Journey into Black and White

March 30, 2005
By Bukka Rennie

Rupert Gray: A Tale of Black and White

A review by Bukka Rennie

The story of Rupert Gray: A Tale of Black and White, written by a school teacher Stephen Nathaniel Cobham at the turn of the last century (1907 to be exact), is a simple but remarkably related story. A certain Mr Primrose Serle, a well endowed and prosperous White businessman in the colony of Trinidad, takes pride in his successes and his libertine ways and considers himself a friend of the Black race of people whom he praises openly for making strides upwards in the social fabric of the colony.

In fact he considers himself more than a passive supporter and friend of Black people; he feels moreover that he is a benefactor of the downtrodden as he employs a Black accountant, Mr Rupert Gray, in his establishment and encourages this Black protégé, in like manner, to do everything within his power to raise up his fellow Blacks in all their endeavours.

Mr Serle, as was typical of the then times, sends his only offspring Gwendoline abroad to Britain and Europe to fashion her adult blossoming and matriculation. The girl from the colony is refined into a modern 20th century woman with a bigness of spirit and heart and inculcates a sense of social consciousness that is way beyond that which permeates the confines of colony.

Once she returns to the island, her natural stance and posture portend tragedy.

While she is abroad, her father and his junior partner have come over the ensuing years to entrust much of the day-to-day management of the business to the Black accountant who, in perspective, is a progressive social activist committed to being an exemplar and to guiding his fellow Blacks to pull themselves up by their own efforts and by seizing all opportunities presented.

It is this commitment that sees Rupert Gray employing a long lost and then destitute friend, Mr Jacob Canaan Clarke, in the position of tally clerk. Not surprisingly the author gives him the middle name "Canaan," the biblical name for the son of Ham, the supposed historic progenitor of the Black race and, at the same time, the word "canaan" in its original derivative symbolises "a bow-down" or total capitulation.

As the story unfolds, this Jacob Canaan Clarke grows to resent and despise his Black benefactor and conspires to facilitate his benefactor's demise, a behavioural pattern deemed in those days to be a marked characteristic of Blacks.

So strongly is this view felt that the author, in order to emphasise it, places the very sentiments many times over in the speech and responses of both Mr Primrose Serle, representative of liberal Whites and the company's handy-man, Mr Francois Pierre, representative of the Black working masses, and the very antithesis of Mr Serle.

Gwendoline Serle on her return to the colony has by dint of necessity to come in contact with the Black man, Rupert Gray, her father's man of business. In fact, from the very first meeting they are struck by each other and from then there develops a secret love affair of which Jacob Canaan Clarke becomes aware and informs Mr Primrose Serle whose liberal veneer immediately comes apart and whose true core nature is firmly revealed.

As the probability of the physical consummation of this love affair is brought closer home, Mr Primrose Serle—"primrose" being a pale yellow flower that appears in the very first moments of spring and in context of the story signifying the cowardly, weaknesses of the first White libertines—moved quickly from the position of a wishy-washy sentimentalist who deems it "childish" for Blacks to attempt to move upwards too fast to the position of a rabid, active racist of the fascist genre.

At that point he is ready to kill and suffer the consequence of being hanged by the state and he makes it clear by is mad actions that such a love affair will never be allowed as long as he has life and the power to prevent it.

How the author in fact facilitates the wishes of Mr Primrose Serle is the suspense as the story rushes to its climax, twisting and turning in the direction towards one resolution and closure and then amazingly twisting towards another that is much more real and positive.

We advise readers to get the book and discover the end themselves.

The achievement of the author Stephen Cobham lies in the fact that here is a committed Pan Africanist, who in his retirement after 25 years of teaching, produces a work of art to tell a love story that reveals the complexities of colonial society and the objective interplay of race and class factors without being exasperatedly intrusive and preachy and boring.

In this regard there is great joy in reading the author's philosophical formulations or "proverbs" that he throws in after each bit of action that advances the storyline. There are examples of this on almost every page.

On the other hand, his grasp of the language, his ability to use description of environment to underscore the changing mood of his characters and his use of metaphoric imagery as dictated by the landscape of the Caribbean and Trinidad in particular are amazing when one considers that it is 1901, a mere 67 years on since the Emancipation of 1834 and since the refusal of ex-slaves to accept any apprenticeship period on the White-owned plantations.

Cobham's command of the language in this story is evidence that reinforces CLR's view that the people of these islands were quite ready to take responsibility for the direction of Caribbean civilisation from the very beginning.

At the same time, however, it is important to note that Pan-Africanism never encompassed within its parameters any anti-intellectual tendencies. On the contrary it was an ideology that promoted the study of the literary classics and the arts and the inculcation of all knowledge as the basis of universal freedom.

In this context a Rupert Gray could never be deemed a freak of history, but rather a most natural development, and in similar light we must see Gray's relationship and bonding with Francois Pierre as the epitome of the link between idea and action, theory and practice.

Calloux Productions must be congratulated for the unearthing of yet another gift of literature from the turn of the last century that tells us so much about ourselves.