Marika Sherwood

Donald Hinds

Colin Prescod

Every year over a million people pack the streets of London's Notting Hill for Carnival, but as the carnival-goers soak up the sights, sounds and smells of the festival, few appreciate that its founder died in poverty on Christmas Eve in the bitterly cold winter of 1964, the end of a life dogged by struggle and illness. Claudia Jones: A Life in Exile is the first book to chart the life and work this visionary and pioneer. Born in Trinidad in 1915, Claudia Jone's family moved to Harlem, New York, where the young Claudia became a leading figure in Communist and black politics. Forced into exile in Britain in 1955, Jones arrived in London penniless and friendless. She became active in civil rights campaigns amongst the new West Indian communities established in the capital and launched an annual Carnival to showcase the talents and culture of the Afro-Caribbean community. The book's particular focus is on the time that Jones spent in Britain Claudia Jones: A Life in Exile is a fitting and long overdue testament to a remarkable woman who was quite simply years ahead of her time Marika Sherwood has published many articles on various aspects of the history of black people in Britain. A founder member of the Black and Asian Studies Association, she is still its secretary, conference organiser, and editor of its Newsletter. Her most recent books are The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited, with Akim Adi (1995), and Kwame Nkrumah: the Years Abroad 1935-1947 (1996)

A Life in Exile

Claudia Jones

Hakim Adi

The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited

With the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and the Emancipation Act of 1833, Britain seemed to wash its hands of slavery. Not so, according to Marika Sherwood, who sets the record straight in this provocative new book. In fact, Sherwood demonstrates that Britain continued to contribute to the slave trade well after 1807, even into the twentieth century. Drawing on government documents and contemporary reports as well as published sources, she describes how slavery remained very much a part of British investment, commerce and empire, especially in funding and supplying goods for the trade in slaves and in the use of slave-grown produce. The nancial world of the City in London also depended on slavery, which - directly and indirectly - provided employment for millions of people. "After Abolition" also examines some of the causes and repercussions of continued British involvement in slavery and describes many of the apparently respectable villains, as well as the heroes, connected with the trade - at all levels of society. It contains important revelations about a darker side of British history, previously unexplored, which will provoke real questions about Britain's perceptions of its past

Britain and the Slave Trade Since 1807

After Abolition

The Years Abroad, 1935-1947

Kwame Nkrumah

West Indian Workers and Service Personnel in Britain, (1939-45)

Many Struggles

Pan-African History brings together Pan-Africanist thinkers and activists from the Anglophone and Francophone worlds of the past two-hundred years. Included are well-known figures such as Malcolm X, W.E.B. Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, and Martin Delany, and the authors' original research on lesser-known figures such as Constance Cummings-John and Dusé Mohammed Ali reveals exciting new aspects of Pan-African activism.

Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora Since 1787

Pan-African History

Origins of Pan-Africanism: Henry Sylvester Williams, Africa, and the African Diaspora recounts the life story of the pioneering Henry Sylvester Williams, an unknown Trinidadian son of an immigrant carpenter in the late-19th and early 20th century. Williams, then a student in Britain, organized the African Association in 1897, and the first-ever Pan-African Conference in 1900. He is thus the progenitor of the OAU/AU. Some of those who attended went on to work in various pan-African organizations in their homelands. He became not only a qualified barrister, but the first Black man admitted to the Bar in Cape Town, and one of the first two elected Black borough councilors in London. These are remarkable achievements for anyone, especially for a Black man of working-class origins in an era of gross racial discrimination and social class hierarchies. Williams died in 1911, soon after his return to his homeland, Trinidad. Through original research, Origins of Pan-Africanism: Henry Sylvester Williams, Africa, and the African Diaspora is set in the social context of the times, providing insight not only into a remarkable man who has been heretofore virtually written out of history, but also into the African Diaspora in the UK a century ago.

Henry Sylvester Williams, Africa, and the African Diaspora

Origins of Pan-Africanism

Malcolm X Visits Abroad (April 1964 - February 1965) illuminates the life of the revolutionary Malcolm X, who became a very controversial and influential figure during the civil rights struggle in the United States. On February 21, 1965 the world was shocked by his sudden assassination in New York. Although much is known about Malcolm X, very little attention has been given to his heavily impactful travels around the world. In the last two years of his life, Malcolm travelled abroad many times, to Africa, the Middle East and Europe, meeting with both presidents and political activists. Malcolm X Visits Abroad, taken primarily from Malcolm's travel notebooks, newspaper coverage, and first-hand interviews, is the first publication to address this vital part of Malcolm's life. His visits abroad were extremely important in shaping his own outlook and defining his role in the world, and are crucial in understanding the ever mysterious and intriguing Malcolm X. Content: 1. Mecca, Beirut and Cairo, April - May 1964 2. Nigeria and Ghana, May 17 - 21, 1964 (stop-overs in Monrovia, Dakar, Morocco, Algiers) 3. New York, The founding of the OAAU (May - June 1964) 4. London, Cairo and Further East (July - September 1964) 5. Kenya, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Addis Ababa (October 1964) 6. Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, Algiers, Geneva and Paris (October - November 1964) 7. London and Paris, 22 - 24 November 1964 8. New York, 24 - 30 November 1964 9. England, 1 - 6 December 1964 10.USA, December 1964 - February 1965 11.Britain and Paris, February 1965 12.The Return 13.The post-mortems About the Author: Marika Sherwood was born in Hungary and has lived all over the world. While teaching in England she began researching Black history in Britain, more particularly the political activists of the past century. In 1991 she co-founded the Black and Asian Studies Association, which now campaigns for various educational issues.

Marika Sherwood

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