Black And Asian British Resources – British Library

Submitted by Andy Simons

Here attached is an update of my Black & Asian British resources bibliography of materials here at The British Library.

Of special note are summaries of the contents of two fine Edward Scobie-related periodicals, pasted below.

I™m especially struck at how fab a mag Tropic was.  Featured are musicians such as Russ Henderson, who aren™t well known now but was popular back in the day.  There are also short stories by Andrew Salkey, Sam Selvon, Jan Carew and other writers; spreads on artists Uzo Egonu (https://grosvenorgallery.com/artists/) and Justus Akeredolu (https://nigerianwiki.com/wiki/Justus_Akeredolu), a prescient Valerie (Val) Wilmer piece on the jazz saxophonist Joe Harriott, and a spotlight on the fabric designer Althea McNish   And, wait for it¦the August 1960 issue of Tropic has a snap of Claudia Jones looking rather joyful at a press day for her West Indian Gazette.  Keep in mind that, while the BL holds a microfilm copy of that newspaper, we got it from the Institute of Race Relations Library, which has an original set (https://www.irr.org.uk/resources/bhc/).

Bronze

A.P. Pulleyn-Holden, editor-publisher, with Buddy Bradley and Edward Scobie

Vol. 1 No. 1, June 1954 “ Vol. 1 No. 6, April-May 1955

British Library shelfmark: PP.5939.BFA

 

Highlights of contents :

 

Vol. 1 No. 1, June 1954

Leary Constantine (cricketer), Muriel Smith (stage musical star); Naboth™s Vineyard, Johannesburg (Natives Resettlement Bill), Marie Bryant (stage musical star); Ginger Johnson (dancer); Buddy Bradley.

 

Vol. 1 No. 2, August-September 1954

Baby Scruggs, Mabel Lee, Fortunia, La Bommie, Beryl Kari Kari (stage dancers); Lena Horne (singer-actress); Frank Worrell, Ben Johnson (actor); The Southlanders (vocal group).

 

Vol. 1 No. 3, October-November 1954

Portobello Market; Dr. Arthur Lewis (economist), Happy Blake (trumpeter); Russ Henderson (pianist); Joe Harriott, Winifred Atwell (pianist-singer); Earl Cameron (actor); Rupert Nurse (bandleader).

 

Vol. 1 No. 4, December 1954-January 1955

Winifred Atwell; the Ewes of West Africa; Haile Selassie; Earl Cameron.

 

Vol. 1 No. 5, February-March 1955

Report on Liverpool: Eric Sarbah (first Black bus conductor); Kenneth Goodman (organist); Dorothy Dandridge (actress); The Golden Slipper Club with Andrew Salkey.

 

Vol. 1 No. 6, April-May 1955

Lucille Mapp (singer); Sister Theodora Akwa Bartels (nurse, Acton Hospital); Lord Kitchener (calypso singer); Winifred Atwell.

Tropic

Publisher: Charles I. Ross [London]

Editors: Edward Scobie, Patrick Williams, & Molly Douglas

Nos. 1-9 (March-December 1960)

British Library shelfmark : P.P.7615.kf

 

Highlights of contents :

No. 1 (March 1960)

Notting Hill (aftermath of riots); Albert Hyndman: The Migrant and the Law; Molly Douglas: Storm over a Rainbow Shawl [stage plays]; Jimmy Omagbemi, Nigeria™s Olympic Hope; The Dankworths “ Jazz Couple [Johnny Dankworth & Cleo Laine]; Samuel Selvon: Battersby and Matilda [short story]; Koko Mensah: Why Not a Coloured Miss Universe?; Bloke Modisane: Come Back Africa [film]; Heatwage in London “ The Greatest All-Coloured Show since the Blackbirds; Steps to Beauty; Sassy Suggests some Delicious Recipes [Sarah Vaughan]; Edward Scobie: Royal Tipster; Colin Legum: The Quiet Nigerian [Sir Abubakar, Prime Minister of the Nigerian Federation]; Fabulous Ford Selects [singer Emile Ford]; Beethoven™s Friend [George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower]; Full Steam Ahead for Economic Independence [Ghana]; Charles Archibald: Caribbean Future; George Lamming: Columbus in Reverse [Labour candidate David Pitt]; Negroes are Ashamed of œTrad [jazz].

 

No. 2 (April 1960)

Bloke Modisane : Report on the Boycott [South African goods]; Edward Scobie : African Cardinal [Archbishop Laurian Rugambwa, Bishop of Rutabo]; John Clarke [producers for the West Indian Drama Group] : The Negro on the ˜White™ Stage [Earl Cameron]; Yoruba Moves to K4 [Nigerian sculptur Justus Akeredolu]; Shirley Bassey, Mixed-Up Kid in Mink; Atwell International [Winifred Atwell™s cookery]; Ann Townsend : Ghana™s Air Girls; Poule : The White Hermit of the Island [short story]; Caribbean Drum Dancers [Allister Bain Dance Group]™ Alfred Hutchinson : Are You a Native? “ extract from ˜Road to Ghana™; Our Link with the West Indies; Harold Mayes : So You Want to be a Champion ? [boxing]; Go Gay, Go Gingham [fashion]; Going Classical [Modern Jazz Quartet]; Pat Blair : Althea McNish, Fabric Designer; Ray Ellington Specials; Albert Luthuli “ Soft-Pedaller or Statesman?

