“Respect for other people, respect for difference”
Gaynor Legall was born in February 1950 in St David’s Hospital. Her mother was born in Cardiff, and her father was from Belize, which was known as British Honduras until it gained independence in 1981.
“I had a very happy childhood and in lots of ways, although we were very poor and were seen as underprivileged, we were very rich in other ways. So in terms of culture, in terms of friendships, in terms of living in a community that was cohesive and protective. We were very fortunate.”
“I went to South Church Street school… I was four and a half… I think that they had no expectations of the kids and they ruled by brute force, lots of caning, or punched in the side of your head, that sort of thing…”
“The last two years of every single day before school started, I had to wait outside the headteachers door and say ‘sir, I haven’t done anything’ and he’d say ‘you will’.”
Gaynor Legall remembers the beginning of the Tiger Bay redevelopment, which started in 1956 and saw the relocation of families from 57 different nationalities.
“The community I grew up in no longer exists, and I’m sad about that. It wasn’t normal because migration previously been about men, but this time it was men and their wives and mothers and fathers and their children, so the impact was different.”
“I have created my identity, so I am Welsh. I can’t pretend anything else because when I go other places they know I’m not from there, but I don’t know how accepted I am as Welsh by the white wider population, but I have decided that I am Black, Welsh, and that is my identity, ethnic origin… I am very comfortable in my own skin.”
Ganed Gaynor Legall ym mis Chwefror 1950 yn Ysbyty Dewi Sant. Ganed ei mam yng Nghaerdydd, ac roedd ei thad yn hanu o Belize, a elwid yn Honduras Brydeinig nes ennill annibyniaeth yn 1981.
“Fe gefais i blentyndod hapus iawn, ac mewn llawer o ffyrdd, er ein bod ni’n dlawd iawn ac yn cael ein gweld fel pobl ddifreintiedig, roedden ni’n gyfoethog iawn mewn ffyrdd eraill. Felly yn nhermau diwylliant, yn nhermau cyfeillgarwch, yn nhermau byw mewn cymuned gydlynol a gwarchodol. Roedden ni’n ffodus iawn.”
“I Ysgol South Church Street roeddwn i’n mynd... roeddwn i’n bedair a hanner... Sa i’n credu eu bod nhw’n disgwyl dim byd gan y plant, ac roedden nhw’n rheoli gyda grym corfforol, roedd y gansen yn gyffredin, neu bwniad ar ochr eich pen, y math yna o beth...”
“Am y ddwy flynedd olaf, bob dydd cyn i’r ysgol ddechrau, roedd yn rhaid i mi aros y tu allan i ddrws y prifathro a dweud ‘syr, wnes i ddim byd’, ac meddai ef, ‘fe wnei di’.”
Mae Gaynor Legall yn cofio dechrau ailddatblygiad Tiger Bay, a ddechreuodd yn 1956, ac a fu’n gyfrifol am adleoli teuluoedd o 57 o genhedloedd gwahanol.
“Nid yw’r gymuned gefais i fy magu ynddi’n bodoli mwyach, ac rwy’n drist am hynny. Doedd hyn ddim yn normal, gan fod ymfudiad yn arfer ymwneud â dynion, ond y tro hwn, roedd yn ymwneud â dynion a’u gwragedd a’u mamau a’u tadau a’u plant, felly roedd yr effaith yn wahanol.”
“Fi sydd wedi creu fy hunaniaeth, felly Cymraes ydw i. Allaf i ddim smalio bod yn unrhyw beth arall, oherwydd pan rwy’n mynd i leoedd eraill, maen nhw’n gwybod nad ydw i’n dod o’r fan honno, ond wn i ddim i ba raddau mae’r boblogaeth wen ehangach yn fy nerbyn i fel Cymraes. Ond rwy’
wedi penderfynu fy mod i’n Ddu, yn Gymreig, a dyna fy hunaniaeth a fy nharddiad ethnig. Rwy’n gyfforddus iawn yn fy nghroen fy hun.”