Caribbean Beat — September/October 2018 (#153)

festivals Authentic and events, a unique history,

tropical rainforest, exhilarating watersports, uncrowded beaches, revitalised chocolate industry and amazing eco-holidays.

LIVE THE CULTURE.

style

FOR MORE INFO VISIT WWW.TOBAGOSTYLE.TRAVEL

Contents No. 153 • September/October 2018

58

72 EMBARK

18 Wish you were here

IMMERSE

44 Backstory

Essential info to help you make the most of September and October — from Labour Day Carnival in Brooklyn to Pure Grenada’s Dive Fest and the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival

Remembering windrush When the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in 1948, its West Indian passengers didn’t know their arrival would become a historical watershed.

A new exhibition at the British Library explains how the Windrush generation changed Britain for good

34 Bookshelf and playlist

50 Own words

Willemstad, Curaçao

20 Need to know

Our reading and listening picks

38 screenshots

A Q&A with Khalik Allah, director of Black Mother

40 Cookup

Some like it sweet Gone are the days when a simple sponge cake was enough for dessert — in the Instagram age, says Franka Philip, Caribbean pastry chefs are coming up with photoworthy confections marrying elaborate techniques with unexpected flavours 10

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“I woke up with an entire song in my head” Dominica’s singer-songwriter Michele Henderson on her musical childhood, and the challenges of an international career — as told to Paul Crask

52 snapshot

Her side of the story They’re the Caribbean’s great literary dynasty, but for decades their story has been written only by the Naipaul men. A new memoir by Savi Naipaul Akal tells another side of the tale, reports Ingrid Persaud

44 ARRIVE

58 destination

Guyana by the score In a country this big, with vast forests, rivers, and savannahs, where do you start? Here are twenty key places and things for first-time visitors to Guyana, to help you plan an unforgettable trip

70 neighbourhood

south coast, Barbados From the historical treasures of the Garrison to the famous fish-fry in Oistins, the south coast of “Bim” is a visitors’ playground

CaribbeanBeat CaribbeanBeat An MEP publication

72 explore

Falling for Havana The Cuban capital has its gritty side, writes Donna Yawching, but few cities in the world have such an aura of glamour, fascinating history, and energetic spirit

80 in the bag

“in my dreams, my travel journals look like illuminated manuscripts” Georgia Popplewell explains why a good notebook is an essential in her luggage ENGAGE

Editor Nicholas Laughlin General manager Halcyon Salazar Design artists Kevon Webster & Bridget van Dongen Web editor Caroline Taylor Editorial assistant Shelly-Ann Inniss

Business Development Manager, Tobago and International Evelyn Chung T: (868) 684 4409 E: evelyn@meppublishers.com

Business Development Representative, Trinidad Mark-Jason Ramesar T: (868) 775 6110 E: mark@meppublishers.com

Business Development Representative, Trinidad Tracy Farrag T: (868) 318 1996 E: tracy@meppublishers.com

Barbados Sales Representative Shelly-Ann Inniss T: (246) 232 5517 E: shelly@meppublishers.com

82 Green

jaws of life Pop culture has given sharks an undeservedly scary reputation. What’s truly frightening, reports Erline Andrews, is a sea without sharks, vital for a healthy marine ecosystem. And after decades of neglect, the countries of the Caribbean are finally waking up to the importance of shark conservation — for the environment, but also for their economies

86 on this day

a plague from above It’s not just a story from the Bible: thirty years ago, thanks to unprecedented weather conditions, a massive swarm of locusts crossed the Atlantic and ended up in the Caribbean. James Ferguson investigates how, and what became of them

88 puzzles

Enjoy our crossword, sudoku, and other brain-teasers!

Media & Editorial Projects Ltd. 6 Prospect Avenue, Maraval, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago T: (868) 622 3821/5813/6138 • F: (868) 628 0639 E: caribbean-beat@meppublishers.com Website: www.meppublishers.com

Read and save issues of Caribbean Beat on your smartphone, tablet, computer, and favourite digital devices!

Printed by Solo Printing Inc., Miami, Florida Caribbean Beat is published six times a year for Caribbean Airlines by Media & Editorial Projects Ltd. It is also available on subscription. Copyright © Caribbean Airlines 2018. All rights reserved. ISSN 1680–6158. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher. MEP accepts no responsibility for content supplied by our advertisers. The views of the advertisers are theirs and do not represent MEP in any way.

