International African Institute

Under the Imperial Carpet: Essays in Black History 1780-1950 by Rainer Lotz; Ian PeggReview by: Adell PattonAfrica: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 60, No. 1 (1990), pp. 169-170Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1160445 .

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BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS

than 1 million Ghanaian returnees expelled from Nigeria in the early 1980s. Their return may have increased Ghana's population by nearly 10 per cent. Yet Ghana has since recorded annual economic growth (although admittedly from a low base) of around 5 per cent, suggesting that the returnees have brought benefits to the economy rather than been a burden on it.

This book has come out when the prospects look better than for some time for the settlement of conflicts that have produced mass refugee movements. While there is every reason to be cautious, progress towards some kind of resolution of conflicts in Afghanistan, Southern Africa, Indo-China and even Central America and the Middle East-the main regions generating refugee movements-has been made over the last year. Whatever the outcome of these developments, Forced Out provides some much-needed stimulation to the jaded liberal conscience, and a jolt out of 'compassion fatigue'. But let us hope that in the future there may no longer be a need for such a book.

NICHOLAS VAN HEAR London

RAINER LOTZ and IAN PEGG (eds.), Under the Imperial Carpet: essays in black history 1780-1950. Crawley, England: Rabbit Press, 1986, 346 pp., ISBN 0 948775 01 7.

This book, which covers 170 years of the black presence in England, is a pot pourri of narrative, biography and autobiography, covering the major occupations and activi- ties of blacks during the period. The arrival of Sub-Saharan Africans in England, and on equal relations with whites, can be traced back to 1555. The assumption that few blacks lived in Britain prior to the 1950s is without validity. In the eighteenth century the Anglo-African community numbered some 15,000 to 20,000 individuals, and included persons from Africa and representatives of the African diaspora from North America, the Caribbean and mainland Europe. Some underwent professional training for an anticipated return to Africa, thus 'African slave traders sometimes entrusted their children to their White customers to take them to school in England ... several ... returned to the country around Sierra Leone with an English education' (p. 25). Bearing in mind the socially stratified setting, the range of occupations documented is enormous-slaves and servants in the 1700s, writers and classical composers in the 1780s (Ignatius Sancho and Gustava Vasa), sailors in the 1790s and 1800s (observe closely the Trafalgar Square Monument in London), convicts to Australia in the 1820s, missionaries to Africa in the 1800s (the Afro-American Thomas Johnson in the 1870s), medical professionals in the 1870s and 1920s (Dr Robert Wellesley Cole), African merchant princes, and a quintessential composer in the early 1900s (Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, 1875-1912). In the 1940s West Indian musicians achieved recogni- tion through their gramophone releases, there were blacks in the British Army in the 1914-18 war, 'Will Garland's Negro Operetta Company', Mojola Agbebi (1860-1917) and the Independent Church movement in Nigeria, and the Nigerian nationalist Herbert Heelas Macaulay (1864-1946). The chapter on John Mensah Sarbah (1864-1903) reveals the emergence of Gold Coast African Studies-at least sixteen books published in 1874-and the role of scholars such as C. C. Reindorf (1834-1917) and J. B. Danquah (1895-1965) in the reconstruction of the African past.

In a society where racial discrimination was a daily experience, black musical performances increased racial tolerance among the English gentry; it was noted as early as 1783 that 'the Africans ... appear generally to have a natural disposition for music' (p. 20). Acceptance of African musicality helped Afro-American artists to gain bookings in Europe when barriers mitigated against their acceptance in America. In 1872 the Fisk Jubilee Singers won wide acclaim before English audiences with their

than 1 million Ghanaian returnees expelled from Nigeria in the early 1980s. Their return may have increased Ghana's population by nearly 10 per cent. Yet Ghana has since recorded annual economic growth (although admittedly from a low base) of around 5 per cent, suggesting that the returnees have brought benefits to the economy rather than been a burden on it.

This book has come out when the prospects look better than for some time for the settlement of conflicts that have produced mass refugee movements. While there is every reason to be cautious, progress towards some kind of resolution of conflicts in Afghanistan, Southern Africa, Indo-China and even Central America and the Middle East-the main regions generating refugee movements-has been made over the last year. Whatever the outcome of these developments, Forced Out provides some much-needed stimulation to the jaded liberal conscience, and a jolt out of 'compassion fatigue'. But let us hope that in the future there may no longer be a need for such a book.

NICHOLAS VAN HEAR London

RAINER LOTZ and IAN PEGG (eds.), Under the Imperial Carpet: essays in black history 1780-1950. Crawley, England: Rabbit Press, 1986, 346 pp., ISBN 0 948775 01 7.

