a history of black and asian writing in...

A HISTORY OF BLACK AND ASIANWRITING IN BRITAIN

This is the first extended study of black and Asian writing in Britainover the last 250 years. Beginning with authors who arrived as immi-grants or slaves in the mid eighteenth century, Lyn Innes includesa detailed discussion of works that were often enormously popu-lar in their own time but are almost unknown to contemporaryreaders. Innes’ fascinating study reveals a history of vigorous andfertile interaction between black, Asian, and white intellectuals andcommunities, and an enormously rich and varied literary culturewhich was already in existence before the post-war efflorescence ofblack and Asian writing. Utilizing a wealth of new archival material,Innes examines their work as part of an acceptance of and challengeto British cultural and ideological discourses. This volume offers arich historical background for understanding contemporary Britishmulticultural society and culture, and will be of interest to literaryand cultural historians.

lyn innes is Emeritus Professor of Postcolonial Literatures at theUniversity of Kent, Canterbury. She is the author of books onChinua Achebe, African literature and Irish literature, and articleson African American and black British writers.

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Cambridge University Press978-0-521-71968-1 - A History of Black and Asian Writing in Britain: Second EditionC. L. InnesFrontmatterMore information

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A HISTORY OFBLACK AND ASIAN

WRITING IN BRITAINSecond edition

C.L. INNESUniversity of Kent, Canterbury






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It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

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© C. L. Innes 2002, 2008

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First published 2002Reprinted 2004

First paperback edition 2008

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Contents

Preface and acknowledgements page viiChronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960 ixList of illustrations xxi

Introduction 1

1 First encounters: the historical context 7

2 Eighteenth-century letters and narratives: Ignatius Sancho,Olaudah Equiano, and Dean Mahomed 17

3 Speaking truth for freedom and justice: Robert Wedderburnand Mary Prince 56

4 The imperial century 72

5 Querying race, gender, and genre: nineteenth-centurynarratives of escape 84

6 Travellers and reformers: Mary Seacole and B.M. Malabari 126

7 Connecting cultures: Cornelia and Alice Sorabji 142

8 Ending empire 167

9 Duse Mohamed Ali, anti-imperial journals, and blackand Asian publishing 182

10 Subaltern voices and the construction of a global vision 200

11 Epilogue 233

Notes 253Notes on early writers 284Bibliography 295Index 309

v






Preface and acknowledgements

In 1870 my great-grandfather travelled from Bengal to London to pe-tition parliament for recompense for the lands taken over by the EastIndia Company from his family a century before. Despite considerablesupport from members of parliament, especially those from Ireland, thepetition was unsuccessful. He remained in England for ten years, mar-ried the Englishwoman who became my great-grandmother, and wroteand published a now forgotten book. After his return to India in 1880,his two sons were sent to Dulwich College, with the requirement thatthey should receive a good Muslim education. The younger son, mygrandfather, subsequently emigrated to Australia.

At school in Australia, I was intermittently and dimly troubled by theawareness that my family’s story could find no place in the British his-tory and literature that we were taught. Only when I myself emigrated toBritain in the 1970s did I begin to seek more consciously and actively fora wider pattern which might make my own small piece seem less anoma-lous. Here the work of historians such as Peter Fryer, Paul Edwards, andRozina Visram has proved invaluable. The attempt to follow throughthe more extensive narrative of the interaction between South Asian,black and more familiar British writers in the context of a wider culturaland political history has been fascinating and sometimes frustrating. Butnow much new work is being done by scholars such as David Dabydeen,Anne Walmsley, Vincent Carretta, Susheila Nasta, and Sara Salih, andalthough many pieces remain missing, a clearer pattern is beginning toemerge. This book is my attempt to extend the outline and help fill inthe details.

