An innovative fictional portrayal of the black British Community – Diran Adebayo’s “Some Kind of Black”
An innovative fictional portrayal of the black British Community – Diran Adebayo’s “Some Kind of Black”

Summary/Abstract: “Some Kind of Black” is Diran Adebayo’s first published novel, a multi-award winning work widely acclaimed by critics, a book which established its author as one of the most original literary talents on the London scene. The book is a nineties’ coming of age story which traces a difficult year in the life of the protagonist. It is divided into eleven chapters each bearing a telling title. By failing to deal adequately with the idea of black culture, and retreating to theoretical notions of race, research on black British youth has largely consigned them to the margins, identifying them with problematic people. My paper is aimed at pinpointing the strategies used by Adebayo in order to challenge the portrayal of the black community in Britain as overwhelmed by cultural doubt, dislocation and lack of authenticity. I argue that “Some Kind of Black” is a plea for the creativity of Black British culture. Youth are presented as an essential part of the struggles of the black community and the construction of black identity is perceived as a dynamic, positive and creative process. There are several youths in the novel who are emblematic of Adebayo’s attempt to deconstruct the myth of black youth as mugger of old ladies, rioter, illegal immigrant, drug dealer, problem of the inner cities, rebel, etc. However, the portrait created is far from being an idyllic one as Adebayo demonstrates a real feel of urban life and remarkable skill in capturing the community as it is with its good and bad parts.

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