There are more than 4.5 million Black Britain's!

Black History Month 2016 has come to an end but in response to a Guardian article titled Is Political Blackness Still Relevant? An interesting debate has begun on what the term "Black" in Black History Month and Black Britain means. The debate asks fundamental questions about race and identity in Britain and within the Commonweal Realms and forces us to re-examine what it means to be a Black Britain. Often when we discuss Black Britain we consider it to signify one of two groups; the broad based coalition that existed in the 70's and 80's made up of African, African-Caribbean and South-Asian communities that sought to create a black political bloc in Labour Party politics; or on the other hand in a Pan-African context that seeks to gather all those that have some heritage in Africa whether from the traditional African diaspora or from continental Africa into a political bloc. In understanding Black Britain both concepts are insufficient. 

To have an understanding of what it must mean to be a Black Britain today we must look beyond the often repeated arguments around Political blackness and Pan-Africanism that have defined the political debate around the race, identity and politics of Black Britain for decades and turn to a new set of arguments. To understand what it means to be a Black Britain involves taking ourselves beyond the shores of Britain and to the sunny islands of the Anglophone Caribbean. Islands that were once colonies of the British Empire; where the citizens speak English and have British names and pledge allegiance to the monarch Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State. Islands that operate a parliamentary democracy and nations for whom the Prime Minister of the nation is more correctly identified as Queen Elizabeth II's Prime Minister. There on these beautifully crafted islands exist 4 million people of African descent who cannot point to any cultural framework that they can call their own beyond the "Anglosphere" and Anglophone world. For hundreds of years these people of African descent but of the "Anglosphere" cultural world have had names like Thomas, Andrews and Jasper; they have drunk tea and played cricket. They have created music using Anglophone musical scales and like their counterparts in the United Kingdom in places like Yorkshire and Manchester they have developed their own British regional accents and dialects but they are not considered to be part of our Union. They are not considered to be our close kith and kin but are relegated to the position of a troublesome distant family member whose relationship we try to hide; a slightly eccentric member of the family that we would like to hide out of the way when someone important comes round lest they embarrass us. All this despite the deep connections that they have had and continue to have with the "Anglosphere", Anglophone culture and the British Crown. 

In Britain there is a small population of approximately 600,000 people who according to the last population

census in 2011 have heritage in these islands that were once the sight of a well-documented slave experience and British colonial subjects.  Though some distance from the United Kingdom, these Anglophone Caribbean nations that once formed the West Indies Federation are inextricably connected to Britain in a political and cultural  relationship that goes back many years and still exists in legal definitions today. A relationship that they share with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. However, despite the continuous and long-standing years that they have been intertwined with Britain they are not given the recognition that the political relationship should offer and find it more difficult to work, study and live in Britain than EU citizens who are not governed by our monarch Queen Elizabeth II and do not share the same cultural framework. 

Whilst Black Britain has been considered by commentators from Dr Kehinde Andrews, to Lee Jasper and A. Sivandan to have a number of different definitions but today Black Britain must be a term that defines those 4.5 million mostly dark-skinned but diversely coloured descendants of African heritage who share first and last names, a language, a monarch and a political heritage with the citizens of the United Kingdom and those citizens of Australia, Canada and New Zealand. 

Whilst many of Scotland's 5.2 million citizens desire independence from the United Kingdom there are 4.5 million Black Britain' that are committed to a relationship with Britain despite Brexit. Today we must bring the conversation of Black Britain to the table. Those Black Britain's from the sunny isles of the Caribbean must be brought deeper into the franchise alongside their counterparts in Australia, Canada and New Zealand who share a past as colonies of the British Empire. With a Scotland threatening to leave the Union, it is time for us to consider those Black Britain' as our kith and kin and perhaps to integrate them into the United Kingdom by loosening restrictions on the ability of Black Britain to work, study and live in Britain. 

In inviting Black Britain to integrate closer into a new post-racial "Anglosphere" we will be beginning a new racial chapter in Britain and a new political relationship where together we can build the future of the the Anglophone world and make considerable steps to heal past racial tensions and wounds whilst also finding a potential partner in our Union whose population is larger than both Northern Ireland and Wales and almost the size of Scotland's.

Black Britain's in the Caribbean are bursting with energy and the desire to succeed and unlike the United Kingdom do not have an ageing population but a youthful and vibrant citizenship. Scotland has often been considered the tech home of the United Kingdom but who knows what those Black Britain's in the sunny isles of Jamaica, Dominica and the Bahama's could do to produce Britain's tech future, in surroundings hospitable to and open to the British public. Beautiful surroundings enviable to most EU citizens where British tech companies could set up to change the world. 

Today as some call for a more integrated "Anglosphere" through a Commonwealth Free Trade Zone and a more inclusive Commonwealth altogether we must clearly define what it means to be a Black Britain in the terms that I have set out. We must make sure that Black Britain's of the British West-Indies are included in the plans for this new union and that we seek talks and diplomatic negotiations to integrate Black Britain's of the British West-Indies into our existing union of the United Kingdom as equal partners just as the smaller populations of Wales and Northern Ireland are.

Black Britain must be identified and defined as those 4.6 million people of African-Caribbean heritage in Britain and our international but common realms in the British West-Indies that share a language, names, culture, legal system, political history and a monarch and Head of State with the United Kingdom. The new black politics must be a politics that seeks further integration and recognition of those I consider to be Black Britain. Those Black Britain's living in Britain must lobby the United Kingdom and their respective nations to strengthen the relationship with the British West Indies and other "Anglosphere" nations Australia, Canada and New Zealand. With Baroness Scotland, a Black Britain from the Caribbean island of Dominica now working as Commonwealth Secretary General there is no better time to begin this new black British political paradigm.

Let the journey to a truly post-racial Britain begin.

God save Britannia!