Marjorie Jones: Obituary Note

Summary

As we go to press for the latest edition of African Literature Today, we hear of the passing of Marjorie Jones, wife of legendary scholar and critic of African literature, Professor Eldred Jones, on Sunday, 6 September in Freetown, Sierra Leone, at the age of 89. Marjorie was an active participant in the African literary field in her own right and not just the wife of a pioneer critic and scholar of African literature. Readers of African Literature Today will recall that when Eldred Jones was Editor and Eustace Palmer Associate Editor, Marjorie served as Editorial Assistant for the journal. This was in the pre-computer age, and it meant that she was responsible for re-typing all the articles and reviews accepted for publication in the journal and playing a very important role during the proofreading process. When Eustace Palmer left Sierra Leone for the United States in 1992, she and Eldred Jones virtually co-edited the journal until Ernest Emenyonu took over as Editor. What some may not know is that for the last thirty years or so Eldred has been completely blind and Marjorie has been literally his eyes. That meant that Marjorie read all the articles and reviews submitted to the journal to him, and therefore played a very important role in deciding what should be published. She helped to compose the editorials, and was instrumental in seeing each edition of the journal through the publication process. She thus played an unforgettable role in shaping the destiny of African Literature Today, and ensured its continuation even during the years of Sierra Leone's civil war.

As Eldred was blind, Marjorie had to read all new publications he was interested in to him. She thus became very well read and very highly informed herself. I remember a very notable incident when Syl Cheney-Coker published his massive novel The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar. At the launching ceremony in Freetown, Eldred Jones was asked to be the keynote speaker and to give his views of the book, which he did superbly. This meant that Marjorie must have read the whole of that extensive novel to Eldred, and read it so well that Eldred was able to give an informed opinion of it which he was able to share with his Sierra Leonean audience.