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  • Selvon, Sam. The Lonely Londoners

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    Selvon, Sam. the Lonely Londoners novel

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    4K Ansichten72 Seiten

    Selvon, Sam. The Lonely Londoners

    Hochgeladen von

    Mon Martinez
    Selvon, Sam. the Lonely Londoners novel

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Als PDF herunterladen oder online auf Scribd lesen
    Markieren Sie unangemessene Inhalte
    von 72
    The Lonely Londoners Samuel Selvon by Kenneth Ramchand uy Literature University of the West with an introd Professor of Wi Indies Longian Group UK int ‘mgm Hse Burt Ml, Harlow, hes CMD, England to Astocied Companies owghout the wad. Curong Pbser (Caen) Ld, 0, Box 489, Kington 10. 53 Seca Steet Newport West, gsr 13,Jomaen Langman Tiida a, Bowne Red, Joa, Tidad Caan Stockist ‘Cope Gk Cangian, 2775 Maheron Biv Ba, Snstga,Omaro LA 477 Longman Poti Gop 1O'Mon Suet Whe Pls, New York 1050-1951, USA (© Samuel Sven 1956 A igh reserved op his pion may be ‘Rpvoluced, sored in veel syste, or nied 2iny frm er by any ea cron mechan, tong or erie, west ‘he pir wren permis ofthe Copyright oun. erty ne Ht ee an aaa tvesevr Pgtedn Ce ans An Introduction to this Novel Selvon's The Lonely Linders (1956) is usually grouped with a number of works that help to form a prune of the ives of West Tndians and descendants of Wea Indians in the United Kingdom. Of these, the eatiest iJeam Rhye's novel Vonage the Dark (1934) our fiat Negritude novel, the sory of a girl from the lands dint in a'meat and savage cxy Chis is London ~ Hundreds thousands of wiite: people rushing along tin the dark houwes all alike Troming down ome after the oaber all ale and stuck together =the street he Smooth shut-in ravines and the dark houses frowning down ~ oh Tim not going to lke this place Tm not going to lke this place"). By the ‘mid-1970s, Ernpasee bad change Linton Kwesi Johnsons Dread Beat nd Blood (1978) gave soul expression t0 the longing and violence of « generation born in England of Went Indian parents, with hte knowledge or fxperience ofthe” West Indies, and wilt {indisputed place in their new homeland Between the prewar period covered by Vorage in the Dosh and dhe emergence of a generation Black and Bridsh came the yreat tide of emigrants "with thei Cardboard rips and fek has”. Several thousand West Indians hal Boon recruited ino the armed forces of Britain, and yet others had been brought in to work in wear factories RB, Davison traces the elect of thi in iis Weal fndion lignans (London: OUP, 1962) At the end of the war these men returned home 10 find disappointing situation. Jobs were hard to find and th standard of ang sey coud expen their home islands was much lower than that which they had enjoyed in Britain, There were no restrictions on their entry into Britain, for their Pessort bate wines th fa that hey were itizens ofthe United Ringcom and Colonies. The began to trickle back to Bran to seek their fortunes and beg hhome glowing accounts backed up by ei ‘the varied re es) of the varied able in the booming post: ‘economy. Shipping companies, sensing a new 1ue for profit, began to offer cheap fares to Britain in vessels returning to Europe and the migration developed rapidly In her ‘Colonisation in Reverse’, the Jamaican Louise Bennett described what was happening in all the islands . 7 | By de hundred, by de Cousan From country and from tw y de ship-load, by the plane load Jemaica i Englan boun. By 1956, when The Lonely Londoners was first published the annual figure for migrant from the West Indies had reached over 25,000" This was the pend when extended families would materialise in the thin af of Waterloo Station ax» disconcerteTolroy fds in the following scene from The Lane Landen (p29) A old woman who look ike she would dead any bon and papas When Se et ot the ashe Stan up thee onthe platform asi she cone Then afer she young git come, arying a osm sent eect Aung filled wp with things hen a young man wearing 4 widebrim hat and a jacket falling below the knees. Then a litle boy and a litte gir, then another eld woman, tottering so much 2 quard had wa to help se get ut of the ran | “Oh fetus Chest Tlroy say, "what s this ac a “Tolroy,” the first woman say, “you don't know your own mother? Tolroy hug his mother like a man in a dave, then he say: "But what Tanty Bessy doing here, ma? and ‘Agnes and Lewis and the two children?” All of we come, Tolroy," Ma say By the mid-1950s the traditional open door policy 10 Commonveclth chizens began to be questioned alin November 1961-2. Commonweakh immigrants Bill 0 Festrict ty flow ws