Banjo

Claude McKay

Summary

Banjo , Claude McKay's second novel, follows a band of beachcombers made up of members of the African diaspora as they live as vagrants in Marseilles. Their de facto leader is the titular Banjo, an easygoing African-American musician and veteran of World War I, who aspires to assemble the band of beach boys into an orchestra. The novel also follows Ray, an itinerant Haitian writer and intellectual who debuted in McKay's first novel, Home to Harlem . Structured as a series of vignettes, Banjo explores themes of Pan-Africanism and transnational racial identity in its depiction of the international black precariat. Claude McKay (died 1948) was an influential writer of the modernist period. Their work has endured across generations and continues to be read and studied worldwide. As a work of classic literary fiction, Banjo exemplifies the narrative craft and social insight that defined great storytelling of its era. Literary fiction of this period was characterized by careful attention to character psychology, social milieu, and the moral questions that animated public discourse.

Available since: 05/19/2026.

Print length: 323 pages.

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