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Janice Lowe Shinebourne's collection, The Godmother and Other Stories, focuses on such characters as they negotiate the personal and political spaces within which their identities, memories, and attachments are formed. Shinebourne provides a radical challenge to the conceptual boundaries of histories and nations by boldly exploring the pain and possibility of identities that are profoundly shaped by memories; of individuals that live, in other words, in that space where "[t]he past and the present will be joined" (78). Indeed, Shinebourne's work not only challenges the boundaries of time and space, it also ultimately affirms the blurred spaces where they collide as vital locations from which to articulate identity. The collection is organized into three sections. In Part I, the stories are set in Guyana during the turbulent years around national independence. As such, they appear to capture a very specific moment in time and space: Guyana's transition from colony to independent state. Nevertheless, the dynamics that shape these stories reveal a less distinctly defined progression. In "Chuni" and "Vera", for example, the social and class discrimination that characterized colonial society remain firmly entrenched in the new nation, while the main character in "Jacob" is depicted as being as disconnected and displaced from Guyana as he was from England. In "Memories of British Guiana", history literally repeats itself when British troops return to Guyana in 1962 to quell political unrest as they had done in the 1950s. Significantly, this story is told from the vantage point of individuals living in Canada; however, despite their physical location, the narrators' minds are so deeply mired in their memories of Guyana that it is as if Guyana has been superimposed on Canadian space. The presence of mid-twentieth century Guyana in Canada, so to speak, suggests that memory has made the distances between the two places and times largely irrelevant. The stories of Part II are a logical outgrowth of "Memories of British Guiana" in that they are focused on characters that have traveled vast distances, yet are unable to make a clean break from their pasts. Indeed, the past is always with them influencing and shaping their present identities in innumerable ways. In both "The Godmother" and "Hopscotch", for example, Guyanese individuals visiting their expatriate friends in England stimulate a resurgence of behaviours and rituals from their pasts and transform the English landscape into an extension of Guyana itself. In doing so, it becomes evident that the expatriate characters "live with Guyana all the time" (61) despite their distance from that locale, a reality that undermines any clear distinctions between "here" and "there", or "now" and "then". While Parts I and II explore the often painful tensions inherent in living out identity at the intersections of time and space, in Part III, Shinebourne celebrates more positive possibilities for constructing identity when a more fluid understanding of such boundaries are embraced. The section consists of two of the collections most memorable stories, "The Berbice Marriage Match" and "London and New York". The former story, a tale of an arranged marriage between a creolized Chinese-Guyanese woman and a young man from a family that has arrived from China much more recently, explores the collapse of national borders and histories in the making of diasporic identities. In "London and New York", the narrator's search for bean cakes leads her to contemplate the various migrations that are a part of her history and their impact on the way in which she lives out her identity. Food in general and bean cakes in particular, become an important metaphor for a sense of belonging and home that is not limited by time or space but can be located within both the here and now of the present and the memories of the past. As with most of Shinebourne's fiction, in this collection, the trauma of the violence that surrounded Guyanese independence remains the gaping wound on her imagination. But unlike earlier work, the pieces in The Godmother are not overwhelmed by the weight of this history and the need to record and tell that experience. Certainly, one can better appreciate the power of the characters' memories and their struggles for self-definition if one has an understanding of Guyana's political history. But in this collection, it is the characters themselves who are the focus of the stories, not their historical contexts. Shinebourne is therefore able to demonstrate her skill at creating nuanced characters that are flawed, complex and painfully human. She also reveals an ability to evoke a poetic sensuality that has sometimes been lost in her more political novels. In particular, her use of food as a metaphor for the cultural and social bonds that supersede the boundaries of time and space is richly sensuous. Indeed, despite the fact that Shinebourne is touching on familiar territory in her exploration of the relationship between memory, migration, and identity, her deftly crafted characters and her attention to structural details allow her stories to avoid becoming nostalgically maudlin or saccharinely celebratory. Instead, in her sensitive exploration of characters whose lives "[defy] boundaries and time" (30), Shinebourne provides a sympathetic and subtle contemplation of how the crossroads of time and space are intrinsically related to the contemporary "instability and mutability of identities" which, according to Paul Gilroy, "are always unfinished, always being remade" (The Black Atlantic: The Black Modernity and Double Consciousness (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. Press, 1994) p. xi. Editor's Note: Janice Lowe Shinebourne is a Guyanese writer who writes from England where she now lives. Her works include the Guyana Prize-winning Timepiece (1986) and The Last English Plantation (1988). This Review is one of many illuminating pieces appearing in the current issue of THE ARTS JOURNAL, Volume 4 Numbers 1 & 2, available at all leading bookshops in Guyana or from its Editorial offices (227 6825/220 3337). An Interview of Janice Lowe Shinebourne by Anne Marie Lee Loy also appears in the current issue. It is a valuable interview in that we are able to glean from it the historical and cultural context and the influences from which this writer gains her inspiration and artistic energy. It will carry a lot of resonance for in Guyana. Dr. Anne-Marie Lee-Loy is Assistant Professor at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada whose interest also lies in research on the Chinese in the Caribbean.
