Walk good

Story & photos: Camille Daughma

Walk good is a Jamaican phrase which simply means ‘have a good journey’. One of the most memorable journeys taken by Jamaicans over sixty years ago was that on the “Windrush” ship in 1948.

The Empire Windrush voyage disembarked in Tilbury on the 22nd June 1948, it carried 492 passengers from Jamaica. This marked an important landmark in British history. It was the beginning of the restoration of war ravaged Britain and a new way of life for Jamaican immigrants. These were the first group of West Indian immigrants. Faced with exclusion and discrimination, they found their own way of adjusting. Survival was not an option it was a necessity.

As part of the commemoration of Black History Month, on the 26th October Destination Arts and the SADACCA Study Support Children tried to recapture the thoughts and experiences of migrants. They demonstrated their interpretation of what they experienced through skits, poetry and songs, bringing out the fears, aspirations, feelings of being lost, cold and homesick all muddled together.

The evening brought to light the range of emotions experienced not only by the immigrants who were in a strange land but also those they left behind.

The programme culminated with an enthusiastic performance from the Siyaya African group bringing a well spent evening to a close on a high note.