I wish to acknowledge the generous contributions of many colleaguesand scholars, who have read and discussed sections of this study, broughtmaterial to my notice, or have allowed me to see unpublished work inprogress. I am especially grateful to Vincent Carretta, Denise deCairesNarain, Ian Duffield, Rod Edmond, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Stephanie

vii






viii Preface and acknowledgements

Newell, Susheila Nasta, Sara Salih, Martin Scofield, Kate Teltscher,Gillian Whitlock, and Robert Young. Their willingness to see this re-search as a collaborative enterprise rather than a competition is partic-ularly encouraging in these days of ratings and league tables. Susheila’sreading and commentary on the whole first draft of the book have beeninvaluable. I also owe a considerable debt to the many postgraduate stu-dents whose own work and discussion have informed my thinking andawareness, and who have been party to a mutual encouragement pact. Inrecent years, these include Pamela Albert, Emma Bainbridge, JenniferBallantine-Perera, Jackie Belanger, Maggie Bowers, Stephen Cowden,Paul Delaney, Delia Jarrett-Macaulay, Furrukh Khan, Eugene McNulty,Kaori Nagai, and Mark Stein. To Delia and Mark I owe an unusuallylarge debt, for their dissertation work on Una Marson and black Britishfiction respectively provided conceptual, contextual, and factual materialwhich helped inform this book. Mark has also researched and writtenmost of the biobibliographies at the end. I also wish to acknowledgeRachel Scofield’s assistance in compiling the index and proofreadingthe manuscript.

I am grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research Board and theSchool of English at the University of Kent for grants which made itpossible for me to undertake the research for this book. I am also gratefulto the editorial and production staff at Cambridge University Press,especially Ray Ryan, who consistently urged on the project, and RoseBell, whose meticulous copy-editing eradicated many faults.

Sections of Chapter One have appeared in different form in Readingthe New Literatures in a Postcolonial Era, ed. Susheila Nasta (Cambridge:Boydell and Brewer, 2000) and in Bullan: A Journal of Irish Studies. I amgrateful to the English Association and to Bullan for permission to reprintthese sections.






Chronological table of historical and literary events1560–1960

historical events literary events

1558 Loss of Calais; death ofMary; accession ofElizabeth I

1562 Hawkyns beginsEnglish slave trade ofAfricans

1577 Drake begins hiscircumnavigation

1588 Defeat of SpanishArmada

1588–92 Shakespeare’s earlyplays including 1, 2, 3Henry VI , Taming of theShrew, Love’s Labour’sLost, Richard III

1590 Spenser, Faerie Queene(i–iii ); Lodge, Rosalynde

1600 Elizabeth I grantstrading charter to EastIndia Company

1601–4 Shakespeare playsincluding Hamlet,Twelfth Night, Measure forMeasure

1603 Death of Elizabeth;accession of James VIas James I; union of thecrowns of England andScotland

ix






x Chronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960

1604–8 Shakespeare playsincluding Othello, KingLear, Macbeth, Antony andCleopatra, Coriolanus

1606 Charter granted toVirginia Company

1611 ‘Authorized’ version ofBible

1616 Death of Shakespeare1620 Pilgrim Fathers sail for

America1625 Death of James I;

accession of Charles I1640 Long Parliament

summoned1649 Trial and execution of

Charles I1649–52 Cromwell’s campaigns

in Ireland and Scotland1653 Cromwell becomes

Lord Protector1660 Restoration of Charles

II; reopening oftheatres

1665 Plague in London1667 Dryden, Annus Mirabilis;

Milton, Paradise Lost1688 ‘Glorious Revolution’;

James II flees; WilliamIII and Mary IIsucceed

1690 Locke, Essay ConcerningHuman Understanding

1700 Congreve, The Way ofthe World

1701 War of SpanishSuccession; GreatBritain allied againstFrance






Chronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960 xi

1707 Act of Union betweenEngland and Scotland

1712 Pope, The Rape of theLock

1719 Defoe, Robinson Crusoe1726 Swift, Gulliver’s Travels;

Thomson, Winter1728 Gay, Beggar’s Opera;

Pope, Dunciad (1 stVersion)

