King of the Carnival
Willi Chen
‘King of the Carnival’ is part of a unique collection of short stories that captures the violence, trickery, pathos and racial comedy of Trinidadian society. Written in a great sweep of energy and from a deeply humane perspective, the characters are invested with the capacity for laughter, suffering and redemption.
Stooped in the darkness of his paper shack, Santo the Maskman spat through the doorway and yawned. Below him, way down the Hill, the city buzzed and came to its awakening like a huge leviathan, the streetlights dulled by the dawn that heralded the bands, Casablanca, Free French and Tokyo, and even Merry Makers, abandoning their camps that had smoked in the months of heat and fever until now. The hordes, the waves of dancing feet marched out, thronging the streets, clogging the freeways in thousands amidst the thunderous din of steel and tin and in some places, the shattering shards of glass and bottles.
So the war had started, the pitched battles begun between the bands, stirring the bitter dyes of animosity and hate. But those were the battles of the boys from the Hill, from across the River and further up district, from smaller panyards. He had his own private battleground elsewhere – in the savannah, beneath glaring stage lights that broke in shafts of lighted motes over the judges’ heads.
And so he had trudged home, Santo, head bowed in defeat, humiliated, the aimless shuffle of feet, dragging, not knowing their way home over cobblestoned paths of broken twigs and dried leaves. Through the stench of dog droppings and
the dank odour of clothes-washings stagnant and frothy settling in cold ravines. Up Piccadilly street with Basillon on the right and on the other side, streets steep and slippery, curving like Belgrade and Harpe Place. He wore a heart, as heavy as his shattered headpiece.
“They make the white man first and I not even placing,” he mused, sitting glum in the paltry confines of his paper throne, flimsy like the futile thoughts hovering over his weary head, as he gazed into the cityscape from the Hill.
This Hill – the castle on his domain out of which skulkers and badjohns had emerged challenging and elusive as the chameleons that came down the star-apple tree clinging to the red barren rock; the snare and the snarl etched around their lips in defiance of the grit and poverty around them. Dust on his lips, in his throat, and, in his eyes, the fading alexia of the unschooled, of the untutored.
But the terrible pang was inside him. It had seized him as it had done these past twelve years, growing within him, gnawing his insides like a leech that came out of his hands as he fashioned and he carved and he etched in the glyphs and in the furrows of metal and leather, crafting the delicate beads nimbly in his hands, the silken gossamer webs spangled in fulgent iridescence of sparkle and wild fire. Wild too in his eyes, the pang had erupted in a fierceness no one understood. And they thought him a madman, a maniac stooped forever over the head of his dragon in its contemptible magnificence of horned-plated scales each lapping over in repeated clusters of copper and brass, bound and stitched together by his skill and the patience of long, flambeau-lighted nights and the terrible desire within him to bring home the prestigious crown of the King of Carnival.
So he stood now in his glory. Tall. Glittering. The thick arms. The massive thighs. And his shoulders, Atlas-like, bearing the load over his head and around him like his ancestors in the dim-
38 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2
SHORT STORY
lit forests of distant lands, or, in reminiscing, like the more recent folks under mahogany and cacao in the quiet backwoods of our own land where they toiled in the groves between panniers, always toting like bachacs [ants] as if destined to all eternity in this task, except that now the load on his shoulders gave him a proud, urgent feeling of having created and conquered, bringing out to the world the skill and genius of his people made manifest by this huge prehistoric demon out of legend and the mythical past in his portrayal that would not only mesmerize and astound, but would also destroy the fallacy in the minds of others that he and his kind had not their places in the pews and podia of society.
So in the instrument of this terrible phantasm coming out of its lair, rising from the scum and trodden marshland, he laboured with love, ignoring sleep and pain and forgetting hunger that was never gratified by the thin pottage of ochro and dumplings he kept near his tin of paste.
And now he sensed the triumphant feeling coming up from the toes, from the claws, ascending along his spine to his cranium as he
It came on stage, part man, part robot, its co-ordinating movements mechanized, the eyes sparked, it spoke, it buzzed, sang, emitting clouds of tinted smoke, a perfumed spray.
edged centre stage, lifting the great head of the beast sequined and fashioned to the uncanny similitude of the Mesozoic monster that crawled and slithered with its flailing tail, spitting out fire, fuming over the audience until they roared “Dat is mas”. And mas’ it was. Captivating and panoplied as he stood in triumph on stage before the thousands now on the edge of their seats.
He raised his elbows, pulled at the network of wires strapped to his fingers inside the costume, manipulating the great animal, turning its head, the front paws and the thrashing tail. The jaws opened blood red, eyes bulging in a rage to the tune and to the promise he had made as written on the programmes, that he was going to make
39 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2
SHORT STORY
the dragon dance, dance for them. So the pans mellowed and a hush prevailed, the master of ceremonies dragged the microphone cord out of the way and Santo, as he had done so many times before practising in his own back- yard, got on the hind legs of the reptile and shifted its weight from side to side, the sinuous body swaying with the music. The crowd laughed and yelled.
“Take dem, Santo,” someone shouted from the side of the stage.
“He come good, man. Look at that thing, man must be spend he whole life behind it.”
“You think he goh make.”
A squeaky voice came from the back. “You tink it easy! Man does band dey jaw and belly, starve the whole year just for tonight.”
“Look, dat is blood and sweat and long tears.”
“Dat’s why he wife leave him.”
“Just for one night, eh boy?”
“Dat’s it boy – only showing how we people could bare the grind.”
“We have belly – guts. Recession or not.”
“Guts? Talent!”
You sure right!”
“How ah talk?”
“Brave, man, brave.”
And Santo, peeping through the holes of his scaly costume, heard the approval of the audience, saw the nodding heads of the white-faced judges and, relishing the ovations, bowed and retreated, making room for the others to come on stage.
They too, danced in their glory, chipping away before the judges, covered with feathers and silk, bobbing and weaving in the gorgeous display of tinsel and paint and foil and lamé. For them the applause was loud, also, as each one paraded: Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, the copper toned Montezuma, Chief Great Hunting Bear, Waxatalabah burly as a bison under the brilliant canopy of mirrors, beads and white bones, his headpiece so large it tore down the overhead wires. But it was the last masquerader that caused him to turn his head as he rested backstage. It was the white man again – last year’s winner. Santo recognized the walk, the delayed gait, the stooped shoulders, and immediately his forehead became cold beaded.
Now the white man moved on stage alone. But his costume was neither large or billowing. It lacked bulk, weight, without the pastiche of laboured details, taking up a smaller space. But its magnificence was in its modern, technological revelations. It came on stage, part man, part robot, its co-ordinating movements mechanized, the eyes sparked, it spoke, it buzzed, sang, emitting clouds of tinted smoke, a perfumed spray. Then from
under it, wheels came out as they rolled across the stage, coloured lights appeared in clusters, brightening the whole stand in a strong incandescence, whirling around to the musical sounds coming out now from its mid-section. And the crowd was stunned, taken aghast by the scientific display. Hysteria. It stood up before the antics of this masquerader, this new invention, his novel interpretation of mas.
So the second round of parade came one hour later, when the judges had exchanged their score sheets with one another between drinks and the interval allowed fidgety movements between the seats of the audience enthralled by the last moving spectacle it had just witnessed.
And then the final moment arrived. All were to parade once more. Attila the Hun appeared hoary, moustachioed, powerful in his gilded boarskin cape, pelted pouches dangling at his side and the bronze epaulettes hugging his shoulders. King ABUBAKARI II the Black Muslim looked ferocious, indigo-blue under the spotlight in leather trappings, filigreed coat, his broad silver shield embossed like his breast plate over which his yardbroom beard hung, unkempt, frazzled, Then his turn came. Once. Twice. His name was called – “Santo Lovelace and his dancing dragon.”
But he just stood there silent and alone, among the stage hands, unmoving, leaning against his dragon, idle and grotesque, the heaving expanse of his chest now subsided, and beaded brow frowned to quietude. And in his eyes, the cold stares of the vanquished fanatic or genius, lost in some soporific trance in which sacrifice, devotion and long seasons of rehearsals were now laid waste.
He still heard his name being called through the microphone when he left, as he quietly pushed his dragon head low, through the flats on to the grass outside, and he never forgot the fearful vision of the white-faced judges, pencils on their lips, and the white masquerader prancing and jiving in his robot contraption under confetti and streamers, with his ostentatious performance and the popping noises, and the battery of lights that stuttered, exploding around him. READ
And in his eyes, the cold stares of the vanquished fanatic or genius, lost in some soporific trance in which sacrifice, devotion and long seasons of rehearsals were now laid waste.
40 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2
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of the Carnival and Other Stories
£7.99 / US $12.00 SHORT STORY
King
by Willi Chen Paperback,
PASTOR DANIELS EKARTE AND THE AFRICAN CHURCHES MISSION:
Liverpool 1931-1964
Marika Sherwood
A young man arrived in Liverpool from Nigeria around 1915 expecting to find the streets paved with gold. Instead, the area was depressed, poor, racist and, to his mind, ungodly. In 1931, he founded the African Churches Mission, in which he not only conducted services but also fed and clothed the poor of the community, and housed seamen and others denied accommodation due to the colour of their skin. He also provided a home for the unwanted children of local white women left behind by their fathers – African American servicemen who returned home when World War II ended.
As a radical supporter of anti-racist movements in the African Diaspora, he was regarded as troublesome, and therefore received no state or voluntary support, not even from the Anti-Slavery Society. Nevertheless, he and his mission soldiered on for over thirty years.
This is an account of the remarkable life and work of a man referred to as “the African Saint”. It is an inspiring story of kindness, activism and resilience. Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00 • eBook, £3.99 / US $4.99 UK customers SAVE £3.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
BEACONS OF LIBERATION
Shango Baku
A collection of fifteen brief biographies of iconic Black leaders and activists who helped to advance the cause of liberty. These individuals, both historic and contemporary, have made significant contributions to the fight for equality and freedom, and their stories continue to resonate in the 21st century. The book serves as a general introduction and includes Mary Prince, Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, Ira Aldridge, Nanny of the Maroons, Kwame Nkrumah, Malcolm X, Sojourner Truth, Walter Rodney and Bob Marley.
The stories are a testament to the power of human resilience and the importance of fighting for justice and equality. Their legacies continue to inspire people around the world and their stories are essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of the Black experience.
Paperback, £6.99 / US $11.00 • eBook, £4.54 / US $5.50
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IRA ALDRIDGE: Celebrated 19th Century Actor
Martin Hoyles
Ira Aldridge was one of the most celebrated actors of the 19th century and performed in all the major towns in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. He won international fame when he toured Europe, earning a dozen honours and awards, including a knighthood in Germany. He was most famous for his portrayal of Othello in a career spanning more than forty years. Aldridge was also the first Black actor to play white roles, including Shylock, Richard III, King Lear and Macbeth. After three years of amateur dramatics in New York, he left for England. In 1825, he played Othello at the Royalty Theatre in the east end of London. He played the part of the African prince Oroonoko in The Revolt of Surinam, a story which challenged the evils of slavery. Despite being “the world’s most celebrated interpreter of Shakespeare” during his lifetime, Ira Aldridge was largely forgotten in Britain and America after his death in 1867. He was a brilliant actor, but also a valiant campaigner against slavery.
Paperback, £8.99 / US $14.00
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AN EVENTFUL LIFE
Maurice Odle
Dr Maurice Odle’s professional life as an academic and senior national, regional and international civil servant intersected with the clash of two powerful economic forces, namely the economic nationalism of the underdeveloped world and the profit maximising operations of foreign transnational corporations.
While developing countries, in recent decades, have significantly increased their capacity for dealing with foreign investment issues and the nexus areas of international trade, finance and transfer of technology, the West has frustrated them in their efforts to bring about fundamental change in international economic relations and in the neo-liberal rules of the game.
For example, the United Nations initiative(s) of the developing countries with respect to a New International Economic Order (relating mainly to trade) fell apart by the end of the 1970s; intensive negotiations on a Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations were abandoned in the early 1990s; and negotiations with respect to ‘Financing for Development’ (that were supposed to usher in a new financial order) continue to be agonisingly slow; policy making remains essentially the preserve of the Washington-based Bretton Woods institutions, like the IMF and the World Bank.
Developing countries have been attempting to diversify their sources of foreign capital, but the USA is pressuring them to not accept investment from China which, paradoxically, is at the same time under a USA-led sanctions embargo designed to prevent that country from acquiring investment (or tradeable goods) with advanced semi-conductor technology. The struggle for a more equitable economic order continues.
In this candid autobiography, Maurice Odle charts his journey from humble beginnings in what was then British Guiana to London, New York, Geneva and back to the Caribbean, and the intractable challenges of operating on the world stage in the interests of the disadvantaged. He presents engaging insights into not only the workings of the global economic system, but also political and social life in general in this treasure trove of rich experiences.
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REACHING FOR THE STARS: The Life of Dr Yesu Persaud, Volume Two
David Dabydeen and Lynne Macedo
Yesu Persaud was a businessman, banker and philanthropist. The son of cane workers, he would eventually rise from his humble origins to become one of Guyana’s most successful entrepreneurs. Alongside his business career he freely gave of his time and experience to the many organisations he helped found to assist those less fortunate than himself. Amongst his many philanthropic activities was his keen and continuous support of educational activities at the University of Guyana.
In Volume One of his memoirs, Persaud wrote movingly about his family and their struggles both during and after the abolition of the indentureship system that had first brought them to what was then British Guiana. In Volume Two, he continues the story of his life from the mid-1970s, and provides a fascinating view of his business and professional life, as well as his philanthropy. Entwined with this story is a more personal account which gives a deeper insight into Dr Persaud’s private life amongst family and friends. Even in the face of adversity, his candour and strong sense of humour always shine through. He also gives an enthralling account of the political landscape of Guyana over the past seven decades and weaves his own narrative alongside that of a broader, nationwide perspective with a personal insight into many of the country’s key political events. Hardback, £20.00 / US $30.00 • eBook, £4.99 / US $5.99
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41 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
THE ALTRUIST: The Untold Story of Dookhee Gungah in Twentieth Century Mauritius Swetam Gungah
Stories about Indian indenture often resonate with suffering and shame. The system that was introduced in the 1830s to replace slavery across the British Empire came with its share of hardship. Yet, there is the story of one man who sheds a different light on this episode of British and Mauritian history.
Mauritius in the early twentieth century was an emerging nation, with different peoples looking to forge a sense of identity and belonging. It was a country built by immigrants who faced countless challenges. And amid all of this, one individual stood out from the rest.
The story of Dookhee Gungah is about a man’s rise from poverty and misfortune to become a symbol of hope and benevolence for the community. His success was more than personal for the people whose lives he touched also benefitted. As the son of an Indian indentured labourer, his achievements are truly unique across the entire indentureship diaspora, and his influence reached far beyond the shores of Mauritius. He made significant and unparalleled contributions to education, society, culture, and much more. His philanthropy will remain an everlasting inspiration, and his rich legacy will permeate far in the future. How did someone from a deprived background achieve such greatness without sacrificing his kindness and generosity? Dookhee Gungah’s extraordinary story is about altruism in its purest form.
Paperback, £6.99 / US $11.00 • eBook, £1.99 / US $2.50
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REMEMBER ME: Achievements of Mixed Race People, Past and Present
Asher & Martin Hoyles
A collection of biographies featuring historical and contemporary figures including Bob Marley, Mary Seacole, Frederick Douglass, Arthur Wharton, Ellen Craft, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Cleo Laine, Shirley Bassey, Cathy Tyson and Oona King. A detailed introduction deals with key issues relating to this important subject, such as, should we still be using the term ‘race’? Why does society see mixed-race people as Black? What is the ‘one-drop’ rule? And why is cultural heritage so important? Paperback, £8.99 / US $14.00
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CUGOANO AGAINST SLAVERY
Martin Hoyles
Of the three leading Black figures in eighteenthcentury England (Sancho, Equiano and Cugoano), Ottobah Cugoano is the least well known, yet he was the most radical, campaigning not just against the slave trade but for a total abolition of slavery. In 1770, at the age of thirteen, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery and sent to work on plantations in Grenada and other parts of the West Indies. In 1772, he was brought to England where he gained his freedom. By the mid-1780s he was employed as a servant by the court painters Richard and Maria Cosway. It was while here that Cugoano published his book Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species By then he had already begun his campaign of letters against the slave trade by writing to the Prince of Wales, King George III and William Pitt among others. Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00
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KAMLA: Trinidad and Tobago’s First Woman Prime Minister
This book chronicles the first year as Prime Minister of the remarkable Kamla PersadBissessar. It also demonstrates the path taken by one of a growing number of women who are now leaders of their nation.
Born into humble beginnings in a farming district, the young Kamla grew up with few material possessions, but it was her mother who would give her the gift of courage and the passion to dream. These attributes would first take her to London, as a teenager, to study and become a social worker. But, as Kamla matured, so too would her dreams. She became a university lecturer and then a lawyer, but her connection with ordinary people would ultimately inspire her to become a ‘representative of the people’ in her native country.
This book is a largely pictorial reflection of Kamla’s activities during the first year of her premiership and provides an insight into her thoughts and dreams for the future of Trinidad and Tobago.
Hardcover, £20.00 / US $35.00
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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR
COLIN BRIAN FURLONGE: In the Public Service of Trinidad and Tobago
Dr Colin Brian Furlonge
Dr Colin Furlonge served 34 years in the Public Service of Trinidad and Tobago, culminating with eight years as Medical Chief of Staff and three years as the nation’s Chief Medical Officer. In this expansive autobiography, he also provides a detailed expose as the “victim of a history of prejudicial treatment”. This treatment was directed by the Government of the day and was guided by the Public Service Commission (PSC).
In 2004, he was compelled to resort to the High Court of Justice, whose Judgement stated that, “… compliance with PSC Regulations is necessary if there is to be confidence in the Public Service; failure to do so results in the warranted suspicion of arbitrariness, discrimination, bias, partiality and even political interference, especially when division along ethnic and political lines are often determinative of the perception of reality…”. It concluded that, “… the Applicant felt legitimately aggrieved.”
“The book depicts a son of the soil in his struggles, literally from boyhood, to achieve the ultimate position in the Health Service in Trinidad & Tobago.” Lal Sawh, reviewer for the British Medical Journal
“A remarkable story of a dedicated public servant who has served his country and the medical profession well.” Professor Steven Myint, former Dean of Medicine & Health at the University of Surrey, UK
“Bouts of laughter, intrigue and contemplation, punctuated by bouts of anger and sadness; an information boiling pot highlighting a fearless approach to life and public service.” Dr Curtis Rambaran, former Consultant Physician, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London Paperback, £20.00 / US $30.00 • eBook, £4.99 / US $5.99
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42 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR TRADE BOOK ORDERS & TRADE ENQUIRIES TURNAROUND PUBLISHER SERVICES Telephone: +44 (0)208 829 3000 Email: orders@turnaround-uk.com from Booksellers, Libraries, Schools, Colleges & Universities, please contact:
JOE SOLOMON AND THE SPIRIT OF PORT MOURANT:
The Making of the Guyana and West Indies Cricketer and its Context, 1930s-1960s
Clem Seecharan with Ian McDonald
This tribute to Joe Solomon (1930-), now the oldest West Indies Test cricketer, celebrates the career “and its context” of this reliable lower middle order batsman on his 92nd birthday. Solomon is from Port Mourant, an exceptional sugar plantation on the Corentyne Coast in Guyana (formerly British Guiana), birthplace of the Guyanese leader Cheddi Jagan (1918-97), as well as several other Test cricketers: John Trim, Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher, Ivan Madray and Alvin Kallicharran. Solomon played in 14 of the 15 Tests led by the first black captain of the West Indies, Sir Frank Worrell (1924-67), between 1960 and 1963. Worrell’s teams rekindled passion widely for a game that had become stodgy in the late 1950s. Though less flamboyant, Joe was the even-tempered stabiliser in a team of gifted, if mercurial, stroke-makers. In December 1960, Solomon executed two run outs, direct hits when Australia was on the verge of victory, that were instrumental in effecting the first Tied Test in the history of cricket. The style and sportsmanship of Worrell’s team, in 1960-1, so captivated the Australian imagination that over 300,000 poured into the streets of Melbourne, on 17 February 1961, to say farewell to the West Indians.
