The Individual and Society

16

Blackout

Roger Mais

Roger Mais (1905–1955) was born into a ‘brown’ middle class family in Kingston, Jamaica. He became a short story writer, journalist, poet, playwright, painter and novelist at a time when a writing career was unusual for any West Indian. His sympathy for the black underprivileged majority led him to join the freedom fighters during the workers’ protests and uprisings of 1938. He was imprisoned for six months for writing an anti-British satire Now We Know (1944). He published two collections of short stories in about 1940, And Most of all Man and Face and other Stories. His novels include The Hills were Joyful Together (1953), Brother Man (1954) and Black Lightning (1955). He died of cancer at the age of 49.

‘Blackout’ ...