Pearl Connor-Mogotsi, ''née'' Nunez (13 May 1924 – 11 February 2005), was a

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

-born theatrical and literary agent, actress and cultural activist, who was a pioneering campaigner for the recognition and promotion of African Caribbean arts. Stephen Bourne
"Pearl Connor-Mogotsi – Trailblazer for African Caribbean arts in the UK" (obituary)
''The Independent'', 14 February 2005. In the UK, in the 1950s, she was the first agent to represent black and other minority ethnic actors, writers and film-makers, and during the early 1960s was instrumental in setting up one of Britain's first black theatre companies, the

Negro Theatre Workshop The Negro Theatre Workshop (NTW) was set up in London, England, in 1961, becoming one of the first Black British theatre companies. It aimed to produce dramas, revues and musicals, giving writers a chance to see their work performed as well as cre ...

. In the words of

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 E ...

, who delivered a eulogy at her funeral on 26 February 2005: "Pearl Connor-Mogotsi was pivotal in the effort to remake the landscape for innovation and for the inclusion of African, Caribbean and Asian artists in shaping a new vision of consciousness for art and society."John La Rose
"Eulogy for Pearl Connor-Mogotsi"
, ''Caribia Digest'', 2005.

Early years in Trinidad

Pearl Cynthia Nunez, the ninth of her parents' 12 children, was born in

Diego Martin Diego Martin is a town and is the urban commercial center and capital of the Diego Martin region in Trinidad and Tobago. Its location in the region is just on the south eastern border, west of the capital city of Port of Spain and east of the to ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

, to Albert Antonio Nunez and Georgina Agnes Fitt, and had a convent school education in

Port of Spain Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...

. Describing her background, in an interview with

Yvonne Brewster Yvonne Jones Brewster (née Clarke; born 7 October 1938) is a Jamaican actress, theatre director and businesswoman, known for her role as Ruth Harding in the BBC television soap opera ''Doctors''. She co-founded the theatre companies Talawa in ...

, she said: "I came from a family of educated

mixed-race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

people in Trinidad, and we were readily exposed to music and the arts in general and the folklore....And our education was of course in the same pattern as most of the colonials. It was a British education and an English education, so we were doing

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

and all that kind of thing and all the modern poets and

Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

. We were quite familiar in our secondary school education with those writers, so we had an idea what drama was, but it was the folk theatre that imbued me with the interest I had in the theatre." Her first experience of performance was at the

Little Carib Theatre The Little Carib Theatre (LCT) was established in Woodbrook, Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1947 by Beryl McBurnie "to showcase the vibrant and rich culture of the Trinbagonian people". The first permanent folk-dance company and theatre in Trinidad, ...

, founded by

Beryl McBurnie Beryl Eugenia McBurnie (2 November 1913 – 30 March 2000) was a Trinidadian dancer. She established the Little Carib Theatre in Woodbrook, Port of Spain,, and promoted the culture and arts of Trinidad and Tobago as her life's work. She helped to ...

, who became her greatest influence.

Life in London

In 1948, Pearl met and subsequently married in England the Trinidadian folk-singer and actor

Edric Connor Edric Esclus Connor (2 August 1913 – 13 October 1968) was a Caribbean singer, folklorist and actor who was born in Trinidad and Tobago. He was a performer of calypso in the United Kingdom, where he migrated in 1944 and chiefly lived and wor ...

(1913–1968), with whom she eventually had two children: Peter and

Geraldine Geraldine may refer to: People * Geraldine (name), the feminine form of the first name Gerald, with list of people thus named. * The Geraldines, Irish dynasty descended from the Anglo-Norman Gerald FitzWalter de Windsor * Geraldine of Albania, th ...

