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Creolising London: Black West Indian Activism and the Politics of Race and Empire in Britain, 1931-1948

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Creolising London: Black West Indian Activism and the Politics of Race and Empire in Britain, 1931-1948 Creolising London: Black West Indian activism and the politics of race and empire in Britain, 1931-1948 By Daniel James Whittall Department of Geography Royal Holloway, University of London Submitted for examination for Ph.D 1 Declaration of Authorship I, Daniel James Whittall, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: ________________________ 2 Abstract This thesis explores black West Indian activism in London between 1931-1948. It does so through a focus on those black West Indian activists who involved themselves in the work of four campaigning political organisations, namely, the League of Coloured Peoples (LCP), the International African Friends of Abyssinia (IAFA), the International African Service Bureau (IASB), and the Pan-African Federation (PAF). The thesis argues that the presence of colonial subjects in 1930s and 1940s London contributed to a process of creolisation, whereby complex internal and external colonial pressures worked to transform the imperial metropolis. The thesis therefore uses the study of black West Indian activists in Britain in order to trace the geographical networks, „contact zones,‟ spaces and places through which this process of creolisation took place in 1930s and 1940s London. In order to do so, it focuses primarily on certain distinct modes of political practice in which the LCP, IAFA, IASB and PAF engaged. In particular, chapters focus on how these organisations sought to contest the racialisation of space in London and the wider empire through a range of attempts to open establishments which countered the prevailing colour bar; utilised public gatherings as sociable spaces in which diverse political work could be undertaken; and produced and circulated periodicals that provided a platform on which to debate the contours of the African diaspora and the fundamental features of modern racism and racially-based identities. The thesis also explores the relationship between these different modes of political practice through a study of the response of black West Indian activists in Britain to the Caribbean labour and social unrest of the 1930s. Overall, the thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of how the politics of race and empire were constituted in 1930s and 1940s London. 3 Table of Contents Declaration of Authorship 2 Abstract 3 Table of Contents 4 List of Figures 5 Acknowledgements 6 Introduction: „Colonizin in Reverse‟ 9 Chapter one: Black West Indians in Britain and the Spatial Politics of the 30 African Diaspora Chapter two: „London is … the nucleus of a great branch of western 79 civilization … I was not impressed‟: Geographies of black West Indian activism in imperial London Chapter three: „We do not take coloured people‟: Contesting the 137 Racialisation of Space in 1930s and 1940s London Chapter four: „A ferment of pan-African activity‟: Black West Indian 190 activists and public gatherings in imperial London Chapter five: „A living weapon in the struggle‟: Periodicals and political 248 networks Chapter six: „White capital has always dominated the islands‟: Black 306 West Indian activists in Britain and the Caribbean social unrest of the 1930s Conclusion: „Important advocates at court‟ 360 Bibliography 380 4 List of Figures Fig. 3.1. London map, showing key places involved in the LCP‟s 141 contestation of the racialisation of space Fig. 3.2. WASU Hostel. Photograph from Wasu, January 1933 167 Fig 3.3. Front Cover, LCP Cultural Centre Leaflet 183 Fig. 4.1. Flyer for the Conference on African Peoples, Democracy and 219 World Peace Fig 4.2. Amy Ashwood Garvey speaking in Trafalgar Square 229 Fig 4.3. IASB members selling literature in Trafalgar Square 233 Fig 4.4. London map, showing main locations of public speaking by 246 LCP and IASB/IAFE Fig 5.1. Masthead from cover of first issue of The Keys 255 Fig 5.2. Front cover of The Keys January-March 1937 257 Fig 5.3. Cover of International African Opinion, October 1938 280 Fig 5.4. Front cover of Pan-Africa, July 1947 292 Fig. 6.1. Front Cover, West Indies of Today 347 5 Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support of a wide range of people. Throughout the process, David Lambert has been both a friend and an exacting supervisor who has done much both to improve the quality of the work here, and to act as a support through the trying times during which this thesis was completed. For this, I am forever indebted to him. David Gilbert was a supportive advisor, who likewise helped to improve the thesis, and the wider staff in the Geography Department, perhaps especially Felix Driver, Innes Keighren, and Mustafa Dikeç, have been helpful and inspirational at the appropriate moments. Amongst current and former fellow students at Royal