Africans In Britain Research Articles

Breaking With the Old Pattern of Control: African Deputations to Britain from Southern Africa in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, deputations of African chiefs, or their envoys, travelled to Britain from southern Africa. While he was in Britain in 1882, the Colonial Office placed stringent controls on Cetshwayo, the deposed Zulu king, because he was regarded as a prisoner of war visiting Britain under parole. These controls served as a template for the treatment of future deputations who were subjected to a recognisable pattern of constraints, the most disempowering of which was the imposition of the Colonial Office's choice of interpreter – through whom it could exercise control over the deputation. In 1907 a deputation of Basuto chiefs broke with the pattern of controls imposed on the earlier deputations. They did this with the help of two black activists. Josiah Gumede, a mission-educated, English-speaking African of Zulu descent, acted as both advocate and interpreter for the deputation, thus avoiding the imposition of an official, or officially endorsed person, appointed to act as their interpreter and, by extension, assuming the right to ‘take charge’ of them. Sylvester Williams, a Trinidadian-born pan-Africanist, sought support for the deputation from the white humanitarian community in Britain. Seeing the reluctance of the Aborigines' Protection Society to assist deputations of Africans in Britain, Williams sought to fill this vacuum in the humanitarian lobby. Though it involved a compromise with his pan-African principles, he formed a committee of radical white humanitarians to act as a respectable front for the Basuto deputation to approach the Colonial Office. In doing so, Williams attempted to reconfigure the humanitarian landscape of early twentieth-century Britain. He and Gumede, breaking with the old pattern of controls imposed on previous deputations, pointed the way towards a more effective strategy for traditional African chiefs and their followers to pursue their claims to the heart of empire.

Entrepreneurship among British Africans: moving forward by looking backward

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how the complex interrelationship between historical factors and socio‐economic contexts contributed in shaping the contemporary representation of African entrepreneurship in Britain. Using this prism, it highlights some of the critical developmental challenges and future prospects.Design/methodology/approachIn order to track the connection between historical/immigration experiences and conditions of entrepreneurial development among Africans in Britain, the paper follows in the tradition of socio‐historical method. It leans on syntheses drawn from a broader underpinning literature.FindingsThe way in which the historiography of African entrepreneurship is generally presented reveals hybrid and ambivalent positions; guiding as well as constraining the representation of entrepreneurial choices of contemporaneous British Africans. Historical antecedents have strong explanatory powers in the construction or reconstruction of entrepreneurial identities of British Africans.Practical implicationsAgainst the backcloth of the problems generally encountered in attempts to stimulate and support entrepreneurship in black and African communities in Britain, policy designers very often ignore the fact the solutions will have to be sought from within the paradigms that created the problems. The positioning of this paper is intended to begin to plug this gap.Originality/valueThe concept of discourse is critical to understanding entrepreneurial processes of British Africans and bears careful explanation to their entrepreneurial transitions. This angle of inquiry is novel, with possibilities for opening new sites of knowledge.

Significant Black South Africans in Britain before 1912: Pan-African Organisations and the Emergence of South Africa's First Black Lawyers

Before 1912 a small number of black South Africans lived and studied in Britain. This experience of a ‘modern’ European industrial society, so different from the racially constructed states and colonies south of the Limpopo, exposed them to new ideas, freedoms and opportunities, including contacts with white sympathisers and patrons and with black people from the African diaspora. For some these were formative years which helped shape their political awareness and self-confidence as they engaged with different expressions of Christian brotherhood, pan-Africanism, and the English legal system. The major focus here is on a handful of individuals: Alice Kinloch, Francis J. Peregrino, Henry Gabashane, and the first black South African lawyers Isaac Pixley Seme and Alfred Mangena.

