Roger Griffith

My American Odyssey: From the Windrush to the Whitehouse Roger Griffith

Publisher Marketing: 'My American Odyssey - From Windrush to the Whitehouse' charts the life of a Black British boy, growing up in 1980s England, and travelling around America, sharing the cultural, historical and, at times emotional, links and contrasts between the two countries. Roger Griffith is a successful social entrepreneur and local radio personality - also known as the G-Man - with 24,000 listeners every week on a community radio station he (co-owns) called Ujima Radio 98FM. He has a passion for sharing stories, observations and insights on a perspective seldom shown - the special relationship between America and Britain, as seen through a black man's eyes. In 'My American Odyssey', Roger documents the experiences of his parents generation - known as the Windrush Generation - arriving from the Caribbean to help rebuild the 'Motherland' after World War II and his generation the first generation of Black-Britons born in the UK. He reflects on growing up within two cultures, through Thatcher's turbulent 1980s to the present day - with a black man as the US president - Roger explores the influence of Black-British and African-American culture through the prism of the civil rights struggle and the life and work of Dr Martin Luther King. In sharing his story, an evocative combination of travelogue, history, politics and social commentary, Roger celebrates the lives of African-Americans, West Indians and Black Britons, from their roots of origin to the present day, as a new era of hope is not just dawning but continues to rise.