Guyana SPEAKS: Black History Month

Sunday 31 October 2021

Three distinguished guests: Claudia Tomlinson, Arthur Torrington CBE and Professor John R. Rickford on Black History & Heritage.

 

Presentation Title: ‘Jessica Huntley: Pan-African Revolutionary Woman: The First Thirty Years This talk is based on the speaker’s Ph.D. research and charts the first thirty years in the life of Guyanese-born anti-colonial politician, reformer, publisher Jessica Huntley (1927-2013). It examines the socio-history of African-Guyanese people between 1900 and 1958, looking at her personal and political context, and her battle against personal oppression in then British Guiana. It examines her rise from one of Georgetown’s most notorious tenement yards, to become one of the most prominent figures in Guyana’s fight for liberation in the 1950s.

Presenter biography: Claudia Tomlinson was born in London but brought up in Stewartville, Guyana, and later in London. She has written for various outlets including the Huffington Post UK, and the Independent Voices, History Matters Journal, and Stabroek News. An anti-racist campaigner, and creative writer, she has published the novelette Kaieteur Sky. She has completed a short biography of Jessica Huntley as a master’s degree project and is currently completing a Ph. D at the University of Chichester entitled: ‘Jessica Huntley, A Political History of Radical Black Activism in British Guiana and Britain (1927 – 2013)’.