Romain - Connecting Histories

CONNECTING HISTORIES

The dynamics of ethnicity, diaspora, identity and community are the defining features of contemporary life, giving rise to important and exciting new interdisciplinary fields of study and literature on subjects that were previously seen as the exclusive domain of the social sciences. Connecting Histories is an important contribution to this trend. While using sociological and anthropological theories, it is an innovative historical and comparative assessment of ethnic identities and memories. Romain investigates the ways in which communities remember their experiences, focussing on Afro-Caribbean and Jewish individuals and groups in Britain. By examining life histories and autobiographical acts including autobiography, oral history and travel writing, it assesses the ways in which mythologies affect collective memory and personal identities. Key themes include the memories of migration and myths of the Mother Country and Promised Land, the re-remembering of racist riots in early twentieth century Britain, and reflections on community and diasporic identities. The value and originality of Connecting Histories lie in the juxtaposition of two communities Afro-Caribbean and Jewish which have many parallels in historical experience, but have rarely been compared to each other. This important study contributes significantly to the understanding of ethnicity, identity and diasporic communities worldwide.

Gemma Romain works at The National Archives, Kew on a Heritage Lottery Fund project called Your Caribbean Heritage, cataloguing and researching colonial office original correspondence from the British Caribbean. She co-edited with David Cesarani, Jews and Ports Cities, 1590-1990: Commerce, Community and Cosmopolitanism (Vallentine Mitchell, 2006). Previously, she carried out her Ph.D. at the Parkes Institute, University of Southampton, where she compared and analysed ethnic memories and histories of African-Caribbean and Jewish communities in modern Britain. She was also a researcher and writer for the Connections: Hidden British Histories project, a historical exhibition exploring Asian, Caribbean, and Jewish history in Britain. Additionally, she is a Committee Member of the Society for Caribbean Studies, UK, and an Executive Member of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCore).

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Connecting Histories A Comparative Exploration of African-Caribbean and Jewish History and Memory in Modern Britain
Gemma Romain

CONNECTING HISTORIES

A Comparative Exploration of African-Caribbean and
Jewish History and Memory in Modern Britain

GEMMA ROMAIN

First published in 2006 by
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Gemma Romain, 2006

Printed in the United States

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ISBN: 0-7103-1223-7; 978-0-7103-1223-5

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Romain, Gemma
Connecting histories : a comparative exploration of African-Caribbean and Jewish History and memory in modern Britain. (Kegan Paul studies in anthropology, economy and society)
1.Jews Great Britain Identity 2.Blacks Great Britain Ethnic identity 3.Oral tradition Great Britain 4.Tradition (Judaism) 5.Jews Great Britain History 6.Blacks Great Britain History
I.Title
305.8924041
ISBN-10: 0710312237

Writing this book offered me the opportunity to explore the memories and identities of many Caribbean and Jewish people, whose life experiences I have found captivating. It has been a great joy to be able to read about peoples experiences, not only those of established authors such as Caryl Phillips and Linda Grant, but also of the many people who have shared their stories in creative and life writing courses and oral history projects. It is these projects that have allowed academics to explore the experience of migration from the perspective of a multitude of different voices previously unheard, ignored or marginalized.

I would like to thank many organisations and individuals who have helped me over the last seven years. I am particularly thankful to the centres where I spoke with and interviewed individuals. Although their stories do not appear in this book, I certainly found speaking with them an invaluable experience. In this context, I would like to thank the members and staff of the North London Jewish Day Centre; the Hibiscus African-Caribbean Day Centre, Stratford; and the Queenshill Jewish Day Centre in Leeds. Many individuals provided invaluable expertise and help including Max Farrar, Edie Friedman, Clement Cooper, Gerry Gable, Simon Joseph, Caryl Phillips and his literary agent, A P Watt Ltd, Richard Stone, Sam Walker, Bill Williams, Rachel Garfield, Mike Whine, John Solomos, Zeev David Portner, and Waltraud Ernst. I would like to express my gratitude to the Ian Karten Charitable Trust, the Hugo Gryn Trust, the Ashdown Trust, the Black-Jewish Forum, the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (J-Core), and Julia Cottrell, Julia Sadowski and Peter Hopkins at Kegan Paul.

I visited and corresponded with various archives and libraries across the country and received fantastic help from archivists, librarians and other staff. I would like to thank Brett Harrison of the West Yorkshire Archive Service; Sam Walker of the Black Cultural Archives; staff at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Archive in Manchester; the Hackney Archives; Hammersmith and Fulham Archives; the Liverpool Record Office; the Tower Hamlets Library and Archives; the Parkes Library and Southampton University Archives; and The National Archives, Kew.

I am thankful to all of my family and friends who have offered me their support over the period of completing my thesis and writing this book. I would like to thank my parents, grandmother, Gary, Daniel, Rachel Howse, Tony Kushner, Tom Lawson, Kristy Warren, Georgina Hague, Mandy Banton, and Graham Macklin. Whilst completing this book I have been working as an archivist on a Caribbean heritage project at The National Archives, Kew; I am grateful to my colleagues at the Archive for their support and advice with this book. I thank all of my colleagues and friends at the