Writing to denounce
It is customary to hear that the first Jamaican writer was Thomas MacDermot, probably better known by the anagram of his name, Tom Redcam. He was born in June 1870 in Clarendon Parish and raised in Trelawny in a modest family of five children. First a teacher at York Castle High School, he joined Kingston and the Jamaica Post newspaper where he became editor, thus making a living out of his precocious taste for words, a passion that he maintained by initiating short story contests and collective collections. But Redcam was also a writer, and published, under a pseudonym, two novels: Becka's Buckra Baby in 1903 and One Brown Girl and ¼ in 1909. The first one, in particular, has become a classic; it is about class struggle and the disparities between the black and white communities, a sad consequence of colonialism. Already mixing English and patois, the author shows himself to be innovative although his style is otherwise rather sober, but not without a certain irony. In the secret of the alcoves, MacDermot was also a poet, but he did not see this part of his work published because he died in London in 1933, following a long illness that cost him 11 years of forced exile in England, the source of inspiration for a very famous patriotic poem: O Little Green Island Far Over The Sea. A few weeks after his death, he was proclaimed National Poet at a ceremony organized at the Ward Theater by the Poetry League of Jamaica and presided over by the Mayor of Kingston. His younger brother, Joel Augustus Rogers, was of mixed race and grew up in St. Ann's Bay where, it is said, as a child he crossed paths with Marcus Garvey, a native of St. Ann's Bay, one of the prophets of the Rastafari movement and one of the precursors of Pan-Africanism. It was not in literature that Rogers made his mark, but in the field of history. He traveled the world, also for his journalistic activities, and suffered racial discrimination. In response, he did remarkable research on the culture of Africans, to the point that he was recognized as "The Father of Black History". He died in New York in 1966 after deciding to become a naturalized American in 1917, a choice also made by Claude McKay (1889-1948), who is often associated with the Harlem Renaissance movement. McKay published his first book of poetry when he was only 23 years old, appealing for its use of dialect. That same year, 1912, he left for the United States to study agronomy, but segregation was still in place in South Carolina, and from there was born his political commitment, which would be reflected in his prose when, in 1919, he published the poem If We Must Die in The Liberator, as a reaction to the terrible Red Summer, which saw an increase in racist crimes. England, Russia, France, Germany, Spain...: his travels were as numerous as his meetings - for example with Aimé Césaire - and his books, some of which are now available in French, such as Banjo: une histoire sans intrigue (which tells the story of a dockworker in Marseilles in the 1930s) published by L'Olivier in 2022, or Retour à Harlem (Return to Harlem ), translated by Nada éditions. In Jamaica, it was also time to denounce the injustices suffered by blacks and the less privileged populations of the island, and these struggles were affirmed thanks to Roger Mais (1905-1955) who, after having worked in a thousand jobs, joined the weekly Public Opinion linked to the political party founded in 1938 by the independence fighter Osmond Theodore Fairclough. In addition to his articles, his novels(The Hills were Joyful Together, Brother Man, Black Lightning) and his numerous short stories, Roger Mais wrote about thirty plays for radio and theater, the most famous being George William Gordon, which paid tribute to the man who gave him his name, a martyr who was executed following the Morant Bay Rebellion on October 11, 1865.
