Leaving Home  

Mr Anthony Maduagwu

I left home in 1964, and came over here to London and I am still here. My colleagues at work introduced me to the idea. We had two white people from England, who were working with us, and one of them said to me, "Why not go to England to further your education?" Well, I organised a visa for myself, but at this time I had been made a foreman in charge of technical drawing and I wasn't sure I wanted to come. You know my visa expired three times, and had to be renewed, so the visa people at the Embassy said to me that if this one expired they wouldn't give me another. When I came to London, it had only three days left to run. It was an employment visa, and I got a school admission for studying as well.

My Mum wasn't happy at all, especially me being the first born son. She reckoned I was going to die, because I might not be able to feed myself as I never did any cooking at home. I said to her, "Mum, I will not die." Anyway, she said "yes", because she knew I could eat anything to survive so that is why she allowed me.

When I was coming, I just had a small suitcase of clothes and an address to come to. I paid the fare and sent some money to England through the bank so that when I arrived here I'd just have to collect it and there would be no big fuss about it. I thought it was the land of gold and silver, but when I came here, I found out that when I applied for work, some people said "Go back home, you nigger".
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Mrs Pramila Desai

I got married at 17 then after one year of marriage my husband came to Britain for study. I went back to live with my mother. She wasn't well, so I went back to take care of her, but I did visit my in-laws. I think my husband came over here in 1961 and I came to Britain in 1963. He wrote to me and sent me a ticket for London so I came. I was a bit worried about coming here I remember what the British were like in India and thought they might treat me like that over there, hurling insults, giving me dirty work. I was really sad about leaving my home and family. I wasn't sure if I would see them again, especially my parents.

I packed my wedding sari. I still have that with me now and all my good luck things. My sister was already in England and, when she used to come and visit, she explained what the weather was like. I had to bring warm clothes. My eldest brother wife's took me to Bombay. I had never gone much beyond the village. I had never been on a train. I was then dropped at the airport. I had never been on a plane either. I was really scared. I had seen planes fly but I had never seen them on the ground. I travelled during the night; my plane was one hour late. We were told that it had broken down so I was waiting, and that didn't help my nerves. I travelled on my own on the plane. I was really scared, a young 20 year old going on a plane. I couldn't even eat the food. I was feeling really sick, but luckily I had brought some chapattis from home. The people on the plane were mostly English. There was one lady who spoke Hindi, so I spoke a bit with her. I felt a little bit more comfortable after that.

Extracts from the 'Mapping Memories' publication. Many more stories are included in the book. Find out how to obtain a copy here