Rage, Rage Against The Dying Of The Light – Racism In Wales

This famous poem by Dylan Thomas is about death. The dying of the light means darkness is coming as you die. It is an extraordinary poem which everyone in Wales, I am sure, has read. If you have not read it, I suggest that you go to the library and you can get a photocopy done there.

I love Dylan Thomas and have even performed the introduction to Under Milk Wood at the Furnace. It was a privilege and a joy. Some friends who came to visit wanted me to perform for them. They were very impressed and while they were being impressed, I quietly found Richard Burton on YouTube doing the same thing and I played it for them. There was a huge silence of awe afterwards. I said “See” and my friends then very sweetly said, “No, but you were good, though, Tara”.

What else could this poem mean? If Dylan Thomas were still alive during this difficult time of politics I think, the theme of death could change the meaning of light from life to fighting ignorance. Dylan Thomas I am sure is definitely for fighting ignorance. His writing shows this.

Light is of course life but also it can be how we live our life. How do we do this? Is it the life of care and love? I would rage and rage against the dying of love and goodness as Dylan Thomas would.

The Welsh were not known for their racism against people of colour. In fact when we were living in Cwmdare about 50 years ago, our lovely neighbour would introduce my mother to people as “this is Carrie. She’s from India.” The response was always,”Oh, how lovely.” We loved it there because the people in the village were interested in our lives in India. We always remembered, my mother and I, very fondly at how welcoming the Welsh were and how tolerant and open-hearted.

Then Paul Robeson came into their lives. He made a film called The Proud Valley singing with the Welsh male voice choirs. His character in the film worked with the miners and became a part of their village life. 

Oh by the way, in case you didn’t know Paul Robeson was black. He had a powerful physique and a magnificent singing voice. He was famous for singing Ole Man River. For those of you who have never heard of it, there are plenty of recordings of this song about working as a slave on a ship.

Paul Robeson’s father was actually a slave and he escaped from his master and moved North during the American Civil War. He trained to become a minister.

When Paul returned to the USA after making The Proud Valley, his passport was taken away from him because he refused to sign an affidavit to say he was a communist and because of his outspoken criticism of racism in the USA. He was not allowed to leave the USA for 8 years. He did sing with the Treorchy men’s choir over the wire. 5000 coal miners and their families assembled in the Grand Pavilion in Porthcawl to hear him sing to them from the USA.

When he got his passport back, he returned to Wales first. There was no question of racist attitudes. The Welsh loved Paul Robeson and he loved them. Paul Robeson came from working class roots because his father had actually been a slave. It was shocking to understand that. We think it was so far away but in fact slavery was not that far away. Bristol was built on slavery money.

To have such a close relationship between the Welsh miners and a black American singer is a wonderful memory for the Welsh.

Robeson went through hell growing up in the USA. He was beaten up on a regular basis. He lost his mother when he was six, he won a football scholarship to university where he was constantly assaulted by his own white teammates. He studied law but racism ruined his career so he used his singing voice and his acting skills to become a famous performer. He still had a huge fondness for the Welsh miners because they were poor but they could sing and were proud of that.

If Paul Robeson, Dylan Thomas, Richard Burton and of course Aneurin Bevan were to look at Wales now they would feel that they had been betrayed. The NHS was started by a Welsh politician. Many of you may not know, but the NHS was so important and so exciting when it first started that hospitals over Britain fought to have the first baby to be born at midnight as the start of the NHS. One of the mothers in the maternity unit in Wales was so close to giving birth and she agreed to try. 

The doctors were watching the clock and telling her, “Don’t push,darling,don’t push,” and this very brave woman held on until midnight. Everybody was shouting for joy in the maternity room and then shouted,”Push, darling,push,” and little Aneira was born, the first baby born under the start of the NHS. We have been so proud of the NHS and now these politicians will try to destroy it.

Our names today would be Johnson who has already done so much damage to this country, Farage who will do so much damage in our future, Trump a madman, and Putin a warmonger. This is nothing to be proud of when we compare the past with the present.

We had giants in the past who cared about our land. We watched the USA and their violent segregation but we also had the attitudes towards the Windrush generation and these people of colour did so much to make our country great in spite of our racism towards them. We then went through a period of tolerance and were well-known all over the world for this and our anti-racist attitudes.

Now we have returned to racism and hatred and we are now known for this all over the world. What a tragedy!

What a difference a name makes!

We must rage against the dying of the light and bring the light back.