Elean Roslyn Thomas (18 September 1947 – 27 May 2004)

Buzz Johnson Norris Chrisleventon "Buzz" Johnson (2 November 1951 – 11 February 2014), generally known as Buzz Johnson, was a Tobago-born publisher and activist who in the 1970s relocated to England, UK. There he set up a small publishing company called Kar ...

"Elean Thomas: Writer with a message of human rights"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 31 July 2004. was a

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 poet, novelist, journalist and activist. She was active in the struggle for women's rights in the Caribbean and the movement for Jamaican national independence, as well as working in Latin America, Eastern and Western Europe and Africa. She was married (1988–97) to human rights barrister Anthony Gifford.

Biography

Elean Thomas was born in

St. Catherine, Jamaica Saint Catherine (capital Spanish Town) is a Parishes of Jamaica, parish in the Ordinal directions, south east of Jamaica. It is located in the Counties of Jamaica, county of Middlesex, and is one of the island's largest and most economically va ...

, to a health-worker mother and a father (Rt. Rev. David Thomas) who was a Pentecostal bishop. She attended the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

(UWI) in the late 1960s, reading politics and history, and did postgraduate work in communications at Goldsmiths College, London University. In the 1970s, she was employed as a reporter by the ''

Jamaica Gleaner ''The Gleaner'' is an English-language, morning daily newspaper founded by two brothers, Jacob and Joshua de Cordova on 13 September 1834 in Kingston, Jamaica. Originally called the ''Daily Gleaner'', the name was changed on 7 December 1992 to ' ...

'', and was head of the editorial department of the

Jamaica Information Service The Jamaica Information Service (JIS) is an executive agency of the Government of Jamaica responsible for disseminating information about government programs, projects, and services. Functions The agency's main functions involves the gathering ...

, as well as working with other small publications.Taneisha Davidson
"Journalist Elean Thomas is dead"
, ''Jamaica Gleaner'', 29 May 2004. She also served on the executive of the Press Association of Jamaica. In 1976, she was a founding member in Jamaica of the Committee of Women for Progress, championing such issues as maternity leave and equal pay. She also taught history and English in Jamaica, and co-founded the National Union of Democratic Teachers. Alongside

Trevor Munroe Trevor St George Munroe (born 10 December 1944) is a Jamaican political scientist and civil society advocate. Biography Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Munroe attended high school at St. George's College (Class of 1959) and later studied political ...

and others, she was a founder-member of the Workers Party of Jamaica (WPJ) and, as its international secretary, served on the editorial board of ''

World Marxist Review ''Problems of Peace and Socialism'' (September 1958–June 1990, Russian: ''Проблемы мира и социализма)'', also commonly known as ''World Marxist Review'' (WMR), the name of its English-language edition, was a monthly theore ...

'', which was based in

Prague, Czechoslovakia Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate oc ...

; as a consequence she travelled throughout Europe, while also building strong connections in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. In Jamaica she campaigned against the 1983

US invasion of Grenada The United States invasion of Grenada began at dawn on 25 October 1983. The United States and a Caribbean Peace Force, coalition of six Caribbean nations invaded the island nation of Grenada, north of Venezuela. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fur ...

, and in 1984 invited English barrister Anthony Gifford to speak to a human rights committee she set up. They married in 1988, the marriage being dissolved in 1998. Although categorised as a poet, she herself said: "I call my pieces Word-Rhythms. I honestly believe it is pretentious to call them poems. They are merely word-sketches, word-photographs, word-drawings, word-paintings, word-beats." Her first collection, ''Word Rhythms From The Life Of A Woman'' (1986), was published in 1986 by

Karia Press Norris Chrisleventon "Buzz" Johnson (2 November 1951 – 11 February 2014), generally known as Buzz Johnson, was a Tobago-born publisher and activist who in the 1970s relocated to England, UK. There he set up a small publishing company called Kar ...

. In 1988 Karia also published her second collection, ''Before They Can Speak Of Flowers: Word Rhythms'', which had a foreword by

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (; born James Ngugi; 5 January 1938) is a Literature of Kenya, Kenyan author and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu language, Gikuyu and who formerly wrote in English language, English. He has been described as having bee ...

and an introduction by

Benjamin Zephaniah Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (born 15 April 1958)Gregory, Andy (2002), ''International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002'', Europa, p. 562. . is a British writer and dub poet. He was included in ''The Times'' list of Britain's top 50 post-wa ...

."Before They Can Speak Of Flowers"
at WorldCat. Her novel, ''The Last Room'', was published by

Virago Press Virago is a British publisher of women's writing and books on Feminism, feminist topics. Started and run by women in the 1970s and bolstered by the success of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has been credited as one of several Briti ...

in 1991, winning the

Ruth Hadden Memorial Award The Ruth Hadden Memorial Award is a former award for the best first novel published in Britain, which was administered by the Booktrust. It was awarded in the early 1990s and has now been discontinued. The award was unusual in that the prize was ...

for best first novel published in Britain. Elean Thomas's work is anthologised in ''

Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

'' (1992), edited by

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...

.Margaret Busby (ed.), ''Daughters of Africa: An Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent'', London: Vintage, 1992, pp. 732–39. Elean Thomas died aged 56 at the Hope Institute in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

, Jamaica, on 27 May 2004, after suffering from cancer.

Bibliography

* ''Word Rhythms from the Life of a Woman'', London: Karia Press, 1986. * ''Before They Can Speak Of Flowers: Word Rhythms'', London: Karia Press, 1988. * ''The Last Room'' (novel), London: Virago Press, 1991.

Biography

Bibliography

References

Further reading