1747–9 Richardson, Clarissa1749 Fielding, Tom Jones1755 Johnson, Dictionary

1757 Conquest of Indiabegins under GeneralClive

1759 Wolfe takes Quebec 1759 Johnson, Rasselas1759–67 Sterne, Tristram Shandy

1760 Death of George II;accession of George III

1763 Peace of Paris endsSeven Years War;British gains in Indiaand North America

1766 Goldsmith, The Vicar ofWakefield

1768 Sterne, A SentimentalJourney

1772 Gronniosaw, Narrative1775 Sheridan, The Rivals

1776 American Declarationof Independence

1776–88 Gibbon, Decline and Fallof the Roman Empire

1779–81 Johnson, The Lives of thePoets

1780 Gordon Riots1781 British forces defeated

by Americans atYorktown






xii Chronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960

1782 Publication of TheLetters of Ignatius Sancho

1783 Independence ofAmerican Coloniesrecognized by Peace ofParis

1786 Clarkson, Essay on theSlavery and Commerce ofthe Human Species

1787 Association for theAbolition of the SlaveTrade founded

1787 Cugoano, Thoughts andSentiments on the Evil andWicked Traffic of Slavery

1789 French Revolution; Fallof Bastille; Declarationof the Rights of Man

1789 Blake, Songs of Innocence;Equiano, The InterestingNarrative.

1790 Burke, Reflections on theRevolution in France;Blake, The Marriage ofHeaven and Hell

1791 Toussaint L’Ouvertureleads insurrection inSan Domingo (Haiti)

1791 Boswell, Life of SamuelJohnson; Paine, TheRights of Man (Part i )

1792 Wollstonecraft, AVindication of the Rights ofWoman; Holcroft, AnnaSt Ives

1793 Execution of LouisXVI; Reign of Terror;Britain and France atwar

1794 Travels of Dean Mahomet1796 Bonaparte’s Italian

campaign1798 Nelson’s victory at

Battle of the Nile;rebellion in Ireland

1798 Wordsworth andColeridge, LyricalBallads; Wollstonecraft,The Wrongs of Woman

1800 Act of Union withIreland

1800 Edgeworth, CastleRackrent

1803 Renewal of war againstFrance






Chronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960 xiii

1804 Haiti gainsindependence

1805 Nelson’s victory atTrafalgar

1807 Abolition of theslave-trade in theBritish Empire

1808 Peninsular War begins1811 Prince of Wales

becomes Regent;Luddite riots

1811 Austen, Sense andSensibility

1813 Austen, Pride andPrejudice; Shelley, QueenMab

1814 Abdication ofNapoleon; restorationof Louis XVIII;Stephenson’s steamlocomotive

1815 Battle of Waterloo1819 Peterloo massacre

1824 Robert Wedderburn,The Horrors of Slavery

1829 Catholic EmancipationAct

1831 The History of MaryPrince

1832 Tennyson, Poems (dated1833)

1833 Abolition of slavery inBritish Colonies;Keble’s Assize sermon

1833 Carlyle, Sartor Resartus

1836 Dickens, Sketches by ‘Boz’and the first number ofPickwick Papers (1836–7 )

1837 Death of William IV;accession of Victoria

1837 Roper, Escape fromAmerican Slavery

1838 ‘People’s Charter’published;London–BirminghamRailway opened

1838 Dickens, NicholasNickleby






xiv Chronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960

1842 Chartist riots; secondpresentation of Charterto Parliament;Copyright Act

1842 Tennyson, Poems;Browning, DramaticLyrics

1846 Famine in Ireland;repeal of Corn Laws

1847 Tennyson, The Princess;Charlotte Bronte, JaneEyre; Emily Bronte,Wuthering Heights; AnneBronte, Agnes Grey;Thackeray, Vanity Fair(1847–8)

1851 Great Exhibition;Louis Napoleon’s coupd’etat; Fugitive SlaveAct, USA

1851–2 Harriet Beecher Stowe,Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

1852 Dickens, Bleak House(1852–3)

1853 W.G. Allen, ColourPrejudice in America

1854 Crimean War breaksout; Battles of Alma,Inkerman, andBalaclava (with thecharge of the LightBrigade); Prestoncotton spinners strike;Working Man’sCollege opened

