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Peter Abrahams

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For the crime fiction novelist, seePeter Abrahams (American author).

Peter Abrahams
Photo of Abrahams by Carl Van Vechten, 1955
Photo of Abrahams byCarl Van Vechten,1955
BornPeter Henry Abrahams Deras
(1919-03-03)3 March 1919
Vrededorp,Transvaal,Union of South Africa
Died18 January 2017(2017-01-18)(aged 97)
Saint Andrew Parish,Jamaica
OccupationNovelist, journalist, political commentator
NationalitySouth African and Jamaican
Notable worksMine Boy(1946)
Tell Freedom(1954)
A Wreath for Udomo(1956)

Peter Henry Abrahams Deras(3 March 1919 – 18 January 2017), commonly known asPeter Abrahams,was a South African-born novelist, journalist and political commentator who in 1956 settled inJamaica,where he lived for the rest of his life.[1]His death at the age of 97 is considered to have been murder.[2]

Biography[edit]

Early years and education[edit]

Abrahams was born in 1919 inVrededorp,a suburb ofJohannesburg,South Africa; his father was fromEthiopiaand his mother wasColoured,with French and African roots.[3]Abrahams was five years old when his father died, and with his family thereafter struggling financially his mother sent him to live with relatives until the age of 11, when he became a boarding student at the Anglican Church's Grace Dieu School inPietersburg.[4]On graduation from there, he went to St Peter's Secondary School inRosettenville,paying his tuition fees by working at theBantu Men's Social Centre.[3]

Move to London (1939) and Jamaica (1956)[edit]

In 1939, Abrahams left South Africa, and worked first as a sailor, and then settled inLondon,where he was a journalist. While working in London, Abrahams lived with his wife Daphne inLoughton,whilst meeting several important black leaders and writers.

Hoping to make his way as a writer, he faced considerable challenges as a South African, as Carol Polsgrove has shown in her history,Ending British Rule: Writers in a Common Cause(2009). Despite a manuscript reader's recommendation against publication, in 1942Allen & Unwinbrought out hisDark Testament,made up mostly of pieces he had carried with him from South Africa. PublisherDorothy Crisppublished his novelsSong of the City(1945) andMine Boy(1946). According to Nigerian scholar Kolawole Ogungbesan,Mine Boybecame "the first African novel written in English to attract international attention."[5]More books followed with publication in Britain and the United States: two novels —The Path of Thunder(1948) andWild Conquest(1950); a journalistic account of a return journey to Africa,Return to Goli(1953); and a memoir,Tell Freedom(1954).[6]

In 1945, Abrahams helped to organised the fifthPan-African Congresswhich took place inManchesterand is today regarded as a turning point within the independence struggle. In attendance at the event were names likeKwame Nkrumah,Hastings Banda,Jomo KenyattaandW. E. B. Du Bois.[7] In 1956, Abrahams published aroman à clefabout the political community of which he had been a part in London:A Wreath for Udomo.His main character, Michael Udomo, who returns from London to his African country to preside over its transformation into an independent, industrial nation, appeared to be modelled chiefly on Nkrumah with a hint of Kenyatta. Other identifiable fictionalized figures includedGeorge Padmore.The novel concluded with Udomo's murder. Published the year before Nkrumah took the reins of independentGhana,A Wreath for Udomowas not an optimistic forecast of Africa's future.[8]

Abrahams is commemorated by ablue plaqueon his formercouncil housein Jessel Drive inLoughton,London installed in 2020.

In 1956, Abrahams settled inJamaica,[9]where he continued novels and memoirs, also working as a journalist and radio commentator.[3]In 1994 he was awarded theMusgrave Gold Medalfor his writing and journalism by theInstitute of Jamaica.[10]

Death[edit]

Abrahams was found dead at his home inSaint Andrew Parish,Jamaica, on 18 January 2017, aged 97.[11][12][13][14]A forensic examination showed that Abrahams was a victim of foul play. A local 61-year-old man, Norman Tomlinson, was later charged with murder.[15]Court proceedings began in March 2017 after a delay due to a lengthy power outage in the court house;[16]and on 7 October 2018, having pleaded guilty to manslaughter, Tomlinson was jailed for seven years.[17]

Writing[edit]

Peter Abrahams is one of South Africa's most prominent writers,[18]his work dealing with political and social issues, especially withracism.His novelMine Boy(1946), one of the first works to bring him to critical attention,[19]and his memoirTell Freedom(1954)[20]deal in part withapartheid.[21]His other works include the story collectionDark Testament(1942) and the novelsThe Path of Thunder(1948, which inspired botha ballet of the same nameand the operaReiter der NachtbyErnst Hermann Meyer),A Wreath for Udomo(1956),A Night of Their Own(1965), the Jamaica-setThis Island Now(1966, the only one of his novels not set in Africa) andThe View from Coyaba(1985). His memoirThe Coyaba Chronicleswas published in 2000.

