The Lamplighter

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by Jackie Kay


  BLACK HARRIOT:

  Eyes steady

  MARY:

  Mouth open

  CONSTANCE:

  Words ready

  ANNIWAA:

  To be spoken

  BLACK HARRIOT:

  This is not the end

  LAMPLIGHTER:

  Only when I turned and faced her,

  Standing there like that,

  Could I begin to tell this story.

  ANNIWAA:

  I am a girl. I am in the dark. I don’t know how long I’ve been kept in the dark. High above me, there is a tiny crack of light. Last time I counted, I was eleven, nearly twelve.

  CONSTANCE:

  Eventually I got my freedom.

  I had to work to buy my shack,

  Had to pay them back for

  My own work!

  I became Aunty to all the children.

  All children are my grandchildren.

  Sometimes I tell them the stories.

  Sometimes, I sit quiet.

  I’m just hearing where the breeze is coming from.

  MARY:

  You know the funny thing?

  Big Man is dead. Houselady dead.

  The driver is dead. The overseer man passed

  Away last autumn. And me Mary

  Who hardly ate a thing

  And was beaten till

  An inch of my life.

  I survived! Trust in Jesus!

  I survived them all.

  LAMPLIGHTER:

  Nobody told my story.

  ANNIWAA:

  I don’t know how long I’ll be kept in the dark.

  ALL:

  HushShhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

  MACBEAN:

  She never said a word.

  LAMPLIGHTER:

  This is my story.

  ANNIWAA:

  I am a girl.

  CONSTANCE:

  One day I would like to tell my grandchildren.

  If I could find them; I would tell them.

  BLACK HARRIOT:

  This sure as hell is my story!

  MARY:

  This happened to me, the Lord knows it’s the truth.

  ANNIWAA:

  Once upon a time, I lived in a house with a cone-shaped roof, in a big compound. My mother grew okra and pumpkin in her yard. My father shaped woods and metals.

  USEFUL SOURCES & FURTHER READING

  Quobna Ottobah Cugoano: Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery (Penguin Classics)

  Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Written by Himself (Wilder Publications)

  The Narrative of Sojourner Truth Dictated by Sojourner Truth (Penguin Classics)

  The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave related by Herself (Wilder Publications)

  Afua Cooper: The Hanging of Angelique: the untold story of Canadian Slavery (University of Georgia Press)

  Hugh Thomas: The Slave Trade: The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade (Simon & Schuster)

  Adam Hochschild: Bury the Chains (Houghton Mifflin)

  C.L.R. James: The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (Vintage)

  Eric Williams: Capitalism and Slavery (Cambridge University Press)

  James Walvin: Britain’s Slave Empire (Wiley-Blackwell)

  James Walvin: Black Ivory: History of British Slavery (Fontana)

  Robin Blackburn: The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery 1776-1848 (Verso)

  Hilary Beckles: Natural Rebels: A Social History of Enslaved Black Women in Barbados (Rutgers University Press)

  Lucille Mathurin Mair, Hilary Beckles & Verene A. Shepherd: Historical Study of Women in Jamaica, 1655-1844 (University of West Indies Press)

  Catherine Hall: White, Male, and Middle Class: Explorations in Feminism and History (Polity Press)

  Joseph Opala: The Gullah: Rice, slavery and the Sierra Leone-American connection (USIS)

  Nigel Pocock: Liverpool Boom, People and Places Connected with Slavery in Liverpool and Lancaster (Soma Books Ltd)

  S.D. Smith: Slavery, Family, and Gentry Capitalism in the British Atlantic (Cambridge University Press)

  Madge Dresser: Slavery Obscured: The Social History of the Slave Trade in an English Provincial Port (Continuum International Publishing Group)

  S.I. Martin: Britain’s Slave Trade (Channel 4 Books)

  Guy Grannum: Tracing Your West Indian Ancestors (Public Record Office Publications)

  Pam Fraser Solomon: Enslavement a Timeline

  Simon Schama: Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution (Eco)

  Trade and Empire: Remembering Slavery (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester), curators Su Andi, Kevin R.U. Dalton-Johnson, Emma Poulter and Dr Alan Rice

  WEBSITES

  BBC History: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/

  Museum in Dockland: London, Sugar & Slavery: http://www.museumindocklands.org.uk

  Bryan Mawer, Sugar Refiners & Sugarbakers: http://www.mawer.clara.net/intro.html

  Lifeline: The March of the Abolitionist: http://www.lifelineexpedition.co.uk/mota/index.htm

  Anti-Slavery International: Rendezvous of Victory: http://www.antislavery.org/

  Mia Morris: http://www.black-history-month.co.uk/

  International Slavery Museum, Liverpool: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/

  English Heritage: Slavery and Justice Exhibition at Kenwood House: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.13404

  UNESCO: Breaking the Silence – The ASPnet Transatlantic Slave Trade Project: http://portal.unesco.org/education/

  About the Author

  Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh. She is the third modern Makar, the Scottish poet laureate. A poet, novelist and writer of short stories, she has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. Her novel Trumpet won the Guardian Fiction Prize. She is also the author of collections of stories with Picador, Why Don’t You Stop Talking, Wish I Was Here, and Reality, Reality; poetry collections Fiere and Bantam; and a memoir, Red Dust Road. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University, and lives in Manchester, where she is currently Chancellor of the University of Salford.

  ALSO BY JACKIE KAY

  Poetry

  Fiere

  Darling

  Life Mask

  Off Colour

  Other Lovers

  The Adoption Papers

  Bantam

  Fiction

  Reality, Reality

  Wish I Was Here

  Why Don’t You Stop Talking

  Trumpet

  Non-fiction

  Red Dust Road

  First published 2008 by Bloodaxe Books

  Highgreen, Tarset, Northumberland

  First published by Picador 2020

  This electronic edition published 2020 by Picador

  an imprint of Pan Macmillan

  The Smithson, 6 Briset Street, London EC1M 5NR

  Associated companies throughout the world

  www.panmacmillan.com

  ISBN 978-1-5290-3986-3

  Copyright © Jackie Kay 2007, 2008

  Introduction © Jackie Kay 2020

  Audio recording copyright © BBC 2007: A BBC Radio

  Programme licensed by the BBC

  FICTION

  Cover Images Hayden Verry / Arcangel Images and Mansell / Getty Images

  A version of ‘Missing Faces’ was originally published in the Guardian on 24 March 2007.

  The right of Jackie Kay to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third-party websites referred to in or on this book.

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recordi
ng or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Visit www.picador.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.

 

 

 


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