Roger Mais (; 11 August 1905 – 21 June 1955) was a Jamaican journalist, novelist, poet, and playwright. He was born to a middle-class family in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Interna ...

. By 1951, he had won ten first prizes in West Indian literary competitions.Hawthorne, Evelyn J. "The Writer and the Nationalist Model", ''Roger Mais and the Decolonization of Caribbean Culture'', NY: Peter Lang, 1989, p. 7. His integral role in the development of political and cultural nationalism is evidenced in his being awarded the high honour of the

Order of Jamaica The Order of Jamaica is the fifth of the six orders in the Jamaican honours system. The Order was established in 1969, and it is considered the equivalent of a knighthood in the British honours system. Membership in the Order can be conferred upon ...

in 1978.

Biography

Roger Mais was born in

, where he was educated at

Calabar High School Calabar High School is an All-boys school, all-male secondary school in Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica. It was established by the Jamaica Baptist Union in 1912 for the children of Baptist ministers. It was named after the Kalabari Kingdom ...

. He worked at various times as a photographer, insurance salesman, and journalist,Michael Hughes, ''A Companion to West Indian Literature'', Collins, 1979, pp. 83–85. launching his journalistic career as a contributor to the weekly newspaper ''Public Opinion'' from 1939 to 1952, which was associated with the

People's National Party The People's National Party (PNP) is a social-democratic political party in Jamaica, founded in 1938 by independence campaigner Osmond Theodore Fairclough. It holds 14 of the 63 seats in the House of Representatives, as 96 of the 227 local g ...

. He also wrote several plays, reviews, and short stories for Edna Manley's cultural journal, ''Focus,'' and the newspaper, ''The Daily Gleaner;'' his topics most frequently were the social injustice and inequality suffered by black, poor Jamaicans. He appealed to his local audience on grounds to push for a national identity and agitate against colonialism.Brathwaite, Kamau. "Roger Mais", ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'', vol. 125: ''Caribbean and Black African Writers,'' second series. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993, p. 79. Mais published more than a hundred short stories, most appearing in ''Public Opinion'' and ''Focus.'' Other stories are collected in ''Face and Other Stories'' and ''And Most of All Man,'' published in the 1940s. Mais' play ''George William Gordon'' was also published in the 1940s, focusing on a politician and martyr of the

Morant Bay Rebellion The Morant Bay Rebellion (11 October 1865) began with a protest march to the courthouse by hundreds of people led by preacher Paul Bogle in Morant Bay, Jamaica. Some were armed with sticks and stones. After seven men were shot and killed by t ...

of 1865. It played an important role in the rehabilitation of the eponymous character. In conventional colonial history Gordon was described as a rebel and traitor, but on the centenary of the rebellion, he was declared to be a Jamaican National Hero. On 11 July 1944, Roger Mais published an article titled "Now We Know," a denunciation of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

, in ''Public Opinion'', in which he claimed that it was now clear that the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

was not a fight for freedom but a war to preserve imperial privilege and exploitation: "That the sun may never set upon privilege, repression and exploitation and upon the insolence and arrogance of one race to all others... That the sun may never set upon the great British tradition of Democracy which chains men and women and little children with more than physical chains, chains of ignorance and the apathy of the underfed, and the submissiveness, which is a spiritual sickness in the thews and sinews of a man; chains them in dungeons of gold mines and silver mines and diamond mines, and upon sugar plantations, and upon rubber plantations and tea plantations. For the great idea of Democracy which relegates all "niggers" of whichever race, to their proper place in the scheme of political economy." Accused of sedition for writing this denunciation of

Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...

's declaration that the end of the Second World War would not mean the end of the British Empire, the Jamaican novelist was tried, convicted, and imprisoned for six months. This period was instrumental in his development of his first novel, '' The Hills Were Joyful Together'' (1953), a work about working-class life in 1940s Kingston. "Why I Love and Leave Jamaica", an article written in 1950, also stirred emotions in readers. It characterized the bourgeoisie and the "philistines" as shallow and criticized their influential role on art and culture. In addition, Mais wrote more than thirty stage and radio plays. The plays ''Masks and Paper Hats'' and ''Hurricane'' were performed in 1943, ''Atlanta in Calydon'' in 1950; ''The Potter's Field'' was published in ''Public Opinion'' (1950), and ''The First Sacrifice'' in ''Focus'' (1956). Mais left Jamaica for England in 1952. He lived in

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

, then in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and for a time in the south of France. He took an alias, Kingsley Croft, and showcased an art exhibition in Paris. His artwork also appeared on the covers of his novels. In 1953, his novel '' The Hills Were Joyful Together'' was published by

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...

in London. Soon afterwards, ''

Brother Man ''Brother Man'' (1954) is a novel by Jamaican author and journalist Roger Mais, about a Christ-like wise-man and folk Rastafarian healer, 'Bra' Man' (in dialect) John Power. The book is significant as the first serious representation of the Ras ...

