Chickens Come Home To Roost!
by Ivor Hughes
Like Black Mustard seed they were savagely harvested and then force Marched in cangue's and shackles. Often hundreds of miles .. whole families .. From the interior to the coast of Africa, and then transported by slave ship to many locations around the Globe .. A holocaust of immense proportions .. and unimaginable suffering. The British 'Black Birders' (slave ships) always found a ready market for their human cargo. In those days a black slave was a saleable commodity and like other commodities could be listed on paper and traded in shares. Many British Merchant speculators waxed fat on the trade.
The City of Bristol England lay inland along the River Avon from the estuary of the River Seven. It is recorded that over 2100 slave ships set out from her docks between 1698 and 1807 .. Almost 1 ship every fortnight for 109 years .. The locals tell tales of great underground caverns beneath the City with shackles fitted into the walls.
Much of the profit from this trade in people .. resided in Georgian Style, 4 storied Mansion houses which were approached via granite steps .. leading to an imposing front door manned by a burly Manservant.
Terraced Georgian style .. the homes of the wealthy merchants were to be found clustered around the elevations .. all over the city. Bristol is built on 7 hills. There used to be a goodly number around the Hot wells (Jacobs Wells) when the city of Bath was also in its hey day as a Spa Town. Taking the Waters was a very wealthy pastime.
Rumour has it that the St Paul�s area of Bristol was one such cluster of Slave Traders Homes. If that is true, then I detect the hand of the Cosmic Joker in it all, because it demonstrates a poignant karmic irony. A stark reminder of the validity of karma as a historical fact.
Post World War 2 Britain prospered and such was the demand for a skilled work force .. that wages were high .. and the Government could not properly run the traditionally low paid State hospital cleaning jobs or those of public Transport .. Refuse and sewage disposal .. nobody wanted to work for such menial wages. However every show of resistance by the work force was met by Legislation driven by a Commercial agenda.
Out amongst the Islands of the Caribbean .. The old Colonial Outposts .. went the Siren Cry .. Exchange your grinding poverty .. for a new life in the Mother Country. The peoples heard and responded like a great warm sea current to lap upon a far colder shore .. in their thousands they came to fill those lowly jobs. Poverty will always beget a Ghetto .. whole families living in one room and a battered TV .. completely inadequate hygiene and toilet facilities .. Damp, cold, with water running down walls .. no privacy!
British working class resentment fueled by ignorance .. and encouraged by a Government controlled by Commercial interests .. And led to believe that these lowly immigrants were stealing the British born working mans jobs .. A canard which is duplicated around the globe .. Its always the immigrant who has to bear the lash of that ignorance .. from peoples who do not understand .. How they are herded .. exactly how they are governed .. and for what purpose .. God help us all!
The Caribbean immigrants came ashore and scattered around all of those cities that were crying out for cheap labour. Lambs to the slaughter .. I believe that it was that African courage and tenacity of purpose that carried them onwards .. trying to carve out a better life for their children .. no mean feat on a hostile shore.
And if rumour were true .. The Subtle irony of the Cosmic Joker (Karma) .. stands revealed .. The Wealthy Slave Traders homes were occupied by the ancestor workers of the British Slave Plantations in the days of the Black Holocaust. Albeit in much reduced circumstance.
Background to the Bristol Riots.
April 2nd 1980 was the day of a heavy handed Police action, which incurred
the penalty of a Riot .. a show of resistance that spread like a ripple
through other British Cities .. However within 24 hours .. Margaret Thatcher
.. the British prime Minister of the day .. had equipped trained flying
squads armed with the latest crowd control measures of the day. Where none
were ostensible the day before.
How fortuitous that trained and equipped Riot police were able to deploy within 24 hours!
The way in which the press treated the riot was to label it as a race riot. My personal feeling is .. that race only played a very minor part .. and that it was at the �Social Injustices� .. that the first stone was thrown .. At an authority that would force them to suffer the conditions of the Ghetto .. and was it not this self same authority that told them yet another lie .. exchange the grinding poverty for a new life in the old Mother Country?.
For them it was also the Institutionalized Racism and elitism of British Society .. To be bottom of the Heap is to have insults and scorn poured upon the group .. imagine the �testosterone� surging through the youthful brain .. that is why the army likes to get 18 year old recruits. Testosterone + anger/Resentment = Ignition!
