Peter Abrahams

Abrahams was born in 1919 in Vrededorp, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa; his father was from Ethiopia and his mother was Coloured, with French and African roots.J. Brooks Spector, [http://www.panafricanwritersassociation.org/pawa-news-2/40-politically-incorrect-since-2009 "Politically incorrect since 2009"], PAWA website. 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 in Pietersburg.{{cite book |last=Gikandi |first=Simon |authorlink=Simon Gikandi |title=Encyclopedia of African Literature |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-134-58223-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hKmCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 |access-date=12 October 2018 |page=5}} On graduation from there, he went to St Peter's Secondary School in Rosettenville, paying his tuition fees by working at the Bantu Men's Social Centre.

In 1939, Abrahams left South Africa, and worked first as a sailor, and then settled in London, where he was a journalist. While working in London, Abrahams lived with his wife Daphne in Loughton, 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 1942 Allen & Unwin brought out his Dark Testament, made up mostly of pieces he had carried with him from South Africa. Publisher Dorothy Crisp published his novels Song of the City (1945) and Mine Boy (1946). According to Nigerian scholar Kolawole Ogungbesan, Mine Boy became "the first African novel written in English to attract international attention."Ogungbesan, Kolawole (1979), The Writings of Peter Abrahams, New York: Africana Publishing Company, quoted in [http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/peter-henry-abrahams "Peter Henry Abrahams"], South African History Online. More books followed with publication in Britain and the United States: two novels —The Path of Thunder (1948) and Wild Conquest (1950); a journalistic account of a return journey to Africa, Return to Goli (1953); and a memoir, Tell Freedom (1954).Carol Polsgrove, Ending British Rule in Africa: Writers in a Common Cause (2009), pp. 61, 76, 83.

In 1945, Abrahams helped to organised the fifth Pan-African Congress which took place in Manchester and is today regarded as a turning point within the independence struggle. In attendance at the event were names like Kwame Nkrumah, Hastings Banda, Jomo Kenyatta and W. E. B. Du Bois. {{Cite book |last1=Adi |first1=Hakim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W7mfAAAAMAAJ |title=The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited |last2=Sherwood |first2=Marika |date=1995 |publisher=New Beacon Books |isbn=978-1-873201-12-1 |language=en}}

In 1956, Abrahams published a roman à clef about 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 included George Padmore. The novel concluded with Udomo's murder. Published the year before Nkrumah took the reins of independent Ghana, A Wreath for Udomo was not an optimistic forecast of Africa's future.Polsgrove, Ending British Rule, p. 133.

Abrahams is commemorated by a blue plaque on his former council house in Jessel Drive in Loughton, London installed in 2020.

In 1956, Abrahams settled in Jamaica,{{cite journal |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-25311465_ITM |title=Self-Exile From Wretchedness: South African novelist Peter Abrahams left his homeland amid the horrors of apartheid and resettled in Jamaica. |date=1 March 2002 |last=Larson |first=Charles R. |journal=World and I |publisher=News World Communications, Inc}} where he continued novels and memoirs, also working as a journalist and radio commentator. In 1994 he was awarded the Musgrave Gold Medal for his writing and journalism by the Institute of Jamaica.{{cite web |url=http://instituteofjamaica.org.jm/musgrave-awards |title=Musgrave Awardees |publisher=Institute of Jamaica |accessdate=6 February 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20141018165642/http://instituteofjamaica.org.jm/musgrave-awards |archivedate=18 October 2014 |df=dmy-all}}

