Stephen Isabirye

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Re: Stephen Isabirye

Post by Ming »

Remember the proof Stephen posted, from the head of his former alma mater, to show us that he actually attended their institution? Perhaps that shows that Stephen has a Dr degree.
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Re: Stephen Isabirye

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Yes Ming, I have those "Dr." credentials. However, I try to be modest about them and I downplay them a lot since in reality or day-to-day life, they may not matter much. what matters in life is who a person is or what she/he contributes to society rather than such credentials. This explains why in my book, I never mention those "credentials" at all. Most of the time, I feel uneasy whenever they are divulged or mentioned at all.

Thanks a lot all of you for those compliments about my book. Julie2owlsdene, I spent only a small chapter on Enid Blyton's life and the information contained in it is public knowledge. There were no speculations. I mainly concentrated on Enid Blyton's ideas on various issues I have already pointed out from time to time. The reviewer of the article is an old acquiantance from my childhood days, who I decided to send a copy of my book, probably as expected in my excitement over what I consider a monumental accomplishment in my life. Still, despite having written this book, i do not think i know billionth of what seasoned experts on Enid Blyton like Tony, Enita and others know about Enid Blyton. It was just a grain of contribution on my part about the author.

I have been following the "Gollywog" segment closely. In my book, I have segment sub-titled, "The 'Golliwog' Controversy" where I look at the development of this caricature by first discussing Betha and Kate Upton's book, The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a "Golliwogg." In my opinion, Enid Blyton may have been inspired by Agatha Christie's book, Ten Little Niggers in equating the word, "Golliwog" with "Nigger" in The Three Golliwogs, where one of the gollies is called Nigger. In Ten little niggers (at least the original politically-incorrect edition), the front cover of the book shows a golliwog with a rope around him and is presumably about to be lynched. David Pilgrim in his online article, "The Golliwog Caricature" (http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/golliwog/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) goes into details about this issue. Incidentally, the first book I read by Agatha Christie was Ten Little Niggers and the book marked my transition from the "immature" enid Blyton to the "mature" Agatha Christie books. Incidentally, this book (which has since been re-titled, And Then They Were None) is considered by some to have been Agatha Christie's best novel. Contrary to what many have suggested, The Three Golliwogs are victims and heros throughout most of the book rather than being evil creatures. The only book in which The Golliwogs appeared to be villains was Here Comes Noddy Again. Otherwise, in the other books in which the gollies appear, they are portrayed in very positive light. The banning of the golliwogs may have been for politically-incorrect reasons as well as for economic reasons since many publishers in which these caricatures appeared feared that they would be offensive to new generations of blacks who had not grown up in the shadow of this caricature andincidentally were only banned in these books as recent as 1987. I think the catalysy behind this ban was Bob mullan's book, The Enid Blyton Story in which he vehemently criticized these caricatures. The golliwogs were then banned shortly after the publication of this book and since then the book, The Three golliwogs has since been renamed The Three Pixies. whether it was good or bad to ban the golliwogs in these books, i do not say, at least in my book, since I try to write on this issue as a dispassionate 'neutral' historian.

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Re: Stephen Isabirye

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Enikyoga wrote:I think the catalysy behind this ban was Bob mullan's book, The Enid Blyton Story in which he vehemently criticized these caricatures. The golliwogs were then banned shortly after the publication of this book . . .
Stephen Isabirye
Sorry Stephen, but this is rubbish. There is no way that anyone at Darrell Waters would have been influenced by Bob Mullan's book. They were actually sufficiently annoyed by the Mullan book that they threw all their copies away. The explanation for the removal of golliwogs from the Noddy books is much simpler. Darrell Waters were negotiating with the BBC to get Noddy back onto TV screens, but the BBC said that they were not interested unless the golliwogs were removed from them. It was therefore a logical step to write the golliwogs out of the books and the result was a BBC TV series.

I have seen comments on other Blyton websites that blamed the removal of golliwogs on Chorion. This is also complete rubbish as all the golliwogs had already gone when Chorion took over the company. I find that facts are often a bit more reliable than speculation.

