Black Liverpool

This book describes the Black community in Liverpool and the arrival, embrace and transformation of waves of transnational Black culture from Africa, the West Indies and the United States in the final three decades of the twentieth century. The role of gender ideologies, institutional practices and the experiences of Black women are closely examined, as well as music and nightlife, social and political ideologies, Black Studies courses, language and dialect, and personal fashion, dress and hairstyles. The religious and secular aspects of Rastafarian beliefs and practices are also foregrounded. Transnational cultural influences were spread via media, others were brought first-hand by visitors to Liverpool, and others by Liverpool residents who travelled internationally. This fascinating book reveals how, because of Liverpool’s unique history, the Black community in the 1970s was fundamentally different from Black communities in other cities. There were far more Africans than West Indians, more long-term citizens than recent immigrants, the highest proportion of inter-racial marriages and people of mixed race in the nation, and a far more vivid collective memory of imperialism in West Africa than in any other city. Liverpool’s Black community’s embrace of transnational culture was markedly different to the embrace of Black culture in other cities. One important difference is the far greater salience of African cultural patterns, revealed in African family names, the largest concentration of African clubs in the nation, and the emergence of African-inspired organizations like Delado African Drum and Dance company, the Steve Biko Housing Association, and Amadudu women’s refuge. An illuminating book that is essential reading for all who are interested in Black culture as well as the city of Liverpool.