This is my England | by Andrea Levy

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The article “This is my England” explains Andrea Levy’s experience as a British born girl, with Jamaican parents. At the beginning of the article, she describes how her father emigrated from Jamaica to England in 1948, on the Empire Windrush ship.

He left his wife (Andrea Levy’s mother) behind in the hope to send for her later. He chose to emigrate, because of a lack of jobs and prospects in the old British Empire colony of Jamaica. His wife joined him after he had spent some time in England, and they expected to be welcomed with open arms by the English population.

To their surprise, they experienced quite the opposite. Because they were black, they experienced incredible hostility and were discriminated against. For example, the signs in windows read "no niggers”. Even with all the racism and discrimination, he and his wife still decided to stay in the country.

Andrea Levy went to the local school, where she learned how to read, write, and do arithmetic. Even though she was educated to be English, played English games, and ate English food, she still didn’t feel like white children. She felt like a stranger in her land, because of the colour of her skin.

She was also ashamed of the fact that her parents were black because the mass of the population saw black people as inferior. She wanted to fit in and felt like her parents were holding her back. Then she grew up and began getting curious about the country her parents had left. Because of her extreme curiosity, she decided to visit Jamaica.

Her family welcomed her, like a prodigal daughter. When she left, she wanted to know more about the people who formed her, so she asked her mum, and she learned about her great grandfather and her grandfather on her father’s side of the family.

Her great grandfather was a fisherman from Scotland, and her grandfather fought in the first world war. She also learned about her great great grandmother who was born a slave.

At the end of the article, she writes about an excellent programme she watched. The programme was about the British slave trade. It showed that the history of Britain was inextricably linked with the