Jessica Huntley's Pan-African Life - (Black Literary and Cultural Expressions) by Claudia Tomlinson (Hardcover)

About the Book

A biography of radical black reformer, publisher, bookshop owner and Caribbean politician Jessica Huntley (1927-2013).

Book Synopsis

A powerful biography that presents analysis of a black working-class woman who rose from a tenement slum in intensely racialized British Guiana to become a leading anti-colonialism, workers' rights and women's liberation activist in Britain.

Jessica Huntley's Pan-African Life celebrates Huntley's importance as a leading figure in the Windrush-era resistance to the multiple, racialized injustices faced by black settlers, children and communities in Britain. Claudia Tomlinson details how Huntley became the elder stateswoman of radical black activism of her era through participation in decolonization movements and actions such as the Black Parents Movement and the International Bookfair of Radical Black and Third World Books, as well as her foundational role at Bogle L'Ouverture Publications, the leading black-led, pan-African publishing house and its associated radical bookshop.

Based on extensive archival research and over 40 interviews with Huntley's closest family members, associates, comrades, authors, artists and friends, this book affords readers an opportunity to take a long-lensed view of the historical roots of the many contemporary racial injustices re-invigorated in recent debates. Tomlinson re-writes the history of a period and a struggle often told through a master discourse that is male, middle-class and privileged. In so doing, she shows how Jessica Huntley's fight for justice and the rights of all black people in Britain provides a useful lens into UK-based, black literary and cultural expression in the 20th century.

Review Quotes

"Jessica Huntley's Pan-African Life offers a deeply inspiring exploration of Jessica Huntley's early anti-colonial activism in British Guiana (Guyana), her confrontations with racism after migrating, and her crucial role in radical Black publishing in Britain. Claudia Tomlinson's thorough research makes this book essential for anyone dedicated to understanding the workings of decolonization and women's emancipation, while presenting a story that has not been told before." --Nigel Westmaas, Professor of Africana Studies, Hamilton College, USA

"This powerful and accessible account of Jessica Huntley's life's work tracks her principled commitment to and involvement in anti-colonial, anti-racist and antiimperialist activism in the Caribbean and the UK. It enriches the archive of the Black radical activist tradition, foregrounding the central place of Black women in creating and sustaining movement and organizing - decolonizing infrastructures of transformation - from below." --Alissa Trotz, Professor of Caribbean Studies and Women and Gender Studies, University of Toronto, Canada

About the Author

Claudia Tomlinson is a writer and researcher on Guyanese, Caribbean, African and Black British History and Politics. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and holds a Ph.D. in History. Her writing has been featured in History Matters Journal, The Huffington Post UK, The Independent, Stabroek News (Guyana) and the Gleaner (Jamaica) among other publications.