black london

I've found over the years as a BBC journalist, that if there's one subject guaranteed to make Londoners talk unguardedly, it's immigration. 

The latest wave of immigrants, mainly from the former Eastern-block states, have come to work alongside indigenous Londoners.  Despite the fact that many Londoners were either immigrants themselves or trace their recent roots back to immigration, there seems to be a distinctly uneasy peace between the two groups.

A scene from Let There Be Love

A new play.

There's a superb play out at the moment at the Tricycle theatre called Let There Be Love. It's written by actor/playwright Kwame Kwei Armah and explores the relationship between a West Indian pensioner called Alfred and his much-younger Polish home help, Maria. I won't give the plot away but after much initial mistrust and hostility towards Maria, the pair grow to have a touching and emotional journey together. 

While I wouldn't necessarily say that Alfred's character is any way indicative of what all the Windrush generation think about new immigrants, I did feel the play raised  significant questions, worthy of further exploration.  Indeed, it presented an ideal topic for the phone-in programme I produce for 94.9FM at 8pm on Sundays, Dotun Adebayo on Sunday.  

Polish perspective.

I invited George Matlock from the Polish radio station Radio Orla and the broadcaster and journalist David Akinsanya, who has travelled widely in Eastern Europe, to give their perspectives on the situation. 

Joseph Marcell plays Alfred

George Matlock explained to Dotun that the only black people who came to Poland's capital, Warsaw, before the iron curtain fell were African students.  Links between Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Poland were related to the countries' shared Marxist ideals at that time.

George said they attended university but tended not to venture out of the city. As a result, very few Poles were acquainted with any black people at all - and it is mainly this rural Polish population who are here now. 

Another theme was that the Eastern Europeans are "able to integrate much more easily because they're white - so it's a totally different type of migration". There were supportive callers too, but clearly there is still a great deal of suspicion. 

If you want to hear the whole debate please click on the link below and don't forget Dotun's show every Sunday evening, which examines topics from an African and Caribbean perspective. 

'Let There Be Love' is running at the Tricycle Theatre until February 16th 2008