Claiming Space in a Hostile Environment: Journeys of Migration

Abstract

This hybrid article combines memoir, poetry and cultural and literary critique to examine the multiple hostile environments faced by Black migrants to Europe in the twentieth century. Emily Zobel Marshall draws from her own family history alongside an analysis of established ‘Windrush’ literary narratives to argue that narratives of Caribbean migration are competing, complex and multifaced when framed within a wider, more transnational field. She bridges her analysis with her own poetry and demonstrates, through the work of the David Oluwale Memorial Association in Leeds, how inroads can be made into so-called hostile environments, past and present, by communities standing together.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘Song for Leeds’ was previously published in Independent Life, vol. 21, 2022 and is republished here with permission. ‘He Returned’ was previously published in Magma: The Loss Issue, vol. 75, 2019. It is republished here with permission.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For an extended discussion on Joseph Zobel’s migrant experience and writing in France, see Zobel Marshall and Zobel, ‘Dans Cette Immensité Tumultueuse’ and ‘Lorsque je vais dans mon village’.

2 An extended version of this discussion can be found in Zobel Marshall. Sections from this article have been republished with permission from The Literary London Journal.

3 For more information on David Oluwale please visit the David Oluwale Memorial Association website: https://rememberoluwale.org.

4 Another blue plaque was installed on Leeds Bridge by DOMA on 23 October 2022.