introduced. in the House of Commons, The figures. for 1960 and. the first ten mnonths ‘of 1961 {32,655 and. 52,649 respectively) represent) 2 surge “of pac aring ‘oman this time, too, nobody Delleved that te streets of Lnndion sieve paved with gold or thatthe natives were trienlly Of the writings that register and describe this movement of Went Indian people, the conditions they ndured after arrival, and the sour-sweet fruit of the Several journeys to a expectation, wo very diferent Books hive become emblematic. George, Lamming’s Collection of essays, The Pleuurs of Fle (1980) oF 8 the, stands for the atensptto formate an analysis of the situation as ealfected the intellectual oF the min bf letters; Sanucl Selvon's The Lonely Landers focus fn ‘the larger body of immigrants-of- working-class aus, differing further sll from The Pleasures of Exile ining a work of ton, an Imagine reper oy and rendering of human experiense Selvon’siaigrants are ulfered the worst obs; they pay high prices for insecure tenancy in ae ne Undesirable houses, and they indulge In sexual explets that seldom include anything they than sex Shes suffer from an, sow, wind and toga are driven {0 combine as pirates oF parasites of the hayes of host society which regards them with indiference or Hosilty. ‘There i also an Sel with vnidness, the unspoken fear of contaningte “When Moses st down and pay his fare he take out tthe “handkerchiet and "blow his noses “The handkerchief tur black.” (p. 25) femphast red) The force of race and’ colour” prejudice bearing against the immigrants shown In incidents ued br a sense of the human comedy, as in Calshoats apostrophe (0 the colour Black when he masts 4 understand why he being treated so And Galahad watch the colour of his hand, and alk tot, saying, “Colour, is you causing al thi, you nove. Why the hell yous an be blue, or re or teen, if you ant be white? You knew i you that Gus 211 of misery inthe word. 1 mote yn Know ts you! Taint do anyahing to infuriat te nyu Look yo, you so Mack all over the world!” ee So Galahad taking tothe colour Black, a9 iis a person (p88) In two later novels, The Housing Lark (1968) and Moses Ascending (1975), Selvon returns to the. West 6 Indian experince of London wit su Work confirms our knowledge of a dal evolu Wuhin the immigrant population. ‘The exiled body In The Lonely Linlones is very much Wes Indian, by the time we get to Mes Ascending we look through the only pardy comprehending eyes and Tsten to the dlelberately archaic language of an older immigrant as the confused struggle mg urge. towards Mfolenee of a new ener cd Wis a generation that insits on being Black, partly becasue it noc West Indian, and parily becuse it refuses 1 be Englsh eiher by liberal favour or according to any deftiton of “English” that docs not recognise. what Defoe, the author of ‘The True-Born Englishman sv then in 1708: such definons. must be continually ‘ig could not he sure ofthe reliably ofthe kindof formation we pave, been extracting trom. Selvon's hovel it we did not already possess knowledge about West Indian immigration to" London in the form of testimonies by mgeants, oF result of rescarel by Social sienists and histortana, So to praise a novel for is fidelity to socal or historical fae isto prise i, a6 Some elites do, "for being. secondary. Novels Sharatersiealy dor and reshape face onde facts, felings that may well be about to lead to new set of facts The Lonely Landoners 8 a work of imagination. Our understanding of is relevance to the socal worl from which draws te moaerad is enhanced by OM iat Tesponding 10 Has fiction, something that has been Ide uph in this asc, Out of faily recognisable whose fra halt. wih ot a that fixed and weary aveller Moses Aloette cereroce 1b the hte ‘once ga hea signal the approach of an alien planet, A son ioe iat hangs they hes Tenet ore Ging hd ow Cathal aw oh Net for he consclaion of Lamar wah sed trom th cy a ao shale bi Bick of the sation where “All Cap secng's valle ec nig of on abot ae a ia ae rating thas a he lund, and theo Topas home se a a Ae eat os 5D. fecklag wag eee incading "3 Sid woman wo bok ike eta tea ona ld wer ening agen ou sepa it cage Ieabotiam:? the’ arepesbicpitsomert te Oliver cain "sold prey tpi stad pa vatchkong apnoea or nuts aa thing for he col ea Selon’ immigrns halt. sighumare. wort Having met thet Water," plc of aha eh dartive a place where yore anal 3 fovdbye aid Siding weleame the oxFig ‘Si open the employment exces Cava "nthe mower Cee had gone berserk, tearing up files 3 snatching ata clerk, and mean rating vie say cl "Nat hae nents word the exacy The pace heres hae ‘gether woo for'work andy an & Jamaican papers, ng and bawling: The Wallan, Site