ABSTRACT
Historians of Britain, with few exceptions, see their subject matter as being exclusively ‘White’, despite the 2,000-year presence of Black peoples in these isles. There were three strikes in Liverpool by African seamen working for Elder Dempster during the early years of the Second World War. Through the investigation of the 1940 strikers’ complaints it became evident that Elder Dempster had a four-tier wage scale: at the bottom were Nigerians recruited in Nigeria; then Africans recruited in Freetown; third were Africans employed from Liverpool and at the top were European seamen, who were paid the National Maritime Board rates. The Liverpool-based company employed African seamen both in the coastal trade and on the voyage from the Coast to the UK, this chapter deals with conditions affecting seamen on the ‘West Africa run’ to and from the UK. The African seamen striking in 1940 were helped by Pastor Ekarte to disseminate their statement of grievances.