Dabydeen will read from his Prize-winning novel, Drums of My Flesh (TSAR, Toronto), from his latest poetry collection, Uncharted Heart (Borealis Press, Ottawa), and from Imaginary Origins: New and Selected Poems (Peepal Tree Press, UK). This special event is hosted by Miami Dade College and its sponsors, with Professor-Librarian Dr Mervyn Solomon as one of the prime movers behind getting writers like Cyril Dabydeen to appear at the gala event. Dabydeen previously read at this book fair a few years ago with writers like Kamau Brathwaite, Shani Mootoo, Phillips, and others of Caribbean background. The Ottawa Citizen newspaper noted that Dabydeen's reading style has "Stravinsky's rhythms"; he has done over 300 readings world-wide, and is scheduled to read next at Canada's National Library of Canada, at Mount Allison University and at the University of Moncton in New Brunswick in February next year, and at the major "India and the Indian Diasporic Imagination" at Paul Valery University, France, in April (with David Dabydeen, Amitav Ghosh and others).
"Night-night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite." And with that sentiment words you heard from your parents and they, from theirs and maybe even before that the kids are wide awake. Bed bugs? Bites? No way. Yes, way. And not only do bedbugs bite, but chiggers, bats, and other creepy-crawlies do, too. Read all about them if you dare in the new book "Dark Banquet" by Bill Schutt. If faced with a bat in your house, there's one thing you know: it's got to go. Now. But researcher Bill Schutt loves bats. He studies them, experiments with them, and gets up at the crack of dawn to drive to a slaughterhouse so he can get food for them. Specifically, blood-as-food, because Schutt studies vampire bats. With help from Trinidad's Ministry of Agriculture and a mentor, Dr. Farouk Muradali, Schutt had his very own colony of Diaemus youngi, the white-winged vampire bat. All vampire bats, including Diaemus, feed and survive solely on blood, mostly on that of large animals but occasionally on human blood. The fascinating thing that Schutt learned about his furry little vampires is that they've adapted other species' behaviors to ensure a nice, warm place to dine. Your chances of running into a Trinidadian white-winged vampire bat are kind of slim these days but if you check into a hospital, you might meet up with another creature for which dinner's on you literally. For hundreds of years, medical practitioners have known that leeches could be used for the good of the patient (but not so good for the leech; they're euthanized after one medically-deemed feeding). Leeches, by the way, are the second living creature to be designated as a medical device. (What's the first, you might ask? Read the book). And if all that doesn't make you itchy already, let's talk about those bedbugs. Your house is spotless so you don't need to worry, right? Well, let's just say that used sofa might not be such a bargain for you after all. And free delivery? Might want to pass. True, Halloween's over, but it's never a bad time to read a really good science book. "Dark Banquet" lands solidly in that category. Part nature study, part history, part ecology, and with biting wit, author Bill Schutt adds a bit of cautionary tale to his book. As much as he geekily appreciates the creatures he's written about and as enthusiastically gleeful he is about them, Schutt admits to some squeamishness. In the end, though, he freely points out that whether we love them or are repulsed by them our world needs bats, leeches, and blood-feeding bugs to keep various ecosystems balanced. If you want to sink your teeth into a fascinating, lively science book this fall, you really can't go wrong with this one. To miss "Dark Banquet" would be simply batty.
Grenadian poet and novelist Merle Collins and author Beverly Manley of Jamaica, wife of the late Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, are making several appearances this week as they each promote their new works. Manley begins the speaking tour today in the Bronx at the Jamaica Progressive League, 2230 Light St. (between Dyer Ave. and 233rd St.) at 7 p.m., to discuss her autobiography, `Manley Memoirs.` On Wednesday at noon, Manley teams up with Collins, author of the politically inspired Caribbean poetry collection `Lady in a Boat,` for a reading and book signing in Manhattan at St. John's University's Manhattan campus, 101 Murray St. (between Greenwich and West Sts.) That afternoon the duo will also be at St. John's University's Queens campus, 8000 Utopia Parkway, at 3:30 p.m. Reservations are required. Call (718) 990-1869. The next leg of the Manley-Collins tour will be held Wednesday evening at 7 in Brooklyn at St. Francis College's Callahan Center, 182 Remsen St. (between Court and Clinton Sts.). The Manley-Collins segment of the "Poets & Passion" series ends Thursday at the Brooklyn Public Library, Flatbush Branch, 22 Linden Blvd. (between Flatbush and Bedford Aves.) at 7 p.m.
The children's story by Diaz, a St. Thomas author and jr. high school teacher, was published in St. Martin by HNP. According to Disney Family Travel, "Older kids will relate to Claude's fish-out-of-water experience in the Virgin Islands," and suggests it as reading for ages 8 to 12. Claude's Adventure is a combination ghost story, time travel, "bad boy" redemption through the power of history, reading, friendship, and parental love, said Sample. The book is newly listed on the Disney travel website's "Fun and Facts for St. Thomas and St. John, Virgin Islands." Claude's Adventure is one of the "Pre-Trip Fun" "ideas for family vacations your kids will love," states the Virgin Islands feature at family.go.com/travel/vacations. HNP found out this week about the book's listing by the US family entertainment giant. "We congratulate Ms. Diaz for this new exposure, which compounds our appreciation for the confidence Ms. Diaz and other Caribbean authors place in House of Nehesi to publish their books," said Sample. Claude's Adventure is available at Van Dorp, Arnia's and Dockside bookstores, and at Amazon.com.
