4Learning - Secondary - Resources4Learning - Secondary - Resources - History - The Time of My Life

Things are changing very much and people aren’t as prejudiced as they used to be towards coloured people. When I first came here it was, ‘Wogs go home’ and all sort of graffiti written on the side of houses and all sorts of thing. They must have thought we’re not human. That’s how I see it, to me they thought we’re not human.

Dolly

Well I was born in Britain, and I’m British but my family, my dad, my grandma and my aunties they like to get me into my Asian roots and stuff but I think I’m British.

Joyce

It’s a mixed feeling. I can’t feel complete West Indian, I can’t feel complete British. Our island is a British West Indian island and we were brought up in the British Empire, so we see ourselves as being British West Indian.

Dolly

What were your expectations of Britain when you were in Jamaica?

Joyce

We were taught so many things about Britain, about how wonderful it is and the streets are paved with gold. They must be very rich, everybody is very rich, and everybody must be so posh.

Dolly

So a lot of West Indians were encouraged to come here to Britain, why was that?

Joyce

During the war, many men were killed. Over the media the story is, ‘Your Mother Country needs you.’ So the younger men, I think between the ages 16 to 40 came, because we are a British subject and there are so many empty jobs here that has no vacancies filled, because so many men has been defeated, they took the people from the British Empire to fill the spaces of these jobs.

Dolly

So what was it like when you first came to Britain?

Joyce

The snow puts me off, I was shivering so much, I didn’t know where I’m going. And then my husband came to meet me with a very warm coat because I didn’t wear a coat from Jamaica and I shivered and shivered, and all I could see was snow and these high buildings. So I was thinking, ‘Why did they build so many factories?’

Dolly

Was this in Bradford? Bradford?

Joyce

Yes.

Dolly

It must have been expensive to get here though?

Joyce

Yes, you had to sell... because we had not lots of money, we had to sell our houses and land, men sold their houses and land. So when we came here and found that many were not happy to receive us and we were called names as if we are not accepted by many, especially the ordinary, then many of us felt so disappointed.

When I first came to this country this is the area where I lived in. It was very hard to find accommodation but my husband came here 6 months before me so he was able to find some sort of accommodation. Many people were turned away from houses owing to the colour of their skin because the white people did not accept us freely.

Dolly

Where did you first work when you moved here?

Joyce

The house is demolished which was here, but I worked in the mill which was Drummonds Mill and they taught me to do spinning.

Dolly

And what were the people like towards you?

Joyce

I found people were really different. We experienced hostility a lot.

Dolly

So why do you think people were racist to the immigrants?

Joyce

To me it was because of the colour of your skin. They are not used to seeing a lot of coloured people and then seeing you coming to live as neighbours to them, it makes them hostile and even cruel. You could be sitting down in your house and a stone could be thrown through the letter box — it wasn’t very nice. It was more difficult for the Indians or the Pakistani that doesn’t speak the same language. But because we are Jamaican and English is taught in our country, we were governed by the British people, there was no language barrier for us. We had not experienced that at all.

SHER AZAM

My name is Sher Azam. I was born in the North West of Pakistan. I came here in early 1961 and I was 20 years old when I arrived here. It was a hard choice, leaving the country all together. I was young, I was energetic, enthusiastic at that time and I just wanted to come. It’s a lot easier for young Asians now than the difficulties which we faced with when we came here. There was a lot of problem we faced as first generation of Asian when we arrived in Britain.

Dolly

So what was it like in Pakistan before you came here?

Sher

I come from the North West of Pakistan and it’s rural areas, it’s villages. There are mountains, plains. The area was beautiful but the employment opportunities wasn’t there.

Dolly

And so is that the reason why you came to Britain?

Sher

One of my friend was here earlier and he wrote me a very nice letter so it fascinated me and I thought I’m going to go. I talked to my father and he didn’t like me coming here but after a few days’ persuasion and consultation I convinced him that it was best for me to go because I will be able to improve my employment opportunities and he reluctantly agreed. But more than the letter there was other thing. After the World War there was a great loss of life on all sides. In Britain, in Germany, in France, there was a destruction of the infrastructure as well. The building was destroyed and everything needs building up. The industry was destroyed and there wasn’t enough people there to work and therefore there was a shortage of labour in the West. Many companies, firms from Britain was advertising in the local press of Pakistan, asking for people, asking for labour. So that was another invitation and I was young at that time so I thought, ‘Let’s go.’

Dolly

But it must have been hard settling in, though innit?

Sher

When I came, I could not understand the local people talking. The language which they were speaking with each other, they were speaking so fast I couldn’t understand. While I was going to work, I needed to catch a bus from the centre of Bradford, Chester Street, and then come to Saltaire, Shipley — Saltaire Village, that’s where the job was. And one day because there was some diversions or whatever, I missed my stop and I sort of panicked and I got off somewhere and I lost the way to home. I walked and walked and walked and from 6 o’clock until 11 o’clock at night I was wandering around, wandering around and eventually I got home 11 o’clock and I had a sigh of relief and I said I was lost and they were worried where I was. And one person he said, ‘I’ll give you a clue. If you are going to live in Bradford, the best thing is... Bradford is like a bowl shape. The city centre is in the hollow, the centre and it’s surrounded by the outskirts of the hills, so as long as you are not moving upwards, when you are walking, don’t start ascending, start going down hill and, he says you’ll get to the city centre.’ That clue was very good. From that day onwards, I remember ever to this day that’s very useful.

Dolly

Where did you first live when you moved to Bradford?

Sher

I lived in the Greater Horton area. I went in the next street and found that there was a sign board ‘Room To Let’ and I knocked on the door and I was told ‘No, sorry. It’s already been let.’ Although when I went a few days later, I still found the notice was still up and I had the same reply that the room is still let and only in the street after, there was still a signboard ‘Rooms To Let’ — underneath it says ‘No coloured’. It was quite legal to discriminate and refuse the room to black or Asian people, although it’s illegal now but at that time it was quite acceptable. The racism was basically about the colour of the skin, the culture that we lived. People did not have a reasonable understanding of the different cultures. The white community, they thought that we was pinching their jobs, we were stealing their jobs. It wasn’t the case. We was doing the harder, menial work, the unsocial hours and some of the jobs, if we wouldn’t have done it, the industry wouldn’t have continued.

ARCHIVE COMMENTARY

The control of immigration in this crowded island is one of the big questions of the moment. ‘There’s not enough housing for them and half of them are coming over here without jobs, consequently making it very hard for our own people to find jobs and housing.’

Dolly

Was racism worse in the 60s when you came to Britain?

Sher

There was a lot of racism in the 60s when I arrived. The racism was against black and Asian people. Things have improved a lot since then and as we have seen the evidence of improvement because of the initiative taken by individual people, agencies and the government. There was that big infamous speech by Enoch Powell...

Dolly

Who is this Enoch Powell?

Sher

Enoch Powell was a prominent member of the parliament. He said that if the Asian and the black people wasn’t returned back home, and allowed to live here in Britain, then there will be rivers of blood flowing in the streets of Britain. He meant that the black and white people would be fighting among themselves. Fortunately and rightly so, he was proven wrong. Instead of that, the people are living in a greater harmony now although there is still a lot of work to be done. I would ideally like to see Britain where everybody could live in peace and harmony whatever the colour of skin they have. It should be like Britain as a big garden where the flower may have a different colour, they may have a different need and they might bloom at a different time of year, but they all add to the beauty of that big garden and this is the sort of Britain I like to see.