Oppenheim, Naomi Jasmin Norris; (2022) ‘Writing the Wrongs’: Caribbean Publishing in Post-war Britain from a historical perspective. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis identifies and explores a connected Black/Caribbean publishing tradition, offering a new perspective on this subject as most studies either look at materials published in the Caribbean, or those published by Caribbean people in Britain. Beginning with an analysis of Robert Wedderburn’s publication of The Axe Laid to Root in 1817 and ending just before the First International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books in 1982, it illustrates how publishing was critical to the formation and dissemination of anti-slavery, anti-colonial, internationalist, Black Nationalist, feminist, anti-racist and Black Power struggles. Taking a broad view of ‘publishing,’ this analysis encompasses both the press and publishing houses, in the Caribbean and in Britain, interpreting them as part of a connected and interdependent publishing culture. This research draws on a wide range of sources including periodicals, publishing outputs, archival documents, original oral history interviews and exhibitions. Divided into two parts: Chapters 1-3 explore the establishment and development of Caribbean publishing from the abolition era up to the 1960s, both in the Caribbean and in the diaspora, in Britain. The remainder of the thesis shifts to post-war Britain, with Chapter 4 examining history features in the ‘Black’ press during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and Chapters 5 and 6 examining publishing houses New Beacon and Bogle L’Ouverture. This study contributes knowledge to three main areas: press and publishing history; literature on Black and Caribbean radical traditions; and scholarship about Caribbean history and historiography. By examining the dynamics and discourses of Black/Caribbean publishing, this thesis shows how this tradition is: historically grounded in earlier efforts of Caribbean publishers; characterised by interconnectedness; and a politically engaged tradition carried by the work of organic intellectuals who used publishing both as a form of activism and as a route to produce counter-hegemonic knowledge in the service of education.

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