Joe Solomon will be remembered for that Tied Test. But, as Ian McDonald reminds us, “Over and over again, Joe walked to the wicket with everyone in the nation depending on him to save the day.” This book examines the private and wider social forces that made Joe the epitome of the qualities Worrell inculcated in his players: application, control of the emotions, fidelity to the traditions of the noble game, team spirit and an appreciation that West Indians expected their cricketers to be exemplary ambassadors, within and beyond the boundary.
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1973 AND ME: The England v West Indies Test Series and a Memorable Childhood Year
Colin Babb
From 1968 to 1973, the West Indies did not win a Test series and lost 2-0 on their last England tour in 1969. By 1973, and despite this lack of success, West Indies cricket still played a central role as a medium of Caribbean selfexpression in Britain. In the summer of 1973, could the West Indies deliver the performances and results to inspire the Caribbean diaspora in Britain? 1973 and Me reveals why this was an iconic year for many. This was also the year that Colin ‘discovered’ cricket on television, which provided intense competition to his devotion to football.
The book reflects on patterns of Colin’s family and Caribbean migration to Britain, wider perspectives on history, identity, music and politics, shared family experiences of television in the 1970s, a collection of memorable events, and interplay with the 1973 West Indies tour. Contributors include: Dennis Amiss, Clyde Best, Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird, Keith Fletcher, Maurice Foster, Lance Gibbs, Colin Grant, Frank Hayes, Ron Headley, Bernard Julien, Alvin Kallicharran, Simon Lister, Joe Moran, Deryck Murray and Clem Seecharan. “... a vital account of the spirit, dynamism and cultural transformation of cricket brought about by West Indian cricketers. It is told with verve and brio ...” Colin Grant, historian, author and broadcaster
“Colin Babb has a rare and beautiful talent for immersing the reader into history, allowing them to feel and share the journey of our pasts.” Karen Hunte, Chair, Caribbean Politics, British Political Studies Association Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00
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ANDREW WATSON: The World’s First Black Football Superstar
Tony Talburt
Today, seeing Black footballers playing the game at the very highest level is considered very normal. This was not the case 140 years ago, and this is what makes the story of Andrew Watson so remarkable.
It seems hard to imagine that a Guyanese-born Black man could head the Scottish national football team in 1881 in a game against England. Not only was he captain, but he also led them to a 6-1 victory in London – an achievement that still ranks as England’s heaviest ever defeat on home soil. If this were all that Watson had been able to accomplish, most people would agree that he should be commended for being the world’s first Black person to captain a national football team. But there was so much more. He was the world’s first Black football administrator, as well as the first Black player to win three national cup winners’ trophies. During the 1870s and 1880s, when Watson played, he was regarded as one of the finest players in Britain. The word ‘pioneer’ is often used to describe certain players, but this would certainly be a most fitting expression to encapsulate the remarkable achievements of Andrew Watson. This book reflects upon the legend, legacy and pioneering endeavours of a truly great Black British football superstar. Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00
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BLACK PEARLS: The A-Z of Black Footballers in the English Game
Al Hamilton with Rodney Hinds
This now rare book provides a snapshot of late 1990s football and documents the careers and achievements of nearly 300 Black footballers playing in the English game up to 1998. The cosmopolitan nature of the modern global village is no more effectively illustrated than in the world’s football stadiums. And there is, perhaps, no better example of a true meritocracy than on the turf of football’s ‘level playing fields’. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the English football leagues. And the Black footballer is now an integral element of the English game. Illustrated throughout, this book also features the game’s early pioneers, Africa’s contribution to world football and Jamaica’s trailblazing ‘Reggae Boyz’. Paperback, £12.99 / US $20.00
This hard to find book is available to UK customers from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
UNBEATEN INNINGS
Steve Stephenson
This fascinating autobiography of Steve Stephenson is a vivid insight into his love of sport, family life and a career in local government, both as a social worker and as an equality and human rights campaigner. It highlights his dedication to tackling racism and a lifetime of voluntary work in support of Black cricketers and footballers.
He grew up in Jamaica and moved to the UK when he was eighteen. He has since dedicated his life to helping others, particularly through his work within the Black community. As a passionate player and fan of cricket, he has been associated with the West Indies teams during their visits to the UK since the 1980s. His passion for sport extends to football, and he was one of the first to celebrate the pioneers of Black British football. He continues to actively campaign against racism in all walks of life.
Paperback, £13.99 / US $21.00 • eBook, £4.99 / US $5.99
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43 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
SHOULDERING ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA: The Life of V.C. Bird
Paget Henry
As its charismatic labour leader, its first Chief Minister, its first Premier and first Prime Minister, V.C. Bird dominated the political life of Antigua and Barbuda for the 55 years between 1939 and 1994. This is the first full-length biography of the great Antiguan and Barbudan political leader. It begins with a close look at the path of his development as a man and as a politician. It then examines the major achievements and failures of Bird’s rule, the contours that they outlined, and the indelible traces they have left on the path of the country’s history. His major achievement was to gain independence for Antigua and Barbuda from Britain.
The book concludes with some reflections on V.C. Bird’s endeavours towards post-colonial transformation not only in Antigua and Barbuda but also for the wider Caribbean.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $20.00
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SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: The Life and Times of an African Caribbean British Man
Max Farrar
This biography of Arthur France MBE is the story of someone that ‘the establishment’ would prefer to keep hidden from British history. But Arthur France has made history
Born and raised on the Caribbean island of Nevis, he arrived in Leeds in the north of England in 1957. From the moment he arrived, he began to organise members of the local Caribbean community into a united force for social progress. But Arthur is best known as the founder of the first Black-led Caribbean Carnival in Europe. This was in Leeds in 1967, but his idea for carnival was not merely sequins and feathers – for him, Carnival was a symbol of Emancipation and a vehicle for changing people’s lives.
If Leeds is now a city that embraces diversity, it is in no small part due to Arthur France and his brothers and sisters in struggle. In telling Arthur’s story, Max Farrar also reflects upon the struggle for justice and equality led by so many members of Britain’s Black and Brown communities. It provides the context of violent racism, including the white riots in London’s Notting Hill, the relentless provocation towards their own self-defence, and the growth of the Black Power movement. This remarkable man’s life story is a poignant narrative about ‘race’ in post-war Britain.
Paperback, £13.99 / US $21.00 • eBook, £3.99 / US $4.99 UK customers SAVE £4.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
SIR DENNIS BYRON: Law Legend
Francis Alexis
SHRIDATH RAMPHAL: The Commonwealth and the World
Richard Bourne (Ed.)
This anthology of essays provides glimpses of a remarkable career and has been written by those who worked with Shridath Ramphal or have researched his many contributions to the Caribbean, the Commonwealth and the global community, and to internationalism.
Shridath “Sonny” Ramphal grew up in Guyana in the colonial era to become the leading spokesman of the free, independent, developing world in the last quarter of the 20th century. For an unequalled stint of 15 years (from 1975 to 1990), he was Secret aryGeneral of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Among his many achievements, he includes being a key player in bringing an end to Ian Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence and institutional racism in Southern Rhodesia. He spent much of his last five years as SecretaryGeneral in the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa. He had the satisfaction of playing a part in Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in February 1990, and Namibia’s independence the following month.
Hardback, £16.99 / US $34.00
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GLOBAL CITIZEN: Grass Roots Activism and High Diplomacy
Carl Wright
Carl Wright has devoted his entire working life to global action through grass roots activism and international diplomacy. He engaged with world leaders and political icons from across the globe, including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Indira Gandhi, Julius Nyerere, Shridath Ramphal, Fidel Castro, Aung San Suu Kyi, Ban Ki-Moon, Cyril Ramaphosa and Bob Hawke. In these and other encounters, he reflects his experiences.
Making official visits to some 100 countries, he has seen at first-hand what is required to implement good governance. These missions included most of the 54 nations of the Commonwealth and provide rare insights into the effects of political and social advocacy. Perhaps most significant is his long-standing involvement with the anti-apartheid struggle.
This book delivers a critical message: the need for global understanding and co-operation. With the rise of political populists, authoritarian strongmen and violent extremists, he implores us to strengthen fragile international relations and mitigate the threat of conflict which is currently real and ever-present. Paperback, £16.99 / US $26.00 • eBook, £4.99 / US $5.99 UK customers SAVE £7.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
GLIMPSES OF A GLOBAL LIFE
Shridath Ramphal
Often described as the greatest Caribbean jurist of our era, Sir Dennis Byron had a long and distinguished career serving in institutions in the Caribbean, Africa, Canada and the UK. He was born in 1943 in St Kitts, won the highly coveted Leeward Islands Scholarship in 1960 and went on to read law at Cambridge University in 1962. His many years of service reflect a catalogue of landmark legal decisions, outcomes and honours. Among these, he presided over the historic murder trial on the killing of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop; he was President of the UN ICT for Rwanda; regularly addressed the UN Security Council; and received a Knighthood in 2000.
eBook, £8.99 / US $10.99 Available now from Amazon or Kobo
This memoir features a cast of the world’s leading characters and the central role Shridath Ramphal played alongside them. He tells the story of the Commonwealth’s role in ending the Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Southern Rhodesia by a minority white regime and bringing Zimbabwe to independence; of aiding the struggle against apartheid and securing its end, and the release of Nelson Mandela and South Africa’s freedom; of Margaret Thatcher’s stubbornness against sanctions and the heroic stand against her by other Commonwealth leaders – from Africa, India and, p articularly, in terms of effectiveness, Canada and Australia.
In these ‘glimpses’, the shadows of characters such as Uganda’s Idi Amin are recalled, as are the enlightened spirits of others like Germany’s Willy Brandt and Nelson Mandela, all of whom Ramphal encountered in his global life. eBook, £11.69 / US $14.00
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44 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
A.N.R. ROBINSON: In the Midst of It
A.N.R. Robinson
The Autobiography of Former President and Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
From humble origins, Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson rose to become a national, regional and international leader. He would become a parliamentarian, Minister of Finance, and Prime Minister and President of Trinidad and Tobago.
A.N.R. Robinson has not only been a great leader of his country, but he has demonstrated that capacity on the world stage. In this regard, he has altered the course of history by his extraordinary leadership in the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Without his efforts, it is doubtful that this major international institution would exist today.
Paperback, £10.99 / US $18.00
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THE LIVES AND WORK OF TWO INDO-TRINIDADIANS: Influences of Indentureship, Evangelisation and Education
H. Joy Norman
From 1845 to 1917, indentured labourers from India arrived in the former British colony to address the labour shortages following the abolition of slavery in 1838. The colonial rulers were unconcerned with the welfare of, first, the enslaved Africans and, later, the indentured Indian labourers. It was, therefore, fortuitous that the Canadian Presbyterian missionaries intervened to improve the lives of, in particular, the subjugated East Indian population. This book examines the lives of two descendants of Indian indentured immigrants. Samuel Ramsaran and Leslie Sankarsingh were raised in the Christian tradition, but each made different life choices in their careers.
Paperback, £12.99 / US $20.00
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HANSIB PUBLICATIONS
Founded in London in 1970, Hansib Publications has played a crucial role in documenting the Caribbean experience and bringing Caribbean perspectives to a wider audience. It is renowned for its extensive catalogue of Caribbean fiction and non-fiction, spanning a diverse range of genres, including historical novels, biographies, poetry anthologies, political commentaries and social narratives. It has also made significant contributions to Caribbean scholarship by publishing insightful works on history, culture, politics and social issues.
Today, Hansib Publications remains a significant force in the world of Caribbean publishing and continues to publish books that reflect the vibrant diversity of the Caribbean region and the global Caribbean diaspora. Its legacy of promoting Caribbean voices and perspectives has made it an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand and appreciate the rich cultural heritage of the Caribbean.
EMAIL: info@hansibpublications.com
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FATHERING A NATION: Barbados and the Legacy of Errol Walton
Barrow
Guy Hewitt
Foreword by the then Prime Minister of Barbados and an Introduction by Sir Garfield Sobers
On 30 November 1966, Barbados was given focus and direction by Errol Barrow, the first Prime Minister and a National Hero. Proclaimed the ‘Father of Independence’, it was said that this close friend of the leaders of his era including Michael Manley and Pierre Trudeau, “found Barbados a collection of villages and transformed them into a proud nation.”
With contributions from national, regional and international leaders and key speeches by Barrow himself, this is a tribute to an extraordinary man who gave Barbadians the ability to hold their heads high and proud.
This is a must read for citizens of the modern Caribbean and those interested in leadership and the history, economics, politics and international relations of small states.
Hardback, £20.00 / US $30.00
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TRIALS OF A TRIAL LAWYER
Derick F. Sylvester
From as early as he could remember, Derick Sylvester had set his sights on becoming a lawyer and to fight injustice. Despite the most humble beginnings, his passion, drive and sheer grit propelled him to achieving this goal.
He was born and raised in Grenada and read law at the University of the West Indies in Barbados, and also at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad.
Throughout this autobiography, Sylvester presents unique insights into the trial process and he reflects upon the many cases in which he has been involved. One such case being his involvement in the resentencing of those convicted of murder in the Maurice Bishop Murder Trial. In addition to his work as an Attorney-at-Law, Derick Sylvester is an active and effective participant in public service in Grenada. He served as Chairman of the Allied Health Professional Council, and the Grenada Football Association Disciplinary Appeals Committee; he was Director of the Maurice Bishop International Airport Board, and the National Housing Authority Board; and he served as Chairman of the Public Service Commission of Grenada. This book traces Derick Sylvester’s life to date and explores the many experiences that have influenced his progression into the lawyer we see today. Written in his own words, this autobiography is emotive, engaging and reflects his empathy for the human condition, his passion for the law and his never-ending quest for justice. Hardback, £20.00 / US $30.00 • eBook, £8.99 / US $10.99
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FROM WHERE I STAND
Roy Sawh
Renowned civil rights activist and public speaker, Roy Sawh looks back over his three decades in Britain since his arrival in the 1950s.
This part biography, part social commentary, contains all the elements of the life story of any West Indian in Britain. West Indians came with dreams and expectations of being treated as full citizens of their ‘Motherland’ – a country for which they had fought in the Second World War. But they were quickly and starkly disillusioned by racist rejection and cruelty.
Paperback, £5.95 / US $9.00
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45 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
CASE DISMISSED!
Gloria Cameron, MBE
Gloria Cameron came to Britain from Jamaica as a young woman and endured the discrimination she met on arrival and managed to raise six children in a positive way, despite her own setbacks.
She was educated in her place of birth and also in the UK and moved into community work. She worked diligently and devoted all her efforts to her chosen vocation. However, when her commitment and dedication were seen as ‘taking’, she faced unfounded accusations of wrong-doing. But the case against her collapsed and was dismissed within two days! But the damage was done. For a woman who had worked with integrity and dedication, who was appointed a Justice of the Peace, was awarded and MBE, had met with Princess Diana, and had made television appearances, these were dark days.
Gloria’s story is an account of how some Jamaicans came to Britain, made new lives for themselves, became valued members of society, but who were, ultimately, brought down by unknown forces.
“… a non-patronising, non-sentimental and certainly a non-pathological account of her experience as a Caribbean migrant mother living, surviving and bringing up six children in London.” Dame Jocelyn Barrow OBE
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00 • eBook, £5.99 / US $7.20
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I NEVER SAID GOODBYE
Reynold Burrowes
This is the story of one man’s return to Guyana, the land of his youth. His return was thirty-five years in the making, back to the country he never expected to leave; a place he thought would always be home.
Reynold Burrowes travelled to Guyana with several former classmates who, like him, were Guyanese expats hoping to reconnect with family members and old friends. The visit exceeded all expectations and was both eye-opening and overwhelming. They witnessed with great pride how the former British colony had made much progress. There was a dynamic tempo to daily life and an air of industriousness and optimism. But, despite their best efforts to reengage, they felt increasingly like outsiders, desperately trying to envision their former selves in this now unfamiliar land. This memoir tells a familiar tale of those who dream of returning ‘home’ some day, but whose nostalgic voyage of discovery isn’t always what they hoped it would be.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00
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POTARO DREAMS: My Youth in Guyana
Jan Carew
This is the first volume of Jan Carew’s memoirs. In naming it ‘Potaro Dreams’, he draws a parallel between Guyana’s Potaro River – which is an essential river in what the Amerindians called “the land of many rivers” – and the shaping of his young life.
Born in 1920, Carew’s engaging memoir takes the reader from his near-death experience with malaria, into his village life in Agricola and Mocha, a brief turn in New York when his youngest sister was kidnapped, and his family’s return to British Guiana and New Amsterdam. After years of recurring bouts with malaria and being forced to spend much of his time in bed, he overcomes these early years by a thirst for reading and an alert mind that blooms with the encouragement of remarkable teachers at Berbice High School. This book ends in 1939 when the Second World War draws him, his best friends, and fellow students into joining the British armed forces.
eBook, £6.49 / US $8.00
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BELONGING: Fate and Changing Realities
Herman Ouseley
As a twelve-year-old born into an impoverished single parent household in what was then British Guiana, Herman Ouseley travelled unaccompanied across the world to Britain to be re-united with his mother in Peckham, south London. Low in self-confidence and self-esteem, he regarded himself as a “nobody” in this new world as he struggled to come to terms with the harsh realities of brutal abuse, discrimination, exclusion and the necessity of survival.
Ouseley’s me moir vividly describes how he learnt to cope with all challenges, finding his own unique ways of winning people over and encouraging them to mix with others who are different from themselves. Along the way, he learnt how to develop methods to convince and persuade powerful people to use their influence and decision making to help eliminate the adverse effects of institutional discrimination, reduce prejudice and bigotry, and to build social cohesion.
Over a period of nearly sixty years dedicated to public service, he became a “somebody” at times, as he challenged the ‘good and the great’ to use their resources and power in pursuit of the goals of equality and cohesion. But, in spite of the opportunities to access such places of power, he never felt a full sense of belonging and his focus has always been to hold on to the different realities of his own experiences.
As he now reverts back to obscurity, he reflects on contemporary Britain, knowing that there is still a struggle to achieve responsible and accountable leadership on matters of equality, without which many people like himself will continue longing to feel that they also belong.
Paperback, £13.99 / US $21.00 • eBook, £6.99 / US $8.50
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AN ACCIDENTAL LIFE
Harold Drayton
This is a portrait of a man who played a significant role in the history of education and health in the Caribbean. Harold Drayton’s passionate and meticulous memoir offers, first, a precious account of colonial British Guiana.
Chance took him first as a teacher at the Grenada Boys Secondary School, then on a scholarship to the new University College in Jamaica. He remembers Kingston in the early 1950s, where his involvement in radical politics in Jamaica, led to his expulsion from university.
In Britain, he completed a doctoral thesis on cancer viruses which, in 1961, meant that he was one of only five Guianese then with a PhD. Banned from re-entry to Jamaica, the search for work took him to Nkrumah’s Ghana in 1961. But, by 1962, he was on his way home, invited by Cheddi Jagan, whose People’s Progressive Party he had joined in 1950, to organise a national university. The University of Guyana is essentially the fruit of his vision, although by 1964, he found himself without Jagan’s support after the election of Forbes Burnham and facing a hostile government.
By the early 1970s, he was forced to give up both Guyana and his academic career, and moved to Barbados, where he found a new passion in public health policy. Working for the Pan American Health Organisation, and after 1990 for the University of Texas, his mark was felt in the implementation of human resources development programmes, relevant to primary health care strategies, in every country of the region.
“... Drayton’s memoir spans more than half a century of personal and institutional engagement with almost every territory in the Caribbean
... Whether it was the cut and thrust of university debate, or the more frightening turbulence of Guyana’s political leadership struggles of the 1960s, Drayton features as a critical witness and participant.”
Professor George Lamming
eBook, £9.50 / US $11.50
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46 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
Books & eBooks published by Hansib Publications are also available worldwide from many booksellers including Amazon
THE BLACK COSMETICS KINGS
Tony Wade, MBE
Established in the 1960s, the Black cosmetics company, Dyke & Dryden had a major impact on Britain’s Black community. It provided jobs and opportunities and also helped to promote Black culture and identity.