while they aint working Isa Kind of Sa sympathy and sorrow and pity all mix-up. 15 2 pice where everyone your encmy and your fiend” 15) TD worth noticing that many of the details that yo to inake ‘up the deathly universe of The Lely Landoner ave pres Naipaul's The Mimic Mem too. In describing the reducing effects of the ct, for trample, alps Singh, the. frseperson "narrator Speake of peuple being “trapped ino fixed. postures seeeine "peryonaliy divided bewilderingly imo Compartments and of “the panic of ceasing to fel isfy whole ‘penn. Sevan he persin tle workds, and you stay in the world you belong (0 tnd you dont kiow about what happening in the ther ones except what you read inthe papers" (P- 74) Ii none of Sevens characters experiences the psychic cas that Ralph Singh suffer, the book nevertheless sounds with examples of hyaeria, eccentrics and irresponsible nor-moral behaviour ‘The insecure Lewis develops a fixation that his wife entertas lovers wale fhe is on nightshift, Harris puts on proper English Uiree-piece suite bowler hat umbrella and brieless, Sd tes in constant fear of being embarrassed by his iess conforming countrymen; = haggard. and haunted Bart combs the -aty hoping to find. His steve Bentrice! the smiling Caps inmocent face masks teorld that as neither meaning nor structure; and “Moses sigh along sigh lke aman who live life and see nothing at al in itand who Irghten a the years go Ds Irondering what itis all about tp. 110) Ti is useful to nodce thatthe pos res in Nap ee 4 of victim Naipaul shows him tobe) fea fonction Ghetimes when Napanee ee SS things tha sre ue atoning aig te fon proce rom or nny may ni ee rarae. The poses Seen ead eee merge fairly directly through the authors use of at experienced, compassionate, and. reflective i pergon narrator ‘ aS sun in The Lol Lanne a beng ee ed ‘calpsonian harmless enough fe hat at ‘companied by «willnges toned a eek Fefeng hit Spproach coven me ene argue tthe Wor res to he oe thin perfomance te gen shaped ite why present the seine Mae ytd the part, an by ere, the narrating technigue of The Lonely Lmuimers is 10 eee toa emerprac da lend ot toon ae tosis wing sti el Plt Soin literary artefact a tightness of sructere (eke a feselopment ‘and revelation af theme nue pe pe tt anne tein oh nt Ea literature and on the stuff that oral Iterature itself also vividly on who docs what when: “One grim winter Crening. when it hada Kind of umreainess about Tondon, with fog sleeping restlessy over the city and the lights showing inthe biur a8 fis not London atl but some strange place on another planct, Moses Aletta hop on % number 46. bus at the comer of Chepstow Road and Westbourne Grove to g0 «0 Waterloo to meet a fla who. was coming from Tinidad on the boattrain™ (p. 23). After describing the meeting between the established immigrant and the cocky mew arrival, Henry Oliver, the narratin Noice rises to mock-heroic: "Thus ie was Uhae Henry Oliver Esjire, alias Sir Galahad, descend on London to swell the population by one, and eight and a half months later it had a Galahad junior in’ Ladbroke Grove." (p. 35) In the sequence describing London (pp. 73.70) the narrating’ voice becomes. that of Someone who has scen and suffered much. He knows then (lt have akind of fella." p. 38) and he Knows Something af the world (It aint Rave no place in the world that p. 5). Cratualy, the voice becomes a person. Akhough he is nor described physically, he becomes a sold presence taking the reader through a shattering world. A toring account (p. 56) of Barts desolation and his desperate, enthralled. search jst for the sight of Beatrice ends with acceptance and 2 quiet awe: “Tt have men like that in the world, too. When summer comes, he can exult like one of the boys, “for then the sun shine for crue and the sky blue and a warm wind ioming i look like when fs winicr a Kind of grey nasty folour does come tothe sky and i stay there and y forget what i like to sce biue skis like back hon where blue sky so common people don’t even look up In the air und you feeling miserable nd old but when spice apn have te teop a ies GTO) Re uke hays he exe ae Co miner, anh prec eee fe a now forthe Yearlong mare Smee wa unlike the boys he is conscious of and articulate ahout thieomler 2 ang he tara pees then, bas lo the capac for joy nor humane feeling’ It the world conten, Duis hm, theres a be ace pee Se foringh "CThinge” doc “hese gPane® of Hiden Temes) ao outer hts Cin ihe el dead” p. 67). Unlike Ralph Singh, who withdraws from from the city where we Find ourselves, from our eo Htachnes the engage aed Wi The Lane Londoners aden apsn an hin in the possibilty of meaning. When Capyof all persace decides to take a wie, there