 Riots in Notting Hill, West London

1976 The Race Relations Act became law http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000034.htm

5 June 1976 Murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar in Southall West London

1976 and 1977 Asian workers, mainly women, involved in a series of industrial disputes, the most notable at Mansfield Hosiery Ltd. Imperial typewriters, and Grunwick Film Processing

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Black Inventors

For information on the ARA arts4REAL "Black Inventors" production click here.

The First Inventors

The earliest evidence of human life was found in East Africa over 2 million years ago. In 5,000 BC in Africa baskets were invented, and geometry, astronomy and mathematics were used to create the first calendar. After 5,000 BC, cultivation and irrigation transformed African agricultural methods. The Egyptians pioneered the use of civil servants, local government and taxes.

Modern Black Inventors

There have been thousands of black inventors throughout the world in the last four centuries. Some of their names are household names like Elijah McCoy (“the real McCoy”); others may not be so familiar. For others we don’t have names, such as the 19th century doctors of Banyoro in Uganda, who performed the first “Caesarean section” recorded in history. To them all we pay tribute, and especially to those unknown inventors whose inventions were never patented because of racism, and to those inventors whose inventions were stolen from them.

A Glimpse into the history of Black people in Wales

Black people in Wales make up a much smaller proportion of the total population than areas of Britain like London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool. Yet there has been a long-standing Black presence in Wales both in terms of communities and individuals.

There has also been the invisible hand of Black labour that helped to build the Welsh economy. During the industrial revolution capital created by Trans-Atlantic slavery was used in Welsh industrial and financial sectors.

Various Black people travelled to, through, and settled in Wales during the 18th and 19th centuries. There are records of Black-American abolitionists campaigning, lecturing, and selling their literature in Wales during the 19th century. There are also cases of escaped, freed and owned slaves living in Wales.

The Black population in Wales has largely clustered around the ports of Cardiff and Newport. During the 19th and early 20th century the Welsh economy exported coal to feed the steam ships and factories of the British Empire. Labour was drawn from the Indian sub-continent, the Caribbean, North Africa, West Africa, and the Middle East to man the British merchant navy.

Shipping companies were motivated by the financial rewards Black labour could bring in terms of lower pay, dispensing with workers’ rights and the opportunities of playing white seamen off against Black seamen. It was from this process that many of Cardiff’s and Newport’s Black population can trace their roots.

Sailors from Asia and Africa were never passive participants. These sailors brought their cultural ideas and practices with them. Tabili (1) notes that many of the Arab seamen who came to Cardiff set up their own boarding houses which allowed them to pray, live and eat according to the rules of Halal. Neither did Black sailors choose to adopt a siege mentality.

Many married white women and laid the foundations for one of Britain’s oldest multi-racial communities. In these actions can be seen one of the earliest responses to the selfish demands made by big business of Black people. If the shipping companies were to use Black labour then Black workers exercised their right to settle and make a home in Britain.

1) L. Tabili “We Ask For British Justice”

(1994) Cornell University Press

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