The Black London eMonograph series The Been-to’s

Notes on Black overseas students in 1960s London

Thomas L Blair

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Publication Details The Been-to’s: Notes on Black overseas students in 1960s London Thomas L Blair 978-1-908480-52-1 Published in the e-Black London Monograph Series by Editions Blair e-Books 02 December 2015©

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The Been-to’s

Notes on Black overseas students in 1960s London

Thomas L Blair

This eMonograph shows that overseas students in London 1963 were first to plant the newfound spirit of Afro- Asian independence in London’s colleges, housing and social services.

Superbly observed, The Been-to’s devised a range of coping strategies to counter race prejudice and achieve their education for independence and development.

Relevant today, the findings over turn cherished assumptions about the structure and value of international education in Britain.

– TLB, 02 December 2015

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Contents

 The push-and-pull factors  Lost illusions  Finding lodgings, paying the “colour tax”  Trapped in no hope “coloured colleges”  Limited apprenticeships and training  Fostering babies to get ahead  Life and living not easy  Student unions for self-defence  End piece  Notes on the author and publisher of the Black London eMonograph series, imprint of Editions Blair

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The Been-to’s Notes on Black overseas students in 1960s London

By Thomas L Blair March 1963

Colonised peoples have had token representation as students in Britain from the earliest times of British imperial history. It was a clearly established practice, by 1720, for concessionary companies and missionaries to send the sons of chiefs, maharajas and traders, to Britain, for training in British "manners and morals".

Evidence shows there are 40,000 colonial or ex-colonial students in Britain, half of whom are Africans. For every 19 British students in higher institutions, there is one West African or Indian, and more than 10,000 of them come, each year, in search of further education and training.

The push-and-pull factors The students come from all over the Commonwealth realm with a variety of backgrounds, customs and national status. By the 1960s, West Africans became the largest single national group.

Four reasons account for the increasing numbers:

• The war had interrupted the chances for study • New concept of the Commonwealth • Need for certain kinds of training • Urging of families and relatives

Moreover, many come for personal advancement -"Unless you get a higher degree from Britain, you have no chance in your profession"; or because of their parents desires - "My father struggled through his life to make a place for himself and our family. When I left for school he said to me "I have laid the foundation stone, you have to build up the house!

Students are not one monolithic group, however, their social economic and cultural backgrounds vary. They may be an elderly government official who comes to study banking procedure, a young woman who wants to be a nurse, an able Yoruba pupil urged by his expatriate teacher, to continue his studies, or a shy Muslim imam studying Islamic law.

A student could be the sophisticated son of a traditional ruler, the favourite child of an impoverished peasant family, or the relative of a

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trader or minor civil servant.

Many are Christians, a few are wealthy, some are poor, and most must exist on meagre family savings while studying in Britain.

As to official status, most are unsponsored students from the British Colonies, and the Caribbean, see A.T. Carey, Colonial students, Secker and Warburg, 1956.

Lost illusions The students entered in the halcyon days of national independence and liberation struggles. In large part, they are articulate representatives of their peoples and countries; future leaders of the nations of the world's proletariat. They are heirs to the mantles of presidents and statesmen -- Nkrumah, Kenyatta, and Azikiwe -- who have also passed through the crucible of student life in England.

However, to the British, with few exceptions, they are all "coloureds", "aliens" and "colonials", doomed to the hostility and prejudice of citizens and the benign patronage of government.

Therefore, the way coloured students are treated in London is an expression of the race-class relations in the city and between Britain and her colonies and newly independent states.

Finding lodgings, paying the “colour tax” Picture the typical student, a male West African, aged 30 years, who comes from an urban suburb or small town. He arrives in London weighed down with his bags, clutching his cash “going away" present, excited by the thoughts of new adventures tinged with memories of his farewell.

During his first few days, the intending student, let’s call him “Omar”, puts up at a British Council hostel and walks the streets, lost in the enormous impersonal city, “incredibly vast and ugly, studded with grotesque modem buildings, seething with men and women walking fast, scarcely taking notice of one another, under a dull grey sky".

Inevitably, the “colour bar” restricts the search for permanent housing. The common refrain is "sorry, no coloured boys"; "the room was let this morning, after you called"; "I would not mind myself, but what would the neighbours say"; and brutally frank "Rooms -no coloureds".

And when the student finds a room, it is often in an unfriendly house, charged with latent hostility. As a Nigerian student said, "I had a bed- sitting room in an old house with an elderly landlady, who loitered around the whole day, with a dog in her lap and stared at me with the frightened look of a dying person. She hung a placard on the wall which

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read: "Dog is a better friend than man." I left the ghostly atmosphere after a week, losing my rent for the week, which I had paid in advance”.

Many speak of their bleak, beetle infested rooms in Hampstead, Camden Town and Earls Court, the dismal winter, the disapproving landlady, the poverty and the meagre meals, cooked over a gas stove.

Like the coloured migrant worker, the student has to accept dilapidated accommodation at a higher price than whites will pay. He therefore pays more for less and the profit goes to the landlady or the estate agent. This is the colour tax, a symbol of the first-class price a coloured person has to pay for second-class accommodation, opportunities and services. It is a compensation extorted by whites for the "risks involved in associating with coloureds".