Holloway I have made many friends, but in particular I owe more than they will be aware to the help and support of Louise Henderson, Kimberley Peters, John Law, Phil Hatfield, and Tara Woodyer. In the Black and Asian Studies Association, Sean Creighton, Cliff Pereira, Kathy Chater and Hakim Adi provided useful information and enabled me to pick their brains from time to time, whilst Marika Sherwood was a font of useful knowledge and materials throughout. In East Berkshire Green Party, it has been a pleasure to work with Marc Green, Mark Northfield, Adrian Haffeggee, Derek Wall and Steve Gabb, amongst others, and both to discuss the work in this thesis with them and to learn how it relates to contemporary activism. I have been very fortunate to be working amongst an exciting group of scholars exploring the history of black West Indians in the 1930s and 1940s. David Killingray, in particular, has been of great help, allowing access to the surviving parts of Harold Moody‟s personal papers and reading selections of my work. It has been my fortune and privilege to also be able to call on the help of two other early career scholars working on this period. I now consider Christian Høgsbjerg‟s work on C. L. R. James to be the standard reference on James‟s time in 1930s Britain. Likewise, I‟m sure that Leslie James‟s research will produce a piece of work that will go on to become the standard reference on the life of George Padmore. Both have helped me greatly, and I look forward to continuing to think with them about these themes. Amongst old friends, Gerry and Amanda Aiken have been rocks on which to lean, providing hospitality, intellectual nourishment, and whisky in about equal measure. Murray Blake, Gareth and Tracey Stewart, and Ferg Cook have been fine friends, and my colleagues at the Berystede, especially Simon, Steve and Piotr, made a difficult job more rewarding and enjoyable than could have been imagined. Most recently, colleagues at Charters School have taught me to teach, and supported me during the closing stages of this thesis. Inevitably, the final words must go to those who are closest. My family, old and new, have supported me throughout this project in so many ways that it would be futile to try to list them. Sandra and David Gobbett provided enough Sunday roasts to motivate me during the early phase of this work, and have since been an enormous help and support to me. To my mum, dad and brother I owe the world, and although this thesis is no way to repay them for everything they‟ve done over the years, I hope they‟ll be proud of it nonetheless. The thesis is dedicated to Jemma Whittall. Without you, this thesis would have disappeared under the weight of events. That it has been completed at all is due to your support, encouragement and love. One day, I hope that Christopher will grow up to read 6 this work, but for now I‟ll let him get away with just drawing all over the drafts. Thank you, with love. 7 Wat a devilment a Englan! Dem face war an brave de worse, But me wonderin how dem gwine stan Colonizin in reverse. Louise Bennett, „Colonisation in reverse‟ (1966) 8 Introduction: „Colonizin in reverse‟ Shortly after returning to the Caribbean in 1937, after a five year stay in London, the black Jamaican feminist Una Marson published a collection of poetry entitled The Moth and the Star. Amongst the poems in this collection, described by James Weldon Johnson in a letter to Marson as a „beautiful book,‟1 Marson included „Little Brown Girl,‟ a poem narrated by a white Londoner reflecting on an encounter with a West Indian woman. The poem begins, Little brown girl Why do you wander alone About the streets Of the great city Of London? Why do you start and wince When white folk stare at you? Don‟t you think they wonder Why a little brown girl Should roam about their city? Their white, white city? 1 Letter from Johnson to Marson, cited in D. Jarrett-Macauley (1998), The Life of Una Marson, 1905- 1965 Manchester: Manchester University Press: 120. 9 Anticipating Franz Fanon‟s later explication of the experience of encountering the phrase „Look, a Negro,‟ Marson uses her poetry to explore the everyday experiences of being black in the imperial metropolis, but does so through the eyes of a metropolitan inhabitant.2 In doing so, Marson offers a more complex interpretation than does Fanon of the disjuncture brought about by the presence of colonial migrants on the streets of an imperial capital. Marson‟s metropolitan inhabitant is troubled by the identity of this „little brown girl,‟ literally struggling to place her. And from whence are you Little brown girl? I guess Africa or India Ah no, from some island In the West Indies But isn‟t that India All the same?3 United with other colonial peoples by the indiscriminating gaze of a bemused metropolitan inhabitant, Marson‟s „little brown girl‟ thus comes to represent the experiences of a broad range of colonial people marked out as racially different on entering the metropolis.
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