The West Indian Shebeen�s reopened in the basement of a new address every week due to police raids which by all accounts could be brutal .. The drink was the usual range of spirits and tinned beer .. this at normally 10% above retail .. a basement room into which were crammed 50 to 60 people .. this in addition to a bar on one wall and a solid bank of electronic speakers covering the other wall and a corner for the DJ pumping out the reggae.
The air thick and heady with the scent of Ganja (weed) and Pakistani Black Resin .. For the aspiring DJ such nightly gigs were sought after .. as a step up the economic, ladder out of that place. The good ones matched the rhythm to the mood .. when they got it spot on everything in the room moved in rhythm to those pulsating speaker cones .. rather like having a tune played upon the core of ones being.
During a DJ break .. one group was passing around a very large chillum made up with black resin and tobacco .. that packed a stunning hit .. and in turn they each reported the community news .. Oh Mon doze pigs dey from anudder Dimension!! .. Apparently Caleb was arrested outside the Offices of the Labour exchange .. on a non existent warrant of arrest. Using the hoary old catch all charge .. Resisting Arrest .. they broke Caleb�s arm and fractured a rib .. despite the fact that the arrest was illegal Caleb was fined 100 English Pounds for resisting arrest. Then the Authorities in the form of the Labour Exchange .. Cancelled his unemployment benefit .. because they maintained that he had made himself ineligible for work.
Benji spoke next .. and opening his hand palm up .. displayed a large khaki coloured dried head of Jamaican Ganja .. That�s what�s left of my ounce from the last shipment .. Benji said .. I also bought an ounce from the new shipment today and I have some here .. he opened up his other hand and said .. this is exactly the same shite .. I have never heard of two shipments the same before .. A voice spoke up .. C�mon Benji we only have your word for it .. lets smoke it and pass a verdict.
The smoke of the powerful ganja percolated with the comparisons and the agreement was .. same shit! .. A month earlier .. Benji�s Man got busted for a weight and a half (24 Ounces) of Ganja (Cannabis plant) Weed .. he appeared in Court within 24 hours and was charged with possession of a scant half ounce .. he walked out of Court with a Twenty Five Pound fine .. The thought percolated that we were smoking some of the missing 23� ounces .. and whether or not Benji's dealer had been turned by the pigs .. with threats of dire consequences .. if he did not rat on his mates .. because that is how they get their intellingence .. by threats and blackmail .. as the old saying goes .. "Set a Thief to catch a Thief' .. its the Police Cultured mindset .. That tolerates this kind of behaviour.
The harassments were ongoing with the so called �Sus Law" as the prime instrument with which police carried out the provocations .. The effect of this was that they could stop anyone .. any time .. for what ever reason the Police decided .. and many were the stories of the Police planting Heroine or Speed (Amphetamine) on their victim .. who could receive a 3 year Jail term ..or even more. Circa 85% of those arrested were young black men.
Young Men turned into Police dog meat .. ruined .. its hard enough for a young black man to get a job .. its twice as hard when one has done a lagging (prison sentence) I once lived in the area and had experienced on one occasion what these young men had to endure on a daily basis.
When I think back to the deliberate provocation on the part of the police .. and which ignited the smouldering resentment .. It happened at The Black and White Caf� .. which was a community meeting place on City Road .. Bricks and petrol bombs were thrown and the local police were repulsed with injury on both sides .. the speed at which the authorities responded .. The speed at which the riot squads were trained and equipped (24 hours) .. it all ties together .. part of a much bigger game plan .. I can only conclude that this was a deliberate Authority Provoked Incident .. I leave you to ask .. Why?
Of the shops and services gathered in Ashley Road St Paul�s. The only
ones that escaped major damage was a small European owned family Bakery ..
The Public House .. The Betting Shop .. and the post office where the
welfare cheque�s were cashed .. which shows a pragmatic turn of mind.
The Blackman see's the Whiteman through very clear eyes .. the way the
oppressed always see the oppressor .. They dont hate us
in a racist sense .. but they sure resent what we represent. Tell me
.. if you had to endure .. like they have endured .. with no end in sight .. what sort of stories
would you learn at Mammies knee?
Ivor Hughes
Auckland New Zealand
May 2006
