Bogle L’Ouverture / Walter Rodney Bookshop
Bogle L'Ouverture was one of the first Black-led publishing companies and bookshops established in the UK, alongside New Beacon Books and Allison and Busby. It was founded by Jessica and Eric Huntley in 1969. The Huntleys were Guyanese activists, who at first ran Bogle L'Ouverture out of the front room of their home on Coldershaw Road in West London.
The bookshop was a success. The Huntleys found commercial premises for the shop in 1974 at 5a Chingell Place. In 1980 the name of the bookshop was changed to the Walter Rodney bookshop after the author's assassination. Walter Rodney had been the first author published by Bogle L'Ouverture Publications, and in 1972 Bogle L'Ouverture had published Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.
The bookshop specialised in black literature. More than just a bookshop, it functioned as a drop in centre for parents, students and teachers who sought guidance on their studies as well as assistance with job applications, employment and career prospects.
Many writers participated in readings at the bookshop including Ntozake Shange, Louise Bennett, Farrukh Dhondy, Andrew Salkey, Sam Selvon, Kamau Brathwaite, Merle Hodge, Petronella Breinburg, Cecil Rajendra, and others.
The bookshop was subject to numerous racist attacks in the late 1970s. They formed an alliance with New Beacon Books and the Race Today collective as an act of defiance. A sucessful event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Bogle L'Ouverture led to the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books being established by all three organisations. There were twelve fairs held between 1982 and 1995.
The Walter Rodney Bookshop closed in 1990.
Sources:
Bogle L'Ouverture Publications Wikipedia, online
British Library Untold Lives blog, 17.09.2019, online
Friends of the Huntley Archives at the LMA, online
No Colour Bar, online
The Radical Bookseller, Issue 77, Spring 1991, Bishopsgate Institute