sa philosophical response hich inden “trons ghee poe pling or erderag of epeetce i bo sho can tell what ws the vp that hit Cap and make Jim get marred? A'man lke hes who aie have nothing, no cos, no work, no House ve ho plice to go? Yet is 30 things dees happen in if You Work things out in your own mind fs Kind of Patter, in'a sort of sequence, and one day barn! somesbing happen o thom everything oof gear, what you expeet to happen never happen, what joa don’ expect to happen sways happert and you have to Sart thinking all over agate (p30) We come to depend upon the narrating person as chronicler, repostory of the experiences of the group, and as the ideal and attuned sensibility. This iin par, and at rot, a linguistic achievement. For as the quotations above show, the narrating voice ft vouubutary and in grammar and spa to sui ny situations. ‘To make wp this flexible Miraws expertly upom the whole I spectrum avaiable tothe iterate West Indian, ranging ftom English Standard “English wo West Indian Standard “English to differing. degrees of diac, inventing new combinations and adding his own emphases. The language of The Loney Londoners i not the Language of ‘one stratum inthe society, not the language of che people, meaning ‘the folk or the peasantry, but a cafefil fabrication, « modited dialect Mihich contains and expresses the sembly ofa whole But Seton hs mre complications fr the sson. The Laney Londoners contains 2 chara Ean only be described as the central character, and Selvon strucares the book in sich # way a5 to make i the story of what huppens o Moscs withthe passing of time. The episodestallads seem to bau ford with al Spontancity, but from the firs meeting a Waterloo Berween the new conquering migeant Henry Galahad Oliver and his reluctant, fascinated mentor the Moses wwho has already served ten years inthe metropolis a obtrusive but tight narrative design declares el. ‘Theve is a forward action in the novel covering the fiat two or three years of Galahad's life in the city, is felationship with Moses and his relationship with “the boys" during this ime. But also, in Mashback (pp. 47 fy 99-98 for example) and hy dinect comparton oF Allusion between the now and the carly days, we get an Account of Moses arrival and settlement in London: ‘Re the rliahle and sympathetic narrating wee tres ir {0 explain, the Moses who waits in the station for Galil haw aca drited nt was St aa ee {hat Moses dd land when he came to London ade have no doubt that when the tine cee see ome, it would be here he would say gondbve to tne big city. Perhaps he was thinking is in to porbock oo the twopics thats why he feling sor of Ene tnd miserable” ip. 20), Motes tres to fetsuade Gabed na hse «passage back home vo “Trindad ter aed throughout the book the veteran prodces Keown sins ned sm," a weary hk or the advice te fia experience of thing to hh he Eepenced Moses knowledge of le in London (he is eer a or sulfered almost everything m hse) lions Nao indulge in «sero ony oer Cala, Galahad is One in whom the Zea Tor le weh e ‘apicy for romance are unquenchable. The falling romance of the ey i epitomized for Calan the vase “Charing. Cross? (pr O¥). or in'ikte heat Fesponse to Pccly Creu Say Always, from the fis time he went there co see and the lights, that circus have a magnet for — and ending of the world, Every time he go there he have the aime fesing ike mic hace Rose hes pig drink Cool any tne i ates ine bavi and the icmorke ion Hea ne say laughter, the wide doors of theatres the age Proters, everreay batteries ch eons oe tall hotels, people going to the theare peoples and stand ad Walkng an talk a nel Galahiel Esquire, in allthis, London, Oh Lord. Fesorts to frony and amused tolerance, But the Feader wal about suinmer (pp. 101-110). there is a double narrative, Selon superimposing the sccou of Mees initiation ‘of Galahad into the joys sf sumince une exocation of Moses’ own tine uf delight Coa about the water i aint have no man witha seaper one thn he not even Cap could ask him for sayings The passage ends with Muses fear of the corp time. Jeaves, and. through which i pases Boas existing” with this attitude ita“ ediebrator wa associated with “the. poniive “‘asention ot “Wie represented by Gatshad all these things happen in the blazing summer lunder the trees in the park on the grass with the daffodils and tulips in Tull bloom and 2 sky of blue ‘oh it does really be heautiful then to hear the bites whistling and see the green leaves come back on the {ees and in the night the world turn upside down and everybody hustling thats life that & London oh Jord Galahad say whien the sweetness of sumer get i old Brit’ as In like a mam who in him he say he