Africa in Europe: narrating black British history in contemporary fiction

This article analyses three examples of contemporary black British fiction that attempt to inscribe into the narrative of Britain the experience of the African diaspora: not only the life of immigrants from the former colonies after World War II, but also the less visible earlier settlement of Africans in the United Kingdom. This is a presence that official history has usually erased or underplayed in the construction of British identity, and these stories complicate the traditional concept of an ethnically homogeneous British past. Andrea Levy’s Small Island (2004) serves as a necessary reminder that before Caribbean workers came to rebuild the UK in the late 1940s, they had participated in the war effort; David Dabydeen’s A Harlot’s Progress (2000) recreates the life of enslaved and free Africans in Britain in the late eighteenth century; Bernardine Evaristo’s comic novel-in-verse The Emperor’s Babe (2001) imagines the presence of an African family in Roman Britannia.

Islamic Radicalisation among North Africans in Britain

This article examines how symbols of Islamic repression and massacre affect radicalisation among North Africans living in the UK. It suggests that these symbols are an insufficient but necessary cause in the larger process of ‘radicalisation’, because they provide a basis for perceptions of injustice. In this context, myths, memories and symbols of colonial repression, contemporary repression of free political expression in North African states and current perceptions of western ‘oppression’ of Islam may be perceived as rationales for ‘oxygenation’. Oxygenation here denotes exchanges among different Muslim communities throughout Britain which potentially facilitate terrorist networks. Oxygenation in turn contributes to ‘blowback’, here in the guise of perceptions among British Muslims of global oppression of the Umma, especially understood in light of the Iraqi and Afghani insurgencies. This article also explores how these symbols may be cultivated and disseminated at popular and elite levels.

Africans in Yorkshire? The deepest-rooting clade of the Y phylogeny within an English genealogy

The presence of Africans in Britain has been recorded since Roman times, but has left no apparent genetic trace among modern inhabitants. Y chromosomes belonging to the deepest-rooting clade of the Y phylogeny, haplogroup (hg) A, are regarded as African-specific, and no examples have been reported from Britain or elsewhere in Western Europe. We describe the presence of an hgA1 chromosome in an indigenous British male; comparison with African examples suggests a Western African origin. Seven out of 18 men carrying the same rare east-Yorkshire surname as the original male also carry hgA1 chromosomes, and documentary research resolves them into two genealogies with most-recent-common-ancestors living in Yorkshire in the late 18th century. Analysis using 77 Y-short tandem repeats (STRs) is consistent with coalescence a few generations earlier. Our findings represent the first genetic evidence of Africans among 'indigenous' British, and emphasize the complexity of human migration history as well as the pitfalls of assigning geographical origin from Y-chromosomal haplotypes.

Why the(y) wait? Key informant understandings of factors contributing to late presentation and poor utilization of HIV health and social care services by African migrants in Britain

The majority of new HIV diagnoses in the UK occur in people with heterosexually acquired HIV infection, the majority of whom are migrant Africans. In the UK HIV positive Africans access HIV services at a later stage of disease than non-Africans (Burns et al., 2001; Sinka et al., 2003). Employing purposive sampling techniques, semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants to identify the key issues affecting utilization of HIV services for Africans in Britain. Considerable agreement about the major issues influencing uptake of HIV services existed amongst the key informants. Respondents felt there was high HIV awareness but this did not translate into perception of individual risk. Home country experience and community mobilization was highly influential on HIV awareness, appreciation of risk, and attitudes to health services. Institutional barriers to care exist; these include lack of cultural understanding, lack of open access or community clinics, failure to integrate care with support organizations, and the inability of many General Practitioners to address HIV effectively. Community involvement should include input to ensure there is: better cultural understanding within the health care system; normalization of the HIV testing process; and a clear message on the effectiveness of therapy.

