Roger Mais
Roger Mais was a significant Jamaican journalist and novelist, born in 1905 in Kingston, Jamaica. He is primarily recognized for three notable novels that explore themes of post-colonialism, identity, and cultural heritage. Before becoming a writer, Mais worked in the Colonial Civil Service and became politically active during the workers' anti-colonial uprisings of 1938, forming friendships with influential figures like Norman Manley. His early literary works included short stories and poetry, but his most impactful contributions came through his novels: *The Hills Were Joyful Together*, which depicts the struggles of Jamaica's underclass; *Brother Man*, considered a pioneering Rastafarian narrative; and *Black Lightning*, which weaves together African and Greek influences in a quest for spiritual understanding. In addition to his writing, Mais was also an accomplished photographer and painter. Despite facing imprisonment for his political critiques, his legacy endures, with his works continuing to be studied and celebrated for their innovative approaches to Jamaican identity and culture. He passed away in 1955, yet his contributions to Caribbean literature remain influential.
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Subject Terms
Roger Mais
Writer
- Born: August 11, 1905
- Birthplace: Kingston, Jamaica
- Died: June 21, 1955
Biography
Although Roger Mais was a prolific journalist and writer, he is today remembered for three particular novels. He was born into a middle-class family in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1905. He attended Calabar High School and then found employment in the Colonial Civil Service, as Jamaica was still a British colony at the time. He became a journalist and contributor of short stories, plays, and reviews for the Daily Gleaner and the Public Opinion, a left-wing journal. Though raised in a conservative family, his political views became radicalized during the workers’ anti-colonial uprisings of 1938. He became good friends with Norman Manley, a political activist and later chief minister of the island.
Mais’s first collection of short stories and verse, And Most of All Man, was published in 1939, followed by the collections Face, and Other Stories (1942) and Listen, the Wind, and Other Stories, published posthumously (1986). A good deal of his poetry appeared in journals, as did his drama, and remains uncollected. In all he wrote some forty plays for the stage or radio and finished eight novels, though only three of these were published. He was also a photographer and painter and exhibited work not only in his native Jamaica but also in Paris, France. In 1944 he was imprisoned for six months for his essay, “Now We Know,” a fierce satiric attack on the British administration. He finally left Jamaica to live in London, where he was being published, but he failed to produce any work there. He died in Jamaica in 1955.
The first of his well-known novels is The Hills Were Joyful Together, first published in London in 1953. Theatrical in its presentation, it deals with the life of the underclass in Jamaica’s shanty towns. The novel is an optimistic, post- colonial effort to find a genuine African-Caribbean aesthetic. This work was followed the next year by Brother Man, now celebrated as the first novel to embrace the Rastafarian movement. Written in Jamaican dialect, the novel tells of John Power—cobbler, saintly Rasta, and prophet with the power of healing. He becomes a Christ-figure as he and his followers are betrayed in Kingston’s slums. It is a short novel, an anti- traditional work of new West Indian fiction. Writer Kamau Braithwaite described it as a “jazz novel,” with its structures being akin to jazz and pointing toward the native Reggae music that was to emerge as authentic Jamaican music.
Mais’s third novel was Black Lightning (1955). If the first two novels established his reputation, the third novel is often seen as his best. Centered around Jake, a sculptor, Mais incorporates both African and Greek symbols and myths, resulting in a mythopoetic work that further melds the more traditional Biblical typology with Black consciousness. The ultimate search is to see God’s face, thus echoing Promethean, African, and Biblical myth.
Interest in Mais continued after his death. His three novels remained in print and his papers and archives are kept at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.