Oxford’s African Caribbean centre, The Island, has opened with its first exhibition, presenting a local account of the Windrush generation against renewed political disagreement over slavery reparations for the Caribbean.
The UK government’s refusal to provide reparations has increased tensions with Caribbean governments, while the Oxford exhibition focuses on Caribbean residents invited to Britain after the Second World War as part of the country’s reconstruction programme.
Located at 16 Park End Street, the centre’s inaugural exhibition examines the experiences of Caribbean people who settled in Oxford.
Historical material is presented through the perspective of the city’s Black community rather than accounts associated with colonial slavery.
Euton Daley, the exhibition curator and a community researcher, said the project had developed over several years because the community had lacked a dedicated space of its own.
Its work seeks to preserve the experiences of a community that has faced discrimination, record locations that have disappeared from the community’s map and campaign for a permanent cultural centre.
The archival work is intended to document the past and support the creation of a permanent home for Caribbean culture in Oxford.
The building is owned by Nuffield College and previously housed a Staples shop.
After remaining empty for more than a decade, the premises were converted into a Caribbean cultural and community space.
The centre has a two-and-a-half-year lease.
Organisers said the exhibition’s reception would inform efforts to establish a permanent global cultural centre at the site.
The space is intended to provide a shared workplace and a public venue for discussion and cultural activity.
The exhibition recreates the interior of a Caribbean home in the 1960s.
Posters throughout the rooms explain aspects of Oxford’s Black history, including Windrush nurses who joined the NHS and worked in local hospitals and general-practice surgeries.
Objects, photographs and oral histories are displayed on a table in a chestnut-coloured living-room setting.
The materials were donated by families descended from Windrush arrivals and developed with researchers from Oxford Brookes University.
Visitors can participate in activities including a passport postbox and a map on which Caribbean community members can identify Oxford neighbourhoods connected with their lives.
Daley said the centre had been designed as a place where visitors could relax, read books, use the available Wi-Fi and carry out administrative work.
The space serves cultural and practical purposes, offering an alternative to working alone at home or spending time in a café while encouraging community contact.
The opening weekend included a social gathering and a talk by Michael La Rose, director of New Beacon Books.
The North London bookshop is among England’s earliest Black publishing houses and specialist bookshops.
New Beacon Books has also participated in long-running activism through the Black Parents Movement, the Black Youth Movement and the Supplementary Movement.
It has campaigned against racially motivated atrocities widely acknowledged by the community, including the New Cross Massacre, and operated a stand selling Caribbean novels.
Daley and La Rose addressed the continuing need for political action and collective strength during the opening events.
La Rose described Britain as a country in Europe where Black people have struggled and influenced wider society, while arguing that continuing discrimination means the struggle remains necessary.
La Rose also referred to Prince Charles and Andy Burnham, arguing that the movement must continue to challenge attempts to leave social conditions unchanged and adapt its methods for future campaigns.
Daley, whose parents were part of the Windrush generation, called for greater unity among people working across the Caribbean diaspora.
Although different parts of the community have pursued separate aims, Daley said a shared cultural space could help bring them together.
Daley also invited Oxford students to visit the centre, learn about Black history and support the campaign for a permanent community building.
The centre is open to the public without charge.
Workshops, community talks and performances were scheduled through the end of October.
The project also involves Fusion Arts, an Oxford-based arts and social justice charity; African Caribbean Cultural Heritage Initiative, an African community-led group; Oxfordshire Community Education Group, a UK charity; and Unlock the Chains Collective, a theatre and cultural arts group.