Wazir Ishmael in England with his father

DESCRIPTION
Wazir Ishmael is pictured here with his father Yussuph Ishmael while he was in boarding school in England.

Wazir Ishmael journeyed as a ten year-old boy from the sugar plantation in Berbice, Guyana where his father had worked as a "dispenser" (a cross between a pharmacist and physician) to the Bentham Grammar School, a boarding school in England. When he arrived there in 1970, he was one of two children of color there. The school provided special meals for him that wouldn't violate his dietary restrictions as a Muslim. The things he carried from Guyana to the United States were his father's copies of the novels of Edgar Mittelholzer, who captured life in the Corentyne countryside of Guyana, where Wazir was born and spent his childhood.

ADDITIONAL METADATA
Subject(s): Wazir Ishmael
Type: Photograph
Source: Archival Creators Fellowship Program

PROVENANCE
Collection: Gaiutra Bahadur Fellowship Project
Item History: 2020-10-26 (created); 2020-10-26 (modified)

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