It occurred to me that there is a thread connecting some of the books I have been reading recently. It is, to use an outdated phrase, the Colonial Scholar.
These were the young people (men outnumbering women by some margin) who came to study at UK universities, financed by scholarships from the home administration or the Colonial Office in London. To these could be added a considerable number who were privately financed. I do not however think that the term was generally used to cover those from what came to be called the Old Commonwealth – Australia, Canada, New Zealand (?&South Africa?).
Mr Eborebelosa, in Eating People Is Wrong, Jackie Kay’s father in Red Dust Road, & VS Naipaul all figure in this list.
I was trying to find out if there is any recent study of the Colonial Scholars in Britain; so far the latest seems to be Colonial West Indian Students in Britain by Lloyd Braithwaite, published in 2001. But then so far I have only been searching with that out-dated term, any more recent academic work probably uses something less likely to raise the hackles. In fact the quickest method of search is probably to go & browse the shelves of the university library.
But there must be a fascinating story to tell – how many there were, who they were, & what were their subsequent careers. How many turned out to be, in the opinion of the time, anti-British terrorists? How many married British wives – or left behind, perhaps unacknowledged, children - & what was their fate? Have we had any Barack Obamas?
There is clearly plenty of material, including what might be some very interesting personal files in the National Archive .