Mittelholzer was born in 1909 in New Amsterdam, Berbice. According to a press release he "ushered in the Guyanese novel tradition with the publication in 1941 of his first novel Corentyne Thunder." The 2008-2009 issue will be edited by Petamber Persaud for a record fifth time. The release said too that as the magazine approaches its centenary; it was first published in December 1915 under the title Chronicle Christmas Annual, it will continue to execute its mandate as a platform for good Guyanese literary and artistic aspirations. Though it had been plagued by a few dormant periods, the magazine's recent reincarnation in 1998 was due to the goodwill of Dr Tulsi Dyal Singh who continues to support it in its 11th consecutive issue. According to the release the closing date for submissions is October 24. Entries can be sent to The Guyana Annual, C/o Guyenterprise Limited, 234 Lance Gibbs and Irving Streets, Queenstown, Georgetown. Interested persons can also contact the editor at telephone number 226-0065 or by email at address oraltradition2002@yahoo.com. 2008:
Black Breeding Machinesis a thoroughly researched chronicle of the dehumanization, sexual exploitation and breeding of black slaves in the Americas. With a doctorate in sociology, Donoghue details the justifications of slavery that led to an ideology encouraging the crass dehumanization of slaves and demonstrates the evolution of the dysfunctional slave family, in part through the custom of "abroad marriages," in which spouses were made to live on separate estates. Taking his point of departure from the British Parliamentary debates on the abolition of the slave trade (1789-1792), Donoghue focuses on the question facing many planters at the time: whether it would be more profitable to continue to import slaves from Africa or to breed those in subjugation? His research shows that many planters in the Americas turned to breeding. About the author: Eddie Donoghue was born on the small island of Montserrat in the Caribbean and lived for almost 20 years in Sweden. He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and is currently a researcher for the Legislature of the Virgin Islands. Donoghue is also the author of Black Women/White Men: The Sexual Exploitation of Female Slaves in the Danish West Indies and Negro Slavery: Slave Society and Slave Life in the Danish West Indies ( both published by AuthorHouse).
According to Mexican author Adela Fernández, in Eva/Sion/s Vicioso "seeks the origin of her native island and the poet herself is the island, land circled by water, rhythm and voice tinged with silence. "Too hurt, too devastated to look at herself, she recognizes herself, reconstructs herself in the word and sees all that is root and flight . She travels, journeys: signs and myths flourish; rituals are enacted. In the local, she becomes universal, in the ephemeral she sows eternity."  At the California-based
spdbooks.org, Eva/Sión/Es is already tagged for
Latino/Latina Studies, and "Sherezada Chiqui Vicioso is
a mistress of many stories and many sleepless nights, who understands
not only the interstices of international and Caribbean politics,
but also the importance of narrative and poetry to personal survival."Chiqui Vicioso sings in one stanza, "I am all the Juanas/ the one who leaps to clean the cannons/ the one who fights without arrows or a bow/ the one who writes her resignation letter/ with the same ink/ to which she is enslaved." The Cuban Minister of Culture Abel Prieto locates the seminal canto in the Caribbean and within original and universal mythologies: "It breathes and lives here, with us, and immediately flies and is set in the mythic landscape. It is like she, like Chiqui, high and definitive, clear and clean as the water of the origins." "With the eve persona as poetic protagonist, Eva/Sion/s sings sweetly and challenges with grace the definitions of origins and Eden," said the St. Martin author/historian Lasana M. Sekou. "Chiqui discovers the paradise port of incipient human departure as an island, and for New World adams, constructing their Sion from the horrors of history, it is 'a Quisqueya of sugar/an Ayití of birds and suns'." Across the world, the elegant poet and University of Hong Kong professor Agnes Lam is insightful: "Out of the wreckage of paradise comes this passionate rendering of the human soul, mortal and immortal all at once, a saga of love. "This is not poetry for an everyday existence but an epic of the human race, true not only of the Caribbean spirit but also of cosmic forces beyond our understanding, which can only be fully felt if we are prepared to ride with the poet through hell and heaven." French author Camile Aubaude traces the poetic journey of myths and material histories through the Caribbean, the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia and pointed out that, "Eva/Sion/s recalls to our conscience the nomadism of the primal experience." Eva/Sion/s is the first work by this important Caribbean poet to be published simultaneously in three languages Spanish (Eva/Sión/Es), English, and French (Éva/Sion/s). The book is available in bookstores and at www.amazon.com, spdbooks.org and from its Caribbean publisher at houseofnehesipublish.com.
It is a story of the cruelty, revenge and jealousy inflicted on an innocent young woman and how she demonstrated moral courage, dignity, resilience and love. It is the story of a remarkable woman who made a choice which resulted in her losing contact with her beloved family in Jamaica until nearly half a century later, when her past finally caught up with her.
 GREAT
BAY, St. Martin (September 9, 2008): 37 Poems by Lasana
M. Sekou is now among the "Most Popular" books at ClubCari.com,
said Jacqueline Sample, president of House of Nehesi Publishers
(HNP). The online bookstore's "Most Popular" homepage titles include noted classics A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul, In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming, and Black Skin, White Mask by Frantz Fanon. "This is a new listing for 37 Poems, and it comes during Lasana's 30th year as a St. Martin author," said Sample. "It is also very good for the relatively young St. Martin literature and encouraging for the new generation of writers throughout the Caribbean to see any kind of long-term exposure." The book takes its name from the 37-square-mile size of St. Martin. "We are curious about the new and unexpected hits for 37 Poems even though it was published over three years ago with limited promotion," said Sample. The "unexpected" new web hits for 37 Poems range from a BIBR citing that "Each poem has drive and invites the reader to explore the subject at hand;" to Michael Ingham selecting its poem about Filipino immigrants in China for his book Hong Kong: A Cultural History (2007); to the enlarged cover of 37 Poems at a US prisoner's blog earlier this year. 7 Poems has never been launched on the island but it is available at Van Dorp and Arnia's bookstores, Jubilee Library, and at Amazon.com and spdbooks.org. The slim volume did receive critical reviews in The Jamaica Gleaner and the Caribbean Review of Books soon after it was published here in 2005. The current "Most Popular" titles at ClubCari.com also include the cook book What's Cooking in Guyana; Rosa Guy's New Guys Around the Block; The Shelter (Plays) by Caryl Phillips, the famed UK author of Kittitian descent; and Lynn Joseph's The Color of My Words, a children's book about 12-year-old Ana Rosa Hernandez from the Dominican Republic.
