Enrico Downer

There Once Was a Little England: a Story About Man's Obsession with 'colour and Class' Enrico Downer

In Barbados in the 1950s, in a stratified society of whites, blacks, and half-whites, the son of a working-class family is shot and killed on the private property of an English landlord. The Englishman claims he mistook the boy for a monkey and for his defense in a court of law he turns to a black Bajan lawyer, a member of the race he deems inferior to his own. The lawyer is faced with his own private dilemma. Should he defend the Englishman, face the scorn of the people and pander to the upper-class to which he yearns to belong? Is it worth the approbation of the upper-class and their money to turn his back on his own? Should he swallow his pride and disregard the white man's assault on his dignity and on his race? Is he ethically obligated to defend all those who seek his defense? His life is further complicated when he enters the political arena and finds that in order to succeed he needs the majority vote of the working-class. But he has already cast his lot with the upper-class, the wealthy and privileged minority. Meanwhile, people are stung by the Englishman's defence, the dehumanizing claim from the lips of a white man. And in dissimilar ways the tragedy impacts the lives of the dead boy's parents, a God-fearing mother who leans on her Christian faith and a grieving father determined to avenge the killing of his beloved son. With baited breath the whole island awaits the day of the trial for their sense of justice to be vindicated. They expect no less a sentence than death for the Englishman. His life is in the hands of a brilliant black lawyer.