Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
n-born writer, journalist, historian and teacher. He is best known for his work on the '' West Indian Gazette'' and his fiction and non-fiction books portraying the West Indian community in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
, particularly his 1966 work ''Journey to an Illusion'', which has been called a groundbreaking book that "captured the plight of Commonwealth immigrants and foresaw the multicultural
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
of today".
Biography
Hinds was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1934 and grew up in a village in the parish of St. Thomas with his grandparents, his mother and stepfather having migrated to Britain.
In 1955, aged 21, he decided to travel to London, England, to join his mother. He had qualified as a probationary teacher in Jamaica but like many other West Indian migrants to the UK was unable to find employment that matched his qualifications. He eventually got a job with London Transport as a bus conductor, working out of Brixton Bus Garage in
Streatham Hill
Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth.
Streatham was in Surre ...
.
While working on the buses Hinds met Theo Campbell, a local Jamaican businessman who owned London's first Black record shop at 250 Brixton Road. The record shop shared the building with the '' West Indian Gazette''. Campbell introduced Hinds to Claudia Jones, the newspaper's editor, and Hinds began working for the paper in the summer of 1958. As the paper's "City Reporter", he was a regular contributor until Jones's death in 1964.
Between 1959 and 1963, Hinds was also broadcasting on
BBC Caribbean
The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception ar ...
, often reading short stories based on his experiences working on the buses. After ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' published a piece by him on West Indians schoolchildren in Britain, he was approached by a literary agent, which led to the commissioning of a book by Heinemann. Receiving an advance of £100 — the equivalent at the time of eight weeks' wages as a bus conductor — Hinds was emboldened to leave his job with London Transport to concentrate on his writings. ''Journey to an Illusion: The West Indian in Britain'' — a series of interviews, together with autobiographical writing and social comment — was first published in 1966. "One of the great works of journalism to have come out of the Jamaican-British encounter",Ian Thomson "‘Mother Country: In the Wake of a Dream’, by Donald Hinds. ‘When I Came to England’, edited by Z. Nia Reynolds" ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
'', 15 April 2015. the book was reissued in 2001 by Bogle-L'Ouverture Press and, in the words of Anne Walmsley: "''Journey to an Illusion'' remains a classic of the West Indian immigrant experience."
Hinds is one of the writers associated with the influential
Caribbean Artists Movement The Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) was an influential cultural initiative, begun in London, England, in 1966 and active until about 1972,Edward Kamau Brathwaite
The Honourable Edward Kamau Brathwaite, CHB (; 11 May 1930 – 4 February 2020), was a Barbadian poet and academic, widely considered one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon.Staff (2011)"Kamau Brathwaite." New York University, D ...
,
John La Rose
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
and Andrew Salkey, with the subsequent involvement of other notable artists and intellectuals including
C. L. R. James
Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, '' The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are i ...
Wilson Harris
Sir Theodore Wilson Harris (24 March 1921 – 8 March 2018) was a Guyanese writer. He initially wrote poetry, but subsequently became a novelist and essayist. His writing style is often said to be abstract and densely metaphorical, and his sub ...
,
Kenneth Ramchand
Kenneth Ramchand (born 1939) is a Trinidad and Tobago academic and writer, who is widely respected as "arguably the most prominent living critic of Caribbean fiction". He has written extensively on many West Indian authors, including V. S. Naipau ...
Gordon Rohlehr
Gordon Rohlehr (20 February 1942 – 29 January 2023) ''
Orlando Patterson, Ivan Van Sertima, Althea McNish, James Berry, Errol Lloyd and Anne Walmsley. Hinds joined CAM's committee and in 1969 took over editorship of the organization's ''Newsletter''. In February 1971 he chaired and introduced CAM's public session on "Contemporary African Poetry", at which Femi Fatoba from
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
and
Cosmo Pieterse
Cosmo George Leipoldt Pieterse (born 1930 in Windhoek, Namibia) is a South African playwright, actor, poet, literary critic and anthologist.
Education and career
Cosmo Pieterse went to the University of Cape Town and taught in Cape Town until lea ...
from Namibia participated with their Caribbean peers.
Hinds also worked for ''Magnet'', a newspaper launched in the 1960s with
Jan Carew
Jan Rynveld Carew (24 September 1920 – 6 December 2012) was a Guyana-born novelist, playwright, poet and educator, who lived at various times in The Netherlands, Mexico, England, France, Spain, Ghana, Jamaica, Canada and the United States. ...
South Bank University
London South Bank University (LSBU) is a public university in Elephant and Castle, London. It is based in the London Borough of Southwark, near the South Bank of the River Thames, from which it takes its name. Founded in 1892 as the Borough P ...
.
In 2014, Hansib published his first novel, ''Mother Country: In the Wake of a Dream'', set in Brixton in the 1950s and dealing with the dreams and realities lived by Jamaicans who settled in the "Mother Country" during that era. Describing the book as "an absorbing hybrid of fiction and reportage" in a ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
'' review, Ian Thomson says: "''Mother Country'', a work of documentary authenticity and rare narrative verve, takes us to the heart of the West Indian immigrant experience in postwar London."
Hinds is one of those interviewed in ''When I Came to England'', an anthology by Z. Nia Reynolds of oral accounts by newly arrived West Indians of life in the "mother country".Z. Nia Reynolds, ''When I Came to England: An Oral History of Life in 1950s and 1960s Britain'', edited by Black Stock Books, 2014, .National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C1149/25) with Donald Hinds in 2012 for its Oral History of Oral History collection held by the British Library.National Life Stories, "Hinds, Donald (1 of 38) National Life Stories Collection: Oral History of Oral History" The British Library Board, 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
List of works
Non-fiction books and essays
*''Journey to an Illusion'' ( Heinemann, 1966), Bogle-L'Ouverture Press, 2001,
*"The 'Island' of Brixton", ''Oral History: The Journal of the Oral History Society'', Vol. 8, No. 1 (Spring 1980), pp. 49–51
*''Black Peoples of America, 1500-1900'', Collins Educational, 1992,
*''Native Peoples in America'', Collins, 1995,
Novels and short stories
*"Busman's Blues" in Andrew Salkey (ed), ''Stories from the Caribbean: an anthology'', Elek Books, 1965
*''Mother Country: In the Wake of a Dream'', Hansib Publications, 2014,
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
Camden New Journal
The ''Camden New Journal'' is a British independent newspaper published in the London Borough of Camden. It was launched by editor Eric Gordon (who died on 5 April 2021, aged 89) in 1982 following a two-year strike at its predecessor, the ''C ...