Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Caribbean man of letters. Cyril Lionel Robert James was born in Trinidad, January 4, 1901, one year after the historic Pan-African Congress in London – an organization in which he would play an active part subsequently. James, along with the other great Pan-Africanist from Trinidad, George Padmore, formed the International Friends of Ethiopia, in response to Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. James edited the monthly journal International African Opinion . In the emerging struggle for decolonization in various parts of the African diaspora, it was James who in A History of Negro Revolt , drew attention to the historical antecedents of the political struggles of the time. Known simply by his initials, and to his close associates as “Nello,” he became one of the Caribbean's great men of letters. A philosopher, James was an astute Marxist and Hegelian dialectician. He was also a social and cultural critic, sports writer, novelist, playwright, political activist, and labor organizer. James published La Divina Pastora in 1927. This was one of his earlier pieces of fiction. He also published Triumph (1929) in the literary journal Trinidad . During this period James also completed his only full-length work of fiction, Minty Alley , which was published in England in 1936. C.L.R. James left the Caribbean in 1932 for the United Kingdom. He had taken with him a completed manuscript ... log in or subscribe to read full text