With the end of the Second World War, Britain’s empire swiftly disintegrates. Ghana, with Kwame Nkrumah as leader, is the first British colony in Africa to gain its independence; many others follow so that in twenty years time, most of Britain’s former colonies are independent countries. In 1958, Trinidadian Communist Claudia Jones founds the West Indian Gazette, Britain’s first black newspaper, which plays a foundational, catalysing role in the social and political life of the Caribbean diaspora in London. Jones also founds the Notting Hill Carnival the following year after violence breaks out in the Notting Hill race riots.
Onto the ‘60s, and a string of radical black bookshops, publishing companies and cultural initiatives are established: New Beacon Books (1966) by Trinidadian activist and writer John La Rose; Bogle L’Ouverture (1969) by Guyanese activists Jessica and Eric Huntley, and The Caribbean Artists Movement (1966 - 1972), founded by La Rose alongside the writers Kamau Brathwaite and Andrew Salkey. CAM was a collaboration of writers and artists that provided a forum to share ideas, showcase work, and develop a new Caribbean aesthetic in the arts.
The decade also sees the start of The Troubles, a conflict that will last for 30 years, in Northern Ireland.
By the early 70s, the mass migration encouraged by the government in the 1940s has been severely restricted by a slew of immigration acts (1962, 1968 and 1971). Public opinion is increasingly racist towards its ethnically mixed population; with the National Front gaining traction, race riots break out across Britain’s biggest cities. In 1971, the Mangrove Nine are put on trial for inciting a riot after 150 people march against police harassment of the Mangrove, a restaurant at the heart of Notting Hill’s Caribbean community. The same year, Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, is declared a sovereign state. Britain sees an influx of Ugandan refugees due to the country’s civil war and Idi Amin’s expulsion of the country’s Asian population. In 1973 and ‘74, following an internal struggle, two important journals break away from the Institute of Race Relations and are established under the editorship of Darcus Howe and Ambalavaner Sivanandan: Race Today and Race & Class. Both journals become leading forums of black working class politics. The 70s also sees the birth of Punk, and there is solidarity between white working class people, labour activists, and black and Asian communities as they fight against racism.