Tony Wade and his business partners, Len Dyke and Dudley Dryden, were pioneers in the development of the Black hair care industry in Britain. The company’s success also inspired other Black entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. Today, Dyke & Dryden’s legacy lives on and the company is still acknowledged as a trailblazer, not only in the Black British hair and beauty industry but also in Black British business in general. Hardback, £15.99 / US $24.00 • Paperback, £12.99 / US $20.00
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THE UNDIMINISHED LINK: Forty Years and Beyond
Victor Waldron
This is the story of the author’s journey from village life in British Guiana to London at the end of the 1950s. The sudden culture shock brought many complications: the cold weather, the difficulty obtaining accommodation, and the constant threat of hostility and racial discrimination. It was a time of working among people who resented the arrival of immigrants and having to contend with the ensuing bigotry.
Reflecting upon his experiences and intrigues, it tells of the struggle for survival and the desire to succeed, the shattered dreams and aspirations that were never accomplished, and the challenges of raising a family in an often hostile environment.
Paperback, £8.99 / US $14.00
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MISS NOBODY
Patricia Grant-Morby
A candid and heartbreaking memoir that reflects upon a troubled life filled with sorrow, misery and pain –both physical and psychological. The author has faced the many challenges with courage and determination, but not always with successful conclusions. The daughter of Jamaican parents, she was born in England but raised in Jamaica until her teenage years, after which she returned to England. Her father spent most of these early years back in England, working and sending money home. So, Patricia and her siblings were raised by their mother, and also their grandmother. And it is this relationship with her mother that has affected her to the present day. It was a relationship characterised by abuse; of neglect, ridicule and constant threat. Told in her own words, this is a frank and harrowing narrative of a deeply troubled life. Paperback, £8.99 / US $14.00 • eBook, £2.99 / US $3.80 UK customers SAVE £2.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
WALK WITH ME: An Autobiography
Collin Leroy Carter
This intriguing and engaging autobiography is the fulfilment of the author’s lifelong dream to tell his unique story.
Collin Carter arrived in London from Barbados as a young man in 1962 and is renowned for being the founder of the UK’s first Black-owned funeral service. Since its establishment in 1992, African-Caribbean Funeral Services has attended to the needs of the Black community. Most notably, the company received nationwide attention in 1993 when it provided the funeral services for Joy Gardner, a Jamaican mature student who died after being detained during a police immigration raid on her home in London. Collin was pictured across the nation’s TV channels and newspapers heading the funeral procession.
Collin is an activist and committed Pan-Africanist and his autobiography is often a heart-rending account of life in Britain.
Hardback, £15.00 / US $25.00 • eBook, £5.00 / US $5.99
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I WAS A SOLDIER: Survival Against the Odds
Necola Hall
Jamaican-born Necola Hall served in the British Army for nearly ten years and is a veteran of the Second Gulf War. Her application to join the Army was turned down twice, but her dogged tenacity led to her acceptance into the Adjutant General Corps. The recollections of her experiences in the military and of her tour of duty in war-torn Iraq are inspiring.
Necola emigrated to the UK in 2002 aged twenty-five in search of better life opportunities and prospects. She tells of the sacrifice of leaving her husband behind; the emotions of separation, and her joy of being reunited with him in the UK. She reflects on the challenges she faced growing up in Jamaica where her family’s impoverished circumstances meant school attendance was inconsistent; a fact that would negatively affect her in adulthood. Despite her setbacks, she always possessed an unflinching determination to succeed in all her endeavours. But her early life experiences and the unrelenting challenges of military service would eventually take their toll.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00 • eBook, £7.79 / US $9.00
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FROM TOP MOUNTAIN: An Autobiography
Bishop Dr Joe Aldred
Joe Aldred was born in the rural district of Top Mountain located in the hills of St Catherine, Jamaica. Most of the inhabitants were poor folk who tilled the land with subsistence crops and reared domestic livestock. For those who wanted to improve their lives, the choice was to either move to the island’s capital, Kingston, or migrate overseas. Most of Joe’s immediate family chose the second option and, at various times throughout the 1950s and 1960s, they emigrated to England and the United States. Joe’s family settled near Birmingham, England, and in 1968, at the age of fifteen, he was reunited with his parents and siblings... and introduced to the chill of a British autumn! This is the story of one man’s journey from humble beginnings in Jamaica, through the challenges of migration and settlement in a racialised environment, to the status of a respected – sometimes controversial – community and religious leader, broadcaster, ecumenist, speaker and writer.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00 • eBook, £5.99 / US $7.20
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47 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR TRADE BOOK ORDERS & TRADE ENQUIRIES TURNAROUND PUBLISHER SERVICES Telephone: +44 (0)208 829 3000 Email: orders@turnaround-uk.com from Booksellers, Libraries, Schools, Colleges & Universities, please contact:
BEFORE WINDRUSH: West Indians in Britain
Asher & Martin Hoyles
West Indians have been coming to Britain for over 300 years, so the arrival of around 500 Caribbean passengers on the Empire Windrush in 1948 was not new. This book records twenty-eight early West Indian immigrants, such as Norman Manley, Learie Constantine, Una Marson and C.L.R. James, but also less well-known figures like the model Fanny Eaton, nurse Annie Bre wster, footballer Andrew Watson and airman Billy Strachan. Their stories are interspersed with Asher’s passionate poems.
“People of West Indian descent are often reduced to one single word: Windrush. This crushes their individuality and is historically inaccurate. Asher and Martin Hoyles truthfully and poetically tell the stories of those who came to Britain much earlier. Embedding the Windrush Scandal in a much deeper history of debt that we owe to those who came to Britain, the authors don’t weaken the case for justice for Windrush citizens, they fortify it.” David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, north London
“A useful reminder that the arrival of Empire Windrush into Tilbury Docks in June 1948 was not the start of migration from the Caribbean to Britain.” Amelia Gentleman, author of The Windrush Betrayal, 2019
Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00
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NAOROJI, THE FIRST ASIAN
MP: A Biography of Dadabhai
Naoroji – India’s Patriot and Britain’s MP
Omar Ralph
Known as the “Grand Old Man of India”, Dadabhai Naoroji was Britain’s first Asian member of Parliament. This book charts his life from humble beginnings in Bombay, to the laying of the foundations of modern India. Even though he was a mentor to men such as Gandhi, his story is relatively unknown. This book serves to re-live his life story so that the work he undertook both in India and in Britain can once again be appreciated.
Paperback, £11.95 / US $18.00
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THE AXE LAID TO THE ROOT: The Story of Robert Wedderburn
Martin Hoyles
Robert Wedderburn was one of the key campaigners against slavery at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He was born in 1762 in Jamaica of a Scottish father and a Jamaican mother. At the age of sixteen he went to sea and ended up in England, where he became a tailor and eventually joined a radical political group called the Spenceans. He became famous for the revolutionary rhetoric with which he entertained and educated the crowds, and campaigned for equality in England, for the land to be restored to the people, and freedom for the slaves in the West Indies.
Much of the Black experience in Britain, however, has been hidden from history. This book will help rectify the situation in an entertaining and informative way. It tells the story of Wedderburn’s childhood in Jamaica and his experience of slavery, his conversion to Methodism in England and then his commitment to radical politics, which landed him in prison for two years.
Paperback, £8.99 / US $14.00
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VAL’S BRIDGE
Valerie Wood
This is the story of a Black woman who followed her dreams from the age of six years old. She was aware very early on that it would take more than determination and ambition to pursue her goals, especially when the going got tough. This is her fascinating journal of the major episodes in her journey of life, including being one of the few Black women to enlist in the RAF.
“Fascinating, inspiring … Val has put into context several aspects of her journey that are typical of people who are a part of the Black Diaspora. A wonderful read.” Whit Stennett, Councillor and former Mayor of Trafford “... an in-depth and fascinating insight into a world few people see. It is all the more interesting written from the perspective of a young Black woman at a time when few Black people were in the RAF.” Deanne Heron, author of Pardner Money Stories
Paperback, £6.99 / US $12.00
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ONE PEOPLE MAYOR: A Journey
Sebert Graham in conversation with Ian Mulder
Sebert Graham’s laughter pervades this tale of a Jamaican immigrant who sailed to Britain in 1960.
Born into a large and affectionate family in rural Jamaica, Sebert charmed his teachers, relatives, bully-boy peers and Army NCOs while he went his own rebellious and pioneering way.
Moving with his family to a market town nestling in Buckinghamshire’s Chiltern Hills, he involved himself in youth work and community relations. Frustrated with local government red tape, he decided to stand as a town councillor, and a few years later was elected Mayor. He remains awed and humbled at the opportunity he was given to work for the whole community. His life work illustrates how much effort, often voluntary, has been invested into reinventing Britain as a multicultural land at peace with itself.
Paperback, £8.99 / US $14.00
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GOODBYE, MANGO SERGEANT:
Memoir of a Jamaica Trench Town Boy
Keith Walker
Keith Walker spent his early years in Kingston, Jamaica, where life was tough in the hot and dusty ghettos of Trench Town. He later moved to the countryside parish of Portland where his love for the plentiful and delicious mango earned him the nickname, ‘Mango Sergeant’.
In the mid-1960s, Keith left Jamaica to join his mother in England. It was the Swinging Sixties, but life in London for a young Black man was cold, bleak and unfriendly. Every day was a struggle, but Keith faced his challenges through determination and hard work.
Looking back on his life, there were times of great adventure and great danger; friendship and conflict; joy and sadness; and ultimate success. “For me,” he says, “success is being able to walk the streets, ride the buses or visit public places without the fear of being discriminated against because of the colour of my skin or the land of my birth.”
Paperback, £8.99 / US $13.00 • eBook, £5.84 / US $7.00
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48 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
KING SHORT SHIRT – Nobody Go Run Me: The Life and Times of Sir MacLean Emanuel
Dorbrene E. O’Marde
This important biography of Antigua’s greatest calypsonian is also an in-depth study of the culture and socio-political history of Antigua and Barbuda and the wider Caribbean. The traditional ‘Caribbean song’ and its creators are treated with dignity and deep appreciation. The result is an essential and long overdue addition to the study of calypso.
This is a must-read for calypso lovers, but there is something here for everyone – from the casual reader with interest in Caribbean music and culture to the students and teachers of Caribbean sociology and cultural studies.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $20.00 • eBook, £7.79 / US $9.00
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BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: The Story of Black British Scientist
Alan Goffe
Gaia Goffe and Judith Goffe, MD
This is the moving story of a renowned medical scientist who was tragically cut down in his prime. Alan Goffe was born in Britain in 1920 to a Jamaican father and an English mother, both of whom were physicians. During the 1950s and 1960s, Dr Alan Goffe was one of a group of microbiologists who helped develop and improve vaccines designed to fight two of the world’s most deadly infectious diseases – polio and measles. However, less than a year after establishing the department of experimental cytology at the Wellcome Research Laboratories, he tragically drowned in a yachting accident off the southern coast of England. He was forty-six. Paperback, £8.99 / US $14.00
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RECYCLING A SON OF THE BRITISH RAJ
Peter Ramrayka
Peter Ramrayka was born in what was then colonial British Guiana (now Guyana). The grandson of indentured Indian labourers, he was brought up to believe that, despite his Indian cultural heritage, Britain was, in fact, the ‘Mother Country’. With ambitions to become a lawyer, he travelled to England in 1961 with the intention of returning ‘home’ once he had realised his dream. He soon discovered that the so-called mother country was a place where people of colour faced discrimination and victimisation. He joined the Royal Air Force as an option to both work and study. In this environment, he was largely shielded from overt discrimination and soon adopted British cultural values and ways of doing things. This grounding led to exciting and successful careers and endeavours in the National Health Service, the Magistracy, political activism, mission director of a flying teaching eye hospital, British Executive Service Overseas volunteer, and international healthcare management consultant to former British colonies. Peter Ramrayka’s autobiography tells the story of his fateful journey and his fortitude to address and overcome the challenges of life in Britain.
Paperback, £13.99 / US $21.00 • eBook, £6.99 / US $8.50
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TRAVELS WITH A HUSBAND
Patricia Mohammed and Rex Dixon
This book is a journey about friendships and memories, about marriage, companionship and work, an autobiography in prose, verse and drawings, a travelogue, and an adventure in style. It is also autobiographical because it records a creative and intellectual partnership of over two decades.
The authors have journeyed as reluctant tourists rather than as voyeurs and recall their encounters from the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Namibia and the Netherlands.
Patricia Mohammed’s contributions are reflective of history or social attitudes. Rex Dixon, in turn, interprets, sometimes with humour, events and situations with different artistic nuances and mediums. Illustrated in colour throughout depicting nearly one hundred original works of art
Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Patricia Mohammed has lived at various times in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Jamaica, Trinidad and the United States. She is a scholar and filmmaker and currently Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad.
Rex Dixon was born in London. After teaching in the New University of Ulster in Belfast for several years, he came to Jamaica in 1985 to teach at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts. He has held numerous one person exhibitions in Kingston, Port of Spain and abroad and his paintings are in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Jamaica, Wolverhampton Art Gallery and numerous private collections.
Softcover, £15.99 / US $24.00
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CLOCKING UP PRAYER MILES: A Spiritual Journey
Moreen Duckworth Samuels
There is no denying that we live in a chaotic and uncertain world filled with many challenges. The stresses and strains of daily life will test us to the limit and it is often hard to avoid being affected, either emotionally, physically or spiritually. This book aims to shine a light on the steps towards spiritual restoration and to show how, through prayer, the future will appear so much brighter.
Drawing upon the author’s spiritual experiences, it will show how prayer underpinned her faith and gave her strength during challenging circumstances.
Paperback, £15.00 / US $22.00 • eBook, £6.99 / US $8.50
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TAKING IT TO THE MAX: An Autobiography
Maxie Hayles
This is an autobiography of the life, times and adventures of a community and human rights activist who eventually settled in Birmingham, England, where he has lived and worked for more than sixty years.
Maxie Hayles was born in Jamaica and after migrating to Britain he spent most of his adult life fighting for social justice and equality. He is a devout Christian with a firm belief in humanity, which is underpinned by his deep spiritual values and principles. Maxie has never wavered from the challenges of trying to make the world a better place. Throughout this journey, he faced many adversities which have tested his strength and resolve. But he always persevered through sheer determination, faith and strength of character.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00
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49 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
GUYANA AT 50: Reflection, Celebration and Inspiration
What is it that makes Guyana such a special place and why has it remained a secret to the rest of the world? The answer may lie in its unique magnificence. Could this be paradise, this land of many waters? The evidence would suggest that it is. But Guyana also has a somewhat curious history, not least, because of the challenges it has faced over the past six hundred years. The First People were overcome by invading Europeans. Then came the forced and coerced labour of the enslaved Africans, the indentured Chinese, Portuguese and Indians, followed by the challenges faced by successive political movements and ideologies. Many miss the true qualities for which this land of many peoples has become renowned: Its hospitality, its freshness and its unspoilt natural beauty. They miss the sensual energy that pervades its atmosphere and fail to notice that, in Guyana, the skies seem bluer, the stars seem brighter and the air is blessed with an ambrosial succulence that stirs the senses and lulls the brain into forgetting day-to-day concerns. Includes more than 250 photographic images. Hardcover, £30.00 / US $55.00 UK customers SAVE £18.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
DOMINICA: Nature Island of the Caribbean
2nd Edition
An insight into one of the Caribbean’s best-kept secrets. Dominica is a virtually unspoilt island whose volcanic peaks rise imposingly from the sea to create a magnificent landscape of forested mountains and river valleys. It is the most mountainous of the Lesser Antilles and has the distinction of being home to the tallest peak in the Eastern Caribbean.
Dominica’s reputation as the ‘Nature Island of the Caribbean’ is well earned because of its unspoilt landscape, natural beauty and abundance of flora and fauna. The island is renowned for its spectacular waterfalls and many rivers. Consistently rated as a leading dive destination, Dominica’s marine life is considered to be among the best in the world. It is also a leading whale-watching destination in the Caribbean. Includes more than 200 photographic images. Hardcover, £25.00 / US $50.00
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ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA: A Little Bit of Paradise
7th Edition
Blessed with warm tropical sunshine, soothing trade winds, crystal-clear waters and lush vegetation – and with a beach for every day of the year – Antigua and Barbuda really is a little bit of paradise. And this vision of paradise is made up of palm-fringed coves in Antigua and miles of deserted beaches in Barbuda. This lavishly illustrated book is a spectacular insight into a vibrant Caribbean nation that captures the many aspects of life in this twin-island state.
Away from the beach, history and artistry come together in the annual Carnival, where pageantry and ‘pan’ celebrate Antiguan and Barbudan culture, set to the sounds of calypso music. Antigua and Barbuda also plays host to a number of sailing events, including Antigua Sailing Week, which is the Caribbean’s oldest regatta. Includes more than 200 photographic images. Hardcover, £30 / US $50.00 • Softcover, £20 / US $36.00
UK customers SAVE £10.00 or £18.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: Terrific and Tranquil 3rd Edition
The twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is one of the most cosmopolitan countries in the world. Since the arrival of Amerindian peoples more than ten thousand years ago, this Caribbean nation has become a melting pot of different races, traditions, customs and religions. European colonisers followed by peoples from Africa, India, China and the Middle East began arriving from the late 1400s. These disparate groups all played a part in influencing Trinidad and Tobago’s diverse and unique culture. Birthplace of calypso music and the steel pan, and home to the world famous Trinidad Carnival, the nation boasts one of the most exclusive tourism destinations in the world (Tobago) and an emerging eco-tourism sector. Published to commemorate the nation’s 50th anniversary of independence in 2012. Includes more than 200 photographic images.
Hardcover, £25.00 / US $50.00 • Softcover, £18.00 / US $36.00
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JAMAICA: Absolutely
Jamaican culture has touched every corner of the globe. Whether it’s the pulsating rhythms of Bob Marley’s reggae music, dancehall patois or the pounding footsteps of Usain Bolt, the sounds of Jamaica reverberate throughout the world. Long described as a microcosm of Planet Earth, Jamaica has been influenced by many cultures and traditions. It is a country with a rich history –admittedly of severance and suffering – but, above all, with a will and capacity for survival and achievement.
When Columbus arrived, and beheld the palm-fringed beaches and lush, forested mountains, he described it as the fairest isle he had ever seen. But Jamaica is more than just beach and scenery. It is a rich diversity of cultures and traditions. It is rich in sounds and flavours. It is a feast for the senses. Jamaica is Rasta and reggae; rum and rhythm; jerk and jazz; coffee and calypso. Lavishly illustrated throughout, Jamaica: Absolutely looks beyond the beach and gives an insight into the cultural, historical and social aspects of Jamaica. Includes more than 200 photographic images.
Hardcover, £25.00 / US $50.00 • Softcover, £18.00 / US $36.00
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ANGUILLA: Tranquillity
Wrapped in Blue
With its pristine, white-sand beaches, washed by crystal-clear waters, this British Overseas Territory embodies tranquillity itself. The atmosphere is one of peace and serenity that allows visitors to relax, unwind and immerse themselves in the ultimate Caribbean vacation. The most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean, Anguilla is one of the world’s most exclusive tourism destinations. And its year-round nautical traditions are an added attraction. Anguilla is also home to a thriving community of artists producing a diverse range of artforms including woodcrafts, sculpture, pottery and paintings. But, above all, its people are renowned for their friendliness and hospitality. This definitive guide provides an insight into the nation’s history, local customs and traditions, its people and places, and its successes and achievements. Includes more than 350 photographic images.
Hardcover, £20.00 / US $36.00
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50 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
A LONG JOURNEY: The History of the Derby West Indian Community Association (DWICA)
The main purpose of this book is to reflect, commemorate and chronicle the contribution of Britain’s pioneering Windrush Generation, particularly those that settled in Derby. It demonstrates the vitality of the Caribbean community and their social, cultural and economic value to the city. It also charts the arrival and challenges faced by those who migrated from the Caribbean.
The Derby West Indian Association (DWIA) was founded in 1955 as a means to serve members of the local Caribbean community and to help them settle into a foreign land. In the early 1980s, the Association then established the Derby West Indian Centre and later achieved charitable status in 1989. The word “community” was then added to its name to become the Derby West Indian Community Association (DWICA).