I notice that you keep referring to the golliwogs as 'caricatures', I think the word you should be using is 'toys'.
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Re: Stephen Isabirye

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Enikyoga wrote:Enid Blyton may have been inspired by Agatha Christie's book, Ten Little Niggers in equating the word, "Golliwog" with "Nigger" in The Three Golliwogs, where one of the gollies is called Nigger. In Ten little niggers (at least the original politically-incorrect edition), the front cover of the book shows a golliwog with a rope around him
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The title of this book had nothing to do with golliwogs. It was based on an old nursery rhyme, Ten Little Nigger Boys.

Ten Little Niggers

Ten little nigger boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self and then there were Nine.
Nine little nigger boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself and then there were Eight.
Eight little nigger boys travelling in Devon;
One said he'd stay there and then there were Seven.
Seven little nigger boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves and then there were Six.
Six little nigger boys playing with a hive;
A bumble bee stung one and then there were Five.
Five little nigger boys going in for law;
One got into Chancery and then there were Four.
Four little nigger boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one and then there were Three.
Three little nigger boys walking in the Zoo;
A big bear hugged one and then there were Two.
Two little nigger boys sitting in the sun;
One got frizzled up and then there was One.
One little nigger boy left all alone;
He went out and hanged himself and then there were None.


In time, the rhyme evolved into Ten Little Injuns, Ten Little Soldiers, Ten Little Sailor-Boys -- I don't think I've ever heard of Ten Little Golliwogs. The current title for Agatha Christie's book takes its name from the last line - And Then There Were None.

Unfortunately, Fontana Paperbacks deemed it necessary to use a golliwog for one of their covers, in spite of the nursery toy having no connection with the original rhyme. I find it a particularly unpleasant cover illustration.

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As for Enid being inspired by Dame Agatha's story, I don't think so. Ten Little Niggers was a cleverly crafted story which had nothing to do with golliwogs. In any case, Nigger the golliwog was so called as he was "nigger black", not because he resembled a black person. Fascinating as you thought processes are, Stephen, I think that sometimes your imagination runs away with itself!
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Re: Stephen Isabirye

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Moonraker wrote:
Enikyoga wrote:Enid Blyton may have been inspired by Agatha Christie's book, Ten Little Niggers in equating the word, "Golliwog" with "Nigger" in The Three Golliwogs, where one of the gollies is called Nigger.
The title of this book had nothing to do with golliwogs. It was based on an old nursery rhyme, Ten Little Nigger Boys.
Enid Blyton actually refers to the nursery rhyme in Chapter 4 of The Three Golliwogs - it is said to be Woggie and Nigger's favourite! (Golly isn't with them at the time):

"So off went Woggie and Nigger, arm-in-arm, singing merrily their favourite song - which, as you may guess, was Ten Little Nigger Boys."

The reference to Ten Little Nigger Boys was removed quite early on. It isn't in my 1970s Dean & Son edition of the book, which also has different names for the golliwogs - Wiggie, Waggie and Wollie. Dean & Son were inconsistent in this respect as the Three Golliwogs put in an appearance in my 1970s Dean copy of Tales of Toyland, where they're still called Golly, Woggie and Nigger. And my Dean Galliano's Circus books, dating from the same era, feature a dog named Nigger.

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Re: Stephen Isabirye

Post by shadow »

I've got a Dean and Son The Three Golliwogs from 1968 with original names and it has the "Ten Little Nigger Boys" line. Presumably this was changed when the book was reprinted with new names.
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Re: Stephen Isabirye

Post by Ming »

Regarding And Then There Were None, I always found it funny that the title was changed, but the rhyme in the story remains as the original even in the newest editions.

The Three Golliwogs have been renamed Three Bold Pixies but I personally don't see why they should be - the stories all portray the three pixies (or golliwogs) in a positive light. Nothing offensive is ever said about the three protagonists!
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Re: Stephen Isabirye

Post by Moonraker »

Ming wrote:Regarding And Then There Were None, I always found it funny that the title was changed, but the rhyme in the story remains as the original even in the newest editions.
That surprises me. I thought it had changed firstly to Ten Little Indians, and then Ten Little Soldiers. I only have the original copy, so I can't check it out.
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Re: Stephen Isabirye

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Ming wrote:The Three Golliwogs have been renamed Three Bold Pixies but I personally don't see why they should be - the stories all portray the three pixies (or golliwogs) in a positive light. Nothing offensive is ever said about the three protagonists!
Their behaviour is questionable in Chapter 1, when they frighten Clikity-Clok the "bad gnome" out of his cottage because they want to live there themselves. When they first set eyes on the cottage, Golly says, "Someone lives there. What a nuisance!" Woggie suggests that they ask the current occupier if they can live there instead and Nigger replies, "But suppose they won't let us. Suppose there is someone perfectly horrid living there?" What a cheek! :shock: Their transformation from golliwogs into pixies doesn't make their behaviour any the more acceptable, though!

