As thrilling as it is touching and revealing - this book is an
indispensable map to London today. - Ben Judah, Journalist and
author of This is London: Life and Death in the World City What
makes a Londoner? What is it to be Black, African and British? And
how can we understand the many tangled roots of our modern nation
without knowing the story of how it came to be? This is a story
that begins not with the 'Windrush Generation' of Caribbean
immigrants to Britain, but with post-1960s arrivals from African
countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Somalia. Some came from
former British colonies in the wake of newfound independence;
others arrived seeking prosperity and an English education for
their children. Now, in the 2020s, their descendants have unleashed
a tidal wave of creativity and cultural production stretching from
Lambeth to Lagos, Islington to the Ivory Coast. Daniel Kaluuya and
Skepta; John Boyega and Little Simz; Edward Enninful and Bukayo
Saka - everywhere you look, across the fields of sport, business,
fashion, the arts and beyond, there are the descendants of Black
African families that were governed by many of the same immutable,
shared traditions. In this book Jimi Famurewa, a British-Nigerian
journalist, journeys into the hidden yet vibrant world of African
London. Seeking to understand the ties that bind Black African
Londoners together and link them with their home countries, he
visits their places of worship, roams around markets and
restaurants, attends a traditional Nigerian engagement ceremony,
shadows them on their morning journeys to far-flung grammar schools
and listens to stories from shopkeepers and activists, artists and
politicians. But this isn't just the story of energetic, ambitious
Londoners. Jimi also uncovers a darker side, of racial
discrimination between White and Black communities and, between
Black Africans and Afro-Caribbeans. He investigates the troublesome
practice of 'farming' in which young Black Nigerians were sent to
live with White British foster parents, examines historic
interaction with the police, and reveals the friction between
traditional Black African customs and the stresses of modern life
in diaspora. This is a vivid new portrait of London, and of modern
Britain.
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