DWICA has been the “catalyst and rock” of the Caribbean community that settled in Derby through the activities it provides and the services it offers. This book charts the work of the Association and the work of the many people committed to the Caribbean heritage community and to the celebration of Black culture. It is an informative and unique resource for schools and also the general reader, as well as a source for those interested in the many aspects of Britain’s multicultural society.
It is dedicated to the pioneering members of the Windrush Generation and to those who had the vision and determination to establish such an essential and worthwhile organisation. DWICA continues to serve the needs of their community and to provide a legacy for the generations to come. And the journey continues. Softcover, £40.00 / US $60.00
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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WEST INDIAN CHURCH HISTORY
Compiled by Rev. Arthur Dayfoot and Rev. Roscoe Pierson
This book offers a comprehensive annotated guide to books and other source materials for the study of Christianity in the English-speaking Caribbean. It also includes many similar items relating to neighbouring territories – Spanish, Dutch and French – and to other religious bodies in the Caribbean area.
This is a companion volume to Dr Dayfoot’s history, The Shaping of the West Indian Church, 1492-1962. It also includes materials concerning the forty years since 1962. The bibliography has been compiled over many years in co-operation between two scholars who served churches in the Caribbean. Many others have contributed information and advice.
“Not only does this work cover the five hundred years of Christian activity in the West Indies, but it is arranged in a manner which should be of considerable help to researchers.” Rev. Canon Noel Titus, Codrington College Hardback, £20.00 / US $30.00 • Paperback, £14.99 / US $23.00 UK customers SAVE £5.00 or £8.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
WEST INDIAN HISTORY AND LITERATURE
Frank Birbalsingh
This book offers a fresh view by West Indian authors themselves of a region known mainly for delights of its sun, sand and sea. The book not only examines problems of division in racial, ethnic, class and colour relations in the Anglophone Caribbean, it also reveals regional resources of imagination and creativity that have already produced, in Derek Walcott and V.S. Naipaul, two Nobel laureates in literature.
While the volume recalls rare, perhaps forgotten texts by authors such as Eric Walrond (Tropic Death ), Claude McKay (Home to Harlem) and memoirs by Joyce Gladwell (Brown Face Big Master), Lorna Goodison ( From Harvey River) and Rachel Manley ( Horses in Her Hair), most chapters delve into works, mainly of fiction or poetry, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day; and although, as elsewhere, women writers appeared long after male authors in the Caribbean, of eighty-one authors considered in the volume, twenty-nine are women.
Paperback, £12.99 / US $20.00
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THE EMPTY SLEEVE: The Story of the West India Regiments of the British Army
Brian Dyde
On 31 January 1927, the West India Regiment was disbanded after parading for the last time at Up Park Camp in Kingston, Jamaica. The ceremony marked the end of over 130 years of continuous service of West Indian troops in the British Army.
Raised in 1795 from among the slave population of the West Indies, the West India Regiments proved invaluable to the British cause during the Napoleonic Wars. From a maximum of twelve in 1800 there were never less than two such regiments in existence until 1920, serving throughout the Caribbean and in all the British West African colonies.
In tracing the fascinating, but at the same time sad and disturbing, history of these regiments, this book also examines the way in which Black soldiers, regardless of loyalty, devotion to duty and skill at arms, were never fully accepted in a white man’s army.
Paperback, £11.95 / US $18.00
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A BLACK STUDIES PRIMER: Heroes and Heroines of the African Diaspora
Keith A.P. Sandiford
This is an essential text for students and scholars of Black history and also the general reader. It features over 1,000 biographies of historical and contemporary Black figures that have made a significant contribution to the development of modern civilization. It is a celebration of the impact made by Black people in areas such as politics, engineering, agriculture, entertainment, literature, medicine, sport and philosophy, to name but a few.
This easy-reference, encyclopaedic work has been compiled in order to fill the gaps in Black Studies. Both interesting and stimulating, it will inspire students and teachers alike to pursue further research, and provides the perfect insight into Black heritage and culture.
Paperback, £20.00 / US $40.00
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51 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION TRADE BOOK ORDERS & TRADE ENQUIRIES TURNAROUND PUBLISHER SERVICES Telephone: +44 (0)208 829 3000 Email: orders@turnaround-uk.com from Booksellers, Libraries, Schools, Colleges & Universities, please contact:
CARIBBEAN CHALLENGES:
Sir Shridath Ramphal’s Collected Counsel
Sir Shridath Ramphal
In this important book, the author states: “It is a time for reflection everywhere, but, rather specially, a time for reflection in the Caribbean; and I would urge that the backdrop of our reflection should not be the Caribbean as hapless takers of history’s ordained lot, but as makers of our own way in a less than benign world. We have been both over the millennia – takers and makers; but we have been enough of the latter to speak plausibly and proudly today of a ‘Caribbean civilisation’. As makers of our way in the world, the answers to these questions about the future should be in our keeping, however arduous the challenges to sustained advancement.”
Paperback, £11.99 / US $25.00
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CRUMBLED SMALL: The Commonwealth Caribbean in World Politics
Sir Ronald Sanders
This candid account of the situation of Caribbean small states in the global community is written by a former participant in many of the deliberations of Caribbean governments. Sanders declares, “The Caribbean is in crisis.” Preferential markets for traditional Caribbean products are gone; the financial services sector is under siege; and tourism is endangered by natural disasters as well as constant leakage of its earnings from Caribbean economies. Drug trafficking has contributed significantly to rising levels of crime. And the international community is not doing enough to ensure that these small states do not avoid conditions that will threaten their survival. The conclusion of this book is compelling: Governments have to face-up to the crisis, state it boldly to their people and the international community, and act resolutely to overcome it in the only way that is sensible – and that is to make their small countries bigger through arrangements of joint governance that are so patently necessary to make them more viable.
Hardback, £16.99 / US $30.00
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CORRUPTION: Law, Governance and Ethics in the Commonwealth Caribbean
Derrick V. McKoy
Corr uption is a political problem in developing countries. At every level, there are anecdotal stories of unjust enrichment, shady deals and downright criminality. Persons within and connected to the political process have used and abused their positions for personal gain and, ultimately, taint and undermine the governance of these societies. Corruption exists alongside an overbearing bureaucracy, complex rules and regulations and, generally, inefficiency in the delivery of service to the ordinary citizen.
This book explains why it is important to study anti-corruption regimes and sets out the existing state of knowledge on the subject. The author explores how governments are addressing the problem and includes the emerging law on the subject, including the law on bribery, misconduct in public office, judicial misconduct and contemporary anti-corruption legislation. Special consideration is given to the role of the constitutions when examining questions of the corruption of public officials.
Paperback, £15.99 / US $25.00
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WRITING GENDER INTO THE CARIBBEAN: Selected
Essays 1988 to 2020
Patricia Mohammed
This collection takes us on a journey of exploration whose compass is feminist thought, and whose goal is a better understanding of the centrality of gender roles and relations in Caribbean society.
The revolutionary act of imprinting gender into Caribbean thought is celebrated by Patricia Mohammed as she brings together decades worth of her critical essays that have influenced directions in feminism and in social thinking. A primary player in an ever-evolving Caribbean gender discourse, she has produced an interdisciplinary manifesto that establishes founding moments and ongoing debates in gender and feminist theory and feminist political strategy in the region.
This book establishes a chronology that is faithful to the evolving concepts and ideas in the field of gender studies, while demonstrating that collaborative affinities across shared yet different histories remain the backbone of the ongoing feminist project of reconstructing knowledge. In the face of narratives that cast shadows on the value of evolutionary progress, Mohammed en courages us to take pause and recognise how far gender scholars and feminists have come in leaving the world more gender equitable than we found it.
Paperback, £30.00 / US $42.00
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THE MODERN BOOK OF MUSLIM NAMES
This straightforward and easy-to-use reference book includes more than 2,500 names and what they mean. Choosing a name for your child is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. It is a name that your child will carry with them for their entire life, so it is important to choose a name that will suit your child well. And this book provides a suitable point from which to start.
Paperback, £7.99 / US $12.00
UK customers SAVE £3.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS
Since the early 1980s, Hansib Publications has been helping authors – and aspiring authors – from across the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora in the UK and North America bring their stories to life. We provide an outlet for the many voices that remain unheard and publish all genres of fiction and non-fiction, spanning a diverse range of genres, including historical novels, biographies, poetry anthologies, political commentaries and social narratives.
With editorial and logistical support from an experienced team, plus a range of affordable options, getting your book published could not be easier. All manuscripts are considered, and the books we publish are available from a global network of booksellers.
Contact us today to discover how we can help you share your story with the world!
EMAIL: info@hansibpublications.com
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52 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
REFLECTIONS AND OPINIONS
Désirée Patricia Bernard
This collection of speeches, by a former Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice, provides an opportunity to benefit from the excellent intellect, research and reasoning that make the author one of the leading contemporary judicial and legal thinkers in the Caribbean. Désirée Bernard went into practice in Guyana and was elevated to the Bench, becoming the first woman to be so appointed. She rose to the post of Chief Justice, becoming the first woman in the British Commonwealth to hold that office. She later became Head of the Judiciary of Guyana when she was appointed to the post of Chancellor. Upon its inauguration, Désirée Bernard was the first and only female judge to sit on the Caribbean Court of Justice. She also examines the role of women; “the power behind the throne” in the home, the society and in the legal profession, with characteristic and incisive humour as well. Much of the international legislation to which many of the world’s states are now signatories have benefited from the sterling contributions of Désirée Bernard. Paperback, £14.99 / US $22.00
UK customers SAVE £5.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
A PEOPLE’S POLITICAL HISTORY OF GUYANA, 1838-1964
Kimani S.K. Nehusi
This work is a multi-disciplinary reconstruction, analysis and evaluation of the development, organisation and mobilisation of political consciousness in Guyana between the legal termination of physical enslavement in 1838 and the eve of independence in 1966. Guyanese transformed themselves from disempowered colonial subjects to citizens of variable levels of awareness and empowerment during those one hundred and twenty-six years of struggle. A critical dialogue is maintained throughout the text with a multitude of sources of numerous kinds. Trajectories in economic and social development, the evolving sense of Guyanese nationality, the prevailing social and political values, attitudes and behaviours and the resulting mood of the country at critical junctures in its history, as well as the Caribbean background, are regularly updated and skilfully interwoven into the text to continuously illuminate the evolving story. The result is a single, continuous, carefully nuanced, well balanced and superbly organised narrative that presents the complex political evolution of the country in an easily intelligible and extremely readable text. eBook, £4.99 / US $5.99 Available now from Amazon or Kobo
THE EVOLUTION OF WRITING IN ENGLISH BY AND ABOUT EAST INDIANS OF GUYANA, 1838-2018
Ameena Gafoor
This is a bibliography of creative writing, literary criticism, visual arts, social history, anthropology, law, governance, politics and journalism. Many indentured Indians shipped to British West Indian plantations were literate and brought a number of sacred books among their possessions. They were each versed in many dialects and kept the literate culture alive among East Indians in those oppressive times. Yet, a hundred years after the cessation of the indentureship system, no listing exists in the Caribbean region of the writings that have evolved by East Indians since their dislodgement from India. This bibliography attempts to provide a permanent record of the evolution of such writings.
Paperback, £15.00 / US $22.00 • eBook, £5.00 / US $6.00
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IRA ALDRIDGE: Famous Speeches
Martin Hoyles
Ira Aldridge was an amazing man. As a ten-year-old working-class Black boy in New York, he ran away to sea and was nearly sold into slavery. In 1824, when he was seventeen, he came to London and within months was playing Othello. By the time of his death in 1867, he was the most famous actor in the whole of Europe. He appeared on stage in more than 250 theatres in Britain and Ireland and more than 225 venues on the Continent.
This book presents some of the speeches from the plays which he performed, along with extensive commentaries. It also includes an introduction dealing with colour and gender casting, acting style, audience and politics, and Aldridge’s legacy. It is essential reading for drama students and actors, as well as for the general reader.
“... a wealth of information on the principal roles Aldridge played, setting each in an illuminating historical context and telling how audiences responded to the many different characters he portrayed.” Professor Bernth Lindfors, University of Texas
“An excellent introduction to Ira Aldridge, bringing out his amazing talent and influence. ... inspiration for actors, both black and white. It is a crucial guide for drama students...” Ray Fearon, actor
“A well researched, thorough and comprehensive account of Ira Aldridge’s life and career. The triumphs and challenges he faced and overcame, along with the historical context of the theatrical world, are illustrated with depth and insight. A real tour de force.” Oku Ekpenyon, historian
Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00
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THE IDEOLOGY OF RACISM
Samuel Kennedy Yeboah
The manifestation and symptoms of racial discrimination against Black people may differ from one country to the other, but the author demonstrates that the origin and development of this racial problem are either identical or at least very similar. This in-depth analysis traces the history and development of Western racism, the ideology which underpins it, and the power which makes it operable. Particularly aimed at schools, colleges and universities, this important book is a major contribution to multicultural education studies.
Paperback, £9.95 / US $15.00
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THE WONDERFUL YOU: Find your purpose and live the life of your dreams... now
Courtney Alexander Smith, PhD
This innovative self-help book is designed to help readers find their purpose and use their unique gifts and talents to create their ideal life. Based on practical experience, inspirational case studies, metaphysical insights and cutting-edge research, the author provides tried-and-tested guidance to help achieve extraordinary success in all areas of life.
Paperback, £10.99 / US $16.00 • eBook, £7.14 / US $8.00
UK customers SAVE £3.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
53 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
THE STATE OF BLACK BRITAIN: Volume One
Dr Aaron Haynes
First published in 1983, and updated in 1996, this book added a welcome insight into the debate about race relations in Britain from a Black perspective and shifted the agenda from that being established by the Scarman Report which was essentially about police/community relations, institutional racism and positive discrimination. Those issues were controversial then, as they are now, but the heat generated by the discussions led to more marginal programmes, much more paper policies on equal opportunities and limited real gains for ethnic minorities as a whole in Britain. This book not only provides a useful historical basis of where we were and how we got here, but contributes both to the thinking of what needs to be done and how to contribute to the making of a just society in which everyone has an equal chance to learn, live and work free from racial prejudice and discrimination and free from the fear of racial harassment and violence.
Paperback, £8.95 / US $14.00
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THE STATE OF BLACK BRITAIN: Volume Two
Dr Aaron Haynes
This second volume examines the absence of policies directed at the needs of the Black communities and argues that the Thatcher revolution, with its emphasis on individualism and its rejection of community, did not only affect white society, but had a traumatic effect on the development of the multi-coloured state of Britain. The gains of the 1970s were slowed down and in some cases put into reverse. The struggle for recognition and acceptance became more difficult and complicated. It was more than the problems of migration and racial discrimination; it was also the challenge of living in a rapidly changing society, experiencing its own crisis of identity.
Paperback, £8.95 / US $14.00
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FACING THE CHALLENGE: A Report of the First National All-Party Convention of Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority Councillors
This first national convention was a key and historic event for Black, Asian and ethnic minority people in British Local Government. Held in 1995, it was attended by more than 50 per cent of all Black, Asian and ethnic minority councillors in Great Britain. Published in 1996, this report includes the findings of a national survey of councillors. The results indicate that there is a long and hard struggle ahead to share power and to influence the work of local government so that it is inclusive of Black and ethnic minority communities. There is clearly a race equality agenda for the new millennium. Through local government this agenda can bring together diverse communities to tackle discrimination and disadvantage and to influence mainstream policies. By reflecting the race dimension in all economic, social and public policy matters and by making a commitment to integrate the needs and interests of Black and ethnic minority communities, Britain will become a fairer society and a stronger community.
Paperback, £6.95 / US $10.00
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BLACK DEATHS IN POLICE CUSTODY AND HUMAN RIGHTS: The Failure of The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry
David Mayberry
This book provides an insight into one of the most disturbing and under-reported issues to affect ethnic minorities in the UK. Through an assessment of diversity literature and interviews with police officers, it highlights the limited commitment to fulfilling Macpherson’s recommendations and the value of diversity training to operational policing. Against the backdrop of Black deaths in police custody, the book questions the extent to which ‘institutionalised racism’ has been genuinely challenged.
In October 2007, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) became operational. This development will place a growing emphasis on public bodies, such as the police, to meet their obligations as laid out in the Human Rights Act (1998). By drawing attention to a tragic and little-known problem, this book attempts to offer a genuine agenda for change.
Paperback, £8.99 / US $14.00
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THE USA IN SOUTH AMERICA and Other Essays
Cheddi Jagan. David Dabydeen (Ed.)
This collection of essays begins and ends with Cheddi Jagan’s revelation of political and electoral corruption in Guyana, and his moving sense of the plight of Guyanese people under the illegal regime of the PNC. The maladministration and kleptomania which Dr Jagan saw as the defining features of the PNC Government were compounded by Cold War politics.
“... there is no Caribbean leader who has been so frequently cheated of office; none who has been so grossly misrepresented.” George Lamming Paperback, £7.99 / US $12.00
UK customers SAVE £2.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
HANSIB PUBLICATIONS
Founded in London in 1970, Hansib Publications has played a crucial role in documenting the Caribbean experience and bringing Caribbean perspectives to a wider audience. It is renowned for its extensive catalogue of Caribbean fiction and non-fiction, spanning a diverse range of genres, including historical novels, biographies, poetry anthologies, political commentaries and social narratives. It has also made significant contributions to Caribbean scholarship by publishing insightful works on history, culture, politics and social issues.
Today, Hansib Publications remains a significant force in the world of Caribbean publishing and continues to publish books that reflect the vibrant diversity of the Caribbean region and the global Caribbean diaspora. Its legacy of promoting Caribbean voices and perspectives has made it an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand and appreciate the rich cultural heritage of the Caribbean.
EMAIL: info@hansibpublications.com
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54 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
PERSPECTIVES ON CARIBBEAN FOOTBALL
Edited by Christopher A.D. Charles
The people of the Caribbean are passionate about football, the ‘beautiful game’ that evokes strong emotions and fervent support. This expression of love and passion for the sport reaches its zenith every four years during the World Cup competition. However, only two Commonwealth Caribbean countries have qualified for the competition –Jamaica in 1998 and Trinidad and Tobago in 2006. Despite their qualification, these countries and others continue to struggle to reach subsequent World Cups. This book focuses on the state of football in the Caribbean and the obstacles and opportunities that are linked to the growth of the sport.
Paperback, £14.99 / US $22.00
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FROM RANJI TO ROHAN:
Cricket and Indian Identity in Colonial Guyana, 1890s-1960s
Clem Seecharan
From the late 19th century, cricket was central to being West Indian in the British West Indies. By the 1890s a small Indian middle class in British Guiana (Guyana), descendants of ‘bound coolies’ taken from India after slavery, began to advance their own credentials of belonging to the region. They sought to forge an identity inspired by Mother India’s cultural resurgence, in conjunction with the Creole sensibility of their new homeland, permeated by British imperial culture.
The mastery of the great Indian cricketer in England, Prince Ranjitsinhji ‘Ranji’ (1872-1933), who possessed the imagination of the cricketing world before the Great War, stirred Indo-Guyanese to accelerated proficiency in the game. They claimed him as their own, as an antidote to the ‘coolie’ stain.
This book explores the role of cricket in shaping Indo-Guyanese identity, from Ranji’s example, through the seminal achievement of cricketers such as J.A. Veerasawmy and Chatterpaul ‘Doosha’ Persaud, to the reliable craftsmanship of Joe Solomon and the mercurial genius of Rohan Kanhai.
Paperback, £12.99 / US $20.00
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THE RISE OF WEST INDIAN CRICKET: From Colony to Nation
Frank Birbalsingh
This essential book recalls the events, issues, attitudes and personalities that were central to the evolution of West Indian cricket.
Historical reflection is combined with cricket reminiscence from the 1920s to the 1960s – the most critical years. Four decades of West Indian cricket are vividly recreated and examined with loving care and accuracy. It features the Headley Era; the post-war years; the three Ws; Ram & Val; the West Indies under Gerry Alexander; the West Indies under Frank Worrell; the West Indies under Garfield Sobers; and the writings of V.S. Naipaul, Edward Brathwaite and C.L.R. James. Paperback, £12.95 / US $20.00
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INDIAN-CARIBBEAN TEST CRICKETERS AND THE QUEST FOR IDENTITY
Frank Birbalsingh
If West Indies Test cricket betrays divisive values of race, class and colour inherited from a colonial history of plantation slavery and indenture, it also reflects a paradoxical power of resistance to this colonial legacy.
