Young Historians Project: African Women and the British Health Service
By Natasha Hollins, Third Year History Student
As part of a series of Black History month events, University of Bristol’s History Society hosted a virtual lecture by the Young Historians Project to discuss the work of their organisation. The Young Historians Projects is a non-profit organisation that works to encourage and develop young historians of African and Caribbean descent. They work in collaboration with the Black Cultural Archives, the Historical Association and the Royal Historical society to advance the number of Black and Ethnic Minority historians in Britain and challenge the under representation of African and Caribbean heritage in the field. They also work on projects to revisit historical and events and narratives through their unique perspective, to broaden historical understanding.
The organisation was formed in 2015 at the History Matters Conference after a review discovered that History was the third most unpopular subject among black undergraduates. Their first project focused on the Black Liberation Front, uncovering the importance of safe spaces and encouraging community knowledge and growth and their work has become increasingly topical since. With the emergence of the Windrush scandal, they have shifted to focus on contemporary history, specifically challenging the emerging narrative that arose with the Windrush scandal and developing the concept of Black collective history in the modern period. They avoid the dichotomy of using popular talking points to dictate the narrative of Black history, as they believe this narrows the mind and minimises the depth of contribution of African-Caribbean people to British History. Instead they focus on the narrative of those who experienced and lived through this history, for example, listening to the stories of the Caribbean women of the Windrush generation.
This links to their current focus on Caribbean nurses and their work in the National Health service, in order to remind people that there is a huge commonwealth of individuals in Britain that help build the National Health Service. This contribution to social history through working cooperatively with the Royal College of Nursing, National Archives, and Ghanaian Nurses Association has uncovered a wealth of material surrounding the experiences of black nurses in Britain. Over 30 women were interviewed over the last two years to build this project through discussions of their experiences working in pre- and post-NHS health institutions. The volunteers who worked to make this project possible built strong relationships with these women and developed their own skill set whilst doing so, both the project encouraged both academic and personal development. It also resulted in establishing a large network of black women that is continuously growing, especially to include women from countries that were less represented, which has been their focus for the past six months. The aim is to uncover hidden stories and influence public moralisation of black women in the health sector, which is extremely topical in today’s political climate.
The lecture highlighted a few key stories, such as Lulu Kut from Congo who came to the UK in 1923 to complete her training as a nurse, Agnes Savage who became the first African woman to receive a medical qualification in the UK and Princess Selasie whom, while in exile in the UK, completed her nursing. After World War Two, post war migration, and shortages of labour in specific fields including the health service meant Britain was rebuilt with the labour contributions of African people. After the formation of the NHS, the government pushed to expand the health service and reduce staff shortages through mass recruitment drives in developing countries. Legislation was passed to enable this: the 1948 British Nationality Act granted citizenship to those residing in the commonwealth and colonies, and the 1949 Nurses Act was amending to ensure fast recruitment from the colonies. The huge push across the commonwealth for recruitment of medical professionals was successful as between 1948 and 1958 the number of people employed in nursing and midwifery increased by around 26%.
Late twentieth century racialised migration was heavily covered in the media and a common narrative in the public sphere was discussing the ‘visualised other’. The use of provocative images and language to highlight the cost the of the NHS and portray black practitioners in derogatory ways perpetuated the racial issues within the NHS. The health service already had a colour bar which women who had been interviewed by the project had discussed that limited the opportunities available for them. Despite having qualifications before arriving in Britain, many immigrants were offered the lowest role available to them which limited their professional development. Immigrant women were also pushed into nursing because of staffing shortages, thus the colour bar influenced how and where African women could contribute to the NHS.
The work of this project by the Young Historians to uncover the experiences and importance of migrant women from African and Caribbean backgrounds in the National Health Service is extremely significant in the history of the National Health Service and the wider context of the social history of Britain. The institutional and everyday racism that these nurses continue to face is very topical in today’s climate in examining the practices of the NHS and re-evaluating the history of the organisation to ensure that progress can be made and these attitudes can be eliminated. This is merely one of the many projects the Young Historians Project is currently working on, which contributes new narratives to the social and cultural and history of Britain.
The work of the Young Historians Project to not only develop these narratives but encourage black and ethnic minority students to pursue History is vital. In 2012/3 there was a total of 1340 Black undergraduates studying History at degree level, which is 1.8% of the total number of history undergraduates in Britain. In 2016 there were less than 10 estimated Black PhD students studying history across the country, and in the same year only three black students were admitted to train as History teachers. Having a diverse field of academics and educators is essential in producing new narratives and perspectives and ensuring that experiences do not get overshadowed or overlooked, as well as developing our understanding of race and how it plays into our current social, economic and political climate. Young Historians works to increase diversity and rediscover history, which is essential for the field to progress.
More information on the Young Historians Project can be found here.
More information on their work on African Women and the National Health Service can be found here.
Cover Image Credit: Luis Melendez on Unsplash