Title: Long Time Walk on Water
"I would work 24 hours a
day, walk a long long time on water if it mean my children can
come over and get a good start in life," Emily 'Rose' Thompson
writes to her friend Junie in Jamaica. Junie is taking care of
her two children, Marlene and Leroy, while Rose is in 'Hingland',
the Motherland.
So writes former St Vincent and the Grenadines prime minister Sir James Mitchell in his autobiography Beyond the Islands. Mitchell, now 77, retired in 2000 from his prime ministerial post undefeated, after serving in parliament for 35 years. "Eugenia Charles of Dominica, Sir John Compton of St Lucia and I tried our utmost to bring the islands together," he said. Retired undefeated "And we got serious opposition, from the people, and from organisationsincluding the church and all of them, the youth movement. And we were glad we  were
involved in that exercise, because we were able to establish
that the leaders of the Caribbean were in pursuit of political
union and it was blocked by the people." Sir James said: "I went into politics when I was 35, said I would give the country 35 years, and I didn't want my 70th birthday in Parliament so I retired before my 70th birthday. "And I retired undefeated which not many politicians in the Caribbean do, and succeed in doing four consecutive terms as prime minister, plus I had done another term as head of a coalition government in the 70s when I was premier before independence," said Sir James, who was knighted in May 1995, and has the direct phone number for Buckingham Palace, in case of emergencies. "I really served for 70 years," he said recently at his Frangipani Hotel in Port Elizabeth, Bequia, "because I worked for 15 hours a day." Sir James was in opposition twice for ten years, during his political season. He said he took four years to complete his autobiography, writing from as early as four in the morning till late into the night. "In a strange way," he begins in the acknowledgements, "this book wrote itself. The story kept flowing from my pens, propelling itself forward despite the intrusions of surgery." He had knees replacements in Denmark. Formative years In his book, Sir James talks about his formative years, growing up in Bequia, going to school at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad and at universities in British Columbia, working as a sleeping-car porter on trains to make ends meet, and his hitch-hiking days in Europe in Part I. In Part II, he deals with the launching of his political career from 1966 to 1974, with the ruling Labour Party in which he became Trade Minister and Statehood, and the starting up of his Frangipani hotel, and his running as an independent. Part III deals with his being the sole opposition member in Parliament from 1975 to 1984, leading to the formation of a third party, the New Democratic Party, which broke the back of the two-party system, the now-famous Bequia Regatta, independence and the 1979 election and the uprising in Union Island where Barbados Prime Minister Tom Adams sent in troops and inspired the calypso Boots. Part IV deals with his first ten years as prime minister from 1984 to 1994, and having no opposition in his second term. Part V called Onwards to Retirement, revisits his last election and fourth consecutive term. Bermuda Triangle The book is candid with him revealing his loneliness as a prime minister living in St Vincent with his family in Bequia, and the haunting memory of his father, Reginald Mitchell, who disappeared aboard the ship Gloria Colita in the Bermuda Triangle, his love for fine wines and beautiful women, his encounters with world leaders and other dignitaries including Dr Eric Williams, who seem to trust him more than his own ministers. "I got $1,000 from my good friend Eric Williams to do a study of how these islands should go forward," he wrote. Mitchell said he resembles Castro so much that Castro told him thanks for keeping him alive because "they don't know which one of us to shoot." The interesting thing about all these encounters is that Mitchell always managed to get most of them to commit themselves to some sort of aid for his beloved islands. It was a full life indeed. So much accomplished for a leader of a poor country of just over 100,000 people. His influence with leaders in the Caribbean region was unparalleled.
Sir Shridath Ramphal This was the view of both Trinidad and Tobago-born Guyanese Ian McDonald and Jamaican Professor Rex Nettleford at the launching of a 206-page publication to honour Sir Shridath on the occasion of his 80th birthday (October 3, 2008) at Le Meridien Pegasus on Thursday evening. There was a standing ovation for the honoree. The book, Shridath Ramphal the Commonwealth and the World, edited by Richard Bourne and published by Hansib Publications Limited, is a collection of essays chronicling his life and work as an international civil servant. 'Sonny' Ramphal, as he is known, a Queen's Counsel, served as Commonwealth Secretary-General for 15 years, from 1975 to 1990.  Nettleford said, "It was to our credit that we had a Caribbean person in all of those commissions in Sonny Ramphal." The five international commissions on which he served were the Brandt Commission on Develop-ment; Palme Commission on Disarmament; World Com-mission on Environment and Development; Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues; and the South Commission on the major problems facing Third World countries. Noting the Caribbean presence in the ever-changing wider world, Nettleford said Caribbean life was such that it was able to produce models. Stating that "Guyana must be proud of this man," he recalled going to the University of the West Indies and being awed by the brilliance of a number of its students, including Ramphal. And he jokingly said that Jamaican women did not like Guyanese women because Jamaican men married Guyanese women because of their role at home and in the society. The Guyanese education system at the time produced very able people for the Caribbean region and elsewhere. "How [will] we get them back? I don't know," he said noting that they led with ideas. It was against this background a place of ferment that Ramphal became a product of the sense and sensitivities, which Nettleford said, was the essence of Caribbean culture that