Long-time journalist Peter Abrahams dies at 97
DISTINGUISHED SOUTH African literary icon, anti-apartheid critic, journalist, and broadcaster Peter Henry Abrahams is dead. He was 97 years old.
According to police reports, Abrahams, who would have turned 98 in March, was found dead in his remote Red Hills, St Andrew, home yesterday in a pool of blood.
Head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force Corporate Communications Unit Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay disclosed that investigators are still uncertain as to the cause of death of the veteran journalist and political commentator.
“They (police investigators) don’t have any reasons to suspect foul play, but they are not ruling out anything at the moment,” Lindsay told The Gleaner. “Blood was found at the scene, but based on what the investigators are saying, there is a possibility he could have fallen from the wheelchair, but there is a lot of blood at the scene.”
The Gleaner understands that Abrahams experienced at least five break-ins at his home in four months in 2016, which resulted in an alarm system being installed.
Described as one of the most prolific South African black prose writers, he was born on March 19, 1919, in the Vrededorp neighbourhood near Johannesburg. His early novel Mine Boy (1946) was the first to depict the degrading and demeaning effect racism had on blacks in apartheid South Africa.
Abrahams left South Africa at the age of 20, first settling in Britain and then in Jamaica. Here, he waged war against apartheid through his various literary works and his radio commentary on Radio Jamaica. The prolific expatriate novelist, who made Jamaica his home in 1956, came here to write a book that was commissioned by the British Government and which was published under the title Jamaica: An Island Mosaic.