Daniel G. Williams
Paul Robeson and Wales. Towards a Particularist Universalism
In an interview of 1958, Paul Robeson suggested that the fusion of class and ethnic identities in his thought was a result of his experiences in Wales: “[T]oday I feel as much at home in the Welsh valley[s] as I would in my own Negro section in any city in the United States. I just did a broadcast by transatlantic cable to the Welsh valley[s], a few weeks ago, and here was the first understanding that the struggle of the Negro people, or of any people, cannot be by itself – that is, the human struggle…That defines my philosophy. It’s a joining one. We are a working people, a laboring people – the Negro people.” This passage is striking due to the apparent tension between the declaration of ethnic particularity – ‘the Negro people’ – and an internationalist, universalist commitment to ‘the human struggle’. My paper will consider Wales a space where the tensions between universalist internationalism and ethnic particularism in Robeson’s thought were played out, both during his life and posthumously.
Daniel Gwydion Williams is a cultural critic and one of Wales’ leading public intellectuals. His research interests range from the 19th century to the present day and encompass Welsh language and English language literatures on both sides of the Atlantic. These interests are linked by a concern with questions of nationalism, ethnicity and identity. Daniel Williams was born in Aberystwyth in 1972 and educated at Ysgol Gymraeg Aberystwyth and Ysgol Gyfun Penweddig. He studied for his PhD in English Literature (2001) at Cambridge University where his time at King’s College was funded by the then AHRB (Arts and Humanities Research Board). Williams began teaching at Swansea University in January 2000. Beyond academia, he is particularly interested in music and politics. He is a semi-professional jazz saxophonist and founder-member of the jazz-folk sextet Burum who have released three albums: Alawon (2007), Caniadau (2012), Llef (2016). He lives in the Neath constituency where he stood as the Plaid Cymru/Party of Wales candidate in the Westminster elections of 2017 and 2019.