In a region well known for such divisiveness, this book considers cricket’s capacity, at least, in reducing, if not transcending, division through its focus on collective team activity in the quest for identity.
The careers of all the Indian-Caribbean Test cricketers who represented West Indies up to the end of 2013 are chronicled, including the Test victory over England at Lord’s in 1950, Ramadhin’s haul of seven wickets for 49 runs against England in 1957 at Edgbaston, Solomon’s two miraculous run-outs in 1960 against Australia, Kanhai’s ‘scorched earth’ 77 runs against England at the Oval in 1963 and Chanderpaul’s glorious century off 69 balls against Australia at Bourda in 2003.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00 • eBook, £7.79 / US $9.00
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THEY GAVE THE CROWD PLENTY FUN: West Indian Cricket and its Relationship with the British-resident Caribbean Diaspora
Colin Babb
In 1948, the Empire Windrush sailed from Jamaica with more than 400 Caribbean migrants seeking to create a new future in Britain. Two years later, the West Indies cricket team beat England for the first time on English soil at Lord’s. For some Caribbean migrants, and their descendants who settled in Britain from the 1950s onwards, West Indies cricket offered a source of self-esteem. Whether they were passionate cricket fans or not, cricket provided some of the growing diaspora in Britain with an opportunity to express a collective sense of West Indian identity. This book reflects on events that influenced the development of the social impact of cricket on British Caribbean communities from the arrival of the Windrush onwards. It also thoughtfully explores factors which have challenged cricket’s position as a social force for the current descendants of the Windrush generation. Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00
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AN ABOUNDING JOY: Essays on Sport
Ian McDonald. Compiled, edited and annotated by Clem Seecharan
Eminent poet, thinker and intellectual Ian McDonald has written more than 1,500 articles over the last four decades. Shortly after the founding of Stabroek News in Guyana in 1986, he commenced a weekly column covering literature, politics, history, economics, philosophy and sport. His elegantly-written essays on sport feature tennis, squash and boxing, but it is McDonald’s revered sport, cricket, that predominates in this collection. The latter encompasses the history of the game, including its place in the soul of the West Indian people in addition to its contemporary problems and challenges. These essays sparkle with the erudition and lyrical energy of Ian McDonald, but they also endeavour to provoke – challenging readers to rethink. Easily accessible, they could be read randomly because they are self-contained. This is one of the most refined collections of writing on sport published on the Caribbean and beyond. It will be intoxicating to sport fans. It will give abounding joy to anyone who reads it.
eBook, £7.99 / US $9.60 Available now from Amazon or Kobo
55 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
BRITISH RULE IN INDIA DURING THE 18th & 19th CENTURIES
Dr Bishundut R. Singh
This book traces the events that led to the conquest and subjugation of India by the British East India Company. It focuses on how this trading company was able to use the art of cunning diplomacy, the language of friendship and eventually threat and betrayal to grab Indian territories. The company was able to use its despotic powers to raise revenues to maintain its territorial acquisitions, its large army and all its servants and, in turn, help to sustain the British Empire.
This is not an exhaustive history of India during this time, but describes the economic and social consequences of British rule. It examines how the British were able to play Indian rulers off against each other in order to entice each into the British spider’s web. The book concludes by not only describing the long lasting damage and pain that the British had inflicted on the people of India but also the beneficial things the British had bestowed on India, which came to have a lasting effect on the Indian people.
Paperback, £14.99 / US $22.00 • eBook, £3.99 / US $4.99
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INDIA: A Wealth of Diversity
Home to more than 1.3 billion people and more than 1,600 languages, India is as large as Europe, yet more diverse. It is also the world’s largest and most populous parliamentary democracy. With its spectacular array of cultures, of nearly every creed and colour, India’s civilisation is more than five thousand years old. In most of its villages, life has remained unchanged for hundreds of years. But India is also where 21st century technology and centuries-old traditions stand side-by-side. India also experiences every type of climate and landscape, from snow-capped mountains to tropical beaches, and lush rainforests to arid plains. This book features, among others, the caste system, cuisine, the sari, sport, music and marriage. All the states are individually featured plus chapters on the tribal peoples of India, Gandhi, the Nehrus, and Independence, to name just a few. Includes more than 200 photographic images.
Hardcover, £29.99 / US $45.00
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KANPUR TO KOLKATA: Labour Recruitment for the Sugar Colonies
Basdeo Mangru
This unique book provides for the first time a comprehensive assessment of labour recruiting operations in a catchment area from where the great majority of the Caribbean’s East Indians originated. Besides its insightful analysis of crucial emigration issues, it highlights the grief and trauma of emigrants’ families, particularly the wives left behind in India. What is most interesting are the personal recollections of returnees with regard to the working and living conditions in the colonies, the uncertainties of the voyage and the socio-economic conditions in Indian villages. Nuggets of information such as rail transportation to Kolkata, the conditions of sub-depots, the entrepreneurial spirit of emigrants and the obstructionist attitude of both families and government officials, are conspicuously absent from other published sources ... until now.
Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00
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INDIA IN THE CARIBBEAN
Edited by Dr David Dabydeen & Dr Brinsley Samaroo
First published in 1987 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians in the Cari bbean, this collection of essays, poems and prose is written by leading Indian-Caribbean authors and scholars. They reflect upon Indian history and culture in the Caribbean and celebrate the significant contributions made by Indians to the politics, culture and economic progress of the region.
Indians occupied the old slave quarters and worked on the sugar plantations, inheriting many of the conditions of servitude of the previously enslaved Africans. The essays deal with their subsequent plantation experiences, their active and passive resistance to bondage and exploitation, and their efforts at self-betterment in spite of the injustice and violence they endured.
Paperback, £12.99 / US $20.00
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COLONIAL EMIGRATION FROM THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY
Basdeo Mangru
This book is an abridged version of an exhaustive and unpublished report of 1883. In late 1882, an Indian government civil servant conducted a comprehensive study of issues relating to the export of Indian labour overseas from the Presidency.
This primary source, ferreted out from the Emigration Proceedings of the Government of India, is an invaluable addition to the existing literature on the Indian diaspora in the Caribbean and elsewhere. It is perhaps the definitive study of recruiting operations in the Bengal Presidency. It provides new insights into such issues as the class and character of colonial recruiters, the state of the labour market, the popularity of recruiting districts in Bihar, prejudices against emigration, depot accommodation and sanitation, family and female recruitment and the correlation between food scarcity and high migration and population pressure and unemployment.
Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00 • eBook, £6.49 / US $8.00
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INDIA: Definitions & Clarifications
Reginald Massey
Of all the world’s major countries India is surely the most misunderstood and misinterpreted. Worse still, India lovers embrace India with little or no understanding of the country.
Since 1947, ‘India Studies’ and ‘Pakistan Studies’ have become exercises in political spin and vilification. Myths and legends are held up as facts and plain prejudice is buttressed by so-called histo rical research. In the cause of creating a national identity and a particular vision of greatness, dangerous doctrines and unpalatable events are either ignored or nimbly explained away. Truth is being sacrificed at the altar of expediency.
This wide-ranging book sweeps away several religious, cultural, social and historical cobwebs. Fashionable correctness in all its forms is firmly rejected. Many received notions are proved to be patently false and famous iconic figures are shown to have had failings that affected the country’s future. Encountering this book, therefore, may be shocking to some and uncomfortable to others. Nevertheless, all who read it will be ever impressed by its rigorous research, cogent arguments and lucid logic.
Paperback, £14.99 / US $23.00 • Hardback, £30.00 / US $45.00
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56 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX: On Race, Faith and Life
Bishop Dr Joe Aldred
This collection of articles, lectures, talks, sermons, homilies and presentations emerges from Joe Aldred’s work as a Black male Christian; a bishop in a Pentecostal church; a broadcaster; writer; public speaker; and social commentator. His personal reflections address such themes as race, the Bible, the Black Church, ecumenism, politics, multiculturalism, Christmas, money, leadership, destiny and parenting. This diverse mix of writings reflect an eclectic life and ministry in which a mixed-portfolio of roles has been an ever-present companion.
BISHOP DR JOE ALDRED is an ecumenist, broadcaster, writer and speaker. He is a bishop in the Church of God of Prophecy; Secretary for Minority Ethnic Christian Affairs at Churches Together in England; a presenter on BBC Radio; and author and editor of several books and articles.
Paperback, £10.00 / US $15.00 • eBook, £6.50 / US $8.00
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THE WEST INDIANS: Portrait of a People
Jacques Compton
Before the arrival of Europeans in the West Indies in the 15th century, the region was inhabited by Amerindian peoples. But within a decade of their arrival, the Europeans had exterminated most of the indigenous peoples and had begun to replace them with enslaved Africans.
Cultural anthropologist and historian, Gilberto Freyre stated that when the Africans arrived in the ‘New World’ they ceased being African. Instead, they were ‘West Indian Blacks’ who were slaves. This work draws from history, anthropology, sociology, economics, literature and culture, and examines Freyre’s contention. It also looks at the forces and methods used by the Europeans in what the author calls the “de-Africanisation of the Africans” and the creation of the West Indians. Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00
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MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS
Since the early 1980s, Hansib Publications has been helping authors – and aspiring authors – from across the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora in the UK and North America bring their stories to life. We provide an outlet for the many voices that remain unheard and publish all genres of fiction and non-fiction, spanning a diverse range of genres, including historical novels, biographies, poetry anthologies, political commentaries and social narratives.
With editorial and logistical support from an experienced team, plus a range of affordable options, getting your book published could not be easier. All manuscripts are considered, and the books we publish are available from a global network of booksellers.
Contact us today to discover how we can help you share your story with the world!
EMAIL: info@hansibpublications.com
TEL./TEXT/WHATSAPP: +44 (0)7930 603 956 WEBSITE: www.hansibpublications.com
SPEECHES BY ERROL BARROW
Edited by Yussuff Haniff
Errol Walton Barrow was among the dominant figures in the political life of Barbados for more than two decades. His contribution to the economic development of Barbados has never been in doubt, acknowledged even by his critics. He reshaped the economic relationships among the English-speaking Caribbean countries by leading the formation, first, of the Caribbean Free Trade Area (CARIFTA) and, later, the much broader Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM).
Errol Barrow preached a gospel of economic self-reliance for the Englishspeaking Caribbean, and self-respect for the Black people in Barbados and beyond. This collection represents a portion of some his significant speeches, made over the years, and reflects the kind of philosophy and thinking that guided his actions both in and out of government.
Paperback, £12.99 / US $20.00
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THE ART OF MALI OLATUNJI: Painterly
Photography from Antigua and Barbuda
Mali Olatunji and Paget Henry
This is a masterful photographic work on Antigua and Barbuda that captures this twin-island state in images. In addition to images of home, these photographs also take account of the migratory experiences of Antiguans and Barbudans, and include powerful images of New York and London.
Adding even more to the riches and power of this book is the engaging story that it tells about the life of the artist and his aesthetic development.
The special feature that sets Olatunji’s photographic essay apart is what he calls ‘a woodist/jumbie aesthetic’. Like surrealism, cubism and other aesthetics, woodism is a visual summary of Olatunji’s way of looking at life. In particular, it sees the world through the wooded eyes of ‘jumbies’. In Antigua and Barbuda, and much of the Caribbean, jumbies are believed to make their post-body home in trees, and in particular, silk cotton trees. Using his striking woodist/ jumbie aesthetic, Olatunji has used his camera to paint images which have come together to produce a photographic essay on Antigua and Barbuda.
Softcover, £19.99 / US $30.00
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CARIBBEAN PUBLISHING IN BRITAIN: A Tribute to Arif Ali
Asher & Martin Hoyles
This book traces the tradition of Caribbean publishing in Britain, starting in the nineteenth century with the revolutionary Jamaican Robert Wedderburn, Celestine Edwards from Dominica and the Trinidadian barrister Henry Sylvester Williams. From the first half of the twentieth century, it records the work of the two Jamaicans
Harold Moody and Marcus Garvey, and also Ras T. Makonnen from Guyana. After the Second World War, two key publishers were Claudia Jones from Trinidad and Edward Scobie from Dominica.
It also records the anti-racist campaigning, community work and publishing activities of Arif Ali since his establishment of Hansib Publications in 1970.
Softcover, £9.99 / US $15.00
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57 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
WAKE PEOPLE WAKE: The Sacred and the Profane
Rawle Winston Titus
This is a socio-anthropological study of the wake and waking habits that early Tobago folk practiced during their funerary rites. The study not only deals with the people and their rituals, it also presents a perspective of the way other communities and early peoples worldwide dealt with death and the hereafter. It also provides an insight into the way superstition and the supernatural constantly played a part in these customs.
Hardback, £20.00 / US $40.00 • Paperback, £14.99 / US $29.99
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RUM, RIVALRY & RESISTANCE: Fighting for the Caribbean Spirit
Tony Talburt
No other spirit beverage encapsulates the essence of Caribbean social and cultural atmosphere quite like rum. Indeed, Caribbean rum, like sugar, has helped to influence and shape many aspects of the region’s political, economic and social experience. While Caribbean rum is not often associated with politics, in this unique study, Dr Tony Talburt shows how this popular spirit not only has a social and cultural significance but has also been the subject of a number of political decisions by governments in the Caribbean, the USA and Europe.
Although the primary focus of this book is centred upon the period in the second half of the 20th century amid the political conflict to market Caribbean rums in the European Union, it also provides an overview of the political significance of Caribbean rum in the 18th and 19th centuries. It concludes with a number of recommendations and strategies that may have to be explored in greater depth by Caribbean rum producers so that the sugarrum industries might survive in the 21st century.
Paperback, £12.99 / US $20.00 • eBook, £6.99 / US $8.50
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Books & eBooks published by Hansib Publications are also available worldwide from many booksellers including Amazon
DYSLEXIA FROM A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Asher & Martin Hoyles
Dyslexia is a critical issue worldwide but there is widespread ignorance about it and the consequences can be devastating. Of the 700 books on dyslexia in the British Library, apparently not one is written by a Black author and none deals with the issue of race and culture.
How is dyslexia viewed in the Black communities? What needs to be done to raise awareness? And how can dyslexics themselves become more conscious and confident? This book makes a start by looking at statistics and famous dyslexics, such as Muhammad Ali, Whoopi Goldberg and Benjamin Zephaniah. It considers the historical background and theoretical framework, along with the definitions and examples of what dyslexics experience.
Asher Hoyles is an additional support tutor, specialising in dyslexia, at Newham Sixth Form College in east London. Martin Hoyles taught in Newham secondary schools and at the University of East London. Paperback, £12.99 / US $20.00
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BLACK IDENTITY IN THE 20th CENTURY: Expressions of the US and UK African Diaspora
Edited by Mark Christian
A collection of essays that break new ground by examining Black identity on both sides of the Atlantic in relation to the African Diaspora, and provides a firm collaboration between Black British and African American scholars. Too often, Black experiences have been viewed in isolation from one another.
This collection enables the reader to consider the themes relating to these two important locations. It covers a range of interdisciplinary topics including the examination of Pan-African philosophy and practice, West Africans in Britain (1900-1960), the African American political struggle covering the Civil Rights Movement and Black Nationalism; the impact of Afrocentricity in challenging Western intellectual hegemony, the Black intellectual tradition and the role of Afrocentric social work in the UK.
It includes contributions from relatively new voices in the field of Black Studies as well as distinguished scholars.
Paperback, £14.99 / US $24.00
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BLACK ROUTES: Legacy of African Diaspora
Brian A. Belton
A collection of commentaries and biographies featuring a distinguished group of Black theorists, writers and influential social revolutionaries. It encompasses some well-known and seminal figures from the African Diaspora – from both sides of the Atlantic – such as Bernie Grant and Kwame Toure. Cultural studies, poetry and political activism are represented by the likes of Stuart Hall, Gwendolyn Brooks and Ericka Huggins. The graceful yet revolutionary voices of Assata Shakur and Michael Akintaro are set alongside the promotion of creative dissidence as espoused by Nawal al-El Saadawi, the examination of Eldridge Cleaver’s ‘politics of redemption’ and Hanan Ashrawi’s ethic of Amanha (trust).
Africa is represented by Peter Mokaba and Joe Slovo, and the transformation of sport to education for life is embodied in the former West Ham United footballer and American National Coach, Clive Charles. Black Routes is a celebration of these principled individuals whose commitment to the rejection of oppression deserves wider acknowledgement.
Paperback, £10.99 / US $17.00
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JAMAICANS IN NOTTINGHAM: Narratives and Reflections
Norma Gregory
A collection of personal and reflective interviews and articles that presents narratives of life in Nottingham from individuals of Jamaican heritage who have contributed to the spirit and life of the city and its surrounding areas from the 1940s to the present day. It includes witness accounts relating to many significant events that directly affected Jamaican communities, such as the Nottingham race riots of 1958 and 1981; the Miners’ strikes of the 1980s; and the Nottingham Carnival. This autobiographical and educational text reproduces many photographs and newspaper cuttings.
Softcover, £14.99 / US $22.00
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58 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
WHAT BEING BLACK IS AND WHAT BEING BLACK ISN’T
Jacob Whittingham and Biscuit
Barack Obama was once the most powerful man in the world, and some people in the media industry refer to Oprah as the most powerful woman in the world, so for the first time, being Black and successful isn’t just about how well you can dance, sing or run.
From Zadie Smith to Lewis Hamilton, and Tiger Woods to Kanya King, Black people are succeeding in areas that the world never expected. Yet there’s a flipside to all this: around 70 per cent of teenagers murdered in London are Black; half of all Black families are headed by a single parent; and 12 per cent of the UK prison population is Black.
This book is a bold, fresh and honest approach to the problems that exist inside the Black community right now. While we might not like to admit it, there are problems. From the amusing to the violent, and from the silly to the painful, this book does what so many people can’t seem to get right – it defines what being Black is, and what being Black isn’t.
Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00 • £6.49 / US $8.00
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THE BELIEVERS: The Hidden World of West Indian Spiritualism in New York
Dr Glenville C. Ashby
This is a fascinating account of a little known and understood aspect of West Indian spiritualism. It is a unique insight into Caribbean life in New York in the midst of many faiths and religions. It is among the first major works whose primary focus is the lives of Caribbean people living in New York. A particularly important facet of the book is the discussion on the links between Haitian history, spirituality and its present social and political situation. The discussion and arguments that will be engendered will assist in lifting the veil of hypocrisy and pretence that so often attend these practices.
Paperback, £10.00 / US $17.99
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HANSIB PUBLICATIONS
Founded in London in 1970, Hansib Publications has played a crucial role in documenting the Caribbean experience and bringing Caribbean perspectives to a wider audience. It is renowned for its extensive catalogue of Caribbean fiction and non-fiction, spanning a diverse range of genres, including historical novels, biographies, poetry anthologies, political commentaries and social narratives. It has also made significant contributions to Caribbean scholarship by publishing insightful works on history, culture, politics and social issues.
Today, Hansib Publications remains a significant force in the world of Caribbean publishing and continues to publish books that reflect the vibrant diversity of the Caribbean region and the global Caribbean diaspora. Its legacy of promoting Caribbean voices and perspectives has made it an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand and appreciate the rich cultural heritage of the Caribbean.
EMAIL: info@hansibpublications.com
TEL/TEXT/WHATSAPP: +44 (0)7930 603 956
WEBSITE: www.hansibpublications.com
A DREAM DEFERRED: Guyanese Identity and the Shadow of Colonialism
Stephen Spencer
Guyana has been shaped by the ruthless self-interest of four centuries of colonialism. After independence in 1966, it was another post-colonial republic which faded from memory in the west. The people of what was British Guiana were determined to forge their own destiny and elected Cheddi Jagan and the multi-ethnic People’s Progressive Party in 1957.
This concise book examines the social, cultural and political aspects of Guyana’s recent troubled history. Divisive colonialism has created a land of contradictions; in the 1950s the promise of a more united freedom was snatched away by British colonial interests and the USA’s Cold War ambitions. Yet despite the polarised ethnic and political divisions, the Guyanese display a remarkable ability to cross boundaries and meld complex cultures. These reflections on the struggle to expel the colonial shadow are based on interviews with political figures, like Cheddi Jagan and Eusi Kwayana, and academics, as well as the insights of ordinary Guyanese people.