would never leave long i Jong as he live and Moses si ‘who live life and see nothing frighten as the years go by wond about. (p. 109) The excitement that has faded for Moses was not an illusion. Moses is not Ralph Singh. If Naipaul The Mimic Men describes a process of shrinkage, Selvon through Moses essays towards painful growth, Moses’s process (for he is the central character in what is after all a novel), his development as character, comes to its real climax in the lst two pages of the novel. But before Inoking at this we have te study the relationship between Moses's point of view and that of the narrating person. tsar lai gitar of view ie tbaredl botucen Mosel who is present {we see and hear what he does), and the Fee Wins Sarma gt votce relcheulen The Galati ‘Goedip the renting: Grd DERiay auturplyneopgiioS The eainictions mance WG Peon wo ej hnarrator’s perspective to. Moses's point of view Gomeliines during the week, whem betome home and he can't slec ‘as if he hearing the voices in the Seen Tae wer baa, Mast Whew afi o different the room, all the moaning and groaning and sighing. and he feel a great compassion for every one o thea, asi he lve each of theittnes, ene by one shoulders (138) cientiication between Moses and the narrator is described in other terms by Gordon Robie, “Moses by the end of the ook has high prc role ot ‘oldman, a! Tiresias igure (crs on. Canteen Literature, ed. Baugh, p. 161). And although Kotler notices that Moses contemplates. at thee end “She almlesness. of things”, he prefers to" pt to technique of moving from a fragmentary form, where several toices share the stage, o's polat where altace ces are blended ether in chorus stn Masse Buses archetypal figare Attractive as this might be as an abstraction, it does describe what happens to Moses. For more anjorage than being blended in chorus is the process whheh ike whole hook maybe ‘std be. about Moses individuation, and "his emergence at" a shinking ‘The old Moses, standing on the banks of the ‘Thames. Sometimes he think he see somne sort of profound realisation in his life, as if all hat happen ‘him was experience that make him a better man, as if now he could draw apart from any hustling and just sit down and watch other people fight ta lec Under the kiff-kiff laughter, behind the ballad anid the episode, the what-happening, the summ hearts, he could see a great aimless restless, swaying movement that lea ss. great ing you tening to them, he look in each face, standing in the same spot, As if forlorn shadow of {oom fall on al the spades in the country. As ihe Could see the black faces bobbing up and down in the lions of whe sae fare, everybody hstlng along the Strand, the spades josting in th Crowd, bewildered, hopeless Atif on the surfac things don't look so bad, but when you go down Tiles you bounce up a kind of misery and pathos and 3 frightening ~ what? He don’t know the right dword, but he have che Tight feeling in his heart. As if the boys laughing, but they only laughing because they fra to cry, they only laughing because 0 think so much about everything wove be big Calamity ~ like how he here now, the thoughts 40 heavy lke he unable to move his body. (p: 141) Selvon's modified dialect rises to an occasion that The Lonely Londoners wishes to celebrate, ‘The energy and ‘optimism of the group are presented as great positives, and the figure of Galahad is a poignant reminder of something that is going out of the world. For Selven, however, it is only through the development of consciousness that the group, tribe, clan, community or whatever, can. preserve its. essential qualities while living as twentieth-century people. A defen regression into the unthinking group is no better than the withdrawal into the tomb of Ralph Singh. For Moses, and presumably for Selvon, the birth of consciousness is the beginning of our’ pai the perennial effort to sing simultaneously our songs of innocence and experience: Sil ¢ had greatness and a vastness in the way be was Feeling tonight, like it was something solid after fecing everything else give way, and though he a igetting no happiness out of the cogitations he sti pondering, for isthe first time he ever find himself thinking like that, (p. 142) Heliee Ine au sect nt ce ee eal Um ee Daniel vas tling him how over in France all kinds otfellar wring books what arming ot te bes Seer Taxtadrier, porter, romsweeper iti matter. One day you sweating in the Eaciony and the nextday all the newspapers have your name and photo, saying how you are a new herary giant He watch tugboat onthe Thame, nondering would buy." fe rods Kenneth Ramchand Professor of West Indian Literature, University of the West Indies "The present