Women's voices
The commitment will be feminist with Una Marson. Born near Santa Cruz in 1905, she sharpened her pen in Jamaica Critic before becoming editor of The Cosmopolitan, where she encouraged women to become emancipated and involved in politics. She then moved to London, and her frequent trips back and forth, as well as the sexist and racist issues she faced, fueled and strengthened both her convictions and her poetry. Although neither her collections (Moth and the Star, Towards the Star) nor her plays (London Calling, Pocomania) are available in our language, they have been praised by the most eminent critics. Eliot Bliss - born Eileen Norah Bliss in 1903 - is unfortunately no more translated, even though her two novels with strong autobiographical overtones, Saraband and Luminous Isle
, explored fundamental questions of feminism and homosexuality, and her diary (in 19 volumes) evoked her very rich literary affinities, notably with Vita Sackville-West.In another style, Louise Benett-Coverley became famous under the name of Miss Lou. Born in September 1919 in Kingston, this woman addressed a child audience to whom she made a point of introducing folklore through songs, radio programs (Ring Ding) and shows. The heritage is indeed valued, explored, respected, and it is moreover the study of the Creole language that will influence Velma Pollard in her poetic research, allowing her to cultivate in her collections (And Caret Bay Again) a certain nostalgia for past times. This work on orality and on transmission will also be the one that will occupy her sister, Erna Brodber, born in 1940 and three years younger. Author of several novels (Myal, Louisiana, Nothing's Mat, etc.), cultural historian interested in the link between African and Caribbean identity, she has been distinguished by several awards, including the prestigious Jamaican Musgrave Gold Award for Literature and Orature in 1999. This same dynamic will animate Jean D'Costa who, in his books for teenagers now studied in school, will use both English and Jamaican Creole, Olive Senior, poet and novelist, who has published on Caribbean culture, or Christine Craig, who has introduced children to the history of her native island through her writings (Quadrille for Tigers, Mint Tea
) and a TV series. Another audience, another approach, Michelle Cliff (1946-2016) turns to adults and invites them to reflect on the postcolonial era with Abeng (1984), one of her best-known novels (along with No Telephone To Heaven and Free Enterprise), which nevertheless features a young girl, Clare Savage. This girl, who undoubtedly bears a resemblance to the author, grows up in the 1950s and is gradually led to deconstruct the vision of slavery and British imperialism that had been instilled in her. A quest for emancipation that will also be carried by Lorna Goodison, who was born in 1947 in Kingston and was the first woman, at 70 years, named Poet Laureate of Jamaica. Recognition may have come late for the woman who began publishing her poems anonymously in the Jamaica Gleaner in her twenties, yet this is not a contradiction, especially since her collaborations and written use of Rasta dialect demonstrate her proximity to dub poetry, a milieu that readily cultivates its underground side. This poetic form, accompanied by a musical rhythm but rather chanted than sung, takes off thanks to Linton Kwesi Johnson - who also belonged to the Black Panthers -, and several representatives of the generation born in the 1950s: Jean "Binta" Breeze (1956-2021), Lilian Allen who received the Juno Award in 1987 and 1988, Allan Hope known as "Mutabaruka", revolutionary and militant Rastafarian, among others. Political and committed, Elean Thomas (1947-2004) will also be, in the defense of women's rights and for the independence of Jamaica (obtained in 1962 but still within the framework of the Commonwealth). Her pen made her a poet(Word Rhythms From The Life of A Woman, 1986; Before They Can Speak Of Flowers, 1988) and novelist(The Last Room, 1991).A new generation, between exile and attachment
We should also mention Kerry Young who, in her novel Pao published in 2011, was able to describe as no other the multicultural richness of her native island, even though she had left it for England at the age of 10, in the manner of Margaret Cezair-Thompson, an emigrant to the United States, who has never hidden her strong attachment to her roots nor the desire to explore them in her works (The True History of Paradise, 1999; The Pirate's Daughter, 2008). Indeed, expatriation seems to be the order of the day for the post-independence generation, and this is how Mekeda Silvera founded a feminist publishing house promoting black women writers in Canada, how Valerie Bloom - who writes in Creole - was awarded the Order of the British Empire after her departure for England in 1979, and how Claudia Rankine, a member of the Academy of American Poets, occupied the Chair of English Literature at the University of Southern California. Yet the links are not severed, and the great traveler Nalo Hopkinson boldly proves it in her "Afro-futurist" publications, in which she blends classical references (Ursula K. Le Guin), Caribbean folklore and black activism with equal fervor. The short story collection Live from the Midnight Planet
(Goater Editions, 2018) gives a good overview of her talent for anticipation that has earned her several awards. At ease in all genres (societal, erotic), in all languages (patois, English), in all styles (short stories, novels, poetry), Colin Channer quickly made a name for himself internationally by making the choice to leave his island, this does not prevent him from being willingly compared to the most famous Jamaican, Bob Marley. Finally, just as eclectic, abundant and dynamic, the new generation has at least three worthy representatives - Marlon James, Kei Miller(By the rivers of Babylon, Zulma, 2019) and Nicole Dennis-Benn(Rends-moi fière, éditions de l'Aube, 2021) - who are spreading around the world the formidable literary talent and claims of their native country.