. She had gone to the UK to study law at King's College, London University, but she deferred her studies to manage her husband's career."Biography – Pearl Connor-Mogotsi"
Extract from ''Caribbean Britain: The Cultural and Biographical Directory'' by Marjorie H. Morgan, Historical Geographies. In 1956, the couple began an agency for black artists, The Edric Connor Agency, which in the 1970s would be renamed the Afro-Asian-Caribbean Agency, representing people from the Caribbean, Malaysia, India and Africa across all art forms.Seb Whyte
"Connor-Mogotsi, Pearl (1924–2005), Actor", BFI Screen Online.
/ref> Among the many actors, dancers, musicians and writers represented by the agency in the 20 years of its existence were

Carmen Munroe Carmen Esme Munroe, (born 12 November 1932)

Ram John Holder John Wesley Holder (born 1934), known professionally as Ram John Holder, is a Guyanese-British actor and musician, who began his professional career as a singer in New York City, before moving to England in 1962. He has performed on stage, i ...

, Corinne Skinner,

Lloyd Reckord Lloyd Reckord (26 May 1929 – 8 July 2015) was a Jamaican actor, film maker, and stage director who lived in England for some years. Reckord appeared in 1958 in a West End production of '' Hot Summer Night'', which as an ITV adaptation broadc ...

Patti Boulaye Patricia Ngozi Komlosy Order of the British Empire, OBE (née Ebigwei; born 3 May 1954), known professionally as Patti Boulaye, is a British Nigerian, British-Nigerian singer, actress and artist who rose to prominence after winning ''New Faces ...

Nina Baden-Semper Nina Baden-Semper (born 1945) is a Trinidad and Tobago-born British actress best known for her role as Barbie Reynolds in the 1970s sitcom ''Love Thy Neighbour'', produced by Thames Television. Career Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Baden-Semper w ...

Yemi Ajibade Yemi Ajibade (28 July 1929''Africa Who's Who'', London: Africa Journal Ltd, for Africa Books, 1981, p. 82. – 24 January 2013), usually credited as Yemi Goodman Ajibade or Ade-Yemi Ajibade, was a Nigerian playwright, actor and director who, af ...

Allister Bain Allister Bain (born 1 January 1935) is a Grenadian television and film actor and theatre playwright and screenwriter, who moved to the UK in 1958. A veteran of British performing arts, his TV appearances include roles in ''Us Girls'', '' Vanity ...

, George Harris,

Johnny Sekka Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Variant ...

Osibisa Osibisa are a Ghanaian-British Afro-Rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African and three London based Caribbean musicians. Osibisa were the most successful and longest lived of the African-heritage bands in ...

Joan Armatrading Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, (, born 9 December 1950) is a Kittitian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist. A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Armatrading has also been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She received ...

, and

Earl Lovelace Earl Wilbert Lovelace (born 13 July 1935) is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer. He is particularly recognized for his descriptive, dramatic fiction on Trinidadian culture: "Using Trinidadian dialect patterns a ...

.Pearl Connor-Mogotsi biographical note, p. 17, in Roxy Harris and Sarah White (eds), ''Changing Britannia – Life Experience With Britain'',

New Beacon Books New Beacon Books is a British publishing house, bookshop, and international book service that specializes in Black British, Caribbean, African, African-American and Asian literature. Founded in 1966 by John La Rose and Sarah White, it was the fi ...

/George Padmore Institute, 1999. The agency was also involved in the co-production of several films, most notably ''Carnival Fantastique'' (1959) and the cricket series ''West Indies vs England'' (1963), and in addition distributed other landmark films such as ''

Pressure Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country and e ...

'' (London, 1975), ''

Bim ''Bim'' is a 1974 Trinidad and Tobago film written by Raoul Pantin and directed by Hugh A. Robertson. It was described by Bruce Paddington as "one of the most important films to be produced in Trinidad and Tobago and... one of the classics of Ca ...

'' (Trinidad, 1974), ''

Smile Orange ''Smile Orange'' is a 1976 satirical film set in Jamaica. It follows the day-to-day life of Ringo, played by Carl Bradshaw, a smooth-talking waiter and con-man. The film explores the tourism industry in the Caribbean and seems to suggest there ...