is now celebrated as Carifesta. At the launching and in his essay, he described Ramphal as the Guyanese international statesman who was part European, part Asian, part African, part Native American - but totally Caribbean. In his remarks, McDonald, who paid tribute to both Ramphal and Nettleford during his introduction, noted that both men had made contributions to the West Indian community, culture, consciousness, nationhood and standing in the world. McDonald recalled that he worked as an editorial assistant with Ramphal when he chaired the West Indian Commission during the early 1990s, and said that he was in wonder at Ramphal having seen him at work close-up. He was inclined to agree with the view that the non-acceptance of the main recommendations of the West Indian Commission Report Time for Action by the Caricom Heads of Government "was a turning point for the worse in the often ill-starred history of the search for West Indian integration and nationhood." Nettleford and McDonald as well as the publisher of the book Arif Ali spoke of Ramphal's tireless efforts to end the apartheid system of rule in South Africa at the time and his friendship with freedom fighter and former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela. McDonald said as the "best known and most accomplished of Commonwealth Secretaries General his name would forever be inscribed on South Africa's roll of honour." Stating that it was hard to list all Ramphal's qualities in any order of precedence, McDonald nevertheless listed clarity of mind, firmness of purpose, mastery of the English language, supreme gift for networking, endless patience in negotiating and that "unusual almost magical ability to get consensus and results from a multi-talented, various-minded group without the application of brute force except, perhaps, once or twice, when absolutely necessary." He said further that for Ramphal's unflagging zeal in the commissions and his work done internationally he should have been the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize and with his skills he should have been appointed as Secretary General of the United Nations. Ramphal accepted "with considerable humility and pride" the honour bestowed on him. Having noted that the publication covered his years as an international civil servant (he had not been privy to the contents of the book before) he spoke of the decade which gave him the grounding to assume his international duties. The decade, 1965 to 1975, when he served as Guyana's Attorney General and then as Minister of Foreign Affairs, he said, had laid the groundwork for the period that followed his career as an international civil servant. That decade, he said, "was absolutely critical to everything which the book speaks of. They were extraordinary years in my life." At that time, Guyana was developing its foreign policy which included its rejection of the apartheid policy in South Africa to which the Liberation Monument in the compound of the Umana Yana in Kingston still stands. Speaking of the achievements during that period, he noted also the breaking of the international diplomatic embargo of Cuba by Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago acting together in a principled show of internationalism. He said it was an act that Cuba has never forgotten. In that decade too, Sir Shridath contributed to the post-independence constitution and worked with other Caribbean governments to build Carifta and Caricom. He mentioned his work in the international arena with the Non-Aligned Movement and in solidarity with the African National Congress of South Africa and the Council for Namibia and the Frontline States for the liberation of Southern Africa from apartheid. He noted too his participation on behalf of Guyana at the level of the United Nations, the Commonwealth and the Non-Aligned Movement , and in the negotiations as a leading figure in the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) grouping with the European Union (EU) on the Lomé Convention. The vision of a Caribbean identity as portrayed by Carifesta and put into motion by then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, he said, was noted nearly three centuries ago in 1722 by Pierre Labat, a French Dominican monk. Labat had written about his travels among the islands of the Caribbean and "invoked a vision of a Caribbean identity and destiny which remains valid." Ramphal paid tribute to the many people who in one way or another have made their own mark on Caribbean integration, including McDonald and Nettleford as well as Caricom Secretary General Edwin Carrington, who sat in the audience and whom he applauded for his stamina in continuing to build the institutions of Caricom. In addition to Burnham's vision, Sir Shridath mentioned the internationalism of Dr Cheddi Jagan over the decade, and observed that the credo had not changed.
The Prime Minister gave that commitment at the glittering opening ceremony of Dominica's first Literary Festival and Book Fair, which took place on August 8th 2008 at the UWI open campus in Roseau.  The Festival was
described as a resounding success both by the organisers of the
event and by the patrons who turned out in large numbers over
the two days to witness the sometimes spellbinding event. It was a flagship event organised by the National Reunion Planning Committee and formed part of activities for Reunion Year 2008- the 30th Anniversary of Independence. The activity attracted a number of cutting edge Writers and Publishers from the Caribbean and the Diaspora including the 1992 Nobel Laureate, St. Lucian, Derek Walcott, Cultural Icon, Ras Mo, Dr. Mervin Morris, Marie- Elena John, Gabriel Christian, Dr. Lennox Honychurch among others. Dr Lennox Honychurch and Dorothy Leevy showcased the work of famous Dominican writers Jean Rhys and Phyllis Shand Allfrey. Workshops on creative writing and publishing formed part of the weekend activity. The event also presented the opportunity to many young budding poets and writers to share some of their work in the presence of a large audience. The Festival climaxed with a vintage performance by well-known Caribbean comedian and personality, Paul Keens-Douglas. Coordinator of the Nature Island Literary Festival and Book Fair was well known Dominican icon, Alwin Bully.
