ABSTRACT
‘Whose Heritage? Un-settling “The Heritage”, Re-imagining the Post-nation’ crystallised ideas that Hall had developed throughout his career. This chapter traces the ‘heritage’ of ‘Whose Heritage?’, following its genealogy in Hall’s long-term engagement with how Black, Brown and migrant communities could redefine British heritage. The departure point is an earlier keynote, ‘West Indians in Britain’, from the 1968 conference of the Caribbean Artists Movement at the University of Kent. Hall’s audience at Kent were primarily born in the Caribbean, yet already he was pondering how their British-born children’s and grandchildren’s creativity might reshape British culture for the better. During the ensuing decades, the flowering of British reggae brought stronger emphasis on popular culture as an expression of Black British belonging. Meanwhile, hysteria concerning Black ‘muggers’ in the 1970s, and the resurgent nationalisms of Europe in the 1990s, shifted Hall’s focus onto structural racism in Britain. All these factors strongly informed his 1999 critique of heritage institutions. By understanding how Hall’s 1999 paper was shaped by events throughout previous years, one may better recognise how his ideas could address international challenges of migration, integration and belonging in the present and future.