'' (Jamaica, 1976), ''

The Harder They Come ''The Harder They Come'' is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell and co-written by Trevor D. Rhone, and starring Jimmy Cliff. The film is most famous for its reggae soundtrack that is said to have "brought reggae to the world". ...

'' (Jamaica, 1972) and ''King Carnival'' (Trinidad). Connor-Mogotsi herself trained at the

Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama Rose Bruford College (formerly Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance) is a drama school in the south London suburb of Sidcup. The college has degree programmes in acting, actor musicianship, directing, theatre arts and various discipli ...

and was a broadcaster for the BBC General Overseas Service, working for their Caribbean Service and in radio plays on the Corporation's domestic networks, including ''The Barren One'' (1958); ''My People and Your People'' (1959), a "West Indian ballad opera" broadcast on the

BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...

; and

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. ...

's The ''Riverman'' (1968). She occasionally acted on the stage – as in

Barry Reckord Barrington John Reckord (19 November 1926 – 20 December 2011), known as Barry Reckord, was a Jamaican playwright, one of the earliest Caribbean writers to make a contribution to theatre in Britain. His brother was the actor and director Lloyd ...

's ''You in Your Small Corner'' at the

Royal Court A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word "court" may also be appl ...

in 1960 – and in television or film roles, including a cameo in

Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading-light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered for h ...

's ''

O Lucky Man! ''O Lucky Man!'' is a 1973 British comedy-drama fantasy film directed by Lindsay Anderson, and starring Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis, whom McDowell had first played as a disaffected public schoolboy in his first film performance in Anderso ...

'' (1973). In 1961, Connor-Mogotsi was integral in setting up one of the first black theatre companies in Britain, the

(NTW), and co-founding the West Indian Theatre Trust to support it. The NTW emerged after a meeting at the

Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate The Mercury Theatre was a small theatre on Ladbroke Road, Notting Hill Gate, London, notable for the productions of poetic dramas between 1933 and 1956, and as the home of the Ballet Rambert until 1987. History (founding) The Mercury Theatr ...

, with a number of black actors and writers, including

, George Browne, Ena Cabayo, Leo Carrera, Tony Cyrus, Horace James, Bari Johnson,

Carmen Munroe Carmen Esme Munroe, (born 12 November 1932)

and Bobby Naidoo. Rehearsing at the

West Indian Students' Centre The West Indian Students' Centre (WISC) was located at 1 Collingham Gardens, Earls Court, London, in a building bought with the support of West Indian governments, and officially opened on 1 June 1955 by Princess Margaret.David Clover"Dispersed or ...

Earls Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

and the newly opened

Africa Centre The Africa Centre, in Cape Town, South Africa, is structured as a not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to provide a platform for Pan-African arts and cultural practice to function as a catalyst for social change. All the projects it co ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, the NTW launched in November that year at the Lyric Theatre in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

with a production of ''

A Wreath for Udomo ''A Wreath for Udomo'' is a 1956 novel by South African novelist Peter Abrahams. The novel follows a London-educated black African, Michael Udomo, who returns to Africa to become a revolutionary leader in the fictional country of Panafrica an ...

'', adapted by William Branch from the novel by

Peter Abrahams Peter Henry Abrahams Deras (3 March 1919 – 18 January 2017), commonly known as Peter Abrahams, was a South African-born novelist, journalist and political commentator who in 1956 settled in Jamaica, where he lived for the rest of his life. Hi ...

, and with a cast that featured

Earl Cameron Earlston Jewitt Cameron, CBE (8 August 19173 July 2020), known as Earl Cameron, was a Bermudian actor who lived and worked in the United Kingdom. After appearing on London's West End stage, he became one of the first black stars in the Britis ...

, Edric Connor,

and

Joan Hooley Joan Hooley (born 13 November 1936) is an actress. Born in Jamaica, Hooley moved to the United Kingdom as a young girl, and her career has been based in Britain. She is best known for playing the role of Josie McFarlane in BBC's ''EastEnders'', b ...

