F.Z.S. Peregrino, A Significant but Duplicitous Figure in the Black Atlantic World

Abstract

The role of Francis Zaccheus Santiago Peregrino is one that has intrigued historians for many years. He represented a direct link between West Africa (Gold Coast, modern Ghana), Britain, the United States and South Africa. Peregrino was a campaigning editor and vocal supporter of black rights in both the United States and southern Africa. He appeared to be the embodiment of the black Atlantic. These qualities have, rightly, been celebrated, but there is another side to the man, which has received only limited attention. He was also someone of ruthless ambition. In New York he was accused of labour-broking practices that replicated slavery. In South Africa he thought nothing of denouncing some of his closest black associates to the white authorities. Peregrino also pursued his private agenda at the cost to the wider African and Coloured communities, threatening them at a critical moment in the formation of the Union of South Africa. This article traces his life in the USA, Britain...