Una Marson facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Una Marson
Marson reading a copy of The West Indian Radio Newspaper, during WWII
Born	Una Maud Victoria Marson (1905-02-06)6 February 1905 Santa Cruz, Jamaica
Died	6 May 1965(1965-05-06) (aged 60) Kingston, Jamaica
Nationality	Jamaican
Occupation	Writer and activist
Known for	Producer of Caribbean Voices on BBC World Service

Una Marson (born February 6, 1905 – died May 6, 1965) was an important Jamaican writer, activist, and feminist. She wrote poems, plays, and radio shows.

Una Marson was the first Black woman to work for the BBC during World War II. She went to London in 1932. In 1942, she started producing a radio show called Calling the West Indies.

She later changed this show into Caribbean Voices. This program became a very important place for writers from the Caribbean to share their work.

Her biographer, Delia Jarrett-Macauley, called her the first "Black British feminist to speak out against racism and sexism in Britain."

Una Marson's Early Life (1905–1932)

Una Marson was born on February 6, 1905, in Sharon village, near Santa Cruz, Jamaica. She was the youngest of six children. Her father, Rev. Solomon Isaac Marson, was a Baptist minister.

Una had a middle-class upbringing. She was very close to her father. He inspired some of the father figures in her later stories. As a child, Una loved to read English classic books.

When she was 10, Una started at Hampton High, a girls' boarding school. Her father was on the school's board. However, her father died that same year.

Her family faced money problems and moved to Kingston. Una finished school at Hampton High but did not go to college. After school, she worked as a volunteer social worker in Kingston.

She used her secretarial skills, like shorthand. Her first job was with the Salvation Army.

Becoming a Writer and Editor

In 1926, Una Marson became an assistant editor. She worked for a Jamaican political magazine called Jamaica Critic. This job taught her a lot about journalism.

It also shaped her ideas about politics and society. This experience made her want to start her own publication. In 1928, she became Jamaica's first female editor and publisher.

Her magazine was called The Cosmopolitan. It featured articles about women's rights and local social issues. It also covered workers' rights. The magazine was for young, middle-class Jamaicans.

Una's articles encouraged women to work and be active in politics. The magazine also shared Jamaican poetry and literature. These works came from her friends in the Jamaican Poetry League.

In 1930, Una published her first poetry book, Tropic Reveries. It was about love and nature, with some feminist ideas. It won the Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica.

In 1931, The Cosmopolitan stopped publishing due to money problems. This led Una to publish more poems and plays. Her next poetry book, Heights and Depths, also came out in 1931.

It explored themes of love and social issues. In 1931, she wrote her first play, At What a Price. It was about a Jamaican girl who moves to Kingston. She works as a stenographer and falls in love.

The play was performed in Jamaica and later in London. It received good reviews. In 1932, Una decided to go to London. She wanted to reach a wider audience for her work.

Una Marson's London Years (1932–1936)

When Una Marson first arrived in the UK in 1932, she faced challenges. The "colour bar" made it hard for her to find work. This was a system of racial discrimination.

She actively campaigned against it. She stayed in Peckham, south-east London. She lived with Harold Moody, who started a civil rights group. This group was called The League of Coloured Peoples.

The League helped produce Una's play At What a Price in London. This happened in the winter of 1932–33. The play had first been performed in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1932.

This drama tells the story of Ruth Maitland. She is a young woman who leaves her country home. Ruth moves to Kingston to work as a stenographer. She falls in love with her white boss.

The play opened in London at the YWCA Central Club Hall on November 23, 1933. It ran for four more nights in January 1934. These shows were at the Scala Theatre in London.

Critics noticed the many different backgrounds and accents of the Black actors. They played all twenty roles, including two white characters. The cast included artists and activists from many countries.

From 1932 to 1945, Una Marson traveled between London and Jamaica. She continued to be involved in politics. Instead of writing for magazines, she wrote for newspapers.

She also used her own literary works to share her political ideas. During these years, Una kept writing to support women's rights. She also began to focus on issues faced by Black people in England.

The racism and sexism she found in the UK changed her life. It also changed her poetry. Her poems started to focus more on the identity of Black women in England.

She wrote about women's roles in society. She also added the challenges faced by Black people living in England.

Una Marson was also part of the London branch of the International Alliance of Women. This was a global organization for women's rights. By 1935, she was involved with this group in Istanbul.

Una Marson's Return to Jamaica (1936–1938)

Una Marson returned to Jamaica in 1936. One of her main goals was to promote Jamaican literature. To do this, she helped create the Kingston Readers and Writers Club.

She also helped start the Kingston Drama Club. Una also founded the Jamaica Save the Children Fund. This group raised money to help poorer children get a basic education.

