E R Braithwaite

Braithwaite and the black experience in Britain

Edward Ricardo Braithwaite is a Guyanese novelist and scientist who served as writer, teacher and diplomat during his long career.  Alim Hosein, who researched his life, points out that there are different dates provided in different sources about his birth, so it is not widely known that he was actually born on June 27, 1912.  He is currently living in Washington DC.

ER Braithwaite, as he is known, came from a privileged family, which may be confirmed by the fact that he attended Queen’s College in Georgetown, and for a black student in those years, that, and his higher education suggest privilege indeed. According to an internet source, he grew up “surrounded by education,” moving on to Cambridge University and a doctorate in physics.  Like so many colonials in the former British Empire, he served in World War II, but his later career as a writer does not reflect the mind of a colonial, but was driven by far more radical sentiments including a consistent resistance to colonialism and the ‘othering’ treatment accorded to minorities.

While he did write scientific texts, it was his literary career that brought him to prominence and his best known contribution is that which he …..

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Guyanese writers of African descent – Bringing new perspectives

By Petamber Persaud Guyanese writers never shy away from sensitive issues. They will deal with the issues, as the occasions arise, in their private solitary writing moments; and they are not afraid to publish their opinions far and wide. That is one reason why Guyanese writers have become a distinctive breed, weathering popular thoughts to bring fresh perspectives to the table. Guyanese writers of African descent were in a way and for a long time lobbying for the recognition of people of African descent. Now that UNESCO has designated 2011 as ‘International Year for People of African Descent’, it is only fitting for us, enjoying the benefits of their labour, to say thanks to some (the list is long) of these courageous writers. Eric Walrond At the turn of the twentieth century, a little-known Guyanese, Eric Walrond, was given the distinction of writing the ‘Great Negro Book’. Waldron had distinguished himself among a group of prestigious writers that included Marcus Garvey, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, Zora Neale Hurston, and W.E.B. Du Bois, and was therefore chosen to write the ‘Great Negro Book’. Waldron was at the time (1920s) associated with the Harlem Renaissance, USA, playing a major role in the group’s programme. During this time, he encountered the vilest forms of class and racial prejudice, triggering his most productive literary years. His short stories like ‘On Being Black’, ‘On Being Domestic’ and ‘The Stone Rebounds’ were like fodder to black consciousness at the time. Later he was entrusted with a greater role in fashioning and changing public attitude when he was made editor to Marcus Garvey’s ‘Negro World’. In 1926, he published a collection of short stories, ‘Tropic Death’, which was highly valued alongside ‘The Quest of the Silver Fleece’ by W.E.B. Du Bois, ‘The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man’ by James W. Johnson and ‘Harlem Shadow’ by Claude McKay. Norman Cameron Three years after Waldron published his book, another Guyanese – Norman Cameron — this time in Guyana, published a significant book, ‘ The Evolution of the Negro’, a subject shunned by thinkers in the British colonial portion of the world. (Cameron had three years previously returned from the UK, where he was studying at Cambridge University.