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Recordiad sain / Audio recording: Abraham Lee
Oral history recording with Abraham Lee who was born in Dominica. Interview consists of three audio files (.WAV): AV 2023.46.1.1; AV 2023.46.1.2; AV 2023.46.1.3 and two AudioVisual Files (.MOV): AV 2023.46.1.4; AV 2023.46.1.5. Recorded as part of Race Council Cymru’s Windrush Cymru Heritage Project.
“I say to myself, well, I better get a place of my own and stay there, and learn the way of this country living.”
Abraham Lee was born in Dominica, on September 22nd in 1942. His father arrived in Britain just after the Second World War…
“He was one of the first people who come to England, because after the war… it [Britain] was so badly destroyed, they want people to work for them to rebuild England, that’s why people from the West Indies had to come… he didn’t come here long… I think five or six years and then he left. He come back [to Dominica] and then he bought a ship.” On arrival to Britain, Abraham worked in England as a baker, and at one point a lift operator in The Cumberland Hotel, before following his children to Bute Street in Cardiff, Wales.
“I say to myself, I don’t ever want to be out of work… I always at work… I see my kids sleeping when I go, when I come back I see them sleeping again… I get one day on Sunday off, when I come here, and that’s where I could see my kids…”
He spent 6–7 years working as a hod carrier in Wales. “That’s why I live in Wales, [very different] that’s why I stay. Well, the people was friendly, you could leave your house open, go to town, go where ever you want, your neighbour will look after your house. Nobody will trouble you at all, see, and I say well that’s better than where I come from, and I stay there and I stayed in Cardiff…”