Black british, white british

The first major contact of the (Anglo-Saxon) English with coloured people occurred during 193-211 A.D. when Septimius Severus, a north African, ruled England as the Roman Emperor. He once remarked that the English made 'bad slaves'. The English later came into contact with coloured people in the Middle East during the Second Crusade (1189-91) and the Ninth Crusade (1271-2). These Crusades, however, failed to release the Holy City of Jerusalem from the hands of the 'infidel' Muslims.

Later still, contact developed through trade, by sea, with West Africa and Asia. In 1554, John Locke, an English trader, brought slaves from West Africa to England, and sold them as household servants. By then Spain and Portugal had established extensive colonies, in the New World, and were developing them as pro ducers of cotton, sugar-cane and tobacco for export to Europe as fast as the supply of labour - consisting of native Indian tribes.