African Heritage

These pages are about some of the greatest literary Africans and people of African heritage. Toussaint L'Overture is included not because he was a great general who defeated the revolutionary armies of France and their Napoleonic cousins, though of course he did. And not because he defeated Prime Minister William Pitt's dastardly Haitian colonial schemes and his troops, though he did that too. He's included because he inspired CLR James, the greatest West Indian writer of his age, to pen a play and biography. There isn't enough space in this tiny introduction to praise Mary Seacole, Mary Prince, Olaudah Equiano and all of the other heroes who deserve to be praised here. But in the following pages there is more room and each receives a lengthy discussion.