Website: www.caribbean-airlines.com

96 classic

A dip into Caribbean Beat’s archives: Caroline Taylor discovers it’s a brown world, where a mixed-race Trini can pass for — well, almost anything, it seems

The Caribbean Airlines logo shows a hummingbird in flight. Native to the Caribbean, the hummingbird represents flight, travel, vibrancy, and colour. It encompasses the spirit of both the region and Caribbean Airlines.

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

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Cover Bemner Suse of Guyana’s Wai-Wai community at his home in Konashen Photo Pete Oxford

This issue’s contributors include: Erline Andrews (“Jaws of life”, page 82) is an awardwinning Trinidadian journalist. She is a regular contributor to Caribbean Beat and her work has also appeared in other publications in T&T and the US, including the Chicago Tribune and the Christian Science Monitor.

Paul Crask (“I woke up with an entire song in my head”, page 50) is a feature writer, Bradt Travel Guides author, and independent magazine publisher who has lived in Dominica since 2005. For information, visit www. paulcrask.com A Barbados-based Trinidadian, Ingrid Persaud (“Her side of the story”, page 52) was a lawyer and visual artist before turning to writing fiction. Her novel If I Never Went Home was published in 2014, and she was the 2017 winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Franka Philip (“Some like it sweet”, page 40) loves to find the story behind the story in the food industry. A journalist for more than twenty years, she has worked in print, online, and radio in Trinidad and at the BBC in London. At the start of 2018, Franka co-founded Trini Good Media, a website that hosts the podcast Talk ’Bout Us. Shivanee Ramlochan (“Bookshelf”, page 34) is a Trinidadian poet — author of Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting — arts reporter, and Bookshelf editor for Caribbean Beat.

Donna Yawching (“Falling for Havana”, page 72) is a journalist and longtime contributor to Caribbean Beat.

Born in Trinidad, she is based in Toronto, and has lived on several continents and travelled widely.

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

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A MESSAGE From OUR CEO

We just concluded a busy and successful July/August travel peak period. Many of you would have travelled with us and enjoyed the benefits of Caribbean Plus, our product which offers extra seat space and boarding benefits on economy fares.

You would have used Caribbean View, our free wireless inflight entertainment on the Boeing 737-800 fleet, which allows you to stream blockbuster movies, television programmes, games, magazines, and more Caribbean content to your personal devices via a browser, using the Bluebox Wow platform.

We have expanded our Caribbean Café, increasing the range of items available for sale on board the Boeing 737-800 fleet. You may check the aircraft’s seat pocket to view the full catalogue of items which, from September, will include items from Caribbean manufacturers. Please note that we will maintain our regular offerings of free meals and sandwiches on eligible routes, as well as free refreshments like coffee, water, tea, juices, and soft drinks. However, blankets are available for sale in the economy cabin.

Enhancing your travel experience is the motivation behind all we do, and we are thrilled to announce that, by the end of 2018, Caribbean Airlines will have a new, dynamic mobile app.

The new mobile app (available over iOS and Android) will, among other features, enable you to: • • • • • •

Book flights conveniently Manage your booking Check in quickly View flight status Obtain a mobile boarding pass Create a private profile where you can opt to save important information securely (eg. passport, payment details) • Access exclusive offers • Review your past trips • Receive important passenger and flight notifications throughout your journey with us

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courtesy caribbean airlines

Dear Valued Customers,

These important amenities will provide you with the convenient service you deserve.

Whatever the reason for your travel, be it business, vacation, visiting family and friends, wedding, sporting event, or culinary adventure, Caribbean Airlines will take you there and take care of you.

Caribbean Airlines also provides cargo services within the Caribbean as well as to North America, South America, and Europe. From perishable goods to heavy specialist equipment, we are skilled in cost-effective and timely transport to meet your demands.

Our comprehensive route structure and dedicated freighter service allow us to transport a wide range of goods and live cargo. We also have a package service, JETPAK, which caters for packages of less than fifty pounds. We offer REAL-TIME Cargo Tracking, which enables you to know where your cargo/packages are at all times, and allows you to better plan and allocate resources as well.