 

No. 3 (June 1960)

Who Killed Kelso [Kelso Benjamin Cochrane, Sharpeville victim]; Can [boxer Floyd] Patterson Regain his Crown ?; Mrs Gladys Lucky [Liberace™s cook]; Edward Scobie : Britain™s First Coloured Students; Negroes say œCut Uncle Tom Films [South African politician Josias Madzunya]; Immunisation is Important; Charles Archibald : Caribbean Problem Child “ British Guiana; Negro Theatre Company; Belgian Congo Independence; Dr. Banda Forever; [Hastings Banda, fitted by Madame Tussaud™s]; Amos Tutuola : Ade, the traitor [short story]; Gonna Govender : Turmoil in Africa; [trombonist-bandleader] Geoff Love™s Best-Loves, Record Choice; Oladotun Okubanjo, Nigerian Photographer; Wilfred Forde, Hairdresser; This Music is Against Apartheid [pianist Russ Henderson, guitarist-singers Cy Grant and Josh White].

 

No. 4 (July 1960)

Charles Archibald : At the Gates of Independence; Caribbean Rock Ringer “ The Story of Ricky Wayne; Was Kenyatta a Scapegoat?; Namba Roy “ Maroon Sculptor; Turmoil Street “ Landlord™s Terror Tactics [Paddington]; The Great Odetta; Black Orpheus [film]; Peter Magubane [photographer]; Christopher Carlos [actor]; Gonny Alexander : Apartheid in Sport; West Indian Muscle; Jan Carew : The Third Gift [short story];  Miss Tropic; On Stage Please; Julius Kambarage Nyerere, African ˜Ghandi™; Dressing the Child; Edward Scobie : The African ˜Roscius™, Ira Aldridge [actor]; Valerie Wilmer : Drummer Man “ A Portrait of Gus Johnson; Cy Grant Chooses this Month™s Records.

 

No. 5 (August 1960)

Living in Brixton [Claudia Jones]; Laflorya Levy : The Man They Call œThe Elephant [Sekou Toure];  Donald Wood : Immigrant Children; West Indies Double Bill [New Day Theatre Company]; George Lamming : Why We Can™t Go Home [extract from The Pleasures of Exile]; Jan Carew : The Truth about the Congo; Peter Kwame Buahin : This is Experience Speaking [short story]; Epitaphs in Jazz [Billie Holiday]; Do-It-Yourself Drums [Russ Henderson, Max Cherrie, Stirling Betancourt]; Edward Scobie : Negro Composer [Samuel Coleridge-Taylor]; Women in Industry [Caribbean workers at Cadbury™s, Bournville]; Ronald Moody “ Man with a Vision [sculptor]; Got a Problem to Solve?  Then Try the CAB; Clifford Taylor, Man on the Move; Nigeria on Show.

 

No. 6 (September 1960)

Calling Africa [BBC Overseas Service]; Jamaican Hero, Felix Alphonso Samuels; Jungle Giselle “ Nalo Camara [Ballets Africains]; Charles Hooper : The Second Last Laugh [Bechuanaland]; Voodoo Dancers; Vernon Tong “ Jamaican Painter; E.O. Adeniyi, Travel Agent [West African World Travel]; Kojo Mensah : Entertainment in Ghana; Peter Larsen, Photographer of the Month; Edward Scobie : Georgian Gentlemen of Colour; Selwyn A. Smith : Night on Carlisle Bay [short story]; Donald Hinds : Any More Fares Please?

 

No. 7 (October 1960)

James O™Connell, University of Ibadan: The Evolution of Nigeria; Satchmo in Africa [Louis Armstrong]; Sir Jock Campbell: Attitudes to Africa; The Lively Art of Uzo Egonu [painter]; Edward Scobie: King Jaja of Opobo; W.A. Jerome & Rudy Armstrong: What™s Wrong with the Negro Race; Child Care; Eartha Kitt; Recipes from all over Africa; Cyprian Ekwensi: No Wedding Drums [short story]; Highlights from a Mayfair Wedding; Stanley Omor Okullo [African Students Union]: Why I was Expelled from the USSR; Will a new Day Dawn for Africa™s Blind?

 

No. 8 (November 1960)

Liza Donzell does what all Newcomers to London Do, Visits the Tower; Edward Scobie: Black Pearls, an examination of the Changing Attitude towards the Negro in World Literature [Doris Lessing, Eugene O™Donnell]™ Nairobi ™60; Newcomers [West Indian immigrants]; Berto Pasuka [Ballets Negres choreographer and painter]; The Negro in European Art; Elaine Delmar Chooses Her Top Five Discs; Ellis Ayitey Komey: The Iron Box [short story]; Valerie Wilmer: Pictures in Sound, Britain™s Most Original Alto Saxist, Joe Harriott; Heating Your Home; The Importance of Hand Care; Johnson was the Greatest [boxer Jack Johnson].

 

No. 9 (December 1960)

Aubrey Williams™ Revolt; Ellis Ayitey Komey: Selling the African Personality; Edward Scobie: Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet;  Peter Kempadoo, Adventurer, Writer, Businessman, Country Gent; Howard Beecher, Spare-time Painter; Andrew Salkey: In Yessing Mount [short story]; Is This Man an Eskimo, a Paraguayan or a Japanese? [actor Anthony Chinn]; Claude Thompson: A Man for All Seasons “ Father Coombs [Hon. A.G.S. Coombs]; Charles H. Archibald: Behind the Scenes in Federation [Caribbean]; Merrill Ferguson: Uncle Tom¦is Buried, Almost! [West Indian novels];  Who is the Greatest of Them All ? [boxing]; H.M. Ransom: The Romance of Jewellery

 

Andy Simons

Printed Historical Sources (non-literary UK publications, 1914-present)

The British Library,  96 Euston Road,  London NW1 2DB   ►  andy.simons@bl.uk