The West Indies Must Become the 5th Nation of the United Kingdom!
For more than 300 years. From the very beginning and throughout the whole length of the existence of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the people of the West Indies, Black Britons, have been part of the British civilisation.
It is time for the United Kingdom to accept those of the British West Indies as the 5th nation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with the same rights to freedom of movement and labour in the British Isles as any citizen that belongs to one of the 4 nations that currently make up the Kingdom.
If Boris Johnson is going to give 2.9 million citizens of Hong Kong access to Britain and they have not been a part of Britain since its formation but became a British colony more than 130 years later, then it is only right and virtuous to give the 4.1 million Black Britons, that share Britain’s Head of State, language and names, access to Britain and to consider giving access to those that were once part of Britain but who sought full independence and Republicanism during the mid to late 20th Century such as Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
The black Britons of the West Indies have existed as part of England since the middle of the 17th Century when England began to create its first overseas possessions in places such as Barbados, Jamaica and St Kitts and Nevis amongst others. When the United Kingdom of Great Britain was born out of the union of England and Scotland in 1707, there was a black slave class located in Britain’s overseas plantations and colonies in the West Indies. In 1801, when the United Kingdom of Great Britain made up of the English, the Welsh and the Scottish brought Ireland into their union to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the black slave class was still in slavery and subjugated. When the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was created in 1927, again, we were part of Britain. This means that like the black Americans of the USA, we black Britons have been a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain from before it existed. We are not new to British civilisation, we have been part of British civilisation from it’s birth, until now.
Our ancestors were taken to the West Indies from Africa by the British. Those that ran the colonies where we were enslaved were British, those who ran the slave plantations were we cultivated cotton, sugar and tobacco were British. Those missionaries that arrived in the West Indies to indoctrinate the slaves into Christian doctrine were British. The first language that we ever began to write as enslaved people was English. We were given our names by slave-masters, missionaries and colonisers that were British and we were given British names.
For more than 300 years, the whole length of the existence of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, we have been part of the British civilisation occupying the lowest social rung as first slave, then colonial and now outsider.
In 1602, the King of Scotland, James IV became King of England and Ireland and unified the Monarchy of the 3 Kingdoms in what has become known as the Union of the Crown. In this arrangement, Scotland and England operated as two separate nations and kept their own parliaments and governments as has been the case since Scottish devolution. Wales had been annexed and brought into the English legal system from some time before and although the Welsh had their own language and traditions, they were considered to be part of England and at the time did not make up an independent nation as they have done since 1998. Ireland had been colonised by the English in the earlier century as the first English colony and so Ireland came under the jurisdiction of the English.
During his reign King James IV of Scotland, also known as James I of England and Ireland, sought to unify the two nations into one state called Great Britain. A parliamentary bill was devised that offered to make his dream a reality but it was rejected by Parliament. Similar Bills were devised by later Monarchs but did not make it through the Parliament either. It was not until the coming of Queen Anne, more than 100 years later, that the union would take place.
On 1st May, 1707, the Union Act came into being under the Monarch Queen Anne and thus the United Kingdom of Great Britain was born as a union between The Kingdom of England (Including Wales and Ireland) and the Kingdom of Scotland under the Union Act.
In the 16th Century. England had captured and colonised Ireland and in the little more than 100 years period between the Union of the Crown and the Union Act, the English were able to capture and colonise the New World taking the lands of North American and the West Indies as English Overseas Possessions
When the Articles that make up the Union Act were devised they gave the subjects of the Union the right of access to “the Dominions and Plantations thereunto belonging”, the English Overseas Possessions. With the coming of the Union Act in 1707, the possessions became known as the British Colonies rather than the English Overseas Possessions.
From the 1600’s the slave trade and slavery had started to take off in the English Overseas Possessions. African heritage slaves and subjects were transported to the plantations of the West Indies and forced to work in cotton, sugar and tobacco cultivation and as domestic servants for the colonists and their families. In 1707, the ability to trade in and colonise these lands was extended beyond the English (and the Welsh) to include the subjects of the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain, the Scottish.
In 1801, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was born and the Irish were taken out of their colonial status to become part of the British Empire. At the time that the Irish became part of Great Britain, the black Britons of the West Indies had been a part of the British civilisation for its duration of almost a 100 years. Black Britons were part of the civilisation before the white Irish. However, they were still treated as second class citizens because of the colour of their skin and their slave status.
In 1833, the slave trade was officially made illegal and in 1866 Jamaica became a Crown colony. In the 1950’s the plantations of the West Indies that were a Crown colony started to seek for independence. In Jamaica, the largest and most culturally dominant nation of the West Indies, Jamaica, started to develop a desire for independence.
The independence drive was led by two cousins, Alexander Bustamante and Norman Manley, both of whom are indistinguishable from the British white population and would be described as white in all places of the world. It would not be unfair to say that both Bustamante and Manley were not descendants of visibly black slaves in the immediate sense and owed more of their identity to the Irish indentured servants, the plantation owners or free whites, such as the Irish, that had emigrated to the West Indies to be free of the English and the Scottish colonisers.
In 1953, the first steps towards Independence took place when Alexander Bustamante was appointed Chief Minister. In 1955, he was replaced as Chief Minister by his cousin, Norman Manley. In 1959, the leadership title was changed to Premier and Norman Manley became the first Premier of Jamaica. He remained until he was replaced by his cousin Bustamante in 1962.
On the 6th August, 1962, Alexander Bustamante became the first Prime Minister of Jamaica.
On the 6th August 1962, it had been some 300–400 years since the British had taken control of the West Indies and begun to import African slaves and subjects into the islands.
Throughout the whole of the existence of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, from 1707, we have been part of the British civilisation. Throughout the whole of the existence of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, from 1801 onwards, we have been part of British civilisation.
We share the same Head of State, we speak the same language, have the same names and have been part of the growth and development of Britain. In the climate of Black Lives Matter, it is about time that we have given so much over centuries should be given freedom of movement and made the 5th nation of the United Kingdom. If we are brought into the Kingdom as equals then we will be the second or third biggest nation in the UK. In the 6th richest economy in the world, an economy that we helped to build.
Black Britons must not let the notion of Black Nationalism get in the way of getting access to the nation whose wealth we have helped to generate over centuries. We should not let the independence struggle led by the likes of Bustamante and Manley tear us away from the fact that we are part of British civilisation from the beginning and that has not changed since independence. No form of independence can come to us because the wealth that we laboured to create is not in Britain’s overseas slave plantations but right here in the British isles, our cultural Motherland. In Bristol, in Liverpool and right here in our capital. Our pride must not tear us away from getting access to what is rightfully ours.
ALT
