Pioneering broadcaster Una Marson gets Blue Plaque honour

LONDON:

A pioneering broadcaster, playwright and poet has been honoured in London with The English Heritage blue plaque, to commemorate her achievements. Una Marson was the first black woman to become a programme producer at the BBC, and female playwright to perform on the London stage.

Howard Spencer, senior historian at English Heritage, said: “Una Marson was a true pioneer, breaking barriers, making an important wartime contribution, and forging new paths for black women in Britain and beyond.

“This blue plaque is a well-deserved recognition of her extraordinary contributions to broadcasting, literature, and social justice. Her legacy serves as an inspiration to all who strive for a more just and inclusive world.”

English Heritage is the British government’s recognition for Blue Plaque status. The English Heritage blue plaque is placed outside the mansion block in West Hampstead, northwest London, where the Caribbean woman lived.

The residence was a hub for Marson’s personal and professional life. It was there that she hosted journalists, writers and West Indians on military service in what her biographer, Delia Jarrett-Macauley, described as a warm, welcoming environment filled with parties, sing-songs, and intellectual debates.

Early Gleaner reports are that Marson migrated to England in 1931, “ where she became a driving force in the International Women’s Movement, the West Indian community in London; she was also secretary to his Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haille Selassie during his exile in England.”

It is believed that, in that capacity, she helped Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, write his famous speech to the UN, condemning Italian aggression - the iconic speech that was later used by Bob Marley for the song War, from the Rastaman Vibrations album.

The Jamaican started working for the BBC during the Second World War, making radio programmes such as ‘Calling the West Indies’, which connected Caribbean servicemen in Britain with their families back home.

The journalist also produced Caribbean Voices, which was a platform for emerging writers until 1958. Marson also campaigned for racial and gender equality.

REFUSED TO BE LIMITEDAccording to The Gleaner reports, Una Marson was born in St Elizabeth (in 1905) to parents, the Reverend Solomon I Marson and his wife Ada Mullings. She worked as a secretary for The Salvation Army, before embarking on a career in journalism as assistant editor of Jamaica Critic.

The talented writer became Jamaica’s first female editor, and publisher of her own magazine, The Cosmopolitan. Marson’s magazine ran feminist-angled articles, and poetry by her fellow members of The Jamaican Poetry League.

The Jamaican also published two volumes of poetry, and a play titled What A Price, in 1931. The first play by Marson was about a Jamaican stenographer from the country who moves to Kingston and falls in love with her white boss.

The unveiling of the blue plaque coincides with British television presenter and executive June Konadu Sarpong’s launch of a book about the prestigious broadcasting talent.

The publication is titled Calling Una Marson: The Extraordinary Life of a Forgotten Icon, published in hardback by Akan Books.

Commenting on her motivation for publishing the book, Sarpong OBE , the BBC’s first director of creative diversity, said: “The main reason I wanted to tell her story was because I couldn’t believe I had never heard of her. She was a woman who refused to be limited by her times. She lived in an era where black people were not seen as human, let alone capable.

She defied all the odds, at a great cost, but she did. And she was able to do things that would be considered extraordinary by anybody, at any time in history.”

Sarpong refers to Marson’s everyday experience of being spat on by children, who would chase her down the street.

“To have been dealing with all of that and still achieve all that she did, it’s just remarkable,” she stressed.

“And she was fun! She had a sense of humour. She was witty, she was brilliant, but she was complicated. She was a wonderful person to be around, but she could also be very difficult.

“At a time where it was all about the cause, whether the feminist movement or the black liberation movement, Una was also petty and jealous of other women. We like that complication and that contradiction. It made her human.”

Marson returned to Jamaica after the Second World War but travelled widely, and lived for a time in the US before her death in 1965.