introduction is a reworking of an earlier piece ‘The Lenely Londoners as a Literary Work’ in World Titrature Woition ix English, Antanaa, 1982, pp. 56-64, The argument aboot writing and orality i conducted at greater shin “The Fate of Writing in the West Indies’, Cardbvan Revues, Vol. X1, No 1982 pp. 16-17 and 40-41 © Un a sense, The Lonely Londoners is the book Moses would have writen. Tn two later books, Moves Aucndng (1975) and Moves Migrating (1983), Selvon uses a main character called Moses ‘This has given rise wo some loose talk about a Moses trilogy ‘which is not only wrong but misleading. There is similarity between the Moses of MenesAvrending and the Moses of Mase ‘Migrating, anu there is 3 continuity beteeen the two books ‘which can justify us in seeing the one asa sequel to the ther, And regarding the two Moses characters as one character at Gifferent stages. But the Moses atthe end of Tr Loney Londanrs takin to Viger of A Brigher Sun and Foster of An {land sword, characters wh ste seeking answers to profound questions with an intensity that suggests a closeness forthe author, and a challenge to the author sehich the Moses fof » Ascending and... Migrating hardly poses. While the latter books are amusing they suggest a disengagement by the author from his protogonist which at times, especially atthe ‘imax of Moses Migrating, fels like cynicism oF evasion Ome of unrealnest bout London, with a fog sleeping rslessly over the city and the lights showing in the blur 2 if not London at all but ome strange place on ancther planet, Moses Alocta hop on 2 ‘number 46 bus a the corner of Chepstow Road and Westbourne ‘Grove to go to Waterloo to meet a fellar who was coming from, ‘Trinidad on the beattrai. ‘When Moses sit down and pay bis fare he take out a white hhanderchiet and blow hie note. The handkerchief tum black ‘and Moses watch it and carte the fog. He wasn't in a good mood land the fog want doing anything to help the situation. He had ‘was to get up from a nice warm bed and dress and come out in this nesty weather to go and meet 2 fellar that he dida't even Iknow. That was the hurtful part of itis not as if thie fella i his brother or cousin or even friend; he don't know the man from Adams, But he get a letter from a friend in Trinidad who say that this Gellar coming by the ss Hildebrand, snd if he could ‘meet him at the station in London, and help him until Joe get sted. The fellar name Henry Oliver, bu the friend tell ‘Moses nor to worry that he desribe Moses to Heary, and all he have to dois to bein the station when the bosttrain pul in and this fellar Henry would find him. So for old time sake Moses find himself on the bus going to Waterloo, vex with himself that his heart so eft that he always doing something for some- body and nobody ever doing anything for him. ‘Because it lok to Moses that he hardly have time to sete in the old Brita before all sorts of fllars start coming straight to his room in the Water when they land wp in London from the 28 We Ide sing to nd lhe tat Nos ged felar to cnt, that be woulda : stay and work to do. oe “ems Chris,” Moses ll Hani friend he hve,“ never se thing eT ont Hnow see prope tal ye ey coming {me sis sme Inn ie, and Teaching ty ae iis how To ep them eu” And ths sore of ing wer happening ata tine when the English pole sang t maker ott how too mach West Teds Sormng to the county: this was time, when ny corer you trent as ou toon bounce ups spade, Taf the boy all over Landon iat have» place Wee You, soni find tem, and bi dcuson going os in Palanont shot te at, ooh te ald Bo plant down on the bor to do anything dae He teem fom coming tothe Mother County. Bc tig ean the paps everyday and what the nompmpetend he ao 2 this county, tha he pope ble ike oe tine when tevpapes yt the West Ins thnk thatthe mes ot Landon pved wih gid Jamaican far weet tthe nce tix afr to find oot sorting aod ie hing a Gk tl Fim "You people think te sees of London ue onc wah 5:4” Nowapeper sod ro rales ema Now the portion hae Mons uncny, ease tell th smo of te flare who coming now else Serpe, ‘elie log tine when fey ity sagging ty wading the county by the hundrdn And when dem los wo tere long time se people rein fom the West nds, 3 only lg force to ay wuld be dan fa ogo Sek bia Mas lo wh i ao op ge the dorsep with oe sso Iganga ey copie ge laa (Goede tof ela come, ‘Who you my amend ea” Mon ask hem 2 “Oh, we get it from a fllar name Jackson who was up here last year.” “Jackson ie a itch, Mores say, the kaow that I secing hell myself "We have money,’ the fellas sy, ‘we only want you to help ‘we to get a place t0 stay and ell we bow to get a work.” "That harder than money,” Moses grant. ‘I don’t know why the bell you come