. Another notable NTW production was of

Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...

's ''The Road'' (1965), which was first staged for the Commonwealth Arts Festival. In 1966 the NTW also produced an interpretation of the Easter story entitled ''The Dark Disciples'', which was televised and represented Britain at the First

World Festival of Negro Arts The World Festival of Black Arts (French: Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres), also known as FESMAN, is a month-long culture and arts festival that takes place in Africa. The festival features poetry, sculpture, painting, music, cinema, theatre, f ...

Dakar, Senegal Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 20 ...

."Connor, Pearl", in

David Dabydeen David Dabydeen (born 9 December 1955) is a Guyanese-born broadcaster, novelist, poet and academic. He was formerly Guyana's Ambassador to UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation) from 1997 to 2010 and the youngest Memb ...

, John Gilmore, Cecily Jones (eds), ''The Oxford Companion to Black British History'', Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 141. In the 1960s, Connor-Mogotsi was a member of the

Caribbean Artists Movement The Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) was an influential cultural initiative, begun in London, England, in 1966 and active until about 1972,Campaign Against Racial Discrimination The Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD) was a British organization, founded in 1964 and which lasted until 1967, that lobbied for race relations legislation. The group's formation was inspired by a visit by Martin Luther King Jr. to Londo ...

(CARD).

Cultural activism

In 1971, three years after Edric Connor's death, she married Joe Mogotsi (1924–2011), leader of the South African singing group The Manhattan Brothers, and together they organised tours throughout the world for black South African artists. They also co-authored the book ''Mantindane – "He Who Survives": My Life with the Manhattan Brothers'' (2002).

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' ...

"Pearl Connor-Mogotsi" (obituary)
''The Guardian'', 2 March 2005. In 1972, she was awarded Trinidad and Tobago's Hummingbird Silver Medal for "outstanding services to the immigrant community in the United Kingdom". In 1992, she was an interviewee in the two-part

BBC television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

documentary ''Black and White in Colour'', directed by

Isaac Julien Sir Isaac Julien (born 21 February 1960Annette Kuhn"Julien, Isaac (1960–)" BFI Screen Online.) is a British installation artist, filmmaker, and distinguished professor of the arts at UC Santa Cruz. Early life Julien was born in the East End ...

, which examined the contribution of black and Asian people to British television history from the birth of television in 1936 to 1992. In 1995, Connor opened the 12th

International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books, often referred to as The Black Book Fair, was inaugurated in London, England, in April 1982 and continued until 1995, bringing together a number of Black publishers, intellectuals ...

in London. On 20 January 1997, she gave the first talk in the "Life Experience With Britain" series of talks and conversations at the

George Padmore Institute The George Padmore Institute (GPI), founded in 1991 in Stroud Green Road, North London, by John La Rose (1927–2006) and a group of political and cultural activists connected to New Beacon Books,Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, South Africa, where she had gone with Mogotsi for the premiere of the film ''

Sophiatown Sophiatown , also known as Sof'town or Kofifi, is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. Sophiatown was a black cultural hub that was destroyed under apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "apart ...

''. Her funeral took place at St Martin's Church,

Kensal Green Kensal Green is an area in north-west London. It lies mainly in the London Borough of Brent, with a small part to the south within Kensington and Chelsea. Kensal Green is located on the Harrow Road, about miles from Charing Cross. To the w ...

, on 26 February. The Edric and Pearl Connor Papers, 1941–1978, were donated to the

Alma Jordan Library The Alma Jordan Library at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad and Tobago, was named after UWI librarian Dr. Alma Jordan in 2012. The four-storied library is located on the St. Augustine Campus of the UWI. It is the largest of the ...

at 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 ...

, St Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, and a collection of additional related items is housed in the

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...

.Edric and Pearl Connor Papers, 1941–1978
, University of the West Indies, Special Collections.

Early years in Trinidad

Life in London

Cultural activism

Further reading