To promote Jamaican literature, Una published Moth and the Star in 1937. Many poems in this book showed that Black women should be proud of their beauty. This was important because media often showed white beauty as superior.

This idea is seen in poems like "Cinema Eyes" and "Little Brown Girl." It also appears in "Black is Fancy" and "Kinky Hair Blues."

Una Marson also worked with Louise Bennett on a play called London Calling. This play was about a woman who moved to London for her education. However, she missed home and returned to Jamaica.

The play showed the main character as a "strong heroine." She was brave enough to go back to London to finish her studies. Una also wrote for the feminist column in Public Opinion.

Una Marson's third play was Pocomania. It is about a woman named Stella who seeks an exciting life. Critics say this play is important. It shows how an "Afro-religious cult" affects middle-class women.

Pocomania is one of Una's most important works. She put the true spirit of Jamaican culture into it. Critics like Ivy Baxter said Pocomania was a new kind of play. It talked about a cult from the countryside.

This play marked a change in what was acceptable on stage.

In 1937, Una Marson wrote a poem called "Quashie comes to London." It shows England from a Caribbean point of view. In Caribbean dialect, quashie means someone who is easily fooled or simple.

At first, Quashie is impressed by England. But then he becomes unhappy because there isn't enough good food. The poem shows that while England has good things, Quashie misses Jamaican culture.

Una suggests that England is just a "temporary place for entertainment." The poem also showed how a writer could use Caribbean dialect. This use of local language made Quashie's view of England a true Caribbean one.

Una Marson's Later London Years (1938–1945)

Una Marson went back to London in 1938. She continued her work on the Jamaican Save the Children project. She also joined the staff of the Jamaican Standard newspaper.

In March 1940, Una published an article. It was called "We Want Books - But Do We Encourage Our Writers?" It appeared in Public Opinion, a political newspaper. She wrote it to encourage Caribbean pride through literature.

In 1941, the BBC Empire Service hired her. She worked on a program called Calling the West Indies. In this show, messages from World War II soldiers were read to their families.

By 1942, she became the producer of the program.

In the same year, Una changed the program to Caribbean Voices. This show became a place where Caribbean writers could have their work read on the radio. Through this show, Una met many famous people.

These included writers like Langston Hughes and George Orwell. Orwell even helped Una edit the program before she changed it to Caribbean Voices. She also became good friends with Mary Treadgold.

Mary later took over Una's role when Una returned to Jamaica. Even with these experiences, Una often felt isolated. Her poetry and biography show she remained a bit of an outsider.

Una Marson's radio program, Caribbean Voices, was later produced by Henry Swanzy. He took over after she went back to Jamaica.

Una Marson's Life After World War II (1945–1965)

Not much is known about Una Marson's life after 1945. In 1945, she published a poetry book called Towards the Stars. This book showed a change in her poetry's focus.

She used to write about sadness over lost love. But poems from Towards the Stars focused more on the independent woman. Her work outside of writing seemed to support these ideas.

However, there are different stories about what she did.

One source says Una Marson was a secretary for the Pioneer Press. This was a publishing company in Jamaica for Jamaican authors. This source believes she moved to Washington, DC in the 1950s.

There, she supposedly married a dentist named Peter Staples. They later divorced. After that, Una traveled to England and Israel. Then she returned to Jamaica.

She died at age 60 in May 1965, after a heart attack. She was buried in Kingston.

Another source tells a different story. It says Una Marson founded the Pioneer Press after being discharged from a hospital. This source claims she spent time in the US in the 1950s.

After this, Una returned to Jamaica. She spoke out against unfair treatment of Rastafarians. She then went to Israel for a women's conference. She talked about this experience on her last BBC radio show, Woman's Hour.

These different stories show that there is not much clear information about Una Marson's personal life. Many of her writings from this time were not published. They were only shared in Jamaica.

Most of these writings are kept in a special collection. It is at the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston. Because of this, it is hard to fully understand all of Una Marson's achievements in her last two decades.

Una Marson's Legacy

Una Marson's poetry was included in a 1992 book. This book was called Daughters of Africa. It was put together by Margaret Busby.

In 1998, Delia Jarrett-Macauley published a full biography of Una Marson. It was called The Life of Una Marson, 1905–1965.

On October 10, 2021, Una Marson was honored with a Google Doodle. This is a special drawing on the Google search page.

In October 2021, the London Borough of Southwark announced a new library. It will be called the Una Marson Library. It will open in 2022 in south London. This honors Una Marson as a "local hero."

In 2022, Lenny Henry's company made a TV show. It was called Una Marson, Our Lost Caribbean Voice. It was shown on BBC Two. In the show, Delia Jarrett-Macauley asked: "How could we have let someone of Una Marson's calibre just disappear?"