Mayisha II: Pilot of a community-based survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles and anonymous HIV testing within African communities in London

The pilot aim was to assess the feasibility and acceptability of undertaking anonymous HIV testing using oral fluid samples as part of a community-based survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles of black African communities in London. The three components of the study were administered in various venues across London: (1) a cross-sectional self-completion anonymous questionnaire survey, (2) an optional oral fluid sample for anonymous HIV testing and (3) a nested in-depth interview study in a sub-set of respondents. A total of 114 black African men and women were recruited. A large number of African countries were represented among respondents from newly-migrant and well-established communities. The response rate to the oral fluid sample was high at 82% and all samples collected were of sufficient quality to be tested for HIV. In-depth interviews with respondents revealed positive views and experiences about participating in the study whilst understanding of the questionnaire was good. We therefore conclude that anonymous HIV testing as part of a community-based survey is feasible and acceptable, whilst a set of recommendations was produced to refine the survey methodology and questionnaire. Participatory research methods are essential for achieving successful community-based surveys among black Africans in Britain.

Access to HIV care among migrant Africans in Britain. What are the issues?

In the UK, substantial numbers of new HIV diagnoses are within migrant communities, especially African communities. Current surveillance shows that despite health promotion efforts and advances in therapy these communities are accessing HIV care late. This paper explores the issues influencing the access and uptake of HIV care by migrant Africans in Britain. Using Kleinman's model of health care systems (Kleinman, 1980) as a theoretical framework, we highlight the importance of placing health within its broader context if we are to make significant improvement to the health of HIV-infected Africans in Britain.

West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism

West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism

Hakim Adi — West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Communism

Left History features articles from a variety of theoretical approaches; these include feminist, marxist, and postmodernist deliberations on topics such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, culture, the state, labour, the environment, theory, and method.

West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Communism (review)

West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Communism (review)

West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism

Pioneers of student politics and the struggle for self-reliance West-African student organizations in Britain 1923-1930 search for a black united front 1930-1939 the war years 1939-1945 Africanization and radicalization - Cold-War responses 1945-1949 the 1950s - communism and nationalism.

Treatment issues for HIV+ Africans in London

Black Africans are the second largest group of HIV/AIDS service users in London, UK. They are distinguished from other patient groups by their delay in access to services and appear to have a lower uptake of antiretroviral therapies. This study explores the treatment issues concerning black Africans which may affect their uptake of therapies. Issues raised included questions about if and when to start treatment, fears of side-effects both short and long term, awareness of the current uncertainties surrounding combination therapies and concerns about how to achieve compliance. The social circumstances of HIV positive black Africans living in London together with differences in cultural beliefs and experience of health care in the UK give rise to particular treatment concerns. These concerns include the fear of being experimented upon, lack of confidence in drugs tested only on Caucasians, distrust of the medical profession and fears of discrimination. Efforts to encourage the uptake of antiretroviral therapies by black Africans in Britain must take into account the particular experiences, fears and concerns of this patient group.

West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: nationalism, pan-Africanism and communism

Pioneers of student politics and the struggle for self-reliance West-African student organizations in Britain 1923-1930 search for a black united front 1930-1939 the war years 1939-1945 Africanization and radicalization - Cold-War responses 1945-1949 the 1950s - communism and nationalism.

West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Communism

West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Communism

Prevalence, detection, and management of cardiovascular risk factors in different ethnic groups in south London

ObjectiveTo assess the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and their level of detection and management in three ethnic groups.DesignPopulation based survey during 1994 to 1996.SettingFormer Wandsworth Health Authority in South...

Immigrants & Minorities: Special issue on Africans in Britain

Immigrants & Minorities: Special issue on Africans in Britain

The serum protein pattern of West Africans in Britain

1. (1) Thirty West African men have been divided into three groups according to the length of time they have spent continuously in Britain. The serum protein patterns of the groups are described, and the differences studied statistically. 2. (2) The pattern in recent arrivals is that usually found in tropical Africans. Over the course of more than 6 years the pattern approaches close to, but does not completely reach, that of normal Europeans. 3. (3) It is concluded that the pattern found in Africans in Africa is not due to genetic or physiological factors, but is due to pathological changes which are at least partly reversible if the environment can be altered. 4. (4) These pathological changes are in the liver and, in Africans from the tropics, are thought to be due to malaria as well as to malnutrition.