Paul Robeson: Inspiration

Sadie Smith

How did a 20th century US actor and singer inspire a British teacher to learn Mandarin?!

Further Info

This story was made as part of the “Recalling Robeson” project, celebrating the life and work of black actor, singer and campaigner, Paul Robeson. Led by Anna Farthing of Harvest Heritage Arts and Media, supported by Bristol Old Vic, Colston Hall, Watershed, Pervasive Media Studio, ABLAZE, Aim Higher, Festival of Idea, The Paul Robeson Wales Trust, The South Wales
Miners Library, and numerous volunteers.

Transcript

My name is Adrian Dunkley, I work here at the City Academy of Bristol. I’m an Aim Higher Coordinator and also a Post-16 Learning Mentor.

Robeson is such a focal figure in terms of cultural endeavour and expression and for me Robeson inspired me to learn a language, and that language is Mandarin. I think Robeson really stated that you know regardless of your language or culture or race you know we’re all essentially human beings. I decided to extend my talent and learn a little bit about myself as Robeson was doing throughout his life so I decided to try and learn Mandarin.

I’d like to say a few words in Mandarin about Robeson (Mandarin being spoken) ‘I love Robeson because he is fantastic and great’. Now, you know although I’ve put into words what Robeson means to me I think it’s essential to understand Robeson as a phenomenon. Words can’t describe what he done for cultural expression, freedom and endevour. It was quite interesting I asked some of the pupils here at the City Academy to go off and find out a bit about Robeson and what Robeson means to them. They came back having consulted their grandparents and parents and they told me that Robeson, from what their grandparents were telling them is still significant today because when you look at figures such as Barack Obama, Robeson opens up opportunity for Barach Obama to be the President today.

So Robeson as I said is a phenomenon that transcends time, transcends culture, and essentially his message is love, understanding and peace.

Credits

Paul Robeson with miners created by bobster855 (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.