The allure of visiting Jamaica has stayed with me ever since my first visit in 2017. The place I call “home”, the land of my parental and maternal grandparents, holds a cherished memory in my heart.
Through my studies and work with The Weekly Gleaner here, I have had the opportunity to stay connected with Jamaican politics and current affairs, maintaining my link back “home”. Therefore, when the chance arose to participate in the inaugural Fusion Project, I eagerly seized it with both hands!
Th...

THE UK reparations conference offered food for thought pertaining towards African liberation.

‘Stop the Maangamizi’ was plastered on the large poster behind the conference speakers – stemming from the Swahili dialect referring to the chattel slavery of Africans, the colonialism of Africa and the Caribbean, and the continued neocolonial dominance of European powers and companies.

At the epicentre of reparations is education.

As Jamaica’s first national hero Marcus Garvey said “, A people witho...

Birmingham might not be the first city that comes to mind when you think of reggae music, but scratch the surface and you’ll find a history that runs deeper than the 30-foot seam of coal under West Bromwich. In the 80s, music was the force that brought second-gen Black Caribbean kids and white youth together, with reggae coming over with the Windrush generation some years prior and soundtracking the rhythms of city’s multicultural communities.‘Shebeens’ or ‘blues parties’ first emerged in Black...

It feels like the contributions West Indian migrants have made to this country have been in vain Windrush Day today marks 74 years since the Empire Windrush arrived on Britain’s shores in 1948. Introduced in 2018 by political activist Patrick Vernon, the day is supposed to celebrate the efforts of West Indians who helped rebuild Britain after it was smashed by war.


These West Indian migrants (the 492 on the Empire Windrush would form part of the overall 500,000 who arrived befor...

Germany paid reparations towards the victims of the Holocaust and their descendants. 
America paid reparations to those who suffered in the Japanese internment camps during the Second World War. 
New Zealand agreed to pay reparations to Maori people. 
With the precedent already set, it seems strange that it is considered impossible to do the same for the descendants of those who suffered from slavery in the Caribbean. 
It may seem like a new discussion, following William and Kate’s visit, but re...

The murder George Floyd re-ignited a global outcry for racial equality amid the Covid-19 pandemic. At Britain’s Black Lives Matter protests, the names of black people who were killed in police custody or following police contact were plastered on placards. These included former footballer Dalian Atkinson who was killed near his family home in 2016 after being tasered. A PC, Benjamin Monk, is standing trial charged with Atkinson’s murder, which he denies. There are continuities between the protes...