An Immigrant’s Tale
London through the eyes of the black Caribbean artiste.
London is a concrete jungle in the middle of a gentrification boom. Towering cranes with red blinking eyes dot the cloudy and damp horizon at night. Tall skyscrapers rise from the ground like glass covered weeds high above the city, changing a once familiar skyline forever. The sound of clashing steel, pounding hammers and sharpened chisels carve into the air like the steel pan Greats creating a masterpiece from nothing but discarded oil barrels.
But London is really a beautiful place. You can always find these little pockets of paradise at the end of asphalt streets. These preserved areas of creativity. Mini oases sprinkled along the landscape of one of the most dynamic cities in the world. And if you have the awareness to let these things into your life, your experience here can be very fulfilling.
London is a place where you can spend your entire life hustling, and to be honest, you can live a pretty good life as a hustler. It can be tough though, and for many people it is. Always on the go, never slowing down. I walk way faster in London than I do in Trinidad. I asked a lovely Uber driver from Bangladesh how he felt about London. A place he lived his entire adult life, he said,
“ It is what it is. You always have to work if you live here.”
When the late great Lord Kitchener arrived on British soil in 1948 and sang ‘London Is the Place For Me’ upon disembarking the Empire Windrush, he hadn’t yet experienced the harsh conditions that awaited him and many of his fellow passengers.
“London is the place for me,
London this lovely city,
You can go to France or America,
India, Asia or Australia,
But you must come back to London city”-Lord Kitchener — “London Is The Place For Me’
But even amongst the piss and shit of oppression that permeates through the very bedrock of this nation you can find your place in this city. You can find your heart beating along the winding River Thames, or your soul along the narrow cobblestone paths.
I quietly left London in March 2020 at the very beginning of the pandemic in search of my own greatness. I wasn’t planning to be away for so long, but as you all know, 2020 - 2022 was pretty much the universe playing roulette with our lives. Now, I didn’t need to leave here to find happiness, but leaving helped me realise what happiness meant. Maybe it’s a matter of finding clarity through absence.
In my time away, I’ve made my peace with this city. I’ve untethered myself from my perceived limitations. I’ve found my purpose, connected with my passion and discovered the meaning to my life.
London Oh London.
I realised all this time, I wasn’t truly living here. I had one foot in this city and one foot out…somewhere. Somewhere that wasn’t here. Never fully committing to her experience. Never fully embracing what being a Londoner really means or what this city has to offer. I chose to see the struggle, the hardship and the challenges that London presented and only sometimes, when I came up for air, was I able to move beyond my own limitations and beliefs and see this place for what it is.
A great city with great people.
This great city will chew you up and spit you out…if you let it.
This great city will hold you back and drag you down…if you let it.
This great city will break you…. if you let it.
But….this great city will also inspire.
Its renowned literature, its diverse cultures, its eclectic foods. Even its turbulent and shocking history of colonialism and immigration. London is a muse.
It has inspired the minds of countless ordinary and extraordinary people who have passed through her hallowed streets and tasted her milk. Each leaving behind a piece of their soul which has helped build this place into what we see today.
This city can change your life for the better….If you want it to.
This city can make you into anything you want to be. But only if you have the presence of mind, patience and imagination. That is what this city is about. London has its own energy, and its own rhythm. It has its own pains and its own joys. It’s a blank canvas to anyone that chooses to paint with their own colours.
I feel a renewed sense of curiosity and wonder. I yearn to discover. I walk toward the unknown and embrace it . I am filled with the kind of love I’ve been looking for. This allows me to finally ‘see’ the world. It comes with me anywhere I choose to call home.
London may not be the only place for me, but it will always be one of my homes.
