This book produces a major rethinking of the history of development after 1940 through an exploration of Britain’s ambitions for industrialisation in its Caribbean colonies. Industrial development is a neglected topic in histories of the British Colonial Empire, and we know very little of plans for Britain’s Caribbean colonies in general in the late colonial period, despite the role played by riots in the region in prompting an increase in development spending. This account shows the importance of knowledge and expertise in the promotion of a model of Caribbean development that is best described as liberal rather than state-centred and authoritarian. It explores how the post-war period saw an attempt by the Colonial Office to revive Caribbean economies by transforming cane sugar from a low-value foodstuff into a lucrative starting compound for making fuels, plastics and medical products. In addition, it shows that as Caribbean territories moved towards independence and America sought to shape the future of the region, scientific and economic advice became a key strategy for the maintenance of British control of the West Indian colonies. Britain needed to counter attempts by American-backed experts to promote a very different approach to industrial development after 1945 informed by the priorities of US foreign policy.
they came, in 1950, West Indian immigration to Britain was approaching its zenith. Selvon and Lamming, sharing Selvon’s Imperial typewriter, charted this immigration, a middle passage in reverse, explored its historical origins and cultural dynamics – and noted its subversiveness and challenges. For as West Indians ‘creolised’ the cities, and indigenised (in Susan Craig James’s memorable phrase
announced Padmore’s death it not only described him, in words which undoubtedly were those of James, as ‘a great gentleman’ and ‘a great citizen of the world’, but also – ‘with the exception of Marcus Garvey’ – as ‘the most famous West Indian of all time’. 4 Almost a decade later, in first naming the tradition of West Indian intellectuals whom he believed constituted
and its aftermaths, shaping both ‘Britishness’ and ‘West Indianness’. 4 As James several times hinted – and as numerous recent historians have sought to trace in more detail – the very idea of ‘Britain’ could not be thought historically without coming to terms with those imperial relations. James’s thought was not confined to any of these contexts: it is recognised
. The riots that occurred in the British West Indian colonies during the 1930s have been endowed with much significance by both historians of British imperialism and historians of the Caribbean. Accounts of imperial policy tell how these events were crucial in allowing the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Malcolm MacDonald, to get his way in passing the Colonial Development and Welfare Act of 1940. 3 This Act is considered a turning point in colonial policy as it marked a shift to a more assertive, interventionist form of imperialism that aimed to transform
In the century following 1850 the West Indies produced a steady flow of West Indian intellectuals, predominantly men, who either spent short spells of time in Europe and North America or who lived outside the Caribbean for a good part of their lives. A significant early figure was Edward W. Blyden; 1 in the twentieth century there were Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, C. L. R. James, Eric
possible. As one of the party’s few non-white activists rightly stated, the arrival of thousands of West Indians, Pakistanis and Indians provoked ‘an all pervasive sense of embarrassment’ in its ranks.5 Colour and the Commonwealth During a 1948 Labour Party annual conference debate on racial discrimination, one delegate asked: if socialism ‘does not mean that common men can live together decently and live together as brothers, I ask you what does it mean?’6 Before the 1950s, however, practical expressions of the party’s commitment to racial equality were largely
approach to development with some long-standing laissez-faire principles. Two wider political issues made Colonial Office attempts to persuade the Caribbean colonies to follow its preferred routes to industrialisation difficult, however. The increasing political autonomy of governments in the Caribbean region meant that Britain could not merely instruct its West Indian possessions to follow its edicts. In addition, it became clear that in the post-war world, the US hoped to shape development across the Caribbean along lines that it found conducive to its own interests
Barbadian-Canadian, also found league cricket through the interpersonal networks of a tightly knit Afro-Caribbean community: When I came to Canada first, I eventually hooked up with the West Indian community people and they encourage me to you know, come out and have fun with them. So being new to the country I t’ink that was my
. I think the opponents underestimated our skills. We ol' but we not frail! It was only 20 overs. We finished and on to game two of the tournament by 11.30. Most of us West Indians playin’ with a few Indian and Sri Lankan police officers, so I cyan't say I really shocked when there was trouble, but I had hopes for the best. I knew