to me." But all dhe same he went out with them, Iecause he ted to remember how desperate he was when he ‘was in London for the fist time and didn’t know anybody or Tatas caper em Bomeo ice oi estes eae Liter asm Garcne See ir eae tanta fe beroectn ee no Beit ote Sef IE ag tt vet ces eer ENN So cree TEs cca sea hen aos Sarg pate teeter nae EARDES econ oa “aa aman igh Sy pe eta ee anaes gate CTE, Se nh i a is eed ieee ace Siege a ann cians aay mate al iabentt seu easbeeenceet So ivantiacran secre: ies Meet tac ciaoeme Sapo seneates kes 25 feling of aosagia hit him and he was srs. I have ome felar who in Bria long, and yet they can’ getaway frm te bait of ging Waterloo whenever a tetra coming in with passengers from the West Indies. ‘They like to ce the fara {acy they like to watch their countiynen coming ff he ein and sometimes they might sot somebody they ow’ "Aye ‘Wason! Wha th el you dng in Bin boy? Why you diet si pen mig AR ey onl ig ea fave, Snding ot what happening in Tesiad in Grenada, in Barbados, in Jamaica and: Antigua, what i the Inte calypio number, if anjbedy end, and soon, ad even asking strangers quesion they can'e anrwe, hike ty Lac Tanty Sioumons who living Labawe in Port of Spin or flat name Hacrica working inthe Red Howe ‘Bt Moses, he never in this tort of sacks the thought never occ to hin ogo to Waterloo jst ose who coming ap fiom the Wet Indie Sil, the sation ik tat sre of pace where you havea soft fling. I was here that Mees i and When he come o London, abe ave no dou har when the tee come if it ever come, i would be ete he would ay good bye tthe big cy. Perhaps he was thinking is ine to go back 10 the topics thas why he fling sore of lonely and mieroble Movs wa ting thereon a teach, smoking's Weeds when 2 Jamaican frend arse Telioy comme gis batten ce ye Hoyt hough be know i ‘No! Mote sy, though he know that Troy know. ‘Boy, Lepect my moter cme Toy, hero way, athe frightens thei, “You send for abe? Mons ay “Yes! Toloy ay. “Ah, L wh Twas like alyou Jamaican” Mous sy, ‘Allon cl inn pte pou ews dees nya tutes under the bed, ten when you bave enoog Jou sending foe the family. 1 cant sve a ete out of ty pop ru 5a tomy ee Tiley ws RL eg oon dtecet [irate Seeman apy ete ie eens Se ee Fe are cee A way Bo ig Cay we ling me yesterday have eee es eile ee a seep? ieee un fay nro te eee races pe eel Tene ae, See eT oe pie cih nD Brio, and he always have this guitar with him, playing it in mart ee ee i a Neely re en Sy mets Sense eal SUAS coe eer a 2 ar ae Bi itnytocome he old get back hoe oot fhe cold ae a vi ig im fae nen ori ee een ie Soper see eee ere ee eas pap oleyten rete eee rats SET tet oe ore ae ee e tony, taint have anything ike ‘ese me up or “both of we I coutrymen together in the oid Landon. Smeies be pt Ded and Zur info or tree ig rom and tel he fellas ey cui lie in tae topes et each would ave 10 poy 2 found. So you cold tnagine—Gveac fla in one room and Ei tt eating muney fr so And whence a ostrin come in, he busing down to Watalo t pick up them flare who new to Landon snd at have plc oy ling ther bow ron io. nice ae, art have pet Jrnans down there Alcdy, and they would feel at hoe inthe dati bert he Bayer on the boy side and ir ait have plenty peje there ‘Wile Mone lig ose the tet hung eas 3 es paper far come pt hin and sy, "Exc ie have you Patented fom Jee” “And ows doo Know why bu etl he lly ‘Mvoud you lke tot mc what condons ther are ike?” ‘The far ake out netbook and penal and lnk Moves ‘Now Mow don't cow a damn hing abot Jtica—Moca come from Tiida which i a tousad mil fom Jaman, Burts Boglsh people bene ha everybody who cre fom he Wen ind ete fom ema. “The sation ie dupes Moves sy, thinking ft “you now te big rica che two wech ago?" "Yes? the feporer iy for in tu did Rave a rscne in ana. WaT was in tat hur” Money. “Pleny people ge al Twas tng down in ry wwe and sidcaly when {ack pe the ays What yo thin happen” “The huticane blow the roof off? “Bue tel me, sit, why aze 40 many Jamaicans immigrating to England?” "Ah," Moses sy, ‘that is a question to limit, that is what every body tuying to find out They can't get work," Moses s3y, warming up. ‘And furthermore, let me give you my view of ‘pun ton Lowers the situation inthis county. We can't et no place tive and tre only geting the worse abe it hae" Tur ys oe the inn el tha ge atch wih Mon, and bey, Thank ys and hanya. Mors was vory, was thei ine he ever eal get. god ctancr tray hs nd and he had oof thngs wy. Though Se ine they wanted take ot is photo. Iehappea while he ‘was working in railway yard and al the people in the place Topsy go sik ales the Bose Moves fe was ig tall Fell he papers they put under big beadie, saying bow the colt tor wan tung trouble