Una marson &#8211; activist, poet, playwright and broadcaster

Una Marson has a special place in Southwark’s history and it isn’t surprising to find that, in 2009, a Southwark Heritage Blue Plaque was unveiled on her former home in Brunswick Square, Camberwell, writes Stephen Bourne…

More recently she has become the first Black woman in Britain to have a library named in her honour (the launch event took place on 1 February) and she is also featured in the Camberwell Black History Walk, which was launched on Camberwell Green on 3 February.

Born in Jamaica in 1905, when she arrived in London in 1932 she was helped by a fellow Jamaican, Dr Harold Moody, and his family. They offered Una a room in their home at 164 Queen’s Road, Peckham where she was employed as the secretary for Dr Moody’s influential organisation the League of Coloured Peoples.

Una was a feminist who believed in equality for women. In addition to her work as a social activist, Una’s literary pursuits included publishing poetry and plays. These eventually led to her being employed by BBC Radio.

After moving to a new home in Brunswick Square, Camberwell, Una joined the staff of the BBC. During the Second World War, she was one of the most influential women at the BBC. After relocating to a new home in Hampstead, in March 1941 she became the BBC’s first Black woman programme maker.

Through her popular weekly series Calling the West Indies which was broadcast on the BBC’s Empire Service (later the World Service), Una read out messages from West Indian servicemen and women in England to their families and friends in the Caribbean. Listeners throughout the islands gathered in front of their radios to listen to Una’s broadcasts, hoping to hear from their loved ones.

It was the time of the London Blitz but, despite the air raids, Una and her guests broadcast from BBC Broadcasting House near Oxford Circus. Although it was dangerous, Una understood the importance and value of Calling the West Indies.

Towards the end of 1942, Una took part in George Orwell’s BBC Radio series Voice. This enabled poets and novelists to read their work on the air. Afterwards Una devised her own literary series, based on Orwell’s format, by transforming a segment of Calling the West Indies into ‘Caribbean Voices’, a literary item that was influential in shaping the future of the literary development of the Caribbean.

‘Caribbean Voices’ was a landmark because at that time very few poets and playwrights from the West Indies had been published. It gave them opportunities to raise their profile – and earn some money.

It is now recognised as the single most important literary catalyst for both creative and critical writings in the Caribbean. In schools in the Caribbean, students were taught the works of English literary figures such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Keats and Yeats. No West Indian writers were acknowledged, and no one was encouraged to write in Jamaican patois. ‘Caribbean Voices’ helped to change this.