26 May, 2006 - Published 17:42 GMT

The African Caribbean debate

The late reggae star Peter Tosh once sang " no matter where you come from as long as you're a black man, you're an African."

But a row between two black UK politicians has caused a dark cloud of doubt to descend over that sentiment.

A seemingly simmering rift between the UK's African and Caribbean communities apparently only needed a spark to ignite a full-blown raging debate on relations between the two.

It was triggered by a Jamaican newspaper article by British Labour Party MP Dianne Abbot raising questions about corruption in Nigeria.

Abbott - Jamaican roots

Dianne Abbott whose roots are Jamaican - she was born in London to Jamaican parents- has had to go to great lengths to defend and clarify the article.

It has incensed some in Britain's African community who say black people from the Caribbean and Africa are different.

This issue has pitted Dianne Abbott against Lola Ayorinde, a Nigerian-born British opposition Conservative party politician.

Mrs Ayorinde feels that for too long black people from the Caribbean have had the advantage over their African counterparts in the UK when it comes to access to social services, housing, and jobs.

"Anything that's supposed to go to us goes to the Caribbeans(sic). And the Caribbeans seem to be in charge of any resource that are available" she said on BBC television.

Differences

She also highlights 'differences' between African and Caribbean peoples in Britain.

"We know by heritage they were once Africans. But those of us who came from Africa we clearly are different from them in terms of the languages we speak,we are different in terms of the priorities for our lives too."

Dianne Abbott, who herself has been accused of stoking tensions between Britain's Caribbean and African communities, cautioned against divisiveness in the UK's black community.

Writing recently in a London newspaper she declared:

Abbott comments

"As a child growing up in the tight-knit Jamaican community, I was taught as an article of faith that people from Jamaica were better than any other country in the Caribbean (whom my parents referred to as "small islanders") and that Caribbean people were infinitely superior to Africans, who lived in mud huts and did not know how to comb their hair.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, African children were being taught how superior they were to Caribbean people, who had been stupid enough to get sold into slavery and were all thieves anyway."

"In recent years", she noted, "some of the silly myths and antagonism have resurfaced."

Such references have angered Lola Ayorinde.

"We need first of all for the Caribbean blacks to acknowledge that we are not the same group as they are. They need to begin to learn about Africa, to begin to understand that even if they have the African heritage, they are not Africans anymore."

Taken aback by fuss

Responding to the furore over her original article, Diane Abbott wrote that she was "...taken aback by the fuss here over a recent piece I wrote about Nigeria in a Jamaican newspaper.

Although I was anxious not to cause offence, I mentioned Nigeria's pervasive corruption and the tragedy of the Niger Delta, ravaged by pollution. The article enraged many Nigerians - partly because it touched on the raw nerve of African and Caribbean relations in this country."

Dianne Abbott, the UK's first black woman member of parliament emphasises: "I think it's very important that everyone is proud of their cultural identity. But if we allow white politicians to play divide and rule, amongst the black community, nobody wins."

The Black African population in the UK is larger than the West Indian, and by 2010, it is expected that Africans will be the single largest ethnic group in the UK.