Fernando Henriques
One of the first Black British professors in UK academic history, Fernando Henriques developed his scholarly expertise though positions at the Universities of Oxford, Leeds, Sussex and the West Indies, bridging the latter two institutions through his role as Director of The Centre for Multi-Racial Studies between 1964 and 1974.
Fernando was the youngest of six siblings, including Pauline Crabbe OBE (1914–1998), an actor, broadcaster and magistrate; and their elder brother Sir Cyril George Henriques (1908–1982), a Lord Chief Justice of Jamaica knighted in 1963.
Henriques was targeted by the Yorkshire press amidst local outrage at some of the study's findings, which analysed the practices and moral dimensions of extra-marital sexual activity within mining communities.
[2][19] His obituary in The Times stated that he had "relied on his intuition more than on his scholarship, and if he never wrote the books his friend wished him to write he could be a delightful and stimulating companion.
In this book, Henriques "overturned the myth of the objective outside observer, showing that ethnography is based on the subjective interpretation of fieldwork and that the interpreter must therefore reveal his or her biases", as well as highlighting "the importance of history, showing that the exploitative history of European colonialism, plantations and slavery was crucial for understanding Jamaica, with its multi-racial society, cultural variations and social inequalities embedded in a colour-class system”.
[23] The trajectory of Henriques' significant works on this theme began with his influential Coal is Our Life ethnographic study of Yorkshire mining communities, which included analysis of generational discourses on the morality of extra-marital sexual behaviour.
In his speech at this event, Fortes argued for the urgent need to apply a new generation of research and practice to the "spectre of race" haunting not only Europe but "the whole world".
[25] At the same event, Professor Asa Briggs commended Henriques for "the imaginative boldness with which he first conceived the idea which lies behind this Centre and for his enthusiasm in developing it".
[citation needed][25] Henriques' decade-long tenure directing the Centre for Multi-Racial Studies culminated in the publication of his final monograph Children of Caliban: Misegenation (1974), a historical survey of sexual relationships and reproduction between mixed ethnic groups in the West Indies, Africa, Europe and the United States.
[26] In a manner that was uncharacteristic of social anthropological studies of the time, Henriques declared in the first chapter of this book that it is framed through a particular personal bias, namely, "that of a black man who grew up in a white world, and whose major orientation lies with Europe, but who nevertheless can never escape the heritage of his colour.
