Ekwueme Michael Thelwell (born Michael Miles Thelwell; 25 July 1939) is a Jamaican novelist, essayist, professor and civil rights activist. He was in 1970 founding chairman of the Department of Afro-American Studies at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...
.
Early life
Born Michael Miles Thelwell in
Ulster Spring, Jamaica, he attended
Jamaica College and subsequently worked as public relations assistant for the Jamaica Industrial Development Corporation (1958–59). In 1959, he moved to the United States, where he was educated at
Howard University
Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...
(earning a BA, 1964) and at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...
(MFA, 1969).
Activism
Thelwell was active in the Black Freedom Movement, the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), and in 1963 he was the Director of the Washington office of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and later, the Student National Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emer ...
(
SNCC). In the 1980s his anti-apartheid activism resulted in legislation enacting a law against corporate tax write-offs for US-based corporations paying taxes to the
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
regime in South Africa.
In a 2005 radio interview with
Amy Goodman of ''
Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long TV, radio, and Internet news program based in Manhattan and hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live ...
'', Thelwell said: "I didn't really become black until I set foot in this country (America)."
Writing
Thelwell is widely known for his 1980 novel ''The Harder They Come'', based on
the film of the same title about the life and death of real-life Jamaican folk-hero Ivanhoe "
Rhyging" Martin. The novel was praised by Nigerian novelist
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe (; born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel ''Things Fall Apart'' ( ...
(who bestowed on Thelwell the
Igbo name Ekwueme, meaning "the man who always does what he says he will")
and by literary critic
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...
, who included it in his appendix to ''The Western Canon''.
Thelwell has also published essays, criticism and commentary in ''
The Black Scholar
''The Black Scholar'' (''TBS'') is a journal founded in California, in 1969, by Robert Chrisman, Nathan Hare, and Allan Ross. It is the third oldest Black studies journal in the US, after the NAACP’s ''The Crisis'' (founded in 1910) and the ' ...
'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...
'', ''
The Massachusetts Review'', ''
Temps Modernes'', ''
Partisan Review'', ''
Présence Africaine'' (Paris) and ''African Commentary''. A volume of his short stories and essays, ''Duties, Pleasures, and Conflicts: Essays in Struggle'', was released in 1987. He also helped prepare and edit the political memoirs of black activist
Stokely Carmichael, ''Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael'' (2003). Thelwell is currently writing a critical study of Chinua Achebe, who dedicated his 1988 collection of essays ''
Hopes and Impediments'' to Thelwell.
Thelwell has also written two screenplays (''Washington Incident'', 1972; ''Girl Beneath the Lion'', 1978, with
Paul Carter Harrison). He was a senior adviser on the television series ''
Eyes on the Prize'' (part II; 1990).
Awards
Literary awards Thelwell has received include fellowships from the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
, the Society for the Humanities, the
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
and the Centennial Medal of the Institute of Jamaica.
References
External links
Michael Thelwell - Giants in the Earth YouTube.
''Who Speaks for the Negro'' Vanderbilt documentary website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thelwell, Ekwueme Michael
Living people
20th-century American novelists
21st-century African-American academics
21st-century American academics
African-American novelists
American male novelists
Jamaican emigrants to the United States
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
1939 births
Howard University alumni
University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni
University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty
Jamaican male novelists
Jamaican activists
20th-century Jamaican novelists
20th-century African-American academics
20th-century American academics
20th-century American male writers
Novelists from Massachusetts
20th-century African-American writers
African-American male writers
People educated at Jamaica College