Trapped in the no hope “coloured colleges” If lucky, a student will soon find lodgings, get accustomed to the food and customs of his new home and secure a place in a classroom. The participation of coloured students in English education is varied. At the present moment, few are in academies of fine arts, music or in university colleges. Banking, commerce and business courses are popular. They are well represented in law, education and nursing. Significantly, more than 80 per cent of the students are in technical colleges.

"Coloured Colleges" are rapidly developing in London's technical institutions and the low standard of facilities, in these institutions ensure that aspiring students get a second-rate education.

Why are "coloured colleges" developing? Our typical student, Omar, has not been able to get a government scholarship, arrives in London unsponsored and unannounced, and is unable to enrol in a university of choice. Unwilling to return home as a "been-to" who has failed, he gets a job and goes to night school to take the advanced level GCE to qualify for entrance to the university. [The US High School Diploma is an equivalent].

Soon Omar cannot handle the job and his studies, so he gives up the job and lives on his savings and continues to take the GCE program as a daytime student in a technical college. When he finally passes the GCE, more often than not, he finds that his score is not acceptable for admission to the university, so he then enrols in another technical college, so that he may take an external degree from the university.

As the majority of Black overseas students find themselves in this position, their enrolment in technical colleges sky-rocketed. They are the vast majority in the student body in 2 technical colleges and almost half the student body in 6 others.

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According to educational authorities, these unsponsored, external students are a "submerged academic tenth" about which little is known and in whom there is little interest. External degrees are “education on the cheap" because the facilities for education are far below those of the university or even the provincial colleges. This trend will continue and more technical institutions, will become second-rate "colored colleges".

Limited apprenticeships and training When his education is over and the student seeks practical experience he must again face difficulties. Engineering students find that British firms will not hire them and law students can’t gain entrance to professional legal chambers. In the field of medicine the coloured student does have opportunities for practice albeit at the lower levels. Evidence shows that a third of the junior medical staff and nurses in Britain’s National Health Service hospitals are from the Commonwealth.

The African and Asian student faces many more problems of adjustment. After a slow start, they become discouraged. Financial difficulties cause disillusionment and despair.

Furthermore, the social relations of African students are distorted by the ignorance and prejudice of the British public. One student said: "....a good many times of hold my hand out and having it ignored, has taught me what I call "Negro-in-England" manners. I have learned how to keep my hand at my side until a white hand is offered to me." Moreover, epithets like "nigger" and "spade" is severely damaging. No wonder then that this onslaught against his self-esteem leads to some grave mental disorders amongst students.

Fostering to get ahead Married African students with children face additional problems. When student’s wives are working or attending school, they must place children under someone else's care. Every week, adverts appear seeking: "Loving foster-mother needed for a month-old Nigerian boy".

Reports show this is especially true, when the landlady/landlord/ enforces a "no baby" rule. In Kent, England, there are numerous coloured children, privately fostered.

Foster homes are often "black baby farms" where white foster mothers trade in babies. The Observer writer, Dilys Rowe reported that students expect to pay at least £3 a week for fostering. And, at examination time, the blackmail starts. The foster mother will say, " You must take the baby now, my mother is visiting me; I have no time." But, when we pay an increment of 7s 6d a week, the visiting mother is forgotten.

One Nigerian law student talked bitterly about the fostering system "Believe

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me; it is not for love of coloured babies, the English do this. It is for love of money." An average foster mother earns an income of £9 a week from 2 or 3 children; one woman discovered by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), was earning £24 a week from a "black baby farm". Young babies are particularly liable to chest trouble, and can collapse from it, within hours. Eight children fostered in the county, died in this way within a period of 18 months.

Life and living not easy Many examples show how social and mental problems affect many students:

• The son of a minor chief, came to read agriculture - having failed his examinations twice he drifted to London, lost touch with his father, took up with some friends in illegal enterprises in order to get money to continue his education • An elderly civil servant, with pensions and savings, came to study law. His eyesight failed and he failed his exams. He has been in England nearly ten years and is now totally blind. Unwilling to return as a "failure" to his community, in which he previously commanded great respect, he lives with an English family in Paddington, and will probably die with them • Social disorientation follows when students are affected by the general ignorance of the British public and teachers about their countries and customs • The majority of students live in in the older, poorer districts or isolated in all-coloured hostels and college residential halls. • Mental disorders - these can emerge due to the breakdown of deeply held traditional beliefs, caused by the impact of western society and inadequate adjustment to new conventions. • Racially based hostility trumps liberal rhetoric in the search for hotel accommodation. Two African students who came to London to attend a seminar on "the problems of students from developing countries" were refused rooms booked for them at Earl's Court Hotel. "We thought they were going to be Persians; we can't have Africans here because we have a lot of white South Africans staying here and we don't want any trouble”, said the manager.

Student protest and self-defence With limited support against discrimination, the defence of the coloured students’ rights have fallen mainly on their own shoulders. And the instrument for their defence are students unions. Three examples are the West Indian Students Union (WISU), West African Students Union (WASU) and the Committee of African Organisations (CAO).