Cargo shipping will be even more effective going forward, as we build our cargo business. We intend to grow into an even more dominant player in air cargo, and estimate that our customer and revenue base will increase, as we continue to offer added value and expand our product portfolio.

Our business is rapidly evolving, with technology and the changing needs of our customers driving the pace of that evolution. It calls for us to be a

different type of airline: to be agile, bold, courageous, and flexible, to forge strong and lasting partnerships, and to be innovative.

As a business, we keep asking ourselves what’s next — what do our customers want and what do they need? And we are constantly challenging ourselves to deliver the right products and services and a differentiated experience that gives you the convenience, the choice, and the freedom that you want.

Please check the Need to Know section of the magazine for a full list of upcoming events for September and October, and take your complimentary copy of Caribbean Beat with you.

Visit our website www.caribbeanairlines.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @iflycaribbean.

Thank you for choosing Caribbean Airlines — we value your business and look forward to serving you throughout our twenty-destination network.

Garvin Medera Chief Executive Officer

Sorin Colac/Alamy Stock Photo

wish you were here

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Willemstad, Curaçao Traditional seventeenth-century Dutch architecture adopts a tropical palette along the waterfront in the historic Punda district of Curaçao’s capital — famous for its jewellery shops, Floating Market, and the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere.

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NEED TO KNOW

stephanie keith/getty images

Essential info to help you make the most of September and October: what to do, where to go, what to see!

Mas in the big city: feathers and sequins on Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway

Don’t Miss Break away on the Parkway It’s officially known as the West Indian Day Parade, but revellers across the Caribbean diaspora know it as Brooklyn Carnival. On Labour Day (3 September this year) — drawing a crowd of more than a million, by some 20

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estimates — the action begins at dawn for J’Ouvert revellry and continues till nightfall on Eastern Parkway. New York City’s Caribbean communities — Trinis, Jamaicans, Bajans, Grenadians, Haitians, everybody — come out in force for a day of parades, floats, and even pan. Soca? Yes. Wining? Of course? Acres of sequins and spandex and feathers? What you think? Pelau, jerk chicken, souse? Bring your appetite.

How to get there?

Caribbean Airlines operates daily flights to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City from Trinidad, Jamaica, and Guyana, with connections to other Caribbean destinations

Single Still Rums Beautifully crafted rums from our three heritage stills; EHP Wooden Coffey Still, PM Double Wooden Pot Still and Versailles Single Wooden Pot Still.

These rums were laid down in oak barrels for 12 years resulting in rich and diverse flavours.

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courtesy barbados food and rum festival/visitbarbados.org

need to know

Barbadian mixologist David Barker serves up a cocktail that changes colour before your eyes: a mojito with red cabbage mint puree, John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum, and fresh lime juice dancing in harmony with Four Square Spice

Must Try Foodie Bliss Cuisine is a satisfying way to explore a country — and not just for dedicated foodies. The inspiration and stories behind traditional or innovative recipes can take you on a culinary escapade into the unknown. And with three major food festivals happening across the Caribbean in September and October, there’s no better time to work up an appetite.

Trinidad and Tobago Restaurant Week

Barbados Food and Rum Festival

Doubles in Debe,crab and dumpling from Store Bay, kebabs on Ariapita Avenue, Sunday dim sum: T&T’s cuisine reflects the country’s multiethnic roots. Spanish, African, Creole, Chinese, and Indian influences borrow from and hint at each other. Hints of Italian also infuse the Thai. The food completely engages your senses as you try to identify flavours. This is a foodie nation (and possibly a gym instructor’s dream). And for ten days each year, you can enjoy prix fixe menus with reduced prices at participating restaurants during Restaurant Week. So grab your aperitifs and feed your culinary curiosity.

Every day in Barbados brings a new gastronomic adventure. It seems like the entire island is made up of chefs — whether formally trained or self professed. It’s no surprise so many Barbadian restaurants have earned Michelin stars and Zagat ratings. At the Food and Rum Festival, you’ll understand why some call Barbados the culinary capital of the Caribbean.

From a Thursday night cook-off in Oistins to the Signature Rum Event on Friday, plus fine dining events pairing international and local chefs, the vibe ranges from down-home to elegant — and everything is delicious.