Abrahams was found dead at his home in Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica, on 18 January 2017, aged 97.Schudel, Matt, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/peter-abrahams-whose-novels-detailed-south-africas-racial-injustice-dies-at-97/2017/01/20/038aaf72-dea2-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html "Peter Abrahams, whose novels detailed South Africa's racial injustice, dies at 97"], The Washington Post, 20 January 2017.Grimes, William, [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/books/peter-abrahams-a-south-african-who-wrote-of-apartheid-and-identity-dies-at-97.html?_r=0 "Peter Abrahams, a South African Who Wrote of Apartheid and Identity, Dies at 97"], The New York Times, 22 January 2017.{{cite web |url=http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20170118/long-time-journalist-peter-abrahams-dies-97 |title=Long-Time Journalist Peter Abrahams Dies at 97 |work=The Gleaner |accessdate=19 January 2017 |date=18 January 2017}}[http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20170119/literary-icon-peter-abrahams-dead "Literary Icon Peter Abrahams Is Dead"], The Gleaner, 19 January 2017. 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.[http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/61-y-o-man-charged-with-murder-of-Peter-Abrahams_90303 "61-y-o man charged with murder of Peter Abrahams"], Jamaican Observer, 21 February 2017. Court proceedings began in March 2017 after a delay due to a lengthy power outage in the court house;[http://rjrnewsonline.com/local/case-delayed-for-man-accused-of-killing-peter-abrahams "Case delayed for man accused of killing Peter Abrahams"], RJR News, 24 February 2017. and on 7 October 2018, having pleaded guilty to manslaughter, Tomlinson was jailed for seven years.{{Cite web|title=Man gets seven years for killing Peter Abrahams {{!}} Loop Jamaica|url=https://jamaica.loopnews.com/content/man-gets-seven-years-killing-peter-abrahams|access-date=2021-08-23|website=Loop News|language=en}}

Peter Abrahams is one of South Africa's most prominent writers,{{cite news |url=http://www.dispatch.co.za/1999/10/29/features/SNAP.HTM |title=The pen is mightier |last=Thomas |first=Cornelius |date=29 October 1999 |work=Daily Dispatch |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100623021137/http://www.dispatch.co.za/1999/10/29/features/SNAP.HTM |archivedate=23 June 2010 |df=dmy-all}} his works dealing with political and social issues, especially with racism. His novel Mine Boy (1946), one of the first works to bring him to critical attention,{{cite journal |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-33263818_ITM |title=Peter Abrahams's Mine Boy: a study of colonial diseases in South Africa |journal=Research in African Literatures |date=22 December 2007 |last=Jackson |first=Sally-Anne|volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=153–169 |doi=10.2979/RAL.2007.38.4.153 |s2cid=153678836 |url-access=subscription }} and his memoir Tell Freedom (1954){{Cite book |volume=86 |title=Temporality in Life as Seen Through Literature |publisher=Springer Netherlands |doi=10.1007/1-4020-5331-2 |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4020-5330-6 |pages=37–46 |series=Analecta Husserliana |editor1-last=Tymieniecka |editor1-first=Anna-Teresa}} deal in part with apartheid.{{cite journal |title=Review |first=Philip |last=Mason |journal=International Affairs |publisher=Royal Institute of International Affairs |volume=31 |date=January 1955 |pages=93–94 |jstor=2604615 |issue=1|doi=10.2307/2604615 }} His other works include the story collection Dark Testament (1942) and the novels The Path of Thunder (1948, which inspired both a ballet of the same name and the opera Reiter der Nacht by Ernst Hermann Meyer), A Wreath for Udomo (1956), A Night of Their Own (1965), the Jamaica-set This Island Now (1966, the only one of his novels not set in Africa) and The View from Coyaba (1985). His memoir The Coyaba Chronicles was published in 2000.

• Dark Testament (1942)
• Song of the City (1945) 179p, novel, published by Dorothy 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)

• The ballet İldırımlı yollarla ("The Path of Thunder") (1958) by the Azerbaijani composer Gara Garayev
• the opera Reiter der Nacht (1973) by the East German composer Ernst Hermann Meyer is also based on The Path of Thunder

{{Reflist|30em}}

• The African Activist Archive Project website includes a photograph of [http://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=32-131-313 Peter Abrahams] and family at his home in England.
• Ensor, Robert. (1992). [https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/2488335 The Novels of Peter Abrahams and the Rise of Nationalism in Africa]. Essen: Die Blaue Eule Verlag.
• J. Brooks Spector, [http://www.panafricanwritersassociation.org/pawa-news-2/40-politically-incorrect-since-2009 "Politically incorrect since 2009"], PAWA website.

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Category:1919 births

Category:2017 deaths

Category:South African male novelists

Category:20th-century Jamaican novelists

Category:Jamaican male novelists

Category:Recipients of the Musgrave Medal

Category:People from Loughton

Category:South African anti-apartheid activists

Category:Jamaican people of Ethiopian descent

Category:Jamaican people of French descent

Category:South African emigrants to Jamaica

Category:20th-century South African male writers

Category:Manslaughter victims

Category:South African people of Ethiopian descent