Paperback, £7.99 / US $12.00
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THE PEOPLE’S PROGRESSIVE PARTY OF GUYANA, 1950-1992: An Oral History
Frank Birbalsingh
This is a collection of interviews with members and opponents of the Party, and with commentators who observed the PPP closely for a long time.
Interviewees include Dr Cheddi Jagan, Janet Jagan, Ashton Chase, Eusi Kwayana, Martin Carter, Eric Huntley, and commentators from the wider Caribbean such as Richard Hart, Lloyd Best, George Lamming and George Belle, as well as independent Guyanese observers such as Father Andrew Morrison, a Roman Catholic priest, Randolph George, former Anglican Bishop of Guyana, and David de Caires, a national newspaper editor. The reader gets a many-sided view of the origins, crises and personalities of the Party, and of issues of class, colour and ethnicity which, along with external Cold War factors, played a crucial role in the party’s exclusion from power for most of the second half of the twentieth century.
The informal oral medium of the interview makes for a lively text that is more willing to trade punches than staid academic writing.
Paperback, £10.99 / US $17.00
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FORBIDDEN FREEDOM: The Story of British Guiana
Cheddi Jagan
First published in 1954, and republished by Hansib Publications, Cheddi Jagan’s Story of British Guiana appeared in the aftermath of the military intervention that removed him from office in the democratically elected government of which he was Premier. Dr Jagan showed how this fitted in to both the colonial policy of Britain and the Cold War spearheaded by the United States. It includes an analysis of ‘Labour and the Colonies’ and shows who are the genuine and who are the false democrats.
This is a classic document of anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist struggle from one of the veteran freedom fighters of the developing world.
Paperback, £6.00 / US $12.00
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59 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
IMPERIAL AMBITION: Venezuela’s Threat to Guyana
This booklet is in furtherance of Guyana’s defence of its sovereignty. It elaborates the themes to which the President spoke when marking the selfdetermination of the people of Guyana 55 years ago. On the 50th Anniversary of Guyana’s Independence in 2016, its Government issued the publication, The New Conquistadors: The Venezuelan Challenge to Guyana’s Sovereignty . In this successor publication, the mask of the conquistador is stripped off, revealing the naked visage of Venezuelan imperialism and its ambition to possess two-thirds of Guyana.
This is in two Parts: Part I, updating The New Conquistadors and Part II enlarging its coverage into the phase of more active United Nations involvement and that of the International Court of Justice. Its purpose is to inform the people of Guyana, the Caribbean region and the international community more widely of the shameful imperial quest that drives the Venezuelan threat to Guyana. The photograph on the front cover is of the prow of Mt. Roraima on whose historic summit the boundaries of Guyana, Venezuela and Brazil intersect – the ‘tri-junction point’. Mt. Roraima is a reminder for all time and to all people of Venezuela’s eastern border. Guyana’s sun sets there – on Mt. Roraima – and always will. Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00 • eBook, £4.99 / US $5.99 UK customers SAVE £4.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
THE NEW CONQUISTADORS: The Venezuelan Challenge to Guyana’s Sovereignty
In its attempt to grab more than half of Guyana, Venezuela has relied persistently on fabrications, distortions, propaganda – and on wealth and power. This booklet (in English and Spanish) provides the facts withheld from the Venezuelan people. It reveals the reality of the Venezuelan crusade during the first fifty years of Guyana’s Independence and shows how, once victims themselves, Venezuela has become the new ‘Conquistador’ in relation to Guyana. It reveals, also, how Guyana, as one of the smallest states in South America, has turned to the United Nations system and to international justice to liberate it from the plundering stratagems of the political and military forces in Caracas. Paperback, £10.00 / US $15.00
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GUYANA IN THE WORLD: The First of the First Fifty Years and the Predatory Challenge
Shridath Ramphal
When Guyana marked the 50th Anniversary of its Independence on 26 May 2016, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs produced an essay on Guyana’s engagement with the world – in two Parts. First, the highlights of its regional and international encounters in the earliest years of Independence, and secondly, the ‘predatory’ challenges it has faced on its borders, particularly from Venezuela. The Venezuelan challenge has preceded Independence and lasted with increasing intensity all of the last fifty years. Sir Shridath Ramphal has had experience of Guyana’s international experience over the full period of fifty years and has been an active player in both areas of internationalism – the early years and the frontier issues. This book throws new light on several areas of the Venezuelan challenge and looks to its resolution by judicial settlement under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary General.
Hardback, £10.00 / US $15.00 • eBook, £5.00 / US $5.99
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THEMES IN AFRICANGUYANESE HISTORY
Editors: Winston F. McGowan, James G. Rose, David A. Granger
This book focuses on some of the major developments in the history of the African-Guyanese from the time of their arrival in what were then the Dutch colonies of Essequibo and Berbice in the first half of the 17th century, to the present day.
Most African-Guyanese today are descendants of enslaved Africans who were victims of the forced migration of millions of Africans, largely from West Africa to the Americas, from the 15th to 19th centuries. These captives were not uncivilised barbarians, as some European writers assumed and asserted. Rather, they were members of societies which had been distinguished by significant achievements.
This book, therefore, seeks to deal in a balanced way with the four phases into which historians have often divided Guyanese history: pre-Emancipation; post-Emancipation; pre-Independence; and post-Independence.
Paperback, £14.99 / US $30.00
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GUYANA: History and Literature
Frank Birbalsingh
An examination of Guyana’s growth as a nation over three hundred and fifty years through more than sixty works of history, biography, memoirs and fiction. It discusses politics, ethnicity, culture, African slavery, Indian indenture, and the fortunes of the two best known Guyanese politicians – Dr Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham.
The book offers the variety and scope of an anthology, perceptions and insights of a literary critic, elegance and style of fine writing, and the thrill of fresh revelation and discovery. From travelogues to books, this volume encompasses wide facets of Guyanese experience.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00
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MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS
Since the early 1980s, Hansib Publications has been helping authors – and aspiring authors – from across the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora in the UK and North America bring their stories to life. We provide an outlet for the many voices that remain unheard and publish all genres of fiction and non-fiction, spanning a diverse range of genres, including historical novels, biographies, poetry anthologies, political commentaries and social narratives.
With editorial and logistical support from an experienced team, plus a range of affordable options, getting your book published could not be easier. All manuscripts are considered, and the books we publish are available from a global network of booksellers.
Contact us today to discover how we can help you share your story with the world!
EMAIL: info@hansibpublications.com
TEL./TEXT/WHATSAPP: +44 (0)7930 603 956
WEBSITE: www.hansibpublications.com
60 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
TRIUMPH FOR UNCLOS: The Guyana-Suriname Maritime Arbitration, A Compilation & Commentary
Shridath Ramphal
The maritime dispute between Guyana and Suriname which came to a head in 2000, threatened not only relations between the two countries but also the peace and stability of the wider maritime area of the Caribbean. It specifically endangered the ‘equitable and efficient’ utilisation of the resources of the GuyanaSuriname marine basin. That dispute was settled by Arbitration under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea after a three-year legal process. This book tells the story of that dispute between Britain and Holland as the metropoles of Guyana and Suriname, and then between the neighbours themselves as they became independent. It explains the process of peaceful settlement in 2007 through arbitration, and of the triumph of UNCLOS in enabling it.
Hardback, £16.99 / US $26.00
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YEARS OF HIGH HOPES: A Portrait of British Guiana, 1952-1956, from an American family’s letters home
Dorothy Irwin
This startlingly detailed depiction of life in the capital city of Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana), sheds light on a seminal period of the colony’s push toward nationhood. Evoking a time when letters were still the sole form of overseas communication, the book compiles the personal correspondence mailed to the United States by a young American couple during the three and a half years they made their home in Georgetown.
This unique collection of letters offers a finely textured glimpse of the capital before, during, and just after that tumultuous era, combining the everyday with such defining events as the colony’s first free election in 1953, the surprising victory of the People’s Progressive Party, the PPP ministers’ brief term in office, and their ouster with the suspension of the constitution and the arrival of British troops.
Paperback, £14.99 / US $22.00
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CHILDREN OF WATOOKA: A Story of British Guiana
Steve Connolly
Step into an extraordinary and fascinating world of the little known but remarkable country, British Guiana (now Guyana). Learn about the country’s captivating history from a time before slavery and indenture, through to modern times.
The book is a ‘story of stories’ and features more than eighty people from five different racial backgrounds who have contributed to make this a fascinating read. The stories of Guyanese people as well as of expatriates from Britain, Canada, Holland and the U.S. are included.
Readers will also learn about the incredible and little known ties between Guyana and Canada and about the bauxite industry. Working together, the two countries produced forty per cent of the aluminium used by the Allies for aeroplane production during the Second World War.
Hardback, £18.99 / US $28.00
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THE SHAPING OF A CULTURE: Rituals and Festivals in Trinidad compared with selected counterparts in India, 1990-2014
Satnarine Balkaransingh
Trinidad and Tobago reflects the dynamic rhythm of a cosmopolitan mix of cultures where the IndoTrinidadian contribution is significant. This has its genesis in the 19th and early 20th centuries when more than 500,000 contract workers, from various regions of India, were shipped to the Caribbean to arrest the labour crisis in these plantation economies. These indentured immigrants brought their religions, languages, rituals, festivals and cultural practices and planted them in its fertile soil. This book examines the changes being simultaneously experienced within these rituals and festivals in Trinidad and their counterparts in the respective geographical areas in the ancestral country at the turn of the 21st century. It also examines the Indo-Trinidadians’ influence on other festivals which they encountered in the local landscape, and is a guide to understanding the ethos and collective consciousness of the Trinbagonian lifestyle and the IndoCaribbean diaspora now scattered across the globe.
Softcover, £20.00 / US $30.00
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THE WEB OF TRADITION: Uses of Allusion in V.S. Naipaul’s Fiction
John Thieme
This is a comprehensive study of the fiction of V.S. Naipaul including The Mystic Masseur , A House for Mr Biswas and A Bend in the River
As well as providing a natural introduction to Naipaul’s fiction, it attempts to locate the precise nature of the tradition to which he belongs through an examination of his use of literary and cultural allusion. It considers the part played in his fiction by such diverse influences as Hindu myth, classical and imperialistic writings, calypso and Hollywood cinema.
Paperback, £6.95 / US $11.00
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COMMUNICATION, POWER AND CHANGE IN THE CARIBBEAN
Paloma Mohamed
Communicative power is the ability of a communicative act to realize the intentions of its originators. Communicative acts are goal-directed and rely on varying levels of collaboration in order to achieve their intended objectives. In an interesting polemic, the author argues that variations in communicative power are directly related to variations in other types of power in any society. Therefore, low communicative power is directly related to inequality and social and economic marginalisation. This book takes a fascinating approach to examining social change in two Caribbean countries. Mohamed evaluates the power of various communicative artefacts produced by various strata in those societies. She continues by investigating what constitutes this power, how it is used, how it is maintained and in whose interests. The result is a richly researched, deeply thoughtful and passionately argued case for placing communication at the core of evaluations of power and change in the world.
Paperback, £9.99 / US $18.00
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61 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
GLIMPSES OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY: The Art of
Garnet Ifill
Brinsley Samaroo
The sugar industry in Trinidad and Tobago no longer dominates the landscape, as it had done for more than 200 years. During this gruelling period, African and Indian labourers toiled in the production of ‘brown gold’: particularly, rum and molasses. By the middle of the 20th century, most of the elements of the industry were undergoing significant changes as modern technology replaced older, less efficient modes of production. At this critical juncture of modernisation, Garnet Ifill, a young and visionary photographer, decided to capture the fading heritage. His unique collection of photographs is, therefore, a permanent reminder of a bygone era. Garnet Ifill is one of Trinidad and Tobago’s leading photographers. In his long career, he has documented much of the history of the sugar industry. This book reflects one dimension of his prolific photography, which was envisioned as early as 1948 when Ifill’s father was employed as a machinist at a sugar factory in central Trinidad. This made a lasting impression on the young Garnet and he made an early resolve to capture these memories for posterity.
Softcover, £9.99 / US $15.00
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DEFEATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN THE AMERICAS: Men’s Work
Luke Daniels
Domestic violence has blighted society for a very long time, and the pace of change has been slow because men have failed to take responsibility for ending the violence. This book challenges men to take that responsibility seriously, especially the men in government throughout the region. The focus is the Americas since the problem of violence is most urgent there, and where 42 of the world’s 50 most violent cities are located.
This book argues that our history of violence is partly responsible for the “macho culture” endemic in the region, and which is directly linked to domestic violence. Raising awareness about our history of violence will help towards a positive change in attitudes and behaviour. It also charts the region’s history of violence before and after the arrival of Columbus and looks at the effects of genocide and slavery, and how that history impacts on the violence within our societies.
Paperback, £15.00 / US $25.00
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THE CAPITALIST
PARTY
MANIFESTO: Defects within our democracy and what we can do to change it!
Christopher
W. Morrall
This book delves into the inherent faults of the political systems and democracies around the world that are adversely affected by, among others, the prevalence of career politicians, influence from powerful pressure groups, revolving door politics and corruption. The author identifies the reasons why democracy breaks down and why it cannot succeed in its current format. He provides workable solutions and new theories, including the wider participation in politics at all levels and the revamping of the elections process.
Paperback, £8.00 / US $12.00 • eBook, £3.99 / US $4.99
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LEST WE FORGET: The Experiences of World War II West Indian Ex-Service Personnel
Robert N. Murray
The West Indian contribution during World War II is a much overlooked chapter in the history of the Allied war effort. Little is known about the heroics, sacrifices and the harsh treatment endured by men and women from the Caribbean who were serving what was then considered the ‘Mother Country’. This book tells their story through oral recollection, and highlights their contribution to the war and the subsequent settlement of a substantial number in Britain. Predominantly serving in the Royal Air Force, their tales of gallantry and tenacity are told alongside the challenges of cultural differences, climate and racial prejudice. ROBERT N. MURRAY was born in what was formerly British Guiana (now Guyana) and served in the RAF during the Second World War.
Paperback, £11.95 / US $18.00
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CHEDDI JAGAN: Selected Speeches, 1992-1994
Edited by David Dabydeen
This collection of speeches by the then President of Guyana addresses some of the major issues at the time. They testify to his integrity of vision and his eloquent concern for the potential as well as the plight of the Guyanese people. The crippling burden of foreign debt and its disturbing impact on human development is also highlighted.
The speeches were made at a time of ideological uncertainties, economic depression, escalating crime rates, deadly pollution and racial, ethnic and cultural conflicts. The Caribbean, of course, is not exempt from these tendencies and as a political leader of the 1950s, Jagan is wellplaced to counsel the region. What emerges is his optimism regarding the future of his country and the wider Caribbean region.
Paperback, £6.95 / US $11.00
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JOURNALISM IN RETROSPECTION: Thirty Years of Reportage
Nisar Ali Shah
As a young student in Pakistan, Nisar Ali Shah took his first steps into the world of journalism at the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore. He later joined the Times of Karachi before moving to England in 1960.
He worked in London for many years as a reader at The Times and The Sunday Times and later progressed to sub-editor. He then worked as a freelance sub-editor on many London-based publications including The Observer, The Daily Telegraph , Evening Standard, South London Press , Middle East Online, TV Times and the Ealing Gazette
He describes himself as an international journalist and his writing has appeared in a range of publications including The Times Literary Supplement, Al-Hayat, TheNews International , Confluence magazine, Pakistan Times, Asian Times (London), The Voice (London), Eastern Eye (London), Crescent International (Toronto), West Africa Magazine and Diplomatisches Magazin (Germany).
“This is a valuable compote of over 100 succinct and informative articles by the author, subtly expressing critical points of view often banned or derided by the press barons and powerful lobbyists.” Dr James B. Thring, PhD (Cantab) Paperback, £14.99 / US $22.00 • eBook, £3.99 / US $4.99
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62 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: Thinking it
Through; Making it Happen
Bhoendradatt Tewarie
A poignant collection of thoughts and ideas which address the challenges posed by climate change and the innovations required to balance economic, human and environmental considerations. Societies unwilling or unable to adapt to meet these challenges will face costly consequences. However, for those willing to meet them head-on, there are numerous approaches that can be taken to achieve desirable outcomes.
Written from the point of view of the Caribbean, small island developing states and the developing and emerging world, this book focuses on solutions through human imagination, innovation, collaboration, participation and engagement.
Hardback, £14.99 / US $22.00
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LIMITS OF CONSUMPTION: Environmental Degradation and Ancient Wisdom
Gauri Shankar Gupta
Degradation of the environment and climate change are the most important challenges facing humanity. For thousands of years humans lived in harmonious relationship with nature, but the industrial revolution marked a major turning point in Earth’s ecology and humans’ relationship with the environment. Today, we are in the midst of a rapid transition to a world where human populations are more crowded and more consuming, simultaneously co-habiting with unparalleled levels of poverty and hunger. With rapidly increasing consumption, the Earth has come under tremendous pressure and the transition towards sustainability remains a distant dream. This book aims to bring out the ground realities and the wisdom of our ancestors in a concise and coherent manner to mitigate this serious threat to humanity.
Paperback, £13.99 / US $21.00 • eBook £6.99 / US $8.50
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HANSIB PUBLICATIONS
Founded in London in 1970, Hansib Publications has played a crucial role in documenting the Caribbean experience and bringing Caribbean perspectives to a wider audience. It is renowned for its extensive catalogue of Caribbean fiction and non-fiction, spanning a diverse range of genres, including historical novels, biographies, poetry anthologies, political commentaries and social narratives. It has also made significant contributions to Caribbean scholarship by publishing insightful works on history, culture, politics and social issues.
Today, Hansib Publications remains a significant force in the world of Caribbean publishing and continues to publish books that reflect the vibrant diversity of the Caribbean region and the global Caribbean diaspora. Its legacy of promoting Caribbean voices and perspectives has made it an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand and appreciate the rich cultural heritage of the Caribbean.
EMAIL: info@hansibpublications.com
TEL/TEXT/WHATSAPP: +44 (0)7930 603 956
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A HISTORY OF THEATRE IN GUYANA, 1800-2000
Frank Thomasson
A study of 200 years of theatre in Guyana which includes a compilation of related articles extracted from local journals dating back to the early 19th century. It establishes itself as a pioneering and indispensable segment in the history of Guyana and makes a case for the importance of the theatre in the diverse culture of the Guyanese people. This valuable study encompasses the performing arts that the different ethnic groups brought with them. Added to this was the beginnings of the European theatre in 19th century Georgetown which gave rise to the emergence of theatre organised by the East Indian and African Guyanese middle classes in the early 20th century, to the vibrancy of a diverse and socially committed theatre in the 1950s, leading up to Independence.
Paperback, £18.99 / US $29.00
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AN INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE ARTS
Jacques Compton
Drama in schools is growing in popularity in the Commonwealth Caribbean. In addition to annual schools drama festivals in some countries, there is also the Caribbean Secondary Schools Drama Festival, which is held in a different nation every two years. The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has now included Theatre Arts as one of its subjects, and an increasing number of secondary school students are now taking part. This essential resource book introduces teachers to various aspects of Theatre Arts and helps to prepare students taking the subject for CXC. It will also be useful to the many amateur theatre groups throughout the Caribbean and will assist them to better understand the intricacies of theatrical productions.
JACQUES COMPTON was born in St Lucia and educated in Europe. He has lectured on Caribbean history, literature and culture at universities, colleges and schools in the UK, Europe, the Middle and Far East as well as in the Caribbean. He was Director of Culture with the Government of St Lucia. Paperback, £8.99 / US $14.00
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Books & eBooks published by Hansib Publications are also available worldwide from many booksellers including Amazon
PROSPERO’S RETURN: Historical Essays on Race, Culture and British Society
Paul B Rich
This wide-ranging collection of essays explores the nature and meaning of race and racism in British society and the nature of British and English national identity. Using political, social and cultural sources, the author shows that many of the contemporary issues surrounding the position of Black minorities in British society have a long and complex history. Areas as diverse as anthropology, eugenics, literary history and housing are discussed. In its rich employment of historical sources, the book shows the powerful strains of racial and national political thought in Britain. At the same time, it reveals the existence of an alternative liberal and radical tradition which can be drawn upon in the construction of alternative models of national identity which include rather than marginalise minorities.