1855 Tennyson, Maud;Kingsley, West-ward Ho!;Browning, Men andWomen; Gaskell, Northand South; Trollope, TheWarden; Dickens, LittleDorrit (1855–7 ); JohnBrown, Slave Life inGeorgia






Chronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960 xv

1857 ‘Indian Mutiny’ 1857 Mary Seacole, TheWonderful Adventures ofMrs Seacole

1858 India transferred toBritish Crown

1859 Dickens, A Tale of TwoCities; Eliot, Adam Bede;Meredith, The Ordeal ofRichard Feverel; Mill, OnLiberty; Darwin, TheOrigin of Species;Tennyson, The Idylls ofthe King (1859–72)

1860 William Craft, Runninga Thousand Miles forFreedom

1861 Victor Emanuel, Kingof United Italy;outbreak of AmericanCivil War, death ofPrince Consort

1863 ‘Cotton Famine’ inLancashire

1863 Francis Fedric, Slave Lifein Virginia and Kentucky

1865 Suppression ofJamaican rebellion byGovernor Eyre;Emancipation of slavesin American south;assassination of Lincoln

1865 Arnold, Essays inCriticism; Carroll, Alicein Wonderland

1870 Married Woman’sProperty Act;Franco-Prussian War;Forster’s EducationAct; Papal Statesincorporated intoKingdom of Italy;death of Dickens

1871 Paris Commune1874 Hardy, Far From the

Madding Crowd






xvi Chronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960

1876 Victoria proclaimedEmpress of India

1876 Eliot, Daniel Deronda

1878 Hardy, The Return of theNative

1880 Gladstone, PrimeMinister

1882 British occupation ofEgypt

1882 Thomas Johnson,Twenty-Eight Years a Slave

1884 Berlin Conference anddivision of Africaamong Europeanpowers

1885 Congress Partyfounded in India

1887 Victoria’s GoldenJubilee

1888 Kipling, Plain Tales fromthe Hills; Ward, RobertElsmere

1889 Stanford, From Bondageto Liberty

1890 Parnell falls as leader ofIrish Home Rule Partyafter being cited in theO’Shea divorce case

1892 Shaw, Widowers’ Houses;Yeats, The CountessCathleen

1895 X-rays discovered 1895 Wilde, The Importance ofBeing Earnest and AnIdeal Husband; Wells,The Time Machine

1896 Wireless telegraphyinvented

1896 Hardy, Jude the Obscure;Housman, A ShropshireLad; Shaw, You Never CanTell

1897 Victoria’s DiamondJubilee

1897 Stoker, Dracula

1898 Hardy, Wessex Poems1899 Conrad, Heart of

Darkness






Chronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960 xvii

1899–1902 Boer War 1900 Conrad, Lord Jim1900 International

Pan-AfricanConference in London

1901 Death of Victoria;accession of EdwardVII

1901 Kipling, Kim; DuBois,The Souls of Black Folk;Cornelia Sorabji, Loveand Life behind the Purdah

1903 First aeroplane flight;foundation of Women’sSocial and PoliticalUnion

1905 Shaw, Major Barbaraand Man and Superman;Wells, Kipps

1907 Synge, The Playboy of theWestern World; Conrad,The Secret Agent

1911 Duse Mohamed Ali, Inthe Land of the Pharoahs

1914 Home Rule Bill passedby Parliament; Britaindeclares war onCentral Powers(4 August)

1916 First battle of theSomme; GallipoliCampaign; EasterRising in Dublin

1917 Eliot, Prufrock and OtherObservations

1918 Second battle of theSomme; final Germanoffensive collapses;Armistice withGermany(11 November);Franchise Act grantingthe vote to women overthirty