But it does not sell a drop in Cuba, where founder Facundo Bacardi first opened a tin-roofed, dirt-floored distillery on Matadero Street in the eastern city of Santiago in 1862. With thorough reporting and an eye for rich, often quirky detail, veteran National Public Radio correspondent Tom Gjelten traces the story of the Bacardi family, whose product helped shape Cuba's soul until Fidel Castro nationalized its company's facilities in 1960. The Bacardis took communist Cuba to court to preserve their international trademark and eventually built a rum empire using operations in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil and the Bahamas. "We just didn't think to register the Bacardi trademark, so we lost it," Castro said years later. "We had the factory that produced the real Bacardi rum, but we couldn't keep the name." Facundo Bacardi was the first Cuban mayor of Santiago and helped pioneer Cuban style rum, known for its light, dry, smoothness. He devised a charcoal filter system and began aging rum in oak barrels. Bacardi racked up international awards after 1900, and soon its rum became known as "the one that has made Cuba famous." Prohibition in the United States sent Americans scurrying to Cuba, thirsty for Bacardi. A contemporary advertisement featured a Bacardi bat - the company's corporate logo, which Gjelten notes is somewhat creepy - carrying an Uncle Sam figure clutching an empty glass across the Straits of Florida to Cuba. By 1935, The New York Times cited Bacardi as a proper noun that had entered U.S. lexicon as a generic term, like Kleenex. Ernest Hemingway often mentioned Bacardi in his novels. Eager to export to the American market without import duties, the company set up a distillery in Puerto Rico in 1936. According to Gjelten, Bacardi discovered that the key to consistent flavor was Cuban molasses. Through tweaks in the distilling process, however, engineers corrected discrepancies so that rum with identical flavor to that produced in Cuba could be made elsewhere. The Bacardis opposed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista and supported Fidel Castro, even granting some workers leave to join his rebel forces. Vilma Espin, late wife of Cuban President Raul Castro, was the daughter of a Bacardi accountant and one Bacardi family member even knitted caps and stockings for Castro rebels fighting Batista's forces. The rebels issued a decree that Bacardi facilities were not to be attacked, and the company's chief executive, Jose "Pepin" Bosch, accompanied Castro on his first trip to the United States after taking power in 1959. Bosch ducked out early, however, already afraid of where Castro was leading the government. After nationalizing Bacardi, Cuba eventually began producing Havana Club rum, a brand it usurped from the Arechabala family, Bacardi competitors who did not fight to keep their trademarks after nationalization. Bacardi eventually bought the naming rights to Havana Club from the Arechabalas and began selling its own version of Havana Club in the United States, touching off more legal battles with Cuba that have yet to be fully resolved. The case is complicated but, as Gjelten notes, its underlying issues are simle. "When could Cuban rum be sold in the United States, by what company and under what label?" Like so many facets of U.S.-Cuba relations, answering those questions is far from easy. "Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba" (Viking, 365 pages, $27.95), by Tom Gjelten.
The books were: The Cost of Sugar by Cynthia McLeod (Suriname), Trinidad Noir by Liza-Allen Agostini (Trinidad), A Troubled Dream, An Introduction to Theatre Arts, and The West Indian by Jacques Compton (St Lucia), VI Callaloo, by British Virgin Islands Poets, Taste of Carifesta by the Culinary Arts (Guyana), Esteem by Stephanie Bowry, and Casas de las Americas 50th Anniversary Celebration (Cuba). Four books by authors from St Vincent and the Grenadines were also launched and these include Ruler in Hiroona by G.C.H Thomas, Digging for Gold and other Short Stories, by Edgar Adams, Slavery, Law and Society in the British Windward Islands 1763-1823 A comparative Study by Bernard Marshall and My Homeland by Storm Halbich.Halbich is the youngest of the lot, as he is only eight years old. Several other books are to be launched in the coming days.
The music of Bob Marley and other performers dominate the international scene, and the island's current musicians would continue at the same level if they could eschew their homophobic obsessions. But it is Marcus Garvey, the philosopher of African identity and Pan-Africanism, who established the island as a centre of modern politics. Many of the lyrics of Marley and other musicians are dominated by words of Marcus Garvey. The Jamaican people owe him their consciousness of African identity, and both local political parties try to claim him. But Garvey is a legend, on the same level as God and Haile Selassie for many. Colin Grant's book tries to ground the legend by putting together a biography which presents Marcus Garvey as a colossus who mobilised the black world in a time when being "Negro" was worse than being Jew, Slav or Gypsy under Hitler's Nazis. He presents Garvey as a man born in poverty, and who, through intelligence, hard work, dedication and oratory, became the paramount leader of the black world. In a world and century where Africans at home and in the diaspora were considered subhuman, Garvey created the most powerful organisation of any race by making the black man stand up and take stock of himself. And this resurrection of African glories, suppressed by slavery and colonialism, still dominates the consciousness of Africans today. Ironically, Garvey's work had less impact on the African continent than in the diaspora. Africa was then under the yoke of colonialism which used racism as its principle of ideological domination. Garvey, who was severely constricted by the British from activities even in his native country, could not gain access to African audiences in Nigeria, South Africa or Angola.  It was Africans such
as Nkrumah, Azikiwe, Aminu Kano and Nyerere who gained their
knowledge of Garvey while studying in the USA or UK, and who
would develop his ideas when they returned to the continent.
