This unique comic by Milton Knight illuminates the early years of C.L.R.
James (1901-1989), known in much later years as the "last great
Pan-Africanist." The son of a provincial school administrator in
British-governed Trinidad, James disappointed his family by embracing
the culture and passions of the colonial underclass, Carnival and
cricket. He joined the literary avant-garde of the island before leaving
for Britain. In the UK, James swiftly became a beloved cricket
journalist, playwright for his close friend Paul Robeson, and a
pathbreaking scholar of black history with The Black Jacobins (1938),
the first history of the Haitian revolt.
The artistic skills of Milton Knight, at once acute and provocative,
bring out James's unique personality, how it arose, and how he became a
world figure.