Roger Mais was born on 11th August 1905 in Kingston Jamaica to a 'brown', middle-class family. He pursued the career path of being a journalist, novelist, poet and playwright.
Roger Mais had won ten first place prizes in West Indian literary competitions in the year 1951. He played an integral role in the development of political and cultural nationalism and because of this he was awarded the high honor of the 'Order of Jamaica' in 1978.
Mais launched his career as a journalist and contributor for the weekly newspaper 'Public Opinion' from 1939 to 1952. He also wrote several plays, reviews and short stories for the newspaper 'Focus' and 'Jamaica Daily Gleaner', with points focusing mainly on social injustice and inequality.
Mais published over a hundred short stories. He also wrote over thirty stage and radio plays.
Mais left for England in 1952. He ventured to Europe-London, Paris and south of France. There, he remained anonymous, by travelling by the alias Kingsley Croft, as he showcased an art exhibition in Paris. His art works also appear on the covers of his novels.
Mais first novel was called 'The Hills were Joyful Together' then came 'Brother Man', a 1954 novel. It was a sympathetic exploration of the emergent Rastafarian movement that Mais wrote. 'Black Lightning' was published a year later.
In 1955 Mais returned to Jamaica after being diagnosed and falling ill with cancer. He later died at the age of fifty.
Critics Views On The Novel Brother Man
A wide range of notables have been written about Mais from Norman Mangley, to Kamau Brathwaite to Kenneth Ramchand. John Hearne however pondered Mais' persistence.
"How significant a writer is he? To what extent is he a sociological rater than a literary phenomenon?" asked Hearne.
He continued by evaluating Mais' career by stating that as a writer he not only owned very few books, he was also uninterested in seeing plays or visiting museums. Such cultural experiences, according to Hearne, were absolutely essential to "that cultivated sensibility that is central to any artists' development and mastery of material. Roger Mais simply did not know enough and what he knew was not digested."
Hearne's citicism of Mais as a writer raises a series of questions. Hearne was possessed himself of the "cultivated sensibility he believed essential for good writing, why have his own novels not persisted to the present? Are they victims of changed sensibilities in contemporary Jamaica, or are they weak literary creations, too fixed in a distant time and space in ways that do not allow their successful resurrection today?
Hearne also stated that the author's representation of conversational dialogue stinks and he does not believe that this novel or Roger Mais is anyhow experienced or worth reading.
Religious Aspects Of Rastafarianism
Marcus Garvey, born in the year 1887, founded this federation in 1930. He directed the philosophical ideologies that would eventually grow into Rastafarian movement. In the early 1920's, Garvey was an influential black spokesman and founder of the "back to Africa" movement. He often spoke of the redemption of his people as coming from a future black African king.
Rastafarians have no official church buildings or leaders. Each individual group and person is autonomous. Ratsas used terms such as 'Babylon is Jamaica or the establishment and I and I refers to God in all or the rotherhood of mankind.
Rastafarianism is associated with dreadlocks, smoking of marijuana and reggae music. Although it began in the slums of Jamaica, Rastafarianism has spread throughout the world and currently has a membership of over seven hundred thousand.
On one occasion, Garvey proclaimed, "Look to Africa for the coming of a black king, he shall be the Redeemer". Only a few years later, that prediction would be fulfilled in the person on Ethiopia's king, Haile Selassie. It is said that Marcus Garvey is second only to Haile Selassie.
On November 2nd 1930, Ras Tafari Makomen was crowned king of Ethiopia. After the crowning of Selassie, the Rastafarian movement gained a following and officially began in 1930.
One of the key doctrins of Rastafarians had been their expectation to return to Africa.
On August 27th 1975, Haile Selassie died. Rastafarians believed that his death was a fabrication.
Currently, the Rastafarian movement has official branches in England, Canada, the Caribbean and America.
Early in the history of the movement, Leonard Howell (one of the leaders) gave the Rastafarians six principles.
- Hatred for whites
- Complete superiority of the black
- Revenge on whites for their wickedness
- Persecution and humiliation of the government and legal bodies of Jamaica
- Preparation to return to Africa
- Acknowledging Haile Selassie as supreme being and ruler of black people.
It is to this day that Rastafarians do not eat meat because Leonard Howell stated that true Rastafarians are vegetarians. A physical feature of Rastas are dreads for they did not believe in the cutting of ones hair.