Works[edit]

  • Dark Testament(1942)
  • Song of the City(1945) 179p, novel, published byDorothy Crisp& Co Ltd London
  • Mine Boy(1946) published by Dorothy Crisp & Co Ltd London – his seminal novel, the first author to bring the horrific reality of South Africa's apartheid system of racial discrimination to international attention.
  • The Path of Thunder(1948)
  • Wild Conquest(1950)
  • Return to Goli(1953)
  • Tell Freedom(1954; new edn 1970)
  • A Wreath for Udomo(1956)
  • Jamaica: an Island Mosaic(1957),Her Majesty's Stationery Office,the Corona Library
  • A Night of Their Own(1965)
  • This Island Now(1966)
  • The View from Coyaba(1985)
  • The Coyaba Chronicles: Reflections on the Black Experience in the 20th Century(2000)

Music inspired by his works[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^"Peter Abrahams | Biography, Books, & Facts".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved30 May2020.
  2. ^Olivier Stephenson, "Essay: No Outcry for the Tragedy at Coyaba",Peepal Tree Press blog, 9 March 2017.
  3. ^abcJ. Brooks Spector,"Politically incorrect since 2009",PAWAwebsite.
  4. ^Gikandi, Simon(2003).Encyclopedia of African Literature.Taylor & Francis. p. 5.ISBN978-1-134-58223-5.Retrieved12 October2018.
  5. ^Ogungbesan, Kolawole (1979),The Writings of Peter Abrahams,New York: Africana Publishing Company, quoted in"Peter Henry Abrahams",South African History Online.
  6. ^Carol Polsgrove,Ending British Rule in Africa: Writers in a Common Cause(2009), pp. 61, 76, 83.
  7. ^Adi, Hakim; Sherwood, Marika (1995).The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited.New Beacon Books.ISBN978-1-873201-12-1.
  8. ^Polsgrove,Ending British Rule,p. 133.
  9. ^Larson, Charles R. (1 March 2002)."Self-Exile From Wretchedness: South African novelist Peter Abrahams left his homeland amid the horrors of apartheid and resettled in Jamaica".World and I.News World Communications, Inc.
  10. ^"Musgrave Awardees".Institute of Jamaica. Archived fromthe originalon 18 October 2014.Retrieved6 February2015.
  11. ^Schudel, Matt,"Peter Abrahams, whose novels detailed South Africa's racial injustice, dies at 97",The Washington Post,20 January 2017.
  12. ^Grimes, William,"Peter Abrahams, a South African Who Wrote of Apartheid and Identity, Dies at 97",The New York Times,22 January 2017.
  13. ^"Long-Time Journalist Peter Abrahams Dies at 97".The Gleaner.18 January 2017.Retrieved19 January2017.
  14. ^"Literary Icon Peter Abrahams Is Dead",The Gleaner,19 January 2017.
  15. ^"61-y-o man charged with murder of Peter Abrahams",Jamaican Observer,21 February 2017.
  16. ^"Case delayed for man accused of killing Peter Abrahams",RJR News,24 February 2017.
  17. ^"Man gets seven years for killing Peter Abrahams | Loop Jamaica".Loop News.Retrieved23 August2021.
  18. ^Thomas, Cornelius (29 October 1999)."The pen is mightier".Daily Dispatch.Archived fromthe originalon 23 June 2010.
  19. ^Jackson, Sally-Anne (22 December 2007)."Peter Abrahams's Mine Boy: a study of colonial diseases in South Africa".Research in African Literatures.38(4): 153–169.doi:10.2979/RAL.2007.38.4.153.S2CID153678836.
  20. ^Tymieniecka, Anna-Teresa, ed. (2007).Temporality in Life as Seen Through Literature.Analecta Husserliana. Vol. 86. Springer Netherlands. pp. 37–46.doi:10.1007/1-4020-5331-2.ISBN978-1-4020-5330-6.
  21. ^Mason, Philip (January 1955). "Review".International Affairs.31(1). Royal Institute of International Affairs: 93–94.doi:10.2307/2604615.JSTOR2604615.

External links[edit]

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