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Re: Stephen Isabirye

Post by Ming »

I had forgotten about that incident! Thanks for reminding me - yup, questionable behavior indeed. Didn't the three pixies also argue about the type of flowers to have, in that same story?
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Re: Stephen Isabirye

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

The Three Golliwogs all wanted to live in a cottage with prettily-painted walls, roses round the door and a gate, but they disagreed about the colours (of walls, gate and roses). When they spotted Clikity-Clok's cottage, which had yellow walls, a blue gate and honeysuckle, they decided it was perfect even though it wasn't exactly as any of them had pictured. The only problem was that smoke was coming from the chimney so they knew someone must already be living there, but never mind about that! :roll:

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Re: Stephen Isabirye

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It is great that one of your segments is currently discussing Eileen Soper v. Betty Maxey. In fact, in my book in the chapter headlined, "Familial Politics,'" I have a sub-segment, titled, "The Famous Five: A Tale of Two illustrators" (pp.113-115)in which I let various voices, pro-and con Soper and Maxey air their views. I try to stay as neutral as possible in this aspect since I used books that contained the two illustrators.

Recently, there has been controversy surrounding the taking out of Haiti of some children by some outside groups. I do not pass any judgement about the merits of such transactions. Maybe, in light of the recent tragedy in Haiti, some parents may have wanted their children to be taken out of Haiti in the hopes of a better life somewhere else. Last night on the BBC, I also heard that Nepal was expressing some concerns about its children being taken out of their country albeit in a different context. Probably, Enid Blyton had a flexible adoption policy that I include in the introduction to my book when discussing Five Fall Into Adventure. In Five Fall Into Adventure, Jo is understandably adopted because her father has gone to prison while her mother had died. In The Secret Mountain, Captain Arnold suggests that he cannot take Mafumu to England since in his opinion, he would be miserable away from his people. However, in light of the current controversies surrounding adoptions, flying Mafumu to England without the consent of his people would tantamount to kidnapping; an accutation that would later be levelled against some French that were reproved of trying to "abduct" some 103 Chadian children to France. So in hindsight, Enid Blyton could be patted on the back for having understood some of the problems of adoption, especially across cultural lines so long ago.
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Re: Stephen Isabirye

Post by Lenoir »

That’s an interesting point.

Jo’s case was a bit different to Mafumu’s because at least she was already living in England, and there would have been less of a culture shock for her I suppose.
However, it would still have been quite a change from her previous lifestyle with her father and his bad ways and mad friends.
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Re: Stephen Isabirye

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I am glad to let you know that my book now can be directly purchased in India at:

http://www.flipkart.com/stephen-isabirye/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Several people from India and Malyasia have wanted to know how they can purchase my book directly in their countries. At this time Flipkart.Com (http://www.flipkart.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) can only mail or ship the book to India. I just hope that in the not-so-far future, the book may also be available in surrounding countries and regions such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, Middle East, Far East, Africa, etc. These countries and regions, as everyone knows, constitute one of Enid Blyton's core fan base. I am also cognizant of the fact that most people in these regions are yet to be wired to computers and the Internet-thus, which increases the necessity of reaching out to them via offline distributors like brick and mortar (physical) bookstores/bookshops, street vendors, etc. Nonetheless, the availability of the book via Flipkart.Com ( http://www.fliplkart.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) is the first step in the right direction.
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Re: Stephen Isabirye

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Your post appeared twice, Stephen, so I have removed one of them. I am glad that your book is available in India, but I am not sure how well it is going to sell. It is priced at 1304 rupees, which translates into our UK money as £18.25, and presumably they will charge shipping on top of that. That would be extremely expensive for a paperback in this country, so I would imagine it wouldn't even be considered by most people in India where books are far cheaper than they are here in the UK. To put this into terms that you will understand better, Keith's self-published book, 'Island of Fog' is at $11.95, whilst your book for the Indian market comes in at a hefty $28 - I think that says it all!

I guess I also better add that only about 5% of the visitors to this website come from India and they are mostly children! :roll:
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