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The West Indian Students Union (WISU) was founded in 1946 for fellowship and student welfare. However, the recent breakdown of the Federation of the West Indian and the imposition of the discriminatory British Commonwealth Immigration Act 1962, has brought great changes. Under the pressure of these events, a few students have developed contacts with the West Indian working classes and begun to deal systematically with the problems they face, not only in England, but at home.

In posters and street literature, students lobbied for West Indian unity and solidarity, economic reforms and defence against neo-colonialism. In one case, they condemned Jamaican Prime Minister Bustamente's view to allow US bases on Jamaican soil.

WASU, the West African Students Union, is the largest and the oldest of the African student groups in London. It was organised by a Nigerian lawyer, Ladipo Solanke in 1925 to unite students from all West Africa, and has more than 5,000 members today.

Notably, WASU was the training ground for such African leaders as Nkrumah, Wallace-Johnson, Awolowo and Kenyatta. During its history, WASU took militant stands against indirect rule and for self- government and independence. It co-operated with the post-war Labour government and study groups have attempted a Marxist-Leninist analysis of the political and economic problems of West African countries.

Furthermore, they developed and maintained relations with all international student conferences, such as the International Union of Students, and they seek scholarships from various governments. In London, WASU has been a sensitive barometer of events on the African scene. Their leaders exposed the “neo• colonialist defence pact” between Britain and , urged the release of Kenyan freedom fighter and Congolese politician Antoine Gizenga, and supported the anti-colonial struggles of the Algerian people.

Major political activities of African students in London are coordinated and often initiated by the Committee of African Organisations. Founded in 1958-1959, CAO supported the release of Hastings Banda from a Nyasaland prison and presented the demands of African nationalist leaders to the UN and Heads of State. One of the early chairmen was Kwesi Armah, later Ghanaian High Commissioner to Britain.

In the UK, they condemned the murder of a West Indian migrant, Kelso Cochrane, in Notting Hill, 1958. They welcomed Malcolm X’s controversial anti-racist visit to Marshall Street in Smethwick where leaflets for the Conservatives in the general election warned white

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residents “If you want a nigger for a neighbor vote Labour”.

Throughout its existence, CAO has been a target of abuse and its first headquarters were burned out by fascist groups. Through the direct contributions of the Ghanaian government and the personal interest of President , CAO has been relocated into a building called Africa Unity House and continues to be a centre for militant student activity.

End piece The Sixties London was the proving ground for the education of the Been-to’s – the overseas Black students -- not only in their technical studies but in their spirited defence of equality and opportunity in Britain and their homelands.

These notes will be useful as a resource for students in race and post-colonial studies and as a comparative African and Caribbean perspective on issues in international education and British society.

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Notes on the author and series publications

The Author, editor and publisher Thomas L Blair, PhD, FRSA, a sociologist, writes on the creative renewal of Black people in urban society. He has held professorships at UK and American universities, is well-known as a cyber-scholar, publisher of Editions Blair series and edits the pioneering Black Experience web sites http://chronicleworld.wordpress.com and http://www.chronicleworld.org

His works are archived in the Social Welfare Portal of the British Library http://socialwelfare.bl.uk/subject-areas/services-activity/community- development/pub_index.aspx?PublisherID=149777&PublisherName=Editions+Bl air

The Chronicleworld.org website

Decades of Black History information and ideas are covered in archived volumes of the Chronicleworld web site from the first volume in 1997 to the Millennium. They are the originals downloaded by the journal’s editor Thomas L Blair from his Chronicleworld.org website.

Readers can also find coverage of the Chronicleworld’s archived web site at TheWayBackMachine http://archive.org/web/ a non-profit initiative building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artefacts in digital form.

Chronicleworld Weblog

Thereafter, from June 20, 2000, Prof Blair produced its successor the Chronicleworld Weblog http://chronicleworld.wordpress.com to reach a wider and younger readership.

For additional digital publications by Prof Thomas L Blair

Archived articles and volumes can be found at The British Library bl.org.uk and its cultural and community websites:

Cyberaction for Change http://www.webarchive.org.uk/tep/15810.html;

Changing Black Britain http://www.webarchive.org.uk/tep/15811.html

Editions Blair eBooks

Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Editions Blair publications have served communities of African heritage in Britain and Europe for over a decade, from 1997. They project a spirit of online engagement that is independent, informative and distinctive in character and in style.

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Current 2015 titles include:

Liberation tech: the struggle for Internet power champions the quest for equality through internet empowerment. He looks at a decade of Black cyber- advocacy in America, Britain and Africa.

May 2015: going digital for 'people politics' reports Black and minority ethnic voters in marginal constituencies could influence if not change British politics.

GOLLY! Children's hero or racist symbol explores controversial golliwog themes in history, literature, commerce and the media.

His major works are archived in the Social Welfare Portal of the British Library http://socialwelfare.bl.uk/subject-areas/services-activity/community- development/pub_index.aspx?PublisherID=149777&PublisherName=Editions+Bl air