Arthur Curling
I came to England first in 1944 in the Airforce. I returned back to Jamaica in 1946 after spending two years there, it was too small for me. I joined the Airforce when I was 16 at the same time I left school, took my test and waited for the results. It was something beautiful at the time to all the young fellows in uniform. You think you want to be a part of something, but apart from that you can't always say why you do something, you're young, you don't stop and think of the dangers and things, you just do what you feel you want to do regardless of what your parents say. My parents did not approve in the beginning, but they had no choice at the time, but like everything else, its your life or your education, you gain an experience. I went back to JA in November 1946, the Windrush came in 1948, I returned to England, you know your parents are strict for one, now you have more freedom. After you reach a certain time in life you think you want to get away from the control of your parents.
As a matter of fact I had a reasonably good job in Jamaica and things were looking up. It just a matter of the Island is too small. You don't realise how small until after you've travelled.
One doesn't feel that you know everything, what happens, what you feel is a sense of freedom. I went to Bermuda, met a lot of Bermudans, I was in a crowd of people again, many were ex-service men you were able to do things. I had a relation on the ship who was going to see his brother, who was studying at the time. It's difficult for me to go back, because I've never looked back, I always try to look forward in life.
I wouldn't say England been good to me, but I say it made a change in my life at the time. England was the easiest country to get into and the hardest country to get out of, for the mere fact is if you working, you never earn enough money for your fare, but at the same time you always say you always have another 10 year, 15-20 years. You get yourself involved and things. I have spent most of my life in England, I have travelled quite a lot on the continent of Africa, and I went to Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and North America. But England has something that you want to get back to; you can't put your finger on it.
There is a racism, but it's up to the individual, how you counteract it, the fact is if a man say you are a black, so and so, you can't say you are a white, so and so. If you even get to fisti-cuffs, the best man win. It's true racism is more prominent with the younger generation , this generation doesn't put up with it, the way we as old colonials come here and accept it. Violence is part of the society today, and people will say the black man does that, but they never give the reasons he does it.
When black people wanted to do things in politics, there was always some excuse, but as the younger generation in the system today they are asking for more, and the younger generation had very few role models to follow. If you look at countries like Canada, where West Indians - or being Jamaican, I will refer to Jamaicans myself - went long after they start coming to England. They are much more advanced, they have a sense of being a West Indian, they don't mind you keeping your culture, and they accept it. People started going there as professionals, during the Michael Manley era, most of the cream left the island and that's what broke the political system of the island. The doctors, the lawyers, everybody want to go to Canada or America, unlike England, it was ordinary working class, the factory worker etc who came to England.
Published: 2001-01-01
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