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Since the end of the Second World War, thousands of black people, mainly from once British-colonised territories, have settled in Britain, West Indians being a distinctive group among these new minorities. This thesis is an inquiry into the socio-historical linkage between Black West Indians and British society, and an exploration into aspects of protest and social conflict among West Indian immigrants (Black Nationalism) resulting from the relationship.

The last quarter of the twentieth century witnessed what is undoubtedly one of the most important socio-demographic changes in the labour market both developed and developing countries. For the first time, women and married women entered the labour market on a massive scale. One of the consequenceso f this socio-demographics hift is the dynamic in family management framework. Particularly for professional married women with dependent children, who continues to bear the main responsibility for taking care of the family, also for professional married men, who are expected increasingly to be involved in domestic and childcare tasks. This dynamic in family management framework is even more acute for migrant Nigerian professional dual-earner families because of absence of support from their extended families. Given the fact that migrant Nigerian professional dual-earner families with dependent children as a collective, and qualitatively, as method have been largely neglected in the literature, I decided to embark on a multi-level, mixed-method study of family management framework from a migrant dual-eamer professional families perspective. The study is mixed-method, because I use both qualitative and quantitative methods to study the theme. It is multi-level study, because, a) I address at the micro level the attitude and behaviour of the couples to family management, b) at the mesolevel/macro-level, how the migrants perceive their experiences from the British government employers, and c) the mainstream and how they have adapted in their new environment. In the first study, I review and confront two practically divorced literatures: the literature on management of domestic and childcare tasks and other strands of family tasks. I point to the gap in the literature and the need to recognise this in order to understand fully the family management frameworks within contemporary families. In the second study, I explore how the families perceive their treatment by the government, employers, and the mainstream population and their level of enculturation in Britain. The study use hermeneutics phenomenology method (i.e. indepth interview and group discussion). The study suggests that the field may be overlooking some fundamental variables. Interpretative analysis of the interview transcripts reveals the importance of understanding immigrant's perception of their new environment, immanent or tacit actions such as how they interpret their status, relate to the mainstream values and beliefs and the influences of sending context on their adaptation. The study contributes to the field a different theoretical approach to the study of family management framework among people who leave one country to settle in another country. In the third study, I explore the couple's attitudes and behaviour to family management framework using a quantitative study of 286 respondents. The analysis reveal that traditional attitudes of sex-specific assignment of family work did loose some of their consensus, but are far from having disappeared. The analysis also reveal a two dimensional management structure whereby, wives are dominantly responsible for domestic and childcare tasks, also performs majority of the domestics tasks and childcare; the husbands are dominantly responsible for house services tasks and provider roles and performs most the house-services tasks and provider role. I found also, that major changes in the couple's socio-demographic characteristics i.e. educational qualifications, narrower age gap, and both couple's participation in labour market point less towards clear-cut egalitarianism, which could be an alternative to traditional gender structure. The study shows that a 'modernized traditional' form of family management is salient among this sub-group of immigrant Nigerian families living in London. In a fourth study I use interpretive analysis of the interview transcripts of 18 professional dual-earner couples to explore factors that may explain the prevalence of modernised traditionalism of family management framework. I found that exogenous social rhythms, personal beliefs, and interpersonal negotiation of individual partners play an important role. As a conclusion, I recommend the need to integrate the literatures on management of domestic and childcare tasks with other areas of family work such as provider role and family house-servicesta sks to come up with a model that is useful for both academics and practitioners. In addition, to take into consideration in future studies of immigrants or disabled people etc. The effects of sending context (i.e. reasons for immigrating) and the immigrant perception of their new environment as these variables could have influencing effects on their behaviour. Finally, I suggest that family management research need fresh models that reflect the contemporary world in which families exists.

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Marriage, as understood from the Christian, Nigerian Baptist Convention's, perspective, is a mutual relationship endorsed by holy matrimony between a consenting man and a woman. Similarly, within the Nigerian socio-cultural setting, particularly among the Yoruba, marriage is recognized and endorsed as sacred and accorded great priority. To the Yoruba, it signifies a crucial rite of passage, a transition to adulthood and immense responsibilities within the community. However, despite the sanctity and lofty views of marriage, a number of Diaspora Yoruba Christian couples living in the North West of England (NWE) are increasingly experiencing serious marital instability and conflict. This thesis, therefore, critically examines Yoruba couples' understanding of marriage and how their various contacts with social realities in the NWE impact upon spousal relations. Particular attention is paid to cross-cultural factors, power structures among the Yoruba and social structures that promote Yoruba women's empowerment in the NWE. The study employs semi-structured qualitative interviews. It notes that: (1) Yoruba couples, having been married in a traditional way and setting are intensely confronted with social realities in the NWE which often calls for a renegotiation of marital relations. (2) Issues of spousal power relations, male dominance and hierarchy, financial/resources management, identity crisis/social status and gender-role reversal are crucial factors that currently affect the level of marriage satisfaction among Yoruba Christian couples. However, in spite of the academic underpinnings of this work, the use of devotional language is justified given the religious commitment and background of the research population. Against this backdrop, therefore, the relevance of the proposed marriage enhancement initiative, Prayer Intervention Programmes (PIP), as a viable approach for marital harmony, is significant.

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This thesis explores the diasporic experiences of Ghanaians in London and assesses how Ghanaian identity is redefined and constructed in new contexts. The mediated experience dimension of this exploration considers the difference that the diverse menu of cultural resources offered by television is making to dispositions, cultural proclivities, and patterns of identification across intergenerational differences among Ghanaian-Londoners. The study qualitatively assembles and analyses empirical data from primary sources and integrates material from secondary sources to draw its conclusions. The thesis traces the development of the black diaspora as the historical antecedent or precursor to more recent black diasporic formations. The concept of the black diaspora provides a context for understanding or imagining the fledgling Ghanaian diaspora as another offshoot within the family of black identities in Britain. It is argued that the perceptions of blackness that Ghanaian- Londoners encountered in Britain were derived from the racial construction of blackness as the antithesis of whiteness and hence its construction as deviance. This was purveyed in discourses and reinforced in the public imagination through the media. Not only did it run counter to their self-perceptions, it impinged on their experiences as black people as they were confronted with unflattering stereotypes which they repudiated. In marginal spaces they endeavoured to reinstitute traditions from the homeland and to establish a distinctive presence in the ensemble of black identities in Britain, which in part challenges the monolithic imaginations of blackness from ‘othering’ perspectives, and also highlights an area of blackness underrepresented in academic discourses. Furthermore, the study finds that in their cultural consumption, a factor of their diasporic experience, they exhibited a critical edge and a comparative attitude to screen representations, reflecting the dual and sometimes multiple perspectives of their diasporic condition which enabled them to critique or valorise certain cultural practices from the different worlds of their experience, an indication of processes of cultural negotiation, synthesis, and hybridisation. Overall, this thesis contributes to current academic debates around mediated experience and cultural transformations, and the understanding of processes at the intersections between modernity, diaspora and culture in the era of globalization.

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No description available.