Paperback, £8.95 / US $14.00
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63 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • NON-FICTION
SHORT AND SWEET: A Collection of Guyanese Stories and Fables
Robert J. Fernandes
This collection of twenty-five short stories and fables chronicles a way of life that is unmistakably Guyanese. Fernandes is a well-known Guyanese adventurer and nature photographer and many of the stories were taken from his life experiences. They provide fascinating snapshots of the Guyanese way of life and include a diverse range of characters, from lost tribes to porknocker wives; from Leroy the laxative man to Ma Bancroft the gun-toting old lady. The fables, however, are a product of his overactive imagination and an ample supply of free time. In these tales he examines the lives of rainbows, raindrops, old dogs, snail hawks and trees from a refreshingly Guyanese perspective.
With a photographer’s perception, Fernandes breathes life into the everchanging backdrop of his often humorous and always poignant stories. Many aspects of this cultural tapestry are fast disappearing and need to be preserved as part of Guyana’s national heritage.
“There is great enjoyment awaiting readers of this first, and hopefully not the last, collection of stories from a great lover of his country and its people.” Stanley Greaves, Guyanese artist and poet Paperback, £7.99 / US $16.00
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MARCUS, THE INTREPID VILLAGE BOY
Victor Waldron
Marcus Gullant was born in a remote village in 1920s British Guiana. Growing up, he was restless and ambitious and generally misunderstood by his peers. His attentions were drawn to Teresa, one of the village elite, but her status, and that of her family, was beyond his reach. His solution to this dilemma was to join the British Army at a time when the Second World War was merely two years old. Enlisting as a merchant seaman, he made the perilous journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the ‘Mother Country’. Marcus rose to the challenge of military life as well as to the challenges he faced through discrimination and hostility as a Black man. But his hard work and determination opened a world of possibilities, including the pursuit of the woman he loved.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00
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MOVING VOICES: Black Performance Poetry
Asher & Martin Hoyles
This book traces the African oral tradition, through African American and Caribbean culture, to Black performance poetry in England, and examines the many factors which have shaped this oral poetry. Contemporary poets discuss their childhood and school experiences, who influenced them, where they have performed, their favourite poets and poems, and their advice to budding poets.
The poets include those born in the Caribbean – James Berry, Valerie Bloom, Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze, John Lyons and Cuban Redd; and those born in England – Adisa, Patience Agbabi, Michael Groce, Cynthia Hamilton, Asher Hoyles, Levi Tafari and Benjamin Zephaniah.
An accompanying CD contains a selection of recordings by each poet. Paperback + CD, £16.99 / US $26.00
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BLACK LIGHT VOID: Dark Visions of the Caribbean
Edited by Marsha Pearce
Marsha Pearce curates a collection of paintings and short stories to explore sensations of place and identity. The anthology casts tropical place in a different light, going beyond what island sunlight renders visible to a space in which the imagination offers illumination. It makes an argument for seeing the Caribbean in the dark and proposes darkness as a critical space for Caribbean aesthetic practices. Pearce asks: What stories lie beyond those experiences lit up by the sun – the light that is a defining feature of the tropics?
Through a dialogic presentation of work by Trinidadian contemporary visual artist Edward Bowen, and short stories by Trinidadian, award-winning writers, Pearce shapes a journey into the dark and unpredictable.
MARSHA PEARCE is a curator and scholar of cultural studies. She is based in Trinidad where she teaches at the University of the West Indies.
“... the sumptuous book is rich with handsomely reproduced images and a solid collection of good, well-written stories.” Teresa White, Trinidad & Tobago Guardian
“... a rare, interdisciplinary reflection on art. This is a book to read and re-read, enjoy and study. The cover, one of Bownen’s paintings, is intriguing and inviting.” Debbie Jacob, Trinidad and Tobago Newsday
“... beautiful and serious work... we experience Edward Bowen’s paintings, which are for me, about light coming out of darkness and of darkness within the light. These works are truly of the Caribbean, and yet rarely display any of the usual tropes that might suggest that. The paintings are one of the most significant bodies of work to have been made in the Caribbean region over the last thirty years.” Peter Doig, Contemporary Artist
“This rich and beautiful book could not have appeared at a better time. We owe Pearce a great debt for assembling a treasure trove of remarkable images by a most enigmatic and gifted artist and stories by daring, accomplished authors who write back to them movingly and surprisingly and always with originality. The result is a unique and important contribution to our 21st century cultural and intellectual life.” Marina Salandy-Brown, Founder and President of Bocas Lit Fest Softcover, £25.00 / US $30.00 • eBook, £6.99 / US $8.50
UK customers SAVE £10.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS
Since the early 1980s, Hansib Publications has been helping authors – and aspiring authors – from across the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora in the UK and North America bring their stories to life. We provide an outlet for the many voices that remain unheard and publish all genres of fiction and non-fiction, spanning a diverse range of genres, including historical novels, biographies, poetry anthologies, political commentaries and social narratives.
With editorial and logistical support from an experienced team, plus a range of affordable options, getting your book published could not be easier. All manuscripts are considered, and the books we publish are available from a global network of booksellers.
Contact us today to discover how we can help you share your story with the world!
EMAIL: info@hansibpublications.com
TEL./TEXT/WHATSAPP: +44 (0)7930 603 956
WEBSITE: www.hansibpublications.com
64 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • FICTION & POETRY
OCTOBER AFTERNOON
Paulette A. Ramsay
A collection of carefully crafted, layered, rich, subtle and resonant poems which are fanciful, teasing and simultaneously sombre.
“In these bold poems of desire, love, subjectivity and writing as the path, all stitched together on the strong thread of memory, Paulette Ramsay takes readers into the rich interior landscape of a poet exploring the process and finding joy.” Opal Palmer Adisa, author of Until Judgement Comes
PAULETTE A. RAMSAY is an author of fiction and poetry. Her short stories and poems have been published in BIM , the Caribbean journal for the arts, and in the Caribbean Journal of Education
Paperback, £7.99 / US $12.00
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FOREIGN BODY: What if it happens to you?
Laurene
Marcia’s cryptic pregnancy produces a son for her apparently infertile husband, Marcus. They are delighted but Maria, the matriarch of the husband’s family, has doubts and struggles to balance her religious beliefs with her tragic past. She harbours secrets that disrupt her relationship with her family, especially with her son’s wife.
Marcus is a self-assured man but is consumed by his mother’s treatment of Marcia and avoids any conflict with her. His sister is resilient and accepts responsibility for dealing with all the family’s problems while concealing her own anxieties. Results from DNA tests only cause further confusion that reverberates within the medical establishment as well as in the family.
Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00 • Hardback, £15.00 / US $22.00 eBook £4.99 / US $5.99
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THE INVISIBLE BECOME VISIBLE – BOOK THREE: The Great Planet Heist
Ben Lowe
The third in a trilogy of novels about history’s forgotten or too little remembered indigenous people who were colonised and enslaved by Europeans. It continues the dramatic story of the Bantu family as it faces new Portuguese and British intruders.
Dramatic instances of indigenous people fighting for their culture and their way of life against invaders are portrayed. In South Africa, the Zulus, in particular the battle of Isandlwana, is a major victory for the Zulus against the British, but with a grim aftermath. And in West Africa, the Asante fight off the European powers for decades. This novel also tells the story of Cecil Rhodes laying the basis for apartheid in South Africa; and the role of the new 500-round Maxim machine gun in military victories by Britain.
In Brazil, it tells of the tide of slave revolts that followed the end of slavery in Europe in 1834; the repression of the revolt that presaged ex-slaves being deported back to Africa; and the revolts that culminated in the final emancipation of slaves in 1888. The stories reflect the current zeitgeist in two ways: Telling the post-invasion story of the indigenous people and the millions of slaves in Brazil, South Africa and East Africa; and the Green message of the rich and powerful in Europe and its diaspora gobbling up the planet over four centuries and spitting out its pollution and carbon emissions.
Paperback, £13.99 / US $21.00 • eBook, £3.99 / US $4.99
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SEND OUT YOU HAND
Dorbrene O’Marde
This story follows the intersecting contemporary lives of business men and women, socio-political activists and academics as they attempt to chart a new course towards Caribbean regional unity. The failed West Indies Federation (1958-1962) provides the political background and the less-than-successful present efforts of politicians at regional integration provide impetus for creative thinking, new approaches, different industries and new cultural possibilities. The man-woman relationships of middle class mobile men and women – Black, white, Rastafari and Christian – are examined around issues of love, sex, fidelity, health, race and relocation. The action takes place across six Caribbean countries providing a galloping travelogue experience through the region where the motivations of various sectors of the society are explored. There is humour and music, and cricket and food!
Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00 • eBook, £6.49 / US $8.00
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SUGAR’S SWEET ALLURE
Khalil Rahman Ali
It is 1843, and Mustafa, an eighteen year-old Muslim Indian labourer from a village near Kanpur in India, is forced to run away through the discovery of his forbidden love for Chandini, his Hindu childhood sweetheart. His dream was to find work, save his money and return to ask for his beloved’s hand. This dream took him further afield into the promise of good work, pay and conditions as an indentured labourer on one of the sugar plantations thousands of miles away in the colony of British Guiana. His experiences on the Grand Trunk Road across Uttar Pradesh to Bengal, and on the treacherous sea voyage from Calcutta to Georgetown, tested his resolve to the limit. Then, when he and his companions were allocated to their sugar plantations, they had to endure and overcome more challenges.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $15.00 • eBook, £7.79 / US $9.00
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CROSSBONES and Other Stories
Willi Chen
A collection of short stories from Trinidad’s versatile and ebullient Willi Chen that features a wide variety of ordinary folk of the island. There are farmers, shopkeepers, thieves, drug-dealers, migrants from other islands and far-off places, people on the move, and people looking for a place and a life. It is a stark and elemental world: brute force versus human enterprise; cruelty pausing before sheer beauty; jumbie birds, snakes and howler monkeys. There are depths around the everyday surfaces: A disappointed man drifts back from the city to his rural setting; an honest small-islander is surprised by himself; a ‘foul’ thief, bitten by a dog, suffers rather than let an obeah woman examine the wound; a man turns away from thoughts of suicide and finds his wife dying instead. These stories are filled with surprise, tension, fear, farce and comedy and reflect the magical realism and exuberance of the language of the Caribbean. The characters are alive and memorable and record the very essence of real life in Trinidad and Tobago.
Paperback, £7.99 / US $12.00
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65 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • FICTION & POETRY
THE INVISIBLE BECOME VISIBLE – BOOK TWO: Gold, Greed and Insurgency
Ben Lowe
KING OF THE CARNIVAL and Other Stories
Willi Chen
The second of three novels about history’s forgotten or too little remembered people. It features the first great anti-slavery revolution in Haiti and the towering figure of Toussaint L’Ouverture. It is, above all, the story of the indigenous and enslaved people of Haiti and the indigenous people of Mexico through turbulent times. This book is part of a trilogy that casts a mirror on the invaders through the lives of various characters and their rich dialogue. It features peoples with a culture hewn over thousands of years until destructive invaders came, and it helps to explain how the profit-hungry and powerful ended up causing a climate emergency in the 21st century.
In Haiti, it follows the extraordinary history of the indigenous Taino people from the arrival of Columbus to their alliance with freed slaves to take on and defeat both the French and the British to achieve a revolution.
In Mexico, we experience the life of Aztecs in Tenochtitlan in its complexity, the Spanish invasion and the terrible destruction that followed. We follow two Aztec families, and through these we are able to direct a lens towards their history, culture and lifestyle over 250 years.
Lastly, we see the birth of the new Zulu nation during the early 1800s and more on the history of Mocambos in Brazil.
Paperback, £13.99 / US $21.00 • eBook, £3.99 / US $4.99
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RHYTHM PLAYED IN A FIRE
Gloria Times
Aunt Hazel is a rock who opens her home to the extended members of her family after the devastating Castries fire of 1948. These include her sister, her niece and her husband and daughter, and a number of her much older female cousins. Tensions are never far from the surface as the family members are forced to accept their new living conditions amid destruction. The people of Castries struggle to rebuild their lives among the charred remains of the capital. The task is challenging but they are optimistic as they come to terms with their afflicted lives in colonial St Lucia. However, the music of the island is ever present and provides a rhythmic thread throughout the story.
GLORIA TIMES emigrated to England from St Lucia in 1966 to train as a nurse. This is her first book and is set around the time of the fire which destroyed much of St Lucia’s capital, Castries, in 1948. She experienced the aftermath of this disaster as a young child and much of the storyline is drawn from these experiences. Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00
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DAUGHTER OF THE GREAT RIVER
Khalil Rahman Ali
This story is based on the struggles of Indigenous Peoples and is set in the fictional country of Kayana. Onida is the eponymous ‘daughter of the great river’ who emerged more than five hundred years after her ancestors were brutally suppressed by invading Europeans and were forced to flee to the safety of the rainforests. Her tribe of Kayanese is made up of several Indigenous Peoples who prefer to live in the hinterland of the vast rainforests. She is the ‘chosen one’ to lead her peoples out of their challenging circumstances where the natural resources of gold and timber are being exploited by local and foreign interests. Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00 • eBook, £5.99 / US $7.20
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This unique collection of short stories from the Caribbean, captures the violence, trickery, pathos and racial comedy of Trinidadian society.
Chen writes in a great sweep of energy and from a deeply humane perspective, investing his characters with the capacity for laughter, suffering and redemption.
“Brilliant and exuberant. A triumph of Caribbean prose from a writer of natural, abundant talent”
David Dabydeen
“In these wondrously wrought stories, Willi Chen evokes the richness, beauty and diversity of Trinidad life” Selwyn Cudjoe
“In Willi Chen, Trinidad and Tobago has a short story writer of uniqueness and class. His work is bound to leave a stamp on our literature” Michael Anthony Paperback, £7.99 / US $12.00
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E-KIDZ: Mission to Cyberspace
Alan Springer
In a puff of smoke and a flash like lightning, a genie appears from the computer and whisks the e-Kidz off into cyberspace to play games for ever and ever! It is their wish come true, but this is no ordinary game.
The genie gives them a dangerous mission: clean up the internet. They head off on a thrilling surf-ride across the super-highway where they encounter dangerous cyber villains in the forms of a plague of bugs and cookies, evil pop-ups, chat-room predators, trojans and viruses. The journey takes them to the centre of the world wide web to face the evil web-master in a final showdown.
Aimed at the 10 – 14 age-group, this book tackles the global concern of internet safety in an interesting and exciting way.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $20.00 • eBook, £7.79 / US $9.00
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HANSIB PUBLICATIONS
Founded in London in 1970, Hansib Publications has played a crucial role in documenting the Caribbean experience and bringing Caribbean perspectives to a wider audience. It is renowned for its extensive catalogue of Caribbean fiction and non-fiction, spanning a diverse range of genres, including historical novels, biographies, poetry anthologies, political commentaries and social narratives. It has also made significant contributions to Caribbean scholarship by publishing insightful works on history, culture, politics and social issues.
Today, Hansib Publications remains a significant force in the world of Caribbean publishing and continues to publish books that reflect the vibrant diversity of the Caribbean region and the global Caribbean diaspora. Its legacy of promoting Caribbean voices and perspectives has made it an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand and appreciate the rich cultural heritage of the Caribbean.
EMAIL: info@hansibpublications.com
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66 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2
Bookshelf • FICTION & POETRY
LONDON ROCKS
Brenda Lee Browne
Dante Brookes is a young man growing up in London in the late seventies and early eighties when sound systems ruled the party scene for young, Black British youths of Caribbean heritage. He navigates the loss of friends, police harassment and being a teenage father while forging a career as an MC. He stumbles into the acting profession and also becomes a writer. It is through these disparate experiences that he learns that the pen and mic are mightier than the sword.
BRENDA LEE BROWNE was born in London to Antiguan parents. She studied journalism and started her career in the Black media before moving to Antigua in the mid-1980s where she began writing and publishing short stories and poetry. In the mid-1990s, she returned to the UK and gained an MA in writing from Sheffield Hallam University. She returned to Antigua in 2003 and established the ‘Just Write’ creative writing workshops and has worked with government agencies, adults and inmates at HMP in Antigua. Her work has appeared in a number of anthologies in the USA, UK and Canada as well as online.
Paperback, £7.99 / US $12.00
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DEAR INFIDEL
Tamim Sadikali
Two families reunite for a feast on Eid ul-Fitr – the day Muslims celebrate the end of the month of fasting – and boys who grew up together will meet again... as men. As the big day approaches, two of them go to the mosque, one leaves his girlfriend and another watches pornography. Nevertheless, they arrive intent on embracing the day. Old enmities are put aside as they take tentative steps towards each other.
This is a story about love, hate, longing and sexual dysfunction, all sifted through the fallout from the war on terror, and how we drift away from each other. We witness the realities of a post-9/11 world filter down, touch individual lives, combine with some internal tension, and finally spill over.
This contemporary novel also takes in universal themes such as the fear of getting old, failing as a breadwinner and failing one’s parents.
TAMIM SADIKALI was born in Kent. He read Mathematics at Warwick University before entering the world of software. By day he kids himself that he cares about computing, and by night he writes. This is his first novel.
Paperback, £10.99 / US $16.00 • eBook, £7.14 / US $9.00
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A TROUBLED DREAM
Jacques Compton
In the years after the Second World War, many West Indians came to live and work in Britain following the recruitment drives of such institutions as London Transport and the National Health Service. Many had also served in the British Armed Forces during the war and decided to make Britain their new home. These new arrivals sought a life of prosperity in the ‘mother country’, but in reality they were often faced with a hostile and unwelcoming environment. Most learned to live with these obstacles and later sent for their families.
This is the story of a young married couple whose lives reflect the dilemmas faced by West Indians in British society, while at the same time having to address the conflicts between the older and younger generations.
Paperback, £8.99 / US $18.00
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THE INVISIBLE BECOME VISIBLE – BOOK ONE: From Congo to Mocambo to Samba
Ben Lowe
This is the first of three novels on history’s forgotten or too little remembered people including, in particular, the indigenous people of Sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, Haiti and Mexico. It is a history of communities living for thousands of years before invaders come and told from the perspective of the invaded and the enslaved. It opens with the beginnings of the Portuguese empire from 1487, how people experienced Portuguese Armadas marauding up the east coast of Africa and their attacks on various ports and coastal stretches. From South African oral history, it tells of how the Khoisan lived from 1487, and how they experienced and responded to unexpected European visitors. In India, it recalls the tragic impact on locals as the Portuguese Armadas continue their negotiation by cannon fire, as well as the impact on people living on the East African coast.
In Brazil, Haiti and in Khoisan and Bantu areas in Africa, it reflects the people and their lifestyle, and their interaction with invading Europeans, and the emergence of Tupi and free-slave communities, which become pivotal to the development of Brazilian culture. In South Africa, it tells of Hangklip, a free slave community which emerges after the Dutch importation of enslaved Africans. Much of the novel’s second half is part an allegory for the overwhelming desire of enslaved people for freedom.
Paperback, £13.99 / US $21.00 • eBook, £3.99 / US $4.99
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UNDER BASIL LEAVES: An Anthology of Poems
Paulette A. Ramsay
In this debut collection, Paulette Ramsay addresses the “unsanctioned” layers of experience that are often hidden behind social codes and cloaks of respectability. Their layered wit is one of the most engaging features of these poems that range over diverse subjects such as childhood memories, politics, religion, women’s concerns, life and death, and the “man and woman story”. Ramsay’s ironic, often humorous vision, illuminates everyday relationships and experiences. The range of voices add drama to much of the collection.
