Poet, politicaL activist and author ELean Thomas is rooted in the cuLture ofthe Caribbean.
So why, asks Corinne Sweet, did she choose to marry an EngLish Lord?
| 1 | 1 | 'I'd certainly never seen myself with a white man. not to mention a white man of the | |
| 2 | ruling classes who had put my people in slavery. So I went through a long, frightening | ||
| 3 | period when I realised this man wasn't only a friend and comrade, but much, much more.' | ||
| 4 | Elean Thomas, a renowned, working-class black woman activist and writer, is | ||
| 5 | characteristically frank about her decision to marry a member of the English upper class, | ||
| 6 | barrister Lord Tony Gifford. | ||
| 2 | 7 | Their marriage has attracted as much cynical comment as open admiration. Even | |
| 8 | more so when last autumn Tony Gifford, defender of the underdog. campaigner for | ||
| 9 | political prisoners in South Africa, took a characteristically unconventional step by joining | ||
| 10 | Elean to start a new life and law practice in the Caribbean. Predictably, most of the British | ||
| 11 | press was mocking, calling him a 'class traitor' and a 'loony left-wing lord'. | ||
| 3 | 12 | In a world where women inevitably follow men, what makes a successful barrister | |
| 13 | break off his career to follow a poet? And how is the sixth Baron Gifford received in a | ||
| 14 | country with 500 years of bitter colonial history? Tony Gifford replies in an honest, goodnatured | ||
| 15 | manner, Tm not following Elean, rather I'm continuing in the direction I was | ||
| 16 | going anyway. I've spent a lot of my life working in an un-English way. The people who | ||
| 17 | inspired me as a young man were not European, but African; not white, but black - and | ||
| 18 | working class. So I didn't need any great pressure to come here. I'm sure some people | ||
| 19 | have resented me coming onto their island but the vast majority have dealt with me as | ||
| 20 | they've found me.' | ||
| 4 | 21 | Tony Gifford and Elean Thomas first met in 1984. when Tony Gifford attended a | |
| 22 | conference in Jamaica, on Elean's invitation. 'We couldn't afford a hotel for him ,' she | ||
| 23 | rernembers, 'so we put him up with friends. Within a day he was helping them wash the | ||
| 24 | dishes and being normal. I said "Hey, I didn't know they made lords like this,'.. Tony | ||
| 25 | Gifford was equally struck: 'I was absolutely overwhelmed, I came home thinking I'd met | ||
| 26 | some of the most extraordinarily fine people, of which Elean was the finest.' Astrong | ||
| 27 | friendship developed. | ||
| 5 | 28 | The relationship changed pace in 1986 with, as Tony Gifford puts it, 'a fierce coming | |
| 29 | together. I think we both ran away from it for a while because we both had difficult | ||
| 30 | choices to make.' Elean Thomas had to come to terms with his colour and class. 'A friend | ||
| 31 | said to me. "You know, I think you love that man. How would you feel about him if he had | ||
| 32 | a black skin and wasn't a lord?" I realised there and then I loved him.' | ||
| 6 | 33 | But how did a passionate affair turn into marriage? 'The day after we got together | |
| 34 | he suddenly said, " I want to marry you ,''' recalls Elean Thomas. 'I said, " I don't want to be | ||
| 35 | no Lady Gifford, I'd have to be called Elean Thomas Gifford," and he said, "Oh, is that | ||
| 36 | your way of saying yes?'" After living together in London, they were finally married in | ||
| 37 | Kingston. Jamaica. | ||
| 7 | 38 | Tony Gifford and Elean Thomas have faced the challenge and expect to win. But the | |
| 39 | stakes are high . Elean Thomas explains bluntly: 'There 's no reason why my people should | ||
| 40 | ever trust any white person, including me trusting the man I married. But the strength of | ||
| 41 | my people is we give every white person a chance to prove their humanity. However, we | ||
| 42 | both know th at the day he betrays my people is the day I part from him , no matter how | ||
| 43 | much I love him.' |