Arif Ali (born 13 March 1935)Asher & Martin Hoyles, ''Caribbean Publishing in Britain: A Tribute to Arif Ali'', Hansib Publications (2011), 2015, p. 97. is a Guyanese-born publisher and newspaper proprietor who migrated to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1957. The company he founded in 1970, Hansib, was among pioneering publishers in the UK that disseminated publications of relevance to Britain's black community, others including New Beacon Books (1966) and

Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications (BLP) is a radical London-based publishing company founded by Guyanese activists Jessica Huntley (23 February 1927 – 13 October 2013) Margaret Busby"Jessica Huntley obituary", ''The Guardian'', 27 October 2013. ...

(1968)."A lifetime in publishing: Arif Ali and the Hansib story"
''

Stabroek News The ''Stabroek News'' is a privately owned newspaper published in Guyana. It takes its name from ''Stabroek'' , the former name of Georgetown, Guyana. It was first published in November 1986, first as a weekly but it later changed to a daily pri ...

'', 3 September 2008. Hansib went on to become the largest black publisher in Europe. In March 2024, Ali was announced as winner of the annual Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters.

Biography

Family background and early years

One of seven children, Arif Ali was born in Danielstown, on the Essequibo coast,

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...

(now Guyana); two of his grandparents were

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

indentured labourers Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as payment for some good or serv ...

,Rob Hayward,
"Arif Ali of Hansib Publications"
Colourful Radio, 19 March 2015. but by the time of his birth the family had become wealthy landowners. Marika Sherwood
"Caribbean Publishing in Britain. A Tribute to Arif Ali" (reviews)
''Reviews in History'',

Institute of Historical Research The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) is a British educational organisation providing resources and training for historical researchers. It is part of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London and is located at Senate Hou ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, July 2011. After graduating from high school in Georgetown, Ali left on 12 August 1957 for London, England, intending to study economics,"A lifetime in publishing: Arif Ali and the Hansib story"
''

'', 3 September 2008. and arrived at Victoria Station on 3 September, having travelled to Britain via the Canary Islands, Spain, Italy and France.Adwoa Korkor
"Forty and still going strong"
Angela Cobbinah, 30 October 2010. He initially worked at different jobs, including on the buses and as a porter in a hospital — where in 1958 he met a young English nurse named Pamela who three months later became his wife.

First business ventures

In 1966 Ali started to run a greengrocer's in

Tottenham Lane Tottenham Lane is a street in Crouch End and Hornsey in the London Borough of Haringey. The street runs from the centre of Crouch End at the clock tower, north to the junction of the High Street and Turnpike Lane (A504). Buildings The street i ...

, an area with a significant Caribbean population in

north London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames and the City of London. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshi ...

, and before long, as

Carolyn Cooper Carolyn Cooper CD (born 20 November 1950) is a Jamaican author, essayist and literary scholar. She is a former professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. From 1975 to 1980, she was an assis ...

notes, "his business place became a vibrant cultural centre".Carolyn Cooper
"Seaga's Jamaica? Absolutely!"
''

Jamaica Gleaner ''The Gleaner'' is an English-language, morning daily newspaper founded by two brothers, Jacob and Joshua de Cordova on 13 September 1834 in Kingston, Jamaica. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the Western Hemisphere. Original ...

'', 7 March 2010, One of the few outlets for Caribbean provisions such as yams, plantains and cassava, the shop also sold newspapers brought in from Caribbean countries including Guyana,

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

and

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

: "The newspapers served to connect West Indians in the diaspora with their respective home territories." Ali progressed from this to producing on a

Gestetner The Gestetner is a type of duplicating machine named after its inventor, David Gestetner (1854–1939). During the 20th century, the term ''Gestetner'' was used as a verb—as in ''Gestetnering''. The Gestetner company established its base in Lo ...

machine a cheaply priced compilation of articles called ''The Westindian'', a venture that proved successful. He sold the food shop and in 1970 founded Hansib Publications — named after his parents, Haniff and Nasibun (Sibby) — specifically to cater for this readership and in April 1971 the company published ''The Westindian Digest'', a magazine for Britain's West Indian communities. In 1973 Hansib published its first book, edited by Ali and entitled ''Westindians in Great Britain''. New editions of this "Who's Who" came out in subsequent years, and with the fifth edition in 1982, the name of the publication was changed to ''Third World Impact''.

Newspaper publishing

Ali's career as a newspaper publisher started in 1973 with the acquisition of '' West Indian World'' from its then owner Aubrey Baynes, who had launched the paper in mid-1971 but had become disillusioned with its financial viability. Under Ali's editorship the ''West Indian World'' prospered, campaigning on various educational issues that were affecting black schoolchildren in Britain. Ali went on to further engage and communicate with the Caribbean, African and Asian communities by establishing the ''Asian Digest'' (August 1980), the newspapers '' Caribbean Times'' (1981), ''Asian Times'' (1983) and ''African Times'' (1985), as well as ''Root'' magazine (1987)."About Us"
Hansib website. By the 1990s he had a staff of 140, publishing three weekly papers and two monthly magazines. The circulation of the ''Caribbean Times'' peaked at 28,000, with average sales of about 10,000 copies.

Book publishing

In 1997 Ali sold his newspapers in order to concentrate on book publishing, and Hansib remains "the biggest and most diverse black book publisher in Britain". Talking to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' in 2010, Ali said: "In the 1960s, mainstream European-led publishing houses rarely published black and minority ethnic (BME) writers' work, if at all. Little positive was written about us, our cultures, our backgrounds and performances. I went into publishing to print stories and feelings that needed telling and would not be produced elsewhere." By the time of its 40th anniversary, in 2010, Hansib had brought out more than 200 titles, in categories encompassing politics, history, culture, sport, cookery, to multicultural literature including poetry, fiction and memoir, with claims to have for more than four decades "reflected and chronicled the achievements and struggles, the turmoils and frustrations, and the hopes and dreams of Britain's Caribbean, African and Asian communities." Ali himself has edited some of the company's successful titles, among them the Nations Series, illustrated portraits of countries, such as ''Jamaica Absolutely'', ''Trinidad and Tobago: Terrific and Tranquil'' and ''Guyana at 50: Reflection, Celebration and Inspiration''. In parallel with his publishing activities, Ali has been involved over the years with various Black political organisations, and was public relations officer for the West Indian Standing Conference, an umbrella organisation comprising more than 40 UK-based African and Caribbean groups.Hoyles (2015), p. 138.

References

External links

Hansib
official website.
"Arif Ali: A true community hero"

Operation Black Vote Operation Black Vote (OBV) is a British Independent (politician), non-partisan and not-for-profit, nonprofit national organisation established in 1996, which addresses the Black British and ethnic minority democratic deficit. OBV uses Voter regis ...

, 28 November 2010. * Adwoa Korkor
"Forty and still going strong"
Angela Cobbinah, 30 October 2010.
"People of Letters , Arif Ali"
''Museum of Colour''.
"Arif Ali by Alexander D Great (c) 2020"
YouTube, 12 December 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Arif Living people 1935 births 20th-century newspaper publishers (people) Book publishers (people) Book publishing company founders British publishers (people) English people of Indo-Guyanese descent Guyanese activists Guyanese businesspeople Guyanese emigrants to England Guyanese journalists Indo-Guyanese people