Madge Abbey (& Marie

MADGE ABBEY (Mrs Marjorie Adama)

January 1934 with daughter MARIA

I came to Manchester with my friend, I can’t remember the year, for work. There was no work in Barrow in Furness where I was born in 1934. My Dad worked in the Ship Yard and my Mum was a cleaner there. I was about eighteen leaving behind my two brothers. My sister lived in Stretford Manchester, she was married to an Irish man. We both moved in with her and got a job in Trafford Park at the Carborundum.

I didn’t go out a lot, but my friend was a bit more adventurous so one weekend when we were fed up, she said, ‘Oh Let’s go down Moss Side’ and off we went!

We went to the Big Alex , had a few ciders then we said ‘Let’s go in one of the clubs’, so we went in the Reno . It was good, yeah, really good. You had to go down some stairs, and of course it was all Black people. I had never met any Black people before then. We just went in, got a drink and started dancing and that was it really. Lots of the men kept coming up to us and asking us to dance, asking to take us home and all that. We were the only two white girls there at the time. But we never went home with anybody. Possibly because we had to get back to Stretford, to my sister’s.

When we told my sister she wasn’t very happy, she wasn’t very happy at all, but she was the type who didn’t say a lot, but I could tell she wasn’t very happy. It didn’t stop us though, we had enjoyed ourselves, got a buzz out of it, so we went back the next week (laughter).

I was in the Reno when they filmed it for the TV. Me and my friend went in and they told us they were filming. A friend of mine asked me to dance. We were jiving and the next minute we found out that

we were on the television. (laughter)

Me and my friend were sat there on another night, and the lad that was at the door said ‘Oh, look who is coming in, it’s the Inkspots.’

Willy Acquah worked on the door then. He has died now. Mary my friend married him, and they had three girls Maxine, Theresa, Vanessa (she is married to somebody out of the Happy Mondays), and Ian. It’s not long ago that Mary died , of course I went to her funeral. It was quite a long time, maybe a few months before I let anyone take me home. He was called Adama Abbey Everybody knew Adama and he ended up being my husband.

He was a fire eater and did shows in the Reno, and of course I was fascinated. When I first saw him, I thought it was so exciting. He was all dressed up and had feathers on his costume; eating fire. After the show, he came over and spoke to me offering to buy me a drink. I thought ‘Oh I like this’, (laughter) but I never went out with him for a while!!

I can’t remember his age; my memory is terrible. I would say we were around about the same age. But my daughter Maria says her dad was a year younger. He would take me for a drink at the Alex, to his friends sometimes, just regular social things that couples do. We used to go to Hulme, we never went to the City Centre or anywhere like that. There were no reactions when we were out together. I think that may have been because we stayed in the area. My sister and brother in law didn’t meet him for a long time. But when they did meet him, well, he was a charmer and could charm anybody. So, my sister liked him.

I was pregnant with Maria in 1958 when we married at the Manchester Registrar on Deansgate. I told my parents ‘I am coming home with my husband’. Mum said, ‘What I want to see when you come home is your marriage license’. So, I had to show her our marriage license. My Dad was the type of man who just sailed along, but my Mum didn’t like the idea. She wasn’t happy, but she supported me. But as time went on it didn’t get better so after a while, she just didn’t like it at all.

He already had a house in Bedwell Street. I didn’t work because eventually I had three children. My husband was a gambler who spent his nights in the Shebeens on Denmark Road. I’d be sat in the house waiting for him to come home with some money. Often if by three o’clock in the morning he wasn’t back, I would go out because I knew where he would be playing cards.

I remember I went in one night and he had a handful of cards and when he saw my face he just started laughing and said, ‘Thank god you have come, I was losing’! And he left with me. He performed under the name of Prince Bosambo. (I’m not sure if the spelling is right). He used to have shows in Belle Vue and he used to do the side shows .

He went abroad a lot to Finland, Germany, all over Sweden. When he went abroad, he earned quite a lot of money that he was supposed to send to me every week, but he never sent a penny. My sister was good, she used to help me a lot. My parents didn’t know half of it, I never told them.

He won the pools once, we were still living in Bedwell Street then. I wouldn’t say it was a great deal of money, but he brought me a couple of fur coats and gave his friends money. It didn’t last long, the next minute he took my fur coats and sold them. He was from Ghana he liked semolina Fufu and Garri; he was quite a good cook. He wanted to take me to Africa to Ghana, but it was all talk. I knew that I would never get there because he never had any money. Life really was terrible. He was a gambler, when he had no money, he used to beat me. I don’t like going back and remembering.

