{{short description|Jamaican poet, novelist, journalist and activist (1947–2004)}} {{Use British English|date=January 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Elean Roslyn Thomas | birth_date = {{Birth date|1947|09|18|df=y}} | birth_place = St. Catherine, Colony of Jamaica, British Empire | death_date = {{Death date and age|2004|05|27|1947|09|18|df=y}} | death_place = Kingston, Jamaica | other_names = Elean Thomas-Gifford | occupation = Poet, novelist, journalist, activist | years_active = | education = University of the West Indies; Goldsmiths College, London University | spouse = Anthony Gifford, 1988–1998 | known_for = | notable_works = ''The Last Room'' (1991) | awards = Ruth Hadden Memorial Award }} '''Elean Roslyn Thomas''' (18 September 1947 – 27 May 2004)<ref name=Johnson>Buzz Johnson, [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jul/31/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries "Elean Thomas: Writer with a message of human rights"], ''The Guardian'', 31 July 2004.</ref> was a Jamaican poet, novelist, journalist and activist. She was active in the struggle for women's rights in the Caribbean and the movement for Jamaican national independence, as well as working in Latin America, Eastern and Western Europe and Africa.<ref name=DofA /> She was married (1988–1998) to human rights barrister Anthony Gifford.
==Biography== Elean Thomas was born in St. Catherine, Jamaica, to a health-worker mother and a father (Rt. Rev. David Thomas) who was a Pentecostal bishop.
She attended the University of the West Indies (UWI) in the late 1960s, reading politics and history, and did postgraduate work in communications at Goldsmiths College, London University.
In the 1970s, she was employed as a reporter by the ''Jamaica Gleaner'', and was head of the editorial department of the Jamaica Information Service, as well as working with other small publications.<ref name=Davidson>Taneisha Davidson, [http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/60510_Journalist-Elean-Thomas-is-dead "Journalist Elean Thomas is dead"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305062617/http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/60510_Journalist-Elean-Thomas-is-dead |date=5 March 2016 }}, ''Jamaica Gleaner'', 29 May 2004.</ref> She also served on the executive of the Press Association of Jamaica.<ref name=Johnson /> In 1976, she was a founding member in Jamaica of the Committee of Women for Progress, championing such issues as maternity leave and equal pay.<ref name=Davidson /> She also taught history and English in Jamaica, and co-founded the National Union of Democratic Teachers.<ref>Carolyn Cooper, [https://books.google.com/books?id=UmfMAgAAQBAJ&dq=%22elean+thomas%22&pg=PT4111 "Thomas, Elean (1947–)"], in Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly (eds), ''Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English'', Routledge, 2005 (2nd edition).</ref>
Alongside Trevor Munroe and others, she was a founder-member of the Workers Party of Jamaica (WPJ) and, as its international secretary, served on the editorial board of ''World Marxist Review'', which was based in Prague, Czechoslovakia; as a consequence she travelled throughout Europe, while also building strong connections in South Africa.<ref name=Johnson />
In Jamaica, she campaigned against the 1983 US invasion of Grenada, and in 1984 invited English barrister Anthony Gifford to speak to a human rights committee she set up. They married in 1988, the marriage being dissolved in 1998.<ref name=Johnson />
Her first collection, ''Word Rhythms from the Life of a Woman'', was published in 1986 by Karia Press. Although categorised as poetry, Brand herself said: "I call my pieces Word-Rhythms. I honestly believe it is pretentious to call them poems. They are merely word-sketches, word-photographs, word-drawings, word-paintings, word-beats."<ref>Jenny Stringer (ed.), ["Thomas, Elean"], in ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Literature in English'', Oxford University Press, 1996 ({{ISBN| 9780192122711}}), p. 665.</ref> In 1988, Karia also published her second collection, ''Before They Can Speak of Flowers: Word Rhythms'', which had a foreword by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and an introduction by Benjamin Zephaniah.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20657118 "Before They Can Speak Of Flowers"] at WorldCat.</ref>
Her novel, ''The Last Room'', was published by Virago Press in 1991, winning the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award for best first novel published in Britain. Elean Thomas's work is anthologised in ''Daughters of Africa'' (1992), edited by Margaret Busby.<ref name=DofA>Margaret Busby (ed.), ''Daughters of Africa: An Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent'', London: Vintage, 1992, pp. 732–39.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=GMoNAQAAMAAJ ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present''], Ballantine Books, 1994, 732.</ref>
Elean Thomas died from cancer aged 56 at the Hope Institute in Kingston, Jamaica, on 27 May 2004.<ref name=Johnson /><ref name=Davidson />
==Bibliography== * ''Word Rhythms from the Life of a Woman'', London: Karia Press, 1986. {{ISBN|978-0946918409}} * ''Before They Can Speak Of Flowers: Word Rhythms'', London: Karia Press, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0946918928}} * ''The Last Room'' (novel), London: Virago Press, 1991. {{ISBN|978-1853813214}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== * Annie Paul, [http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00094097/00002/17j "Interview...with Elean Thomas"], ''Caribbean Review of Books'', No. 2, November 1991, pp. 17–18, 26. * [http://sounds.bl.uk/Arts-literature-and-performance/ICA-talks/024M-C0095X0885XX-0100V0 "ICA talks: Elean Thomas and Corinne Thomas, in conversation"] (17 July 1992), Sounds, British Library.
== External links== * Elean Thomas, [https://poetscorner.blog/2023/03/28/black-womans-love-song/ "Black Woman's Love Song"], Poet's Corner.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Elean}} Category:1947 births Category:20th-century Jamaican novelists Category:20th-century Jamaican poets Category:20th-century Jamaican women writers Category:20th-century Jamaican journalists Category:2004 deaths Category:Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Category:Deaths from cancer in Jamaica Category:Jamaican activists Category:Jamaican educators Category:Jamaican women activists Category:Jamaican women journalists Category:Jamaican women novelists Category:Jamaican women poets Category:People from Saint Catherine Parish Category:University of the West Indies alumni Elean Thomas Gifford Category:20th-century women poets