Hello, you're very welcome to Long Reans, a Jacuban podcast where we look in depth at political

topics and thinkers. My name is Daniel Finn, and I'll be presenting the show at Jacuban.

CLore James was one of the great political and intellectual figures of the 20th century.

Born in Trinidad, James spent much of his life in Britain and the US. His long career

is a writer and activist brought him into contact with everyone from Paul Robeson and Richard

Rice to Eric Williams and Kwame and Krumah. James wrote several books including his study of

cricket beyond a boundary, a pioneering exercise in the social history of sports. But he still

best remembered for his classic account of the slave revolt in Haiti, the Black Jacubans.

Christopher Columbus landed first in the new world at the island of San Salvador and after

praising God, inquired urgently for gold. The natives, Red Indians, were peaceable and friendly

and directed him to Haiti, a large island, nearly as large as Ireland, rich they said in the yellow

metal. He sailed to Haiti. One of his ships being wrecked, the Haitian Indians helped him so willingly

that very little was lost and of the articles which they brought on shore, not one was stolen.

The Spaniards, the most advanced Europeans of their day and next day Ireland called it his

panola and took the backward natives under their protection. They introduced Christianity,

forced labour in mines, murder, rape, bloodhounds, strange diseases and artificial famine by the

destruction of cultivation to start the rebellious. These and other requirements of the higher civilization

reduced the native population from an estimated half a million, perhaps a million, to 60,000 in 15 years.

That was James himself reading the unforgettable opening paragraphs of the Black Jacubans.

Our guest today is Paul Pula. Paul was the author of a pioneering biographical study,

CLOR James, the artist as revolutionary, published shortly before James died in 1988.

Paul spoke to us from his home and you can also hear his birds from time to time on this recording.

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