Remembering Windrush
When the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in 1948, its West Indian passengers didn’t know their arrival would become a historical watershed. A new exhibition at the British Library explains how the Windrush generation changed Britain for good
A plague from above | On this day
It’s not just a story from the Bible: thirty years ago, thanks to unprecedented weather conditions, a massive swarm of locusts crossed the Atlantic and ended up in the Caribbean. James Ferguson investigates how, and what became of them
Arthur Wint: long before Bolt | On this day
Usain Bolt may be Jamaica’s most famous Olympic medallist — but he was far from the first. James Ferguson looks back at the life of Arthur Wint and his extraordinary achievements both on and off the track
Port of Spain: the story of a city | Backstory
A childhood encounter with a touring steelband began Stephen Stuempfle’s connection with Trinidad. Now the US scholar has written an illuminating history of Port of Spain in the era before Independence. As Judy Raymond learns, Stuempfle’s research has only deepened his love for T&T’s capital
Sans-Souci, Haiti: uncovering a kingdom | Discover
It’s one of the Caribbean’s most resonant historic sites, but surprisingly little is known about the true history of Sans-Souci, the palace of Henri Christophe, writes Erline Andrews. Now a multinational team of archaeologists are using high-tech tools to resurvey the site, and perhaps rewrite Haitian history
Sin city: Jamaica’s Port Royal | On this day
It was once known as “the Sodom of the New World” — until a catastropic earthquake sent it tumbling into the sea. On the 500th anniversary of its founding, James Ferguson recalls the history of Jamaica’s infamous Port Royal
A madman’s rant
Of the 20 or so books that I’ve looked at in this column, not one, I realise, is comic. Rather the opposite, in fact, as most have dealt...
Walter Tull — over the line | On this day
A century ago, as the First World War drew to a close, a Barbadian-British man named Walter Tull was killed on the battlefield. He was one of many thousands dead in the “Flanders clay,” but also unique: as James Ferguson writes, Lieutenant Tull was the first officer of colour ever appointed in the British Army, in defiance of race prejudice