28 September to 7 October trinidadtobagorestaurantweek.com

Must try: callaloo, Trinidad style — rich, spicy, and dense with flavour 22

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18 to 21 October visitbarbados.org

Must try: the classic, cornmeal coucou and flying fish, with a tall glass of Bajan rum punch

Jamaica Food and Drink Festival 20 to 28 October jafoodanddrink.com

From the high mountains to deep in the valleys, Jamaican food connoisseurs, their neighbours, and grandparents turn out for this annual all-inclusive festival. The extravaganza kicks off with Pork Palooza, featuring top-secret sauces, and even desserts with “a dangerous porcine twist.”

Another night, dance with the dragons at Chopstix: a smorgasbord of sizzling favourites from all corners of Asia. And come back to the land of wood and water with Crisp: an event centred on fried fare coupled with ice-cold international and local beers. Imagine jerk fried chicken kicked up a notch with scotch bonnet and balsamic vinegar . . . Your mouth’s already watering.

Must try: escoveitch fish, roast breadfruit, and festival, Jamaica’s unmistakeable sweet fried bread Shelly-Ann Inniss

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mark evans/courtesy the grenada scuba diving association

melanie lupoli/shutterstock.com

need to know

Top Three Diving around Grenada On the surface, Grenada is breathtakingly serene. But beneath the deep blue sea, the shipwreck capital of the Caribbean boasts more than forty dive sites, and a seascape teeming with aquatic life. Here are three for your bucket list.

Bianca C

courtesy the grenada tourism authority

After you brave the strong currents, a look down the hull of this wreck, sunk in 1961, gives an inkling why it’s known as the Titanic of the Caribbean (below).

Technical and recreational divers have also spotted barracudas and sharks near this spectacular site, which runs parallel to Whibbles Reef.

Underwater Sculpture Park

These artificial reefs (above right) perfect for exploration by children and beginners have been recognised as one of “earth’s most awesome places” by National Geographic. Each sculpture pays homage to Grenadian history and culture.

Flamingo Bay

Snorkellers hit the jackpot on the reef (above left): yellowtail snappers, seahorses, rope and barrel sponges, and elkhorn corals are just some of the marine species you’ll encounter. Divers at any level can venture to this site located in Grenada’s Marine Protected Area.

No need to be an expert diver to participate in Pure Grenada’s Dive Fest from 3 to 6 October.

You might start off on dry land, as the festival opens with a photo competition and launch party in Carriacou. The following day, the wreck and reef diving gets underway — Grenada has about fifteen wrecks in its waters. Of course, nothing says “I went diving” better than an iconic selfie, a wreck photo, or reef shot, so make sure to capture these moments before the final party and lionfish dinner. Who knows, your photo might be the winner of next year’s competition.

SAI

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need to know The 2018 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival — ttff/18 — runs from 18 to 25 September, with a programme of screenings, workshops, and industry events at venues around T&T. For full programme details, visit www. ttfilmfestival.com.

courtesy caribbean tales

Actor Nickolai Salcedo ( at left) and other members of the HERO cast

Word of Mouth We need a HERO Cate Young reports on the historically inspired feature that opens the 2018 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival History enthusiasts are in for a treat at this year’s installment of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, as the new feature from award-winning Caribbean director and producer Frances-Anne Solomon makes its global debut.

Starring Trinidadian Nickolai Salcedo in the title role, HERO: Inspired by The Extraordinary Life And Times of Mr Ulric Cross will be the opening night film at the 2018 festival. Inspired by a true story, and loosely based on Cross’s life, HERO examines the myth of the man known as the “most decorated West Indian of World War Two.” It follows Cross’s journey through the war and into his roles as a broadcaster, lawyer, and diplomat, as well as his political awakening and crucial role in independence movements across West Africa.

As much of the work Cross did in his capacity as a diplomat in post26

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Independence Africa remains classified even after his death, the film incorporates archival footage to illuminate the “dynamic and transformative” political climate of the time, and “extrapolate and dramatise” the significant events of his life, according to Solomon.

Lead actor Nickolai Salcedo notes many parallels between Cross’s life and the current global political climate.

“We’re dealing with issues of race, reparations, and people wanting to regain their true sense of self as we have for centuries. The movies speak to now,” Salcedo says. “The players have changed in some cases, but it’s the same game. Who is being taken advantage of, who is banding together and who are the ones standing in the way of that?”

