“I was wearing a hat, a suit, a shirt and a tie. Being a big boy – wearing long trousers! No coat or anything though.”
Dave Jackson was born in Jamaica in the 1950s. He was raised by his aunt, who was a bookkeeper, and his uncle, a carpenter.
“When my dad came over, it was after the war and Britain was rebuilding, they needed people to help, bus-drivers everything… My aunty came first with the four girls, so I lived with my grandparents in Jamaica… I came three years later. I loved it!”
Dave Jackson came to Britain on his own British passport at the age of twelve. His sister met him at Heathrow where they travelled straight to Cardiff.
“I remember one boy and four sisters, and they’re younger than me, so I was in the big boys’ school, so it was all the names, coon, wog, I never heard those names before, in Jamaica you don’t see colour, you don’t see that.”
“Back in the day, Black people would buy a house and they’d have everybody in the house, and they’d all save their money up. They didn’t like council houses, because in Jamaica there was no such thing. They really came to better themselves.”
“It’s important for the next generations to hear these stories so that they know everything is true that they have seen already. You watch the TV, all these stabbings. Imagine them thinking that’s the right way to live?”
“Roeddwn i’n gwisgo het, siwt, a chrys a thei. Gan fy mod i’n hogyn mawr – roeddwn i’n gwisgo trowsus hir! Ond dim cot na dim byd, chwaith.”
Ganed Dave Jackson yn Jamaica yn y 1950au. Fe’i magwyd gan ei fodryb, a oedd yn cadw cyfrifon, a’i ewythr a oedd yn saer coed.
“Pan ddaeth fy nhad yma, ar ôl y rhyfel pan roedd Prydain yn adfer ac ailgodi, roedden nhw angen pobl i helpu, gyrwyr bysiau a phob math [o waith]... daeth fy modryb gyntaf, gyda’r pedair geneth, felly mi fues i’n byw gyda nain a ’nhaid yn Jamaica... fe ddois i yma tair blynedd yn ddiweddarach. Roeddwn i wrth fy modd!”
Daeth Dave Jackson i Brydain ar ei basbort Prydeinig ei hun yn ddeuddeg mlwydd oed. Aeth ei chwaer i’w gwrdd yn Heathrow, ac yna teithiodd y ddau yn syth i Gaerdydd.
“Rwy’n cofio un bachgen a phedair chwaer, ac roedden nhw’n iau na fi, roeddwn i yn ysgol y bechgyn hŷn, felly dyma glywed yr holl enwau, coon, wog, doeddwn i erioed wedi clywed yr enwau hynny o’r blaen, yn Jamaica dydyn ni ddim yn gweld lliw, felly welwch chi mo hynny.”
“Yn yr hen ddyddiau, mi fuasai pobl Dduon yn prynu tŷ, ac mi fuasai llond y tŷ, a phawb yn cynilo eu harian i gyd. Doedden nhw ddim yn hoffi tai cyngor, gan nad oedd mo’r fath beth yn Jamaica. Roedden nhw wir wedi dod yma i wella’u hunain.”