Iciline Brown

Windrush 4 Iciline Brown – Rehema Motherland


Rahema means mercy in Swahili. Iciline is able to trace her roots back through slavery to Zanzibar in East Africa. Her words reflect on her early life in Jamaica and how she felt when she came to England. She was a victim of the Windrush Scandal, and after a trip back to Jamaica was refused an entry visa back to the UK to see her family in 2017. It took 3 years of struggle to finally get a biometric card allowing her to travel.
The term “Windrush” refers to the arrival of Caribbean migrants to the UK between 1948 and the early 1970s, named after the HMT Empire Windrush, the ship that brought the first large group to Britain. They came to help rebuild the nation after World War II, answering Britain’s call for workers, but faced harsh realities of racism, inequality, and cultural dislocation.