HERO also deals with the extensive colonial pressures at play across the

globe during Cross’s lifetime, including his decision to practice law in Ghana and Tanzania due to social barriers in the West, and his friendships and collaborations with journalist and activist C.L.R. James and Pan-African activist George Padmore, both fellow Trinidadians.

Cross spent his life dedicated to public service, acting as a prominent jurist in Ghana and Cameroon before returning to Trinidad to serve as a high court judge. In 2011, he received the country’s highest honour, the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. He died in 2013.

HERO is the long-awaited examination of an oft-looked-over hero, with a legacy that deserves to be preserved. As Solomon says, “Ultimately, the story is about us, about who we are as Caribbean people, and as citizens of the world.”

The film’s international cast also includes Peter Williams (StargateSG1), Joseph Marcell (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), Fraser James (Resident Evil) and Rudolph Walker (EastEnders), among others. Hero premieres on 18 September, 2018, at the National Academy for the Performing Arts in Port of Spain — with Caribbean filmmaking heavyweights in the audience.

ADVERTORIAL

The new Swift’s innovation Since Suzuki’s leading compact car made its debut in Japan, it has been well received with its innovative styling and exhilarating driving performance.

The new model features clever design, convenience, and comfort in a stylish new package that has made it one of the Caribbean’s most popular hatchbacks.

In a special interview, Chief Engineer and designer of the new Swift Masao Kobori gave us a “behind the scenes” look at the development of the model.

“I want customers to feel uplifted the instant they see it,” he says, “the instant they get inside and step on the accelerator. The Swift will add a touch of excitement to their everyday lives.”

With its wide and aggressive look, the exterior of the Swift exudes a muscular

presence from a body that is shorter and lower. The blacked-out “A” pillars create the appearance of a “floating roof” and the LED signature illumination used in the headlamps and rear-combination lamps scream high-tech sophistication.

A bold evolution of Swift DNA Sit inside and the bold evolution of the Swift’s DNA continues through four key themes: Sportiness, High Quality, Advanced, and Easy to Use. The instrument panel highlights a sense of nimble speediness, while sporty white accents and satin chrome accents are used throughout the cockpit in conjunction with a black tonal base, creating a stunning high-contrast interior.

Once you’re seated, the impulse to take off immediately begins to well

Contact your local Suzuki dealer today to arrange a test drive!

For more information on the all-new Suzuki Swift, visit www.suzukicaribbean.com.

up inside, thanks to a meticulously implemented “driver first” design. The race car–inspired, D-shaped steering wheel, paired with front seats that firmly hold, and a centre console angled towards the driver, help form a more sporty, higher-quality environment that unifies car and driver.

With the latest evolution of the Suzuki Swift, the love affair Caribbean people have with the Swift model is sure to continue.

cri1810/istock.com

need to know

How You Say Talk like a local at Jounen Kwéyòl On the last Sunday of October, St Lucians celebrate their proud Creole heritage with an island-wide festival of music, cuisine, traditional dress (using the plaid fabric called madras) — and of course language. Don’t speak Kwéyòl? Here are some helpful phrases to help you fit in.

Good morning Good evening Please Thank you What time is the concert?

Bonjou Bonswè Sou plé Mèsi Ki lè spètak-la ka koumansé?

Where can I get a bus?

Koté mwen sa jwenn on machin twaspò?

How far is the beach?

Ki distans lans lanmè-a?

I am a tourist Mwen sé an touwis I’m hungry!

Mwen fen!

I’d like to try the bouillon* Mwen vlé éséyé bouyon-an Where can I buy some madras? Koté mwen sa achté twèl madwas?

I’ll be back next year!

Mwen kay viwé lanné pochen!

* Traditional dish of meat stewed with provisions With thanks to Hilary LaForce and John Robert Lee of the Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Centre

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need to know

What he learned An excerpt from “Unaccounted for”, an essay by indigenous Trinidadian writer Tracy Assing, published in the recent anthology So Many Islands: Stories from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans (Peekash Press) My father’s memory is good. So I ask him to talk to me for a while about what he learned growing up. He rattles off the names of animals and plants I have never heard before. Or, I think I have never heard before. It all sounds somehow familiar.

“We were taught about snakes,” he says. “The dangerous ones, we can smell them, hear them, and avoid them. We were taught about the mapipire – balsain and zanana – coral, cascabel, mapamare, creebo, macajuel, tