Lindsay Barrett

Lindsay Barrett is a Jamaican-born poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, journalist, and photographer whose creative and intellectual work has intersected with key cultural movements, including the Caribbean Artists Movement in the UK, the Black Arts Movement in the US, and broader pan-Africanist thought.
After leaving Jamaica in the early 1960s, Barrett settled in Britain, where he worked as a freelance broadcaster and journalist. His travels across Europe eventually led him to relocate to West Africa, and since the late 1960s, he has made Nigeria his primary home. He became a Nigerian citizen in the mid-1980s, while maintaining active ties to cultural initiatives in both the UK and US.

Barrett’s debut novel, Song for Mumu, published in London in 1967, garnered early acclaim from critics such as Edward Baugh and Marina Maxwell, who praised it as “remarkable” and “significant.” In recent years, the novel has been celebrated for its “pervading passion, intensity, and energy,” earning its place as a Jamaican literary classic and appearing on numerous “must-read” lists.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Barrett was deeply involved in British theatre and film, contributing to experimental and socially engaged projects. His essays from this period—progressive, probing, and poetic—explored themes of Black identity, cultural dispossession, and the enduring legacy of the African Diaspora.