This book, which covers 170 years of the black presence in England, is a pot pourri of narrative, biography and autobiography, covering the major occupations and activi- ties of blacks during the period. The arrival of Sub-Saharan Africans in England, and on equal relations with whites, can be traced back to 1555. The assumption that few blacks lived in Britain prior to the 1950s is without validity. In the eighteenth century the Anglo-African community numbered some 15,000 to 20,000 individuals, and included persons from Africa and representatives of the African diaspora from North America, the Caribbean and mainland Europe. Some underwent professional training for an anticipated return to Africa, thus 'African slave traders sometimes entrusted their children to their White customers to take them to school in England ... several ... returned to the country around Sierra Leone with an English education' (p. 25). Bearing in mind the socially stratified setting, the range of occupations documented is enormous-slaves and servants in the 1700s, writers and classical composers in the 1780s (Ignatius Sancho and Gustava Vasa), sailors in the 1790s and 1800s (observe closely the Trafalgar Square Monument in London), convicts to Australia in the 1820s, missionaries to Africa in the 1800s (the Afro-American Thomas Johnson in the 1870s), medical professionals in the 1870s and 1920s (Dr Robert Wellesley Cole), African merchant princes, and a quintessential composer in the early 1900s (Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, 1875-1912). In the 1940s West Indian musicians achieved recogni- tion through their gramophone releases, there were blacks in the British Army in the 1914-18 war, 'Will Garland's Negro Operetta Company', Mojola Agbebi (1860-1917) and the Independent Church movement in Nigeria, and the Nigerian nationalist Herbert Heelas Macaulay (1864-1946). The chapter on John Mensah Sarbah (1864-1903) reveals the emergence of Gold Coast African Studies-at least sixteen books published in 1874-and the role of scholars such as C. C. Reindorf (1834-1917) and J. B. Danquah (1895-1965) in the reconstruction of the African past.

In a society where racial discrimination was a daily experience, black musical performances increased racial tolerance among the English gentry; it was noted as early as 1783 that 'the Africans ... appear generally to have a natural disposition for music' (p. 20). Acceptance of African musicality helped Afro-American artists to gain bookings in Europe when barriers mitigated against their acceptance in America. In 1872 the Fisk Jubilee Singers won wide acclaim before English audiences with their

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BOOK REVIEWS

'slave songs', which led one troupe member to note that 'At dinner the servants were dismissed and [Prime Minister] Mr Gladstone wanted the honour of serving us to show us how greatly we and our mission were esteemed' (p. 45). The Southern Syncopated Orchestra, which was the first Afro-American jazz orchestra to make a substantial impact in England, introduced the legendary Sidney Bechet to London and Paris in 1919.

1919 was also important for another reason-race riots in Britain and the United States. By this time there were some seven black organisations under the control of elites and students in Britain. There is scope here for comparative work both on the way the riots were perceived in the press on both sides of the Atlantic, and on attitudes towards black organisations (notably attitudes towards black organisations in Britain compared to press perceptions of the Universal Negro Improvement Associa- tion of Marcus Garvey in the United States).

The book contains rare photographs of black personalities and performances both in England and in Africa. Some of the photos serve to remind us of the short life span of some key members of the African elite. This and inter-racial marriage were two factors that served to restrict the impact of the African heritage abroad and the chances of technology transfer back to Africa. The case of Africanus Horton comes to mind (p. 138).

In dealing with the 'race' issue, the editors might have directed the attention of some contributors to Nancy Stepan, The Ideas of Race in Science: Great Britain 1800-1960 (1982). Monogenecist notions receive scant attention and the phenomenal triumph of polygenesis in the 1850s goes unnoticed. And why was the Afro-American Shakespearian tragedian Ira Aldridge (c. 1807-67) not remembered? Allison Blakely's Russia and the Negro (1986) records that Aldridge became a British citizen in 1863. A Shakespeare Chair was named in his honour at an English university.

A word about the editors and the contributors. They are a mixed group-engineer, development banker, graphic artist, lawyer, medical doctor, musicologist, historian. The multiple subject matter of this book merits such a multiplicity of backgrounds.

The book is valuable as an interdisciplinary contribution to the study of popular culture. Accessible to the general reader, it will also prove indispensable to specialist students of the black diaspora. Orders can be placed through Rabbit Press at 18 Batemans Court, Crawley RH10 6PS.

ADELL PATTON Howard University, USA

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