The late Len Garrison was a man of great vision, energy and purpose. In his life and work, he showed total commitment to building a monument in celebration of the presence of Black people in Britain. As founder of the Black Cultural Archives and the ACER (Afro-Caribbean Education Resource) Project, he has left a very valuable legacy. Zhana was privileged to interview him before his untimely death. Defining a Black Identity I am from Jamaica. I came to England to join my parents when I was about eleven, in the early Fifties. One was quickly caught up in this whole trauma of trying to adjust and adapt, being one of two Black boys in a white school and all that that entails. Even up to now, when I hear people say they were in a minority of one or two in a white school, I don't think many people can understand or appreciate what that meant. It was an enormous burden.
There was no language to explain racism at that time. People did not accept that there was such a thing. So you had to carry this enormous burden of experience of people mocking you. Whenever you went to anybody, they would say you were making a fuss. Enormous trauma every day. All sorts of things - I had so many experiences of it, which leaves a scar on you. People say you have a chip on your shoulder. And you are carrying these things. Whereas, today, you find people not only getting sympathy, but they are even prepared to go to court to get redress for the injury for much less than that. Some of the situations that I went through, I'll never forget them.
I used to work in a youth club in Brixton in the 1960s, in the Railton Road. I led classes in Black history. In the Sixties, Black history had become an import which had an impact on Black people's culture, in terms of the afros and all that sort of thing. But what did not transfer very well was an understanding of the importance and the relevance of history. And an understanding of how that fit in with one's own being, one's own stuff.
I still have copies of African American materials which one drew on in these classes that I used to run. When dealing with the Black self in this country, there were no relevant materials that you could easily turn to. So one had to begin to collect materials and make materials which you could take in and say "This represents an historical period relating to ourselves". It was not validated because it was not published or printed materials. You could get whole sets of American things, curricular type materials which people had designed and so forth. But here, you had to be inventive.
