Abstract
Uncomfortable history tends to be neglected history: yet literary voices provide evidence of enhanced racial awareness, even when they exist only as ‘traces.’ Yet incomplete personal stories can still add a human dimension to economic and political issues. Changes in perceived identity emerged during 1919–1922, in the context of the dismal employment situation in merchant shipping. Almost all written statements mentioned poverty—whether in Britain, Africa, or the West Indies. Written communications were used as a means of self-defence but also as an attack: ‘Why should this Government make flesh of one class of His Most Gracious Britannic Majesty’s subjects and bone of others?’, asked William McIntyre. When it came to mixed marriages, white wives remained fiercely loyal to their husbands.
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Chapman, J.L. (2018). Repatriation Testimonies as Uncomfortable History. In: African and Afro-Caribbean Repatriation, 1919–1922. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68813-8_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68813-8_4
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