again, and flr come wvih-a camera and wanted to tke Moe pot, bt Movs 37 fen A few dae afr thatthe bow cll Moe anal ell hi hat fe wry, but a they cating down the wall and he was new, 1c would have to go ‘Meaamtile Teley gone down by the botom of the trai, stumbling over site and bagpage athe tying fo se every ‘ody wha coming off dhe ain atthe me ine °R cd wonan who lnk ike she would dead any minte come out oa caving, crying cardboard box and papebag. ‘When ste gout the bain ch and vp thereon the pletion 35 if she conus ‘Then after abe a young gid come caying @ Alourog led up with things, Then a young man wearing = ‘vir hat and jacket fling below the kee, Then aide Toy and lite gi hem soot old woman, esi vo ch 2 goad had was to cip the gee ow of the ai {Sh Jun Chr! Tooy sph inthis at all™ “Teiroy he fie woman ay, "you dont know your own "Toltoy bug his cher Uke a man ina dae, dea he sy: “ut whet Fenty Bony doing here, ma? and Ager and Lewis td the two dlven?” “All of we come, Tol” Ma sy. “Tis is how it, happen when yoo write home to lay you geting fve pounds a eck Lewis ty, “Oh God I going England tomtom.” Wall Agnes tay that she not staying at home alone with the children, so all of we come." “And what about Tanty?* ‘Well you know how old your Tanty getting, Tolroy, is 2 shame to leave she alone to dead in Kingston with nobody to Took after she." “Oh God ma, why you bring all these people with you?" ‘Toleoy stare to shiver with a kind of fright. "A, you see what I tll you?" Tanty say to the mother, ‘you sce how ungrateful he is?'T would go back to Jamaica sight ‘now and she make as if she going back inside the tain. “Toleoy,” Ma say, ‘jou remember when you ws 2 litle boy how you wed to live at Tanty and she used to mind you and send you to school and give you tea and bake in the evening? ‘You remember them days? When Tanty give you shoes to weat and pants to pus on your backside? How You expect me to leave Tanty behind when all the family going England?” “But ma you don't know what you put yours in,* Tolroy stare to argue sight there on the platform, and people watching them. A porter pushing a trolley say: ‘Come on there, out of the way,’ and be nearly bounce wp Tanty, who wat looking all shout in the station with she ejes open wide. “Look at trouble here!” Tanty say. ‘Mister, you best hads sind wh yo ig ye ytmch me with at ing «policeman for you" ‘Toleoy pull all the family out ofthe way, and they stand up there arguing, for Tolroy ain't catch himeelé yet, he ean’ realise that all these people on his hands, in London, in the grim winter, and no place to goto sa. ‘The reporter fella se thin small crowd and he figure that it look like s family and he might get a good story fom them why 0 much Jamaican coming to London, so he went up to Tant} sand say: “Excuse me, lady, I am from the Echo, Is this your firs trip to England?* "Don't tell that man nothing,’ Tolroy grow. » ‘Why you s prejudice?” Tanty sy. “The gentleman ask me a good queaion, why Lshoulda®anrwer?" And she rua to the reporter and say, "Yea mise, is my fist wip.” "Plave pou aby selatves here? “Are you going to lve in London?” “Wel my nephew ‘Tlroy bee ia this county a long time, and wo he send for the ret ofthe family wo come and Live with iim. Not 20 Tokoy? ‘But Totoy gone to help Lewis nd Agnes God thei luggage. “Tooy i 4 good boy’ Tany ay, ‘T mind him since Be was seal! "Yen? the reporter sj, “but can you tll me why so many people ace leaving Jamaica and coming to England?” “fs the same ching Tsay. Tanty say excited, ell all of them who coming, “Why al you lesvng the country to goto England? Over there itso cold that only white people does live thee.” Bus they ay that have more work in Bogland, and beter pay. ‘And to tll you the truth, when I hear that Tolroy geting five Pound a weak, Thad to agree” “Tell me madam, what will you do ia London?™ “Who me?" Tany lok around as ifthe reporer talking to somebody elie. "Why. T came to Took after the family. All of them was coming, s0 I had to come top, to look afer them. ‘Wo will cok and wath the clothes and ean the hove?” “This time so, Ma poling Tanty hand to make she top talking, ‘ou Tanty only shaking off he hand "Whae happening to you?” Tanty tll Ma. “You can’t se this ‘fom the newspapers come to mect we by the sation? ‘We have to show that we fave good manners, you know.” “ay Take your pire? the reporter ase ‘He want to take’ phot,” Tanty oudge Ma. ‘Where all the clildeen? olroy, Agnes, Lewis’ she caling out ax if she Calling on in backyard in Jamaica, “all you come and take hot, chilzen. The mixer want a snapshot” “One of you alone wil be quite sulin’ the reporter sy 2

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