Peter Abrahams
(March 19, 1919, Vrededorp, South Africa), expatriate South African Novelist
His father was an Ethiopian and his mother was French and African, so Abrahams was considered "Coloured" in South Africa. He grew up outside of Johannesburg and began working at the age of nine. He didn't enroll in school until he heard about Shakespeare's Othello which sparked his interest in literature.
He started out publishing his poems in local newspapers. Later, he joined the South African Communist Party and tried to start a school for poor Africans. After the school's failure, he moved from South Africa to England. He wrote for the London Observer and the New York Herald and took an assignment in Jamaica.
He is known for the books:
Song of the City
Mine Boy
Wild Conquest
A Night of Their Own
This Island Now
Jamaica: An Island Mosaic
Return to Goli
Tell Freedom
From Africana: Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience.
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