Session 5 - 14th November 2013

CULTURE - Britain, The Caribbean & Greece

During this session Lorna shared her experiences of British & Caribbean culture whilst Leanda shared her experiences of Greek culture. 
We are a diverse group & some members have their origin in different parts of the world. 
We decided to start our research with what we could find on Wikipedia about the immigration of workers from the Caribbean due to labour shortages in the UK. 
We found out that the first generation of Caribbean immigrants came from Jamaica and the surrounding Caribbean Islands on the ship MV Empire Windrush. 

About 450 people came to the UK. 
We discussed the reasons for the need for immigration and the implications that it has today with people from all over the world now integrated into the UK. 

Please see further information about the Windrush in our list of useful websites on the right of this blog. CULTURE - Jamaica  - WINDRUSH

We thought about & discussed the variety of nationalities we have around us in Doncaster & how they have integrated into society. There are still areas where some nationalities tend to settle as communities for mutual support. 
We discussed the aspects of the Caribbean culture that also came with this first wave of immigration, including foods and recipes we haven't had in this country before. 
Lorna told us that one of her favourite recipes was Rice and Peas  (which are in fact kidney beans)

Jamaican Rice & Peas

 and another was Salt fish and Ackee.

Saltfish & Ackee

These dishes and other foods from around the world are now much more popular in this country. They are more widely available because of the speed and efficiency of modern transport methods and modern agricultural methods of production. 
Leanda described some Greek dishes including moussaka in which aubergines are a key ingredient.

Moussaka 

Because she is a second-generation descendant from Greece Leanda is able to speak Greek language to some extent but has limitations in terms of speed of speech. She explained that she sometimes has to slow her mum down so that she can fully understand what she's saying in Greek. 


Lorna however, can speak different dialects of Jamaican including patois. 

Jamaican Patois, known locally as Patois (Patwa or Patwah) or Jamaican, and calledJamaican Creole by linguists, is an English-lexified creole language with West Africaninfluences spoken primarily in Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora. It is not to be confused with Jamaican English nor with the Rastafarian use of English. The language developed in the 17th century, when slaves from West and Central Africa were exposed to, learned and nativized the vernacular and dialectal forms of English spoken by their masters: British English, Scots and Hiberno-English. 

We looked at some images and recipes including that of salt fish and ackee and we found it interesting that the plant is unusual. It is a fruit or vegetable that we don't see in this country and is mainly imported in tins. 

We felt that we had had a good session looking at & discussing different aspects of culture and the way that different cultures from around the world affect our own culture.