Meet Trent’s African Caribbean Society

In an area where you’re in the minority of the population, it is always useful to know where to find people of your own ethnic background and culture. Nottingham Trent’s University provides the ACS, which is where fellow African-Caribbean’s can find one another.

At the beginning of the academic year the ACS team created a WhatsApp group for all those who had joined the ACS, for everyone to find out more about each other and who would be staying in their accommodation plus to answer more challenging questions such as, “Where do I find my most local shop for plantain or yam?”

Is there a need for an ACS?

The need for an ACS has come up quite a lot in debate recently. ACS President Abigail said: “A lot of the time without an ACS there is no platform for black people to get out there and do things, especially in Nottingham because without the ACS I don’t know where I’d be. Having an African-Caribbean society isn’t a racist thing, it doesn’t mean we believe that we’re a superior race, we’ve never put ourselves out there as a superior race.

“With the ACS it’s just that we’re people who are passionate about Afro-Caribbean movements, we’re passionate about what happens in the Afro-Caribbean society because it is not celebrated in society as it should be, we have to celebrate it in our own communities.”

We spoke to some of the team about why they joined:

Courts, First year

ACS for me, was the easiest way to get to know people. I wanted to meet different black people, everyone at home is kind of the same.
ACS President Abigail, second year

For me I wanted to work on, young black empowerment.

Tatenda, First year

I wanted a way to be able to connect with like-minded black individuals.

Connor, first year

In all honesty, I had no intention of joining or anything when I came to uni and that’s me being real. I ended up meeting a few people and was added to the ACS group chat, I had the option to leave but I gave it a chance and haven’t looked back ever since.