Carole Boyce Davies, biographer of
Claudia Jones, ascribes to the
West Indian Gazette "a foundational role in developing the Caribbean diaspora in London". According to
Donald Hinds, who worked as a journalist on
WIG: "It was not merely a vehicle to bring the news of what was happening back home and in the diaspora to Britain. It also commented on the arts in all their forms.... It published poems and stories. Its trenchant editorials did not stop at Britain but had an opinion on the what, where and why of the cold war's hot spots." As "a vehicle for the development of a shared identity among West Indian migrants in Britain" (publishing, for example,
Jan Carew's article "What is a West Indian?" in April 1959), the paper addressed issues including racial discrimination in Britain, anti-colonial struggles in Africa, and federalism in the Caribbean. Jones herself, in her last published essay, "The Caribbean Community in Britain", said of
WIG: "The newspaper has served as a catalyst, quickening the awareness, socially and politically, of West Indians, Afro-Asians and their friends. Its editorial stand is for a united, independent West Indies, full economic, social and political equality and respect for human dignity for West Indians and Afro-Asians in Britain, and for peace and friendship between all Commonwealth and world peoples." Describing the newspaper as "a critical resource through which black British political consciousness emerged during the early 1960s",
University of Manchester historian Tariq Chastanet-Hird notes: "In developing a shared culture among migrants, fighting local racial discrimination and constructing transnational linkages, the paper was unrestricted in its ambitions." == Further reading ==