Although he gave shelter to WEB Dubois, Garvey's ideological
enemy, Nkrumah acknowledged that the Jamaican was his major source
of inspiration for his Pan-African ideas. Grant is not, however, a praise singer or cheerleader. He details Garvey's faults, his flamboyant speech and dress, despite his asceticism, his disorganisation, carelessness with money, and disgraceful and misguided negotiations with the Ku Klux Klan. In a world dominated by powerful enemies such as Winston Churchill and J Edgar Hoover, Garvey could not afford such faults. His fall was not due just to the power of these adversaries, but also to their ability to exploit his weaknesses. Garvey was not a dishonest man but his handling of funds in his various business ventures left him open to charges of crime. His inability to supervise dishonest associates, due to naive trust, also doomed many of these ventures, especially the Black Star Line. His high-handed manner also drove many friends into the hands of opponents. And the struggles between his two wives, both named Amy, weakened his movement. His negotiations with the KKK were based on the same logic which led some Zionists to discuss the repatriation of Jews from Europe with the Nazis. Since the Klan denied the humanity of Africans, however, there was no basis on which a movement dedicated to African upliftment could bargain with it. Luckily, this association was short-lived and damage was limited to a stain on Garvey's image. Such errors, as well as Garvey's move to the right, led to differences with George Padmore and CLR James who failed to appreciate Garvey's genius in his time. Africans have a saying that no matter how meagre an elephant it will always be bigger than a rat. In political terms, Garvey was an elephant whose influence is still felt all over the world, from Nelson Mandela to Usain Bolt. Nkrumah resurrected his own Black Star Line, based on Garvey's idea that Africans needed to control their economic destiny. Bob Marley's power and the ideals which push Jamaica beyond its geographic, economic and political limits are based on Garvey's revolutionary ideas. Although this book has little that is new, it is a useful compilation of these ideas. Editor's Note: Patrick Wilmot writes out of London and is a visiting professor at two Nigerian universities. His latest book is Seeing Double, published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Thomas Dunne in the USA.
In honour of his
80th birthday, a book of Essays on many of his accomplishments
in international and Caribbean life, has been produced by a number
of well known persons who have either worked with Ramphal or
researched his work. Edited by Richard Bourne, Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, other contributors are Rex Nettleford, former Vice Chancellor of the UWI, Professor Tony Payne, Pro Chancellor of Sheffield University, Sir Ronald Sanders writer and international business consultant, Derek Ingram Doyen of Commonwealth journalism, and Vincent Cable the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in the UK. The book entitled, "Shridath Ramphal: The Commonwealth and the World" is published by Hansib in the UK, and it will have its Caribbean launch on August 28 during CARIFESTA in Guyana. Its European launch will be held in London on Sir Shridath's birthday when it is expected that the Ramphal Centre will also be inaugurated at a ceremony at the Headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat under the auspices of the present Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma. The Centre's work will be dedicated in the causes that Ramphal espoused, among them disarmament, development, constitutionality, internationalism and the rule of law. The editor, Richard Bourne, says the book is not just a tribute to a major international personality on his 80th birthday, but a lasting contribution to contemporary history. The publication documents Ramphal's work in ending racism in Southern Africa, in helping to free Nelson Mandela in South Africa, his work on behalf of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific and his pioneering work in environment and development issues that have helped to change the world.
The author is skillful in weaving sub-themes in the plots of different stories. Mr. Little, for example, aptly epitomises the authority of the teacher as a symbol of discipline and repository of knowledge. The cane was a multi-purpose tool used for tapping on the blackboard, pointing "to an errant boy or girl," demonstrating "in an arithmetical calculation," and inflicting corporal punishment. 'Schooldays in the Colony' is reading for all age groups, from the primary level upwards. The author's style and choice of words make reading enjoyable and effortless. Humour abounds throughout, yet one does not miss the author's craft in portraying some of the battles of growing up and, in at least one story, coping with the conflicts of adolescence. s Teachers at all levels of the school system, as well as parents, will find this book instructive. The various themes are appealing and can evoke both harsh and pleasant reminiscences. The book is illustrative of the teacher's role and the expected submission, and even servility, of the child. Reading about the atmosphere of the school or the classroom management styles in the 40s and 50s of the last Century can be nostalgic for the older folks and humorously instructive for the not-so-old. 'Schooldays in the Colony', a little gem, is currently on sale at books stores in Georgetown. Make sure you get a copy early. Editor's Note: (Henry Rahaman, a retired headmaster, currently lectures at the University of Guyana)
While exploring how Wade penetrated the market and succeeded in building a multimillion pound company, the autobiography is also a human interest-filled story.  The autobiography
reveals how engagement at the grassroots in his community led
to leadership roles which eventually became the bedrock of a
career which, over the years was to grow the author into a rounded
business personality. DUAL HERITAGE The narrative of this book embodies a rich mix of heart warming cultural stories of island life in Montserrat from which he hailed, and the discovery of his dual heritage (Irish and African) is intriguing as is his boyhood pursuits and ambitions. The author's success kindled the spirit of 'enterprise' which has touched the lives of the entire black community in Britain. Wade has filled several senior positions in the wider society, and carved out a place in the black social history of Britain. Civic leadership While several publications attest to his legacy, perhaps nothing illuminates this in more graphic detail than his civic leadership of the redevelopment of the Stonebridge Housing Action Trust, which stands out as one of the most successful inner-city redevelopment community projects in the entire UK. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher refers to Tony Wade as "someone who is doing the country proud". He was honoured in 1987 with an MBE, for his contribution to employment, and a 'Lifetime Achievement in Business Award 2005' at the Guildhall Hall London.
The action starts in 1998 when our hero Roosevelt Mohammed Lion is kidnapped by Islamic Extremists while he is working on a hotel project in The Caribbean. The plot moves between the UK where his twin brother Washington mourns his loss and The Sudan where Roosevelt tries to understand the philosophy of his new colleagues. The plot is gripping and the reader is left hanging on until the end. Will the beautiful Sudanese Allaya succeed in her mission to assist Roosevelt's return home? Will his son Lennox Mohammed Lion find his father and help prevent unspeakable acts of terrorism in Khartoum? Will his wife Venus wait for her husband's return?
