The black Diaspora in Britain: Afro‐Caribbean students and the struggle for a political identity, 1900–1950

Abstract

This essay examines the growth of black student politics in Britain during the first half of this century. It looks at the conflict between early black nationalist movements that emerged after the First World War and the attempts at social control through white welfare organizations and the Colonial Office. The last part examines the West African Students Union and its struggle for an independent hostel before and during the Second World War. The article concludes that these political conflicts played an important role in the early formation of black politics in Britain and that black students were not the alienated rootless personages divested of a history that they have sometimes been made out to be.