33
WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 19, 2017| guyanatimeSinternational.com
By Petamber Persaud
The Shaping of Guyanese Literature
‘Scriptology’ rediscovered
Manu Samriti Chander, editor of “Egbert Martin: Scriptology” (Caribbean Press, 2014)
(Extract of an interview with Prof. David Dabydeen, Guyana, 2017. Dabydeen who migrated to the UK in 1969 is attached to University of Warwick, and is now a respected academic and prize-winning writer of poetry and fiction.) *PP David, you seem to have a knack for unearthing good literature. A few years ago, you brought us “The First Crossing” [THE FIRST CROSSING being the Diary of Theophilus Richmond, Ship’s Surgeon Aboard the Hesperus, 1837-8] which was the result of Richmond’s diary coming to light after one and three quarters of a century after it was written. And now you bring us “Scriptology”, a book that disappeared from public attention for over 125 years. “Scriptology” is the first collection of stories by a Guyanese. For this and your other input, we must acknowledge your enormous contribution to Guyanese. DD Thank you Petamber, you’re always very flattering to me. I am a literary person if not I’d be in the street doing something more nefarious. I’m holding in my hands the most important book published in Guyana in the 19th c. and without doubt, the most historic Guyanese text. It is a collection of short stories by a writer called Egbert Martin. Egbert Martin died at the age of twenty-nine. He was bedridden all his life, he was sick, he died of tuberculosis. He was using drugs all his life… PP Medication… DD Medication, yes. Egbert Martin from his bed in 1883, published a substantial collection of poetry in England called “Leo’s Poetical Works” – he published under the name ‘Leo’: the lion; he was bedridden and emaciated and so on … PP …but his imagination was at work… DD ...yes, he had
an imaginative boldness.Then in 1886, he published “Leo’s Local Lyrics” … PP …in response to criticism to his first work. DD The first book was criticised because it was heavily Christian and pious; it was a set of pious effusions which is largely true because he was dying all the time so he was very concern about the nature of pain, the nature of suffering and he wrote about that in an abstract manner. Some people criticised him. He then wrote about the landscape of Guyana – something more tactile and physical. And is the first Guyanese poet to describe the landscape of Guyana – the sorrel tree, the genip tree. Don’t forget up to the late 20thc Derek Walcott the Nobel Prize Winner said that he was a bit tentative about putting local fruit – mangoes and bananas – in his poetry because it was not poetic enough in the English Literary tradition. Egbert Martin was the first poet to name the Guyana landscape. He is also the first writer to publish more than two books and he is the first writer to publish a collection of prose. Now this I’m holding in my hand is precious because it is a wonderful insight into Creole life in the 19th c. – it is witty, it is entertaining, it is poetic, it is erudite. He refers to a whole range of Victorian poetics. Although it is a very dense book, it is very expansive in its allusions to Victorian literature. PP What about this book that makes it was really precious? DD It was lost forever. From the time it was published in 1885, it was more or less lost.I went to New York libraries to check out Egbert Martin and couldn’t find “Scriptology”. But I found his poetry. So it was completely lost, completely lost – not a single copy in any British library or in the libraries of Guyana. Then one day, sitting at my desk at University of Warwick, I got an email from Christopher Martin who is a direct descendant of Egbert Martin saying he found in a library in United States a copy of “Scriptology” and [if I] would I like to see it. Well, would I like to see it, you know?!Immediately, he came to Warwick with his family and he gave me a photocopy, which we looked at with great
“Scriptology” jacket by Caribbean Press (Guyana Classics Library )
reverence. Then by coincidence, when I was in China, I received an email from an Indian American scholar, Manu Samriti Chander, who said that he was doing work on Egbert Martin; he was doing some work on Victorian poetry and wanted to include Egbert Martin in the cannon of Victorian poetry and said that he had discovered “Scriptology” – he had found the same copy in the same library so I put Christopher Martin in contact with Manu Samriti Chander and they worked together. And then Manu put together a lovely little introduction to “Scriptology” – he works at Rutgers University, a very serious scholar and then we published it in the Caribbean Press. So “Scriptology” has been brought back to life. Egbert Martin bedridden, died in dreadful circumstances, has been brought back to life and so we recovered a founding text of Guyanese literature. Egbert Martin was described in those days as a “mulatto” which means that he was a mixture of African and European; certainly German because his cousin had a German name which we found from the death records. So he was African and German. PP At that time, and having achieved so much in so short a life, we could easily [have] called Egbert Martin a superman of Guyanese literature.
DD His real tremendous achievement apart from being the first writer of the short fiction is that he named the landscape in poetry. PP And that is saying a lot - giving credence to our heritage
and our environment, an issue we could explore another time.... Responses to this author telephone (592) 2260065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com What’s happening: Under production
a compilation of biographies of Guyanese Writers of Indian Ancestry and an anthology of Indo-Caribbean poetry. For further information, please use the above contacts.