xviii Chronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960

1919 Treaty of Versailles;Amritsar Massacre;Atlantic flown

1920 Owen, Poems;Lawrence, Women inLove; Shaw, HeartbreakHouse; Fry, Vision andDesign

1922 Eliot, The Waste Land;Joyce, Ulysses;Lawrence, Fantasia of theUnconscious

1924 First LabourGovernment

1924 Forster, A Passage toIndia; O’Casey, Juno andthe Paycock; Coward, TheVortex

1925 Woolf, Mrs Dalloway;Gerhardie, The Polyglots

1926 General Strike 1926 MacDiarmid, A DrunkMan looks at the Thistle

1927 Woolf, To the Lighthouse1928 Yeats, The Tower;

Lawrence, LadyChatterley’s Lover,Waugh, Decline and Fall

1930 World economicdepression

1935 Mulk Raj Anand,Untouchable; GeorgeOrwell, Burmese Days

1936 Death of George V;accession of EdwardVIII; abdication crisis;accession of GeorgeVI; Civil War breaksout in Spain; first of theMoscow show trials

1936 C.L.R. James, MintyAlley

1937 Karen Blixen, Out ofAfrica






Chronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960 xix

1938 Jomo Kenyatta, FacingMount Kenya; C.L.R.James, The BlackJacobins; Raja Rao,Kanthapura

1939 End of Civil War inSpain; Russo-Germanpact; Germany invadesPoland (September);Britain and Francedeclare war onGermany

1939 Joyce Cary, MisterJohnson

1940 Mulk Raj Anand, Acrossthe Black Waters

1941 Germany invadesRussia; Japanesedestroy US Fleet atPearl Harbor

1942 Fall of Singapore;British victory in NorthAfrica at El Alamein

1945 Surrender ofGermany; atom bombsdropped on Hiroshimaand Nagasaki; LabourGovernment elected

1947 Independence of Indiaand Pakistan

1948 The British Empirebecomes the BritishCommonwealth;Empire Windrush brings492 West Indians toBritain

1948 Desani, All about H.Hatterr; Greene, TheHeart of the Matter; Fry,The Lady’s Not for Burning

1949 Bowen, The Heat of theDay; Orwell, NineteenEighty-four; Eliot, TheCocktail Party

1950 Labour returned atelection with reducedmajority

1950 Auden, Collected ShorterPoems; Beckett, Molloy(first volume of trilogy)






xx Chronological table of historical and literary events 1560–1960

1951 Conservative victory atGeneral Election;Festival of Britain

1952 Death of George VI;accession of ElizabethII; Kenyan war ofindependence (‘MauMau War’) begins

1954 Rattigan, Separate Tables;Golding, Lord of the Flies;Amis, Lucky Jim

1955 Larkin, The LessDeceived; Golding, TheInheritors; Beckett,Waiting for Godot (firstBritish performance)

1956 Egypt nationalizesSuez Canal; Britainand France interveneand are obliged towithdraw; Sovietinvasion of Hungary

1956 Golding, Pincher Martin;Wilson, Anglo-SaxonAttitudes; Osborne, LookBack in Anger; Selvon,The Lonely Londoners

1957 Ghana gainsIndependence

1957 Hughes, The Hawk in theRain; Spark, TheComforters; Durrell,Justine; Osborne, TheEntertainer

1958 Chinua Achebe, ThingsFall Apart

1960 Independence gainedby a number of statesin the Caribbean andAfrica

1960 Pinter, The Caretaker;Wilson Harris, ThePalace of the Peacock;Lamming, The Pleasuresof Exile






Illustrations

1 Frontispiece to Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative (1789).Reproduced by permission of The British Library page 18

2 Frontispiece to 1803 edition of The Letters of Ignatius Sancho.Reproduced by permission of The British Library 29

3 Frontispiece to Dean Mahomet’s Travels (1794). Reproducedby permission of The British Library 47

4 Ellen Craft disguised as a Gentleman, from Running a ThousandMiles for Freedom (1860). Reproduced by permission of TheBritish Library 104

5 Frontispiece and illustration from Mary Seacole’s WonderfulAdventures (1857 ). Reproduced by permission of The BritishLibrary 127

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