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A Pardoner’s Tale

'Twas a simpler time...'
London in the 1970s wasn’t just a hostile place for Irishmen when they strayed outside their allocated ghettos (geographical or psychological). 
It was even less of a picnic if you happened to be black. And as we all know, that discrimination didn’t stop at the notices in lodging house windows. It ran deep, still does. And certainly, in an era when ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ and 'Till Death Us Do Part’ were watched by millions without the benefit of 21st century irony, going to the bank manager to look for a mortgage or a business loan wasn’t really a goer.

So, Britain’s West Indian community came up with a solution to this and it’s called ‘a Pardoner’.
Now, The Deptford Croppy won’t lie to its reader(s). Much of the knowledge I have about pardoners is anecdotal but, after extensive searching, I did find a brief definition posted on Facebook. (Big shouts out to you, Blackwongawoman).
A pardoner is West Indian saving method where a group of people (usually friends) ‘pool their money together and then loan to each other on an interest-free basis’, with everyone paying back every month into the pot.
And the banks weren't
 much different...
I know for a fact that it is certainly still practiced in London, particularly -- but not exclusively -- among networks of Black women; although probably not as much as previously. (We may yet be seeing their resurgence...)


That said, I also found an oral history recording of a lady called Phyllis Sylvester, remembering the system from the 1970s when it was used to buy property. She warns that owning a property seemed to make the black community more Anglicised, more selfish, and in the end less strong.
It still represents a very attractive and pleasingly pro-active alternative to dealing with banks though, doesn’t it?
Of course, we also have the power to put this kind of community lending on a more secure legal footing as well in the form of our Credit Union network.
In theory at least, they are not that difficult to set up. Click here for a kick off. Banks... Who needs ‘em?

Comments

  1. Judith Martin13 October 2014 at 11:54

    I'm really interested in this. I'm a housing and architectural historian researching an obscure Victorian self-help sort of building society for 'mechanic' which operated very like this. I'd like to know more but the links to Phyllis Sylvester and Blackwongawoman don't work. And no-one else has commented on this, so presumably no great renaissance of interest. Do you know any more? Can you help please?

    ReplyDelete

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