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Una Marson Migrated to ·She Emerged As a Powerful Liter­ Silver Medal for Literature National Library of Jamaica ---- ByLouisE A Moyston She wrote and produced two plays, ''London l.n 1935, a commanding Calling" and ''Pocomania."Like her other • .�Jamaican woman made her works, these plays were rooted in the presence felt at a feminist inter­ national meeting. She was the Jamaican experience and language. • only 6lack participant attending the International Women's first volume of poetry, "Tropic Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. International Forum Reveries". In the same year she , . Out of relative obscurity, was awarded the Musgrave When Una Marson migrated to _·she emerged as a powerful liter­ Silver Medal for literature. She England in 1931 where she , ary nationalist of Jamaica, and a completed a second volume of became a driving force in the leading feminist figure in the poetry, "Heights and Depths" International Women's diasporic world. Despite her and on her return from England Movement, the West Indian great strides as a leading Black in 1936 she wrote a third vol­ immigrant community in • woman of her day, she is virtu­ ume of poetry, "The Moth and London; she was also a secre­ ally a stranger to many in her the Morning Star". A fourth tary to his Imperial Majesty, homelandand to the wider dias­ book of poems, "Towards the Emperor Haille Selassie during poric world. Today, no his Stars" was completed in 1945. exile in England. monuments stand to immor­ As Migrating to England in 1931 a member of the League talise her work. Efforts have of Colored Peoples, she edited she continued to be active in been made by a few writers to the magazine TheKeys. politics and literature. examine her great legacy. Rooted in her native lan­ When Una Marson returned For example, Kamau guage and stories, she wrote home for the first time in the Braithwaite, a leading literary her first play "What A Price". It mid-1930s, Jamaica was on fire ngure and Lucille Mair, a signif- was the first play written per­ with the glowing flames for • icant scholar, produced "The formed and staged by Black freedom and independence. Ca ribbean Woman" in the mag- immigrants in London. 'The period was characterised , azine Savacou. This particular Her literary works in by the loud outbursts of the edition of Savacou (13), was London reflected her experi­ urban and rural sectors. She dedicated to the life and times ence of the immigrant's life. In was prompted to assume her of Una Marson. addition to her quest to develop role as a vanguard in the artistic a West Indian culture in the renaissance, so incorporating Before her time heart of the colonial metropole, Erika Smilowtz in the Jamaica 'Journal, dedicated the article, Una Marson belongs to a long line of Black "Una Marson: A Woman Before Her Time", to the memory of contributors to history, whose works have this great woman. Both works been profound and yet their presence have ate most instructive in provid­ ing more information concern­ been "neglected by history." i.rig the character and capabili­ ttes of Una Marson. Una Marson was born in St many of the lea<Jng literary fig­ her works reflected her experi­ Elizabeth, Jamaica, West Indies. ures of the peri•. d, she formed ences with racism. Her poem Her parents, the Reverend groups to develo:> and promote "Nigger", sharply reflected her Solomon I Marson and his wife, Jamaican lang' ,. ,5e and litera­ confrontation with racism in Ada Mullings, were staunch ture. England: Christians. In addition to the formation They call me "Nigger", Their daughter Una won a of the Drama and Writer's Those little white urchins, scholarship to Hampton High Societies she was instrumental They laugh along the ' School for Girls. Her parents in the formation of the Jamaica street. died while she was attending Publishing House: a body with They fling at me, high school. She graduated and the main objective of publishing "Nigger!" "Nigger!" went ahead in life to become a in the Jamaican language. She "Nigger!" great thinker and feminist wrote and produced two plays, What made me keep my activist. "tondon Calling" and fingers Like many of her rural "Pocomania". Like her other From choking the words counterparts, she migrated to works, these plays were rooted in the urban centre of Kingston in the Jamaican experience and Their throats? where she worked as a secre­ language. In her quest to advance the idea tary and a reporter to The Her conditions to the liter­ of West Indian culture, she Gleaner . She migrated to ary development in the building engaged her services with the Kingston during the 1920s when of this new nation was not BBC. She developed the pro­ the struggle for independence divorced from her social con­ gramme, "Calling the West and freedom was on the cerns. Although not a mother, Indies", that blossomed into a advance on many fronts. Una in 1938 she founded "The significant literary show; one emerged as a major participant Jamaica Save tbe Children that would have a profound in the budding nationalist liter­ Fund". This institution was impact on the development of ary circle. "dedicated to the economic new writings and writers from The literary nationalist development of children and the British West Indies. families." Her popularity at the BBC In 1928 at the age of 23, Una Indeed, this theme can be and her strong presence in the Marson became the first woman found as a central issue in literary circles of London in Jamaica to own and edit a Hillary Clinton's book, It Takes attracted leading literary fig­ magazine, The Cosmopolitan . A Village (1996). As in the expe­ ures, the likes of T S Elliot and She gathered the leading lumi­ rience of the returned immi­ George Orwell to name a few. naries in literature in the 1930s grant Marcus Garvey, she was and formed the Writers Club, unable to find fertile ground for Politics her seeds in Jamaica. Prior to The Kingston Drama Club and Despite her literary engage­ the Poetry League. She was the second World War, she ments, she was most active in instrumental in the formation of returned to England and made international politics. Her the Pioneer Press. great strides in the British attending the International By 1930, she produced her Broadcasting Corporation Women's Conference in ffiBC). WEDNESDAY MAY 2.2 , 1 i1E JAMAICA HERALD Istanbul, Turkey was of special importance. Of equal recogni­ tion were her services to Haille Selassie I. During the 1930s, the Italians invaded Ethiopia; this brutal conquest led to the exil­ ing of Ethiopia's emperor. As his private secretary, Una Marson accompanied him to Geneva where he placed his country's case to the League of Nations. Motivated by the broader diasporic experience, she called on the International Women's Conference of 1935, to help African Women in their daily struggles. Like another heroic West Indian woman of her time, Claudia Jones, Una's devotion and seltlessness in the struggle led to a less healthy life. In the late 1950s early 1960s, she returned to Jamaica on account of her illness. After her recuperation, she applied for a job at the newly indepen­ dent government owned Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC). According to sources, , despite a big success on the BBC, she was turned down for a job at JBC on the basis 'that her "voice was not good." She spent the rest of her years trav­ elling and writing in the USA. She died in May 1965. At her funeral it was remarked that she should have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Another person called for a monument to com­ memorate and immortalise her contribution to literature and society. Today, no monuments stand to honour her contribu­ tions. Una Marson belongs to a long line of wack contributors to history, whose works have been profound and yet their presence have been "neglected by history." Charles Drew and George Wa shington Carver come to mind as two other great participants in history that "statas quo" neglectfully give their rightful place. Sometimes we get the impression that even the great things done by Blacks are not important. It is our responsibili­ ty therefore, to rewrite history. Not just "our history", but histo­ ry in general, to reflect what it 1 truly means: the activities of human beings; the individual and the group. Like other leading luminar­ ies in Jamaica, such as Louise Bennett, Bob Marley and Claude McKay among others, Una Marson found no respect in her native land. Those on whose behalf she struggled, must rise to the occasion and · establish her in the rightful place in history. Let us call on our fallen fighter, in the words of Bob Marley, to "rise and take her stand"; she who fights and fade away will live to fight another day. .
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