 London, July 28, 2008: What started out as research for a school
project has ended up in a book deal for a Black British student
of Caribbean heritage.Gaia Goffe, daughter of BBC Caribbean correspondent Leslie Goffe, was given an assignment to write a paper on someone who has inspired her. She chose a late cousin, a pioneering Black British physician, of Jamaican background. Gaia looked at the role of Dr Alan Goffe in the development of vaccines against polio and measles. Edited book extract Few people know of the vital role a black British scientist played in the development of vaccines against measles and polio. Alongside medical pioneers Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin there was Alan Powell Goffe. Salk was the American scientist who came up with the first effective vaccine to fight the deadly polio virus in 1956. Sabin created an equally important polio vaccine of his own. Goffe, whose roots are Jamaican, helped develop and refine the sometimes dangerous vaccines, making them safe for use by millions of people around the world The British-born son of a black Jamaican father and a white English mother - both physicians, Goffe was one of the UK's most respected microbiologists in the 1950s and 1960s. He was almost certainly the only black man to play a prominent role in the world of research science in Britain at the time. Apart from his work on the polio virus, Goffe also did pioneering work on what was called "the greatest killer of children in history," the measles virus. The ultimate accolade? So important was this black British scientist's work in this field, a type of the measles virus was named the 'Goffe Strain' after him. Alan Goffe's death on August 13, 1966, aged only 46, was all the more tragic because he died at such a young age. He had slipped, fell into the sea and was swept away and never found while sailing off southern England. The world had lost one of the most brilliant scientists of his generation. His accomplishments were such that The Times newspaper dedicated a moving tribute to him days after his death. It eulogised: "His untimely death is therefore the more tragic, for one will never know what his outstanding talents would have contributed to science." Lasting legacy Goffe was also one of the first scientists to conduct full-scale studies of the human wart virus, which was recently discovered to be a cause of cervical cancer. In 2006, the US Federal Drug Administration(FDA) approved a vaccine that now allows young girls to be immunised against the human wart virus before they become sexually active.  Had Alan Goffe lived,
he would almost certainly have played a role in the development
of this vaccine.His death was a great loss to his family, his friends, and his colleagues. But Alan Goffe's loss would have also been felt, in some strange way, by black people eager to prove that it was possible to succeed despite discrimination. Indeed, he refuted by his achievements, the view that people of African descent were intellectually inferior to whites. Though Alan Goffe's life was short, it was nonetheless filled with great discoveries and important breakthroughs. Other interests He was not concerned only with science and technology. Goffe was a political person who was an early member of several important organizations, among them the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Freedom From Hunger. He was also a member of the United Nations Association and was at one time a member of the British Communist Party. Thanks to Alan Goffe and other scientists, cases of poliomyelitis are rarely heard of in the developed world anymore. In fact, the Western hemisphere was declared all but free of wild polio strains in 1991. Though cases still exist in the developing world, they are getting much rarer. Officials at the World Health Organisation said recently they hope the war on polio will eradicate the disease in the very near future. Extracted and edited from Between Two Worlds: The Story of Black British Scientist Alan Goffe by Gaia Goffe (Published by Hansib Books, London on Friday 1 August, 2008) |
The beauty of the
Caribbean peeps through each story, like a sunset through a window
behind each character, contrasting with political ugliness and
defying rejection. Modern day ennui and frantic urban experiences
lead to a nostalgia for an imagined inner peace attached to the
Caribbean carried around with each character wherever in
the world they are. When the narrator reminisces in 'Remember
who you are' that there 'was really no challenge about the islands',
'they were small and everyone knew each other' the reader senses
discomfort, shame even, as well as guilty pleasure, about his
parochial origins. 
The power and passion
of a once colonised Guyana is thrown into new psychological and
political turmoil as post colonialism creates its own domestic
repression mistakes are repeated but by new people, corruption
is rife and in amongst it all characters are boiling over with
a struggle for identity, belief, meaning and cultural bonds.
As these threads pull together, so there is a sense of equilibrium.
Descriptions of rich Guyanese traditions soak deliciously through
the pages with the warmth of a sweating mango.
An electrifying, mesmerising tale that
interweaves cultural and racial taboos. This novel is populated
with characters haunted by prophecy and destiny as much as by
a disturbing past.
author's
authentic West Indian vernacular-and transports one deep into
the grounded traditions of a harmonious island family. They enjoy
a peaceable existence, and are confronted by the obvious perils
of life, love and marriage, but also suddenly by a presence more
ominous, insidious and decidedly evil. The force visited upon
them at first defies explanation, but ultimately drives them
to examine the spiritual, while nodding to the realities of this
still most intriguing island paradise. Nine Days deftly
explores the realm of dark forces that plague a family balancing
day-to-day life, their traditional beliefs and Christianity in
a way that willingly draws the reader from one engaging chapter
to the next. One of those tomes that, pardon the cliché,
"you simply can't put down," Graham's prose effectually
pulls you in, leaving you yearning to know what happens next
until that inevitable, unexpected climax. You won't be disappointed
in this book, available by phoning: 877/823-9235, by visiting
www.iUniverse.com, www.jamaicasaga.com or through www.amazon.com,
www.barnesandnoble.com and www.booksamillion.com.
walks of life, Shairi's Journey
is a workbook of sorts for self-healing, calling upon the spiritual
guidance of the Creator and the ancestors to walk readers through
the process of transforming their lives after having endured
hardship. Whether a sister is confronted with routine stress,
heartbreak, loneliness or substance, domestic or mental abuse,
each chapter of the book is laced with emotive, poetic prose
and knowing nuggets of wisdom, prayerfully woven together to
help them cope and deliver themselves by drawing upon the inner
strength that is their birthright. Order the book direct from
the publisher at: 1-888/232-4444, Ext. 4 (United States and Canada
only), or 250/383-6864.
This
is good advice, for it helps the reader to understand many of
the peculiarities in the beautifully written 281-page novel.