PAULETTE A. RAMSAY is an author of fiction and poetry. Her short stories and poems have been published in BIM , the Caribbean journal for the arts, and in the Caribbean Journal of Education Paperback, £7.99 / US $12.00 • eBook, £5.19 / US $5.99
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IN PURSUIT OF BETTERMENT: Five Stories from the Indian Diaspora
Khalil Rahman Ali
In Pursuit of Betterment , is a unique collection of five stories of historical fiction that feature families from India, Guyana and the Caribbean, Mauritius, East Africa and South Africa. These families share a compelling desire and drive to achieve betterment through education, hard work and business against the backdrop of the histories of the countries from where they originate, or in which they reside. The stories will resonate with many readers within the Indian Diaspora as well as among those who had to leave their homelands to explore better life chances in other countries.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00 • eBook, £5.99 / US $7.20
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67 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2
Bookshelf • FICTION &
POETRY
THE HOOK OF DESIRE: Slavery and David Dabydeen’s ‘Turner’
Edited by Lynne Macedo
David Dabydeen’s ‘Turner’ is a long poem of twentyfive sections that takes its inspiration from J.M.W. Turner’s Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On (1840) Since the poem was first published in 1994, it has been subject to a significant level of critical debate and discussion. The aim of this book is to bring together a selection of the many articles that have engaged with the poem, and to show how they explore its relationship to the events depicted in the painting. It contains articles that examine Dabydeen’s work from a number of different perspectives. Some are comparative, considering ‘Turner’ alongside other fictional responses to the Zong incident, whilst others focus on the work’s intertextuality or its exploration of the transformative nature of the sea. A recurrent theme is the inability of language to represent trauma, or to escape from the influence of past representations. In the present political climate with its focus upon ‘Black Lives Matter’, it seems likely that the powerful legacy of the Zong case, and its many differing interpretations, will continue to resonate.
Paperback, £14.99 / US $22.00 • eBook, £3.99 / US $4.99 UK customers SAVE £5.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
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THE DEMISE OF CANE FIELD PARADISE
Georgia Brown
Located at the eastern-most tip of Jamaica is the fictional village of Cane Field Paradise. Its verdant surroundings are dominated by a sugar estate, which provides the main source of income for the inhabitants. For nine decades, the sugar factory dominated the skyline and the daily lives of the local residents, and it is where employment is guaranteed to any able-bodied person. Consequently, the villagers work hard, but they also play hard… especially on payday! Merriment and excitement ensue during these times of plenty but the thrill of the moment is punctuated by the unexpected closure of the sugar factory. This is an intimate portrait and picturesque narrative of the reality of Jamaican village life. It shifts across the landscape of the overarching sugar estate, the backbreaking labour, crop-over celebrations, family life and the elation of payday. Paperback, £8.99 / US $14.00 • eBook, £2.99 / US $3.80
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MEENACHI: Fourth Volume of New Poems
Rajandaye Ramkissoon-Chen
In this tight-woven, visceral, surreal and intellectual collection, Rajandaye Ramkissoon-Chen has continued her legacy of probing research into the experiences of immigrants from India to Trinidad. She delves into their customs, their religions and philosophy and pays veneration to ancestral pioneers. She also writes passionately about her parents and her people in Trinidad where she was born.
Her poems are crisp and the sentences short-limned. Imagery, metaphor and factual information are combined in a meld of truth and perception. She is also a recipient of Trinidad and Tobago’s National Chaconia Gold Award. Paperback, £6.99 / US $11.00
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CLOSER TO THE CHURCH: A Novel
Louis Lee Sing
Angry with their religions and the wrongdoings of so many clerics, two young people decide to address the status quo. Set in Trinidad and Tobago’s capital, Port-of-Spain, Nathan John and Miriam Suielman seek to attract many others to their cause and come up with the notion to stage and host a conference. The resulting event, entitled ‘Conference of the UnGodly’, draws participants from across the globe.
In this cauldron of religious fervour, a spotlight is not only turned upon the abuses within the church but also the subject of religion as a whole. And it is within this arena that ‘sinners’ and ‘saints’ alike bare their souls.
For Nathan and Miriam, the conference is an illuminating spectacle. They had arrived as unknowns, but their overnight success has created a demand for them from organisations the world over.
LOUIS LEE SING served as Mayor of Trinidad and Tobago’s capital, Port-ofSpain, from 2010 to 2013. Throughout his adult life, he has been part of the media, beginning as a cub reporter in the weekly press. He boasts of having clawed his way up the ladder to become founder and owner of a leading broadcasting cluster within the nation’s radio market. Closer to the Church is his debut novel and his third published book.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00 • eBook, £3.99 / US $4.99
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SINGLEHOLIC
Katherine Bing
Mixed race 30-year-old Sarah is dumped by her Muslim boyfriend and finds herself single once again. Fed up with being alone, she gives herself one year to find a man. With the help of friends Georgina and Jacquie, ‘singleholic’ Sarah learns to alter her game with hilarious consequences.
Chibu, the Nigerian banker, is sexy but Arthur, the plum English Internet King, is charming. And will Sam, the tanned, trendy toy-boy, ever ring?
Join singleholic Sarah on a sassy, multicultural dating spree across London. She goes from dancing through fountains at Somerset House to having a boogie in bars in Brixton.
Singleholic plays with race like never before and toys with all those questions you’ve always been afraid to ask. It is a hilarious Sex & The City adventure, in the spirit of Bridget Jones, which introduces multiculturalism to chick-lit. “Wonderfully relatable and adorably funny! A revolutionary education on relationships, where you discover the most important relationship is the one you have with yourself.” Zaraah Abrahams, Actor Paperback, £7.99 / US $12.00
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CULTURAL CONUNDRUMS: Poems on Inter-Connectedness Matahari V
The norms of the East and West sometimes bring about a clash of perceptions and create cultural conundrums. Much is lost in interpretation, and much is misunderstood; and walls emerge where a bridge could easily connect. Using a wide range of images from human experience and the natural world, the poet bares her soul with freshness and energy. This book is about seeing the world with different lenses so that ‘different’ is not ‘alien’.
Paperback, £7.99 / US 12.00
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68 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2
Bookshelf • FICTION & POETRY
MOTHER COUNTRY: In the Wake of a Dream
Donald Hinds
Summer 1947. Jamaican ex-serviceman Melbourne Welch stands on a street corner in Brixton, south London, facing a tirade of racial abuse from the British Union of Fascists. It is a shocking contrast to the treatment he received three years earlier when grateful Britons welcomed the ‘loyal colonials’ who had come to help defend the ‘Mother Country’ from Nazi tyranny. How things had changed.
Now out of uniform, and along with other non-white migrants, he and ‘his kind’ were seen as scroungers, cheap labour occupying scarce housing or salacious men on the hunt for women of easy virtue.
“You helped us to win the war now come and help us rebuild the Mother Country.” This sentiment of British Empire unity was inhaled like a breath of fresh air by many West Indians. They answered the call and arrived in Britain from the late 1940s on ships such as the iconic Empire Windrush . Former servicemen, like Melbourne Welch, chose to stay in the country they had helped defend after being demobbed. But for many, the dream of a better life and boundless opportunities was tainted with discrimination and hostility.
While the characters may be fictional, their stories are not uncommon and are set against the backdrop of actual events.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00 • eBook, £7.79 / US $9.00 UK customers SAVE £4.00 from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
THE BALGOBIN SAGA
Petamber Persaud
Balgobin is an elusive, often overlooked character in Indian-Guyanese folklore. The mystery that surrounds him is curious given that his story has been in existence since the arrival of Indians into what was then British Guiana in 1838. Frequently portrayed as an unintelligent schoolboy, Balgobin confounds his educators by scraping through every challenge. To his classmates, he is often the hero of the day. Paperback, £3.99 / US $6.00
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MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS
Since the early 1980s, Hansib Publications has been helping authors – and aspiring authors – from across the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora in the UK and North America bring their stories to life. We provide an outlet for the many voices that remain unheard and publish all genres of fiction and non-fiction, spanning a diverse range of genres, including historical novels, biographies, poetry anthologies, political commentaries and social narratives.
With editorial and logistical support from an experienced team, plus a range of affordable options, getting your book published could not be easier. All manuscripts are considered, and the books we publish are available from a global network of booksellers.
Contact us today to discover how we can help you share your story with the world! EMAIL: info@hansibpublications.com TEL./TEXT/WHATSAPP:
RAISE UP THE LOW, BRING DOWN THE MIGHTY
Asher Hoyles
For over 25 years, Asher has been composing poems and performing them in many different venues, including Glastonbury and Westminster Abbey. This book illustrates the variety of her style and themes and the CDs show that her passionate expression needs to be heard as well as read. She has run poetry workshops in schools, colleges and prisons, as well as teaching performance poetry.
“Asher Hoyles brings poetry to you that is funny, moving, honest and true. I hear years of tradition meeting the modern and the relevant ... Her poems make me feel educated, cultured, alive and loved.” Benjamin Zephaniah “We definitely need more voices like Asher’s exploring the black British experience, especially for women, as Linton Kwesi Johnson has done for young men.” Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze Paperback + 2 CDs, £9.99 / US $15.00
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RIVER DANCER: New Poems
by Ian McDonald
Ian McDonald
The extraordinary poems in this collection emerged as “blood emerges from a cut vein”, as the author describes the process of writing them. This is his sixth collection of poems in a literary career which has gradually gained strength and recognition over the years. His creativity, far from diminishing, in this book reaches a new level of interest and inspiration. In this late flowering of new poems he has added a significant dimension to his work. The poems describe a full range of his experiences of love, sadness, family, ordinary people and their troubles and triumphs; the places he has known and loved and above all his wife’s garden and the great Essequibo river; the joys and bereavements and mysteries we all encounter, and the daily wonders of his long life.
A special dimension of the poems is the love he wishes to express for his wife, Mary. As he writes, “She has for long been a large part of my life. How does one convey plainly what means nearly everything? What would a red thing be without the red? Length and breadth measured without depth? I am sad that a time must come soon enough when I will die and leave her. That distils some of the poetry, even those poems not about her. I want her to know what I have felt, that does not die. The poetry gives shape to nothingness. I see her now, dancing by the river we love.”
This collection is a noteworthy contribution to Guyanese/Caribbean poetry. Paperback, £7.99 / US $12.00
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THE OPEN PRISON
Angus Richmond
Angela is a sensitive and disturbed child, growing up on the estate of her white guardian in British Guiana. She is slowly and painfully awakened to a society in turmoil, in which both Black and white are struggling to reassert their roles during the period of economic instability prior to the First World War. As the child of a loveless union between Black and white, the situation is even more problematic. Only after a desperate early marriage generates a series of tragic events, does Angela learn to understand the ultimate possibilities of her own displaced identity. Paperback, £4.95 / US $8.00
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69 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2
Bookshelf • FICTION & POETRY
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FIGHT: A Collection of Poems
Sharnette Woosen-Henry
We live in a world where we are constantly being judged by the colour of our skin... our gender... our faith... our social status. For many, these judgements remain unanswered or unchallenged and they turn the other cheek; their silence giving false authority to continued injustice.
Haile Selassie said that, “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
The poems within this debut collection aim to inspire the voice within and empower those who feel powerless and have remained silent.
Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00
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THE SWEETEST SOUND
Yvonne Brissett
Single, sexy, Sahai Martini is a natural born flirt and bona fide gold-digger. This scandalous chick is determined to enjoy a life of luxury at some wealthy man’s expense. As a television producer for a struggling urban entertainment station, she is under pressure to come up with an original idea to restore ratings, save the station and possibly her job. Combining her gold-digger interests with her love of urban music, she creates a killer idea for a hot new reality dating show, but is her personal life quite as thrilling? Can she find Mr Right or will her outrageous ways get the better of her?
A sparkling, contemporary debut that takes us on an edgy journey of a young woman looking for love in all the wrong places!
“A clever read … full of bounce, rhythm and pace” Glen Yearwood, Black Entertainment Television Networks, (BET) UK
“Gripping from the start… sassy and sensual” Naomi Jones, Nubian Readers’ Book Club
Paperback, £8.99 / US $14.00 • eBook, £4.99 / US $5.99
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STRIVING FOR EQUALITY, FREEDOM AND JUSTICE: Embracing Roots, Culture and Identity: A Collection of Poetry
Zita Holbourne
A collection of poetry, quotes and art by award winning and inspiring London-based poet, artist and activist Zita Holbourne. The book is a poetical journey through struggle and resistance, a story of strength, determination and love used to challenge discrimination and injustice, documenting important historical and current struggles from the Haitian Revolution to the Black Lives Matter Movement. This is combined with Zita’s personal journey as an activist, mother and artist.
Some of the poems in the book have won awards and others have been performed at awards ceremonies, some are dedicated to those who have inspired the author and others written in the hope of inspiring others. This is a book not just for lovers of poetry but all those who want to make the world a better place and who stand for social justice and equality, combining the poetical with the political.
Paperback, £9.99 / US $15.00 • eBook £4.99 / US $5.99
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A LANTERN IN THE WIND: A Fictional Memoir
Ameena Gafoor
“This rare insight into Muslim life in Guyana is rich in detail, and its realism is enhanced by the author’s equally rich imagination. Muslim existence is rarely described or represented in Caribbean literature, so Gafoor’s book fills a significant gap. Her tribute to her mother is painfully moving and beautiful, and her description of being an immigrant in London is, again, a relatively rare revelation of female experience.”
DAVID DABYDEEN, Emeritus Professor, University of Warwick Paperback, £12.99 / US $20.00 • eBook: £5.99 / US $7.20
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AN AFRICAN JOURNEY
Barbara Ellis
The hero of the Akan people of West Africa and our hero, Anancy, takes us on a journey through time and history. He reveals the heroic achievements of his people, and guides us through the traumas that were inflicted on his motherland by the European Invaders, from the 15th century onwards.
Anancy takes us back to December 1492, when the three galleons commanded by Christopher Columbus ran aground on the rocky shoreline of Ayiti (Haiti).
The event was to have dire consequences for the inhabitants of the island – the Taino people – and later the African continent. The enslavement and near extinction of the Taino people, through mining gold, silver and pearls for the Spanish invaders, created the demand for another source of free labour. Anancy is at the heart of the resistance to the enslavement of the local Taino people and the Africans in the ‘Recently Enslaved World’. Anancy uses his dual personality – as a man and a spider – to resist and torment the slave masters, while inspiring and supporting his brothers and sisters to end their enslavement. Paperback, £10.99 / US $16.00
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AN AFRICAN JOURNEY: Book Two – From Emancipation 1838 to 1948, the Windrush and the ‘Mother Country’
Barbara Ellis
This second volume of An African Journey traces former enslaved Africans after Emancipation in the British Caribbean. It depicts their struggle for political and economic liberation from the colonial power and outlines their journey throughout the region in search of work.
It also reflects upon the journeys made to Europe by thousands of men and women who enlisted to fight in the First and Second World Wars, and continues with the now symbolic first mass migration to Britain from the Caribbean on board the Empire Windrush in 1948.
The book also traces the journey of Mrs Brown and her seven young children who set sail from Jamaica to Britain in 1964 to join their father in London. The family experiences hostility and discrimination, but their story is by no means unique and could be told by countless members of the Windrush Generation. Paperback, £10.99 / US $16.00
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70 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2 Bookshelf • FICTION & POETRY
THE BOY FROM WILLOW BEND
Joanne C. Hillhouse
Vere’s irrepressible spirit is an asset as he comes of age in Antigua. His is a hard-knocks existence marked by poverty and loss. The women in his life – his absent mother, long-suffering Tanty, rebellious June and first love Makeba – help shape him; so, too, his abrasive grandfather and others in his environment. In the end, though, it is a story about a boy trying to hold on to what’s real and precious to him, trying to find his way in the world and learning to be a man.
This engaging tale speaks particularly to young readers, while sparking nostalgia in older Caribbean readers as well.
“The characters feel real and, best of all, they feel Caribbean, but the story could have held up in any culture.” Trinidad Guardian “… stands out as an example of self-redemption, self-motivation, and self-preservation.” She Caribbean, St Lucia Paperback, £6.99 / US $12.00
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MERCY CRIED NO
Carol Sammy
At the age of eighteen, Quintel Jones is faced with situations and challenges that demand a hasty step into maturity and manhood. In coping with a sick mother and impoverished circumstances, he is forced to grapple with realities that are often tough, while maintaining a heart for what is tender. Strong, determined and sometimes feeling battered, he stoically holds on to what are left of any dreams he harboured. He must fight for his mother’s life, ensure his own survival and find joy in the people helping to shape the outcome of his existence – an English journalist, a beautiful woman, an orphan boy and a curious benefactor are amongst those to whom he attributes his eventual breakthrough. Set in Trinidad, the unglamorous yet compelling life of this young man blossoms as he battles with personal prejudices, poverty and love.
Paperback, £10.99 / US $16.00 • eBook, £5.49 / US $6.50
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HANSIB PUBLICATIONS
Founded in London in 1970, Hansib Publications has played a crucial role in documenting the Caribbean experience and bringing Caribbean perspectives to a wider audience. It is renowned for its extensive catalogue of Caribbean fiction and non-fiction, spanning a diverse range of genres, including historical novels, biographies, poetry anthologies, political commentaries and social narratives. It has also made significant contributions to Caribbean scholarship by publishing insightful works on history, culture, politics and social issues.
Today, Hansib Publications remains a significant force in the world of Caribbean publishing and continues to publish books that reflect the vibrant diversity of the Caribbean region and the global Caribbean diaspora. Its legacy of promoting Caribbean voices and perspectives has made it an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand and appreciate the rich cultural heritage of the Caribbean.
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PARDNER MONEY STORIES
Deanne Heron
A collection of short stories that takes a whimsical look at life within an extended Black Jamaican family in Britain. Written in English with Jamaican patois dialogue, the stories capture the unique sense of humour of Black people in situations which wouldn’t ordinarily be considered humorous. Subjects as diverse as funerals and family holidays are featured and take a look at the interactions between various generations while highlighting the strong bonds of love and respect that bind them together.
Jamaican patois is a beautifully expressive language. It is funny, vibrant and emotional and is more than just words; it is body language, subtle nuance and intonation. It is a language of the soul, often more about what isn’t said than what is – a look, a raised eyebrow, a quick pout of the mouth or ‘kissing of the teeth’. The name of the book is derived from the savings club referred to as “pardner”, “pardna” or “paadna”, which is a connecting thread within the lives of many Jamaicans, both past and present.
Paperback, £6.99 / US $11.00 • eBook, £4.54 / US $5.50
UK customers BUY NOW from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
PARDNER MONEY STORIES:
Volume Two
Deanne Heron
This second volume of stories revisits Kelly and her eccentric extended Jamaican family living in the north of England. Here, we see the latest antics of Grandma Mala, Cousin Babsie and husband Ferdie, Lolly and Uncle Al, as they try to navigate through their ‘little piece of Jamaica’ in England.
“Readers love them because the fictional landscape she created with the colourful extended family of Jamaican immigrants is not simply realistic, it’s downright compelling ... they’re funny, they’re loud, they’re chaotic, they’re maddening; they’re us.” Sharon Leach, Jamaica Observer
“Heron uses English for narrative and Jamaican patois for dialogue to paint authentic, larger-than-life characters with whom ex-pats and islanders back home can immediately identify.” Fay Wertheimer, The Guardian “... a tribute to the West Indian people whose everyday stories are rarely told ... Written in a chatty style, it is like listening to a good friend entertain you.” Tricia Wombell, Lime Magazine Paperback, £6.99 / US $11.00 • eBook, £4.54 / US $5.50 UK customers BUY NOW from www.hansibpublications.com including FREE UK delivery
THE DOMINO MASTERS OF DEMERARA
Khalil Rahman Ali
It is the final and deciding game of dominoes between three rival teams from the sugar plantation villages of Anna Catherina, Leonora and Cornelia Ida, in Demerara. Michael “Histry Maan” Brown, the selfappointed coach to the Anna Catherina ACES, reverts to new tactics to pass sublime tips to his captain, Vishnu “Double Six” Prashad. The game is played out at a time when Guyana and its peoples were still emerging from a history of struggle through slavery, indentured labour, political independence, racial unrest, mass migration and economic downturn. The friends use every means available to continue to survive, and to build their lives in a multi-racial and multi-religious society. The game of dominoes provides them with the opportunity to demonstrate their competitiveness, their search for unity and their resolve to face up to their challenges.
Paperback, £11.99 / US $18.00
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71 Hansib Review | Issue No. 2
Bookshelf • FICTION & POETRY