'' (1954) was published, a sympathetic exploration of the emergent Rastafarian movement. The next year ''Black Lightning'' was published. While Mais' first two novels had urban settings, ''Black Lightning'' (1955) featured an artist living in the countryside. In 1955 Mais was forced to return to Jamaica after falling ill with cancer; he died that same year in Kingston at the age of 50. In 1968 he was posthumously awarded the Musgrave Gold Medal by the

Institute of Jamaica The Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), founded in 1879, is the country's most significant cultural, artistic and scientific organisation:John Hearne. Many of Mais' manuscripts have been deposited in the library of 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 ...

, Jamaica and there is an online collection. The University of the West Indies, Trinidad also holds a Roger Mais Collection.

Novels

'' The Hills Were Joyful Together'' (1953) is written in the style of a narrative. It takes place in a "yard" consisting of individuals and families living in a confinement of shacks shaped squarely, leaving a yard in the center. In this yard, daily and public life of the tenement unfolds. Mais took inspiration from Trinidadian

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 ...

's novel ''

Minty Alley ''Minty Alley'' is a novel written by Trinidadian writer C. L. R. James in the late 1920s, and published in London by Secker & Warburg in 1936, as West Indian literature was starting to flourish. It was the first novel by a black West Indian to ...

'' and short story "Triumph", which illustrated "yard" life. Mais's ''The Hills Were Joyful Together'' is basically a depiction of slum life, portraying the upset of poverty in these yards. Mais claimed that he was "concerned with setting down objectively the hopes, fears, ndfrustrations of these people".Hawthorne, p. 17. He wanted the novel to be "essentially realistic, even to the point of seeming violent, rude, expletive, functional, primitive, raw". ''

'' (London: Cape, 1954) was hailed as a statement of protest, as well as a major contributor to an indigenous aesthetic. Mais was interested in the creole, the political reconstructionism of the 1930s, and the sociocultural problems of the urban poor. There was talk about a renewed self-government and the formation of a West Indian federation, provoking writers and intellectuals from the region to reflect on this optimistic future and to search for forms to give it a local face. ''Brother Man'' was Mais's contribution to this movement. The novel is situated in Kingston's slums. It portrays the daily condition of poverty of the society, particularly in the urban "tenement yards."

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 ...

refers to this as the "jazz novel", where the "words are 'notes' that develop into riffs, themes, and 'choruses,' themselves part of a call/response design based on the aesthetic principle of solo/duo/trio improvisations, with a return, at the end of each 'chorus,' to the basic group/ensemble community." Unlike the first two novels, ''Black Lightning'' (1955) takes place in the countryside. The novel centers on Jake, a blacksmith and a sculptor. He looks to Samson as a model of a man's independence and decides to carve a structure of Samson in

mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Univ ...

. But when his wife elopes with another man, Jake's finished sculpture comes out as a blinded Samson leaning on a little boy. Jake is then blinded by lightning and has to depend on his friends to live. The tragic discovery of his dependence on humanity eventually drives Jake to his suicidal death.

Political involvement

In 1938, major riots and uprising broke out all throughout the Caribbean islands (primarily in Jamaica,

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, and

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 southernmo ...

). In Jamaica, riots emerged in the 1938

Montego Bay Montego Bay is the capital of the parish of St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth-largest urban area in the country by population, after Kingston, Spanish Town, and Portmore, all of which form the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area, h ...

and among the banana loaders, firemen, and sanitation workers in Kingston. It was in Kingston, where Mais was headed to volunteer to help quell the rioting, that he had an apparent change of heart. He seemingly emerged with a completely alternative mindset, as explained in John Hearne's 1955 "A Personal Memoir", and took the side of the workers/rioters. Many saw this as the event that spurred Mais' political involvement. At the end of this critical year, new leaders, including Mais, appropriately emerged to direct and push for political and social changes.Hawthorne. Roger Mais' works, which include short stories, plays, reviews, and "think pieces" among other genres, all generally have a political undertone to some degree. He contributed to a left-wing political newspaper called ''Public Opinion'' from 1939 to 1952 before he left Jamaica. The other writers of the post-1930s had similar ambitions, a period being characterized as "a more determined and confident nationalism." His stories appeared in ''Public Opinion'' and ''Focus'', two journalistic publications. He also published two collections, ''Face and Other Stories'' and ''And Most of All Man''. His main concerns were social injustice/inequality and colonialism. His stories and poems have been described as "propaganda", where he illustrated poverty to the full extent. Some have gone so far as to say that his works were "weapons of war", dealt "in a long and famous stream of realism" (

Norman Washington Manley Norman Washington Manley (4 July 1893 – 2 September 1969) was a Jamaican statesman who served as the first and only Premier of Jamaica. A Rhodes Scholar, Manley became one of Jamaica's leading lawyers in the 1920s. Manley was an advocate ...

). This sort of realism allowed for his readers/audience to understand the poverty in a way which was brutally honest. Examples of these works are '' The Hills Were Joyful Together'' and ''Brother Man''. He adamantly denounced England as "exploitive", "enslaving", and disloyal and

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...

for "hypocrisy and deception". Subsequently, Mais was charged with sedition and sentenced to a six-month sentence. The Jamaican public was sympathetic to his imprisonment and helped to incite controversy and public commotion. It is in this sense that Mais was able to involve the

Rastafari movement Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control ...

, a Jamaican cultural movement, in his novel ''Brother Man'', in which he is able to identify with the anti-colonialism and afrocentrism of the Rastafari movement. Arguably, another important political contribution was his work to build a national identity, and he did this by: "'nativizing' the subjects and concerns of his writing", "supplying a corrective to colonialism by ..reclaiming subverted or disregarded histories", and "gave authority to the island's language and voice" (Hawthorne). This essentially means he would intentionally present protagonists that spoke in the local West Indian dialect to connect with his local audience, a significant change in attitude from previous works by other authors. Mais would also include nationalist propaganda demonstrating forgotten Jamaican culture and history. Other similar influential writers of Jamaican heritage include Vera Bell, Claude Thompson,

Una Marson Una Maud Victoria Marson (6 February 1905 – 6 May 1965) was a Jamaican feminist, activist and writer, producing poems, plays and radio programmes. She travelled to London in 1932 and became the first black woman to be employed by the BBC d ...

, John Hearne, Philip Sherlock,

John Figueroa John Joseph Maria Figueroa (4 August 1920 – 5 March 1999) was a Jamaican poet and educator.Pamela Beshoff"Obituary: John Figueroa" ''The Independent'', 11 March 1999. He played a significant role in the development of Anglophone Caribbean lite ...

, and Louise Bennett-Coverly.

Influences

Raised into a middle-class family with full access to "cultured" traditions, Mais often incorporated a romantic idea into his writings.Hawthorne, p. 21. He drew from his Western education inspirations that lead to his use of "tragic," "visionary," and "poetic" elements within books and plays. His belief in individualism and the writer's freedom to pursue imagination are reflected in many of his early works. However, Mais later recognized the tension between his colonial heritage and the nationalist movement and changed direction. By adopting a realistic stance, Mais decided to assume a literary style that would be more representative of the Caribbean national consciousness.Hawthorne, p. 23. This particular form allowed Mais to present "unambiguous, direct truths about the people and culture." Many of his later novels thus portray sufferings and despairs undergone by people living under colonialism. One inspiration that he wove into his writings sprang from the 1938 People's National Party that was launched by

Norman Manley Norman Washington Manley (4 July 1893 – 2 September 1969) was a Jamaican statesman who served as the first and only Premier of Jamaica. A Rhodes Scholar, Manley became one of Jamaica's leading lawyers in the 1920s. Manley was an advocat ...

. The movement aimed to grant Jamaica self-government, which sparked concurrent enthusiasm within the literary field. Besides Roger Mais another author, Vic Reid also incorporated into his works Manley's ambitious drive to independence. Reid's novel '' New Day'' is a historical account of Jamaica from 1865 to 1944. Like Mais, Reid finds primary sources particularly useful in modeling political messages into stories.

Mais and Caribbean drama

During the 1930s, the first endeavours were made to write and introduce plays related to Caribbean life. Before that period, plays were European-based, with European actors as well. Shows consisted of ''

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with ''Ham ...

'' and reading of Shakespearian plays, but progress towards expressing Caribbean life was being made. The year symbolized an advance for Caribbean theatre. The desire to represent local life and history of the Caribbeans onstage were produced, and the theatre's capability to entertain and to raise concerning questions were acknowledged.Banham, Hill, Woodyard, p. 148. ''George William Gordon'' acts as a representation for the lower class, alluding to the oppressions they were forced to endure throughout the play. The form of ''George William Gordon'' indicates that the scenes are meant to be performed in public. Therefore, the play not only represents the people, but also functions as a voice for the people so that their cries can be heard. The unfair court system, the low wages and their repercussions are stated clearly in the work by anonymous persons acting as a uniting voice for the people. It forms an identity for the Black underclass majority, which was Mais's ultimate goal in his work.

Selected bibliography

William Gordon''
manuscript for play, from the

* ''And Most of All Man''. Kingston: City Printery. * ''Face and Other Stories'' (1946). Kingston: Universal Printery. * '' The Hills Were Joyful Together'' (1953). London: Jonathan Cape. * ''

'' (1954). London: Jonathan Cape. * ''Black Lightning'' (1955). London: Jonathan Cape. * "George William Gordon", in

Errol Hill Errol Gaston Hill (5 August 1921 – 16 September 2003) was a Trinidadian-born playwright, actor and theatre historian, "one of the leading pioneers in the West Indies theatre".Michael Hughes, ''A Companion to West Indian Literature'', Collins, 1979 ...

(ed.), ''A Time... and a Season: 8 Caribbean Plays'', Trinidad: University of the West Indies Press, 1976.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mais, Roger 1905 births 1955 deaths People from Kingston, Jamaica Jamaican dramatists and playwrights Male dramatists and playwrights Jamaican journalists Male journalists 20th-century Jamaican novelists Jamaican male novelists 20th-century Jamaican poets Jamaican male poets Members of the Order of Jamaica 20th-century dramatists and playwrights Recipients of the Musgrave Medal 20th-century male writers 20th-century journalists People educated at Calabar High School