Thursday 25 June 2020

Dusé Mohamed

My subscription to the ODNB's biography of the day service seldom fails to turn up instructive detail about both well-known historical figures and some who were new to me. In the latter category comes Ali, Dusé Mohamed (who adopted Dusé Mohamed as a stage name). He was born in Egypt in 1866, made a living as an actor in England after his father died and later developed as an anti-colonial polemicist. His main claim to fame is his influence on Marcus Garvey who worked for him on one of his periodicals for a time. Another more tenuous claim is that he was the first African actor to play Othello on the English stage.

The mutual tolerance of Mohamed and the British is striking. Before moving to the USA in 1921, he seems to have adopted Kingston-upon-Hull as a base and even wrote a book about Hull. At the height of his publications dedicated to Africa and freedom for Africans from the imperial yoke, it appears he was never in trouble from the authorities. He maintained his admiration for Shakespeare throughout his life.

His latter years were spent in Nigeria, editing yet another weekly paper dedicated to African politics, which influenced two future leaders of Nigeria, "Zik" (who bought the paper in 1944) and Enahoro. He died in Lagos on this day seventy-five years ago.

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