I left him because he was going to get the house taken off him, because he hadn’t paid the mortgage. We could have had a lovely home. If I knew then what I know now I could have probably got that house and sold it and got a better one, but I didn’t really know anything. I was more interested in my kids, in feeding them!

I went to live in rooms in Acker Street just me and the children. The landlady was Mrs Acquah, she was a nice Black lady. I think she was alright with me because she knew I couldn’t go to work because I had three children that I looked after. I just wanted rooms and a bit of peace, kind of thing. I always looked after my kids – I never went out drinking or anything. I just looked after my kids, and when I could go out to work, I did a couple of hours of cleaning to get a bit of extra money. I always found that people respected me.

My children were my life definitely. They were good kids, Yeah (laughter). Anthony wasn’t he was a ... little boy, he was alright really, he was just boisterous.

My parents knew I had left the kids’ father. I think my mother was relieved, but I never let them know too much. It was always my sister who helped me out. She used to have the kids a lot for me. In 1969 my life changed for ever. My son died and my heart broke and I got divorced. After the divorce everything changed for the better. I got a job, I was working, the kids were growing up, and I could see where I was going. Whereas before, I had no money, sometimes we didn’t have food to eat, all due to my husband’s gambling.

We had moved to Wythenshawe by then. I got a house, well a council flat. Maria, I think, was about seven. Maria was at Woodhouse Park primary school. She used to frequently faint in assembly because she couldn’t stand being in crowds. The head mistress sent for me and said, ‘You will have to take her home because she has fainted in assembly’. Then she said, ‘But it’s only natural because she has just come from Africa, hasn’t she?’ So, I said ‘No’. So, she said ‘Err if not from Africa, then from a hot country’ so I said ‘No’. ‘Isn’t she adopted?’ she asked. I said ‘No! She is mine’. ‘Oh, I thought you had adopted her’ and that was the head mistress! How ignorant are these people? I’ve always remembered that.

Me and my friend Kath, Michael Acker’s Mum, used to go to Denmark Road Market. Maria was just a baby in her pram. Next minute, these Black women came up to us, they looked more African than Caribbean because they were very dark. They said ‘You have been taking our men off us’, we thought they wanted to hit us because they could see Maria was Mixed Race. We said, ‘why don’t you leave us alone’. Of course, I went home, and I told her Dad, and he said, ‘where are they, where are they?’ He got his coat on and he went out. Of course, we couldn’t even remember who they were.

SuAndi: Trying not to lead the conversation I ask Maria if there were there any negative comments in school about her racial identity.

No not at all, no, because we had lived in Wythenshawe for a while. Though there were only three or four Mixed Race children in my school, nothing bad was said about us or anything like that, no nothing. I was quite fortunate actually – no racism as far as I was concerned.

Maria: I am partly African and English. Mixed Race, aren’t I? But even though I have never been to Africa I always say I am African.

I love being around Black people, it’s weird isn’t it? I love the music.

When I was younger, I was close to my Dad, but then when he went back to Africa obviously I couldn’t go over there. Anyway, I never wanted to go really. I used to work at the Harp Brewery in Moss Side, and my dad would come back to England on vacation. He used to always surprise me by coming to the brewery to see me and that was nice.

Dad died about ten years ago, but I still feel the connection. I have got loads of sisters and brothers in Ghana that I have never met (laughter). About fourteen!

My step brother told me; he lives here. My Dad sent him over with a relative when he was four. In summer clothing - in winter, so I clothed him. He is forty now

SuAndi: I return to Madge to ask when she became a free woman did she resume a social life because she mentioned somebody who used to give her the eye!!!!

Maria: Yeah, after a while, yeah. yeah. I never really went out with him. He used to follow me about, come to the house but he was more of a friend - nothing more than that.

I didn’t get married again but for about twenty years I went out with Ozzy Dylan. He was very good to me and very good to my kids. He used to take me all over. He always wanted to take me to Jamaica, but I wouldn’t go at first, and Maria said, ‘oh go’ and I went for a month to Jamaica. So, though I never married I did find love. It’s nice to honour him here now that he has passed

SuAndi: Once or twice while talking Madge has become tearful so Maria closes the interview

Maria: My Mum has done a lot for me, looked after me and that, clothed me, always helped me with guidance; yeah, she has always been there for me. When I need anybody, my Mum is there, she is like my best friend as well.

FAMILY Maria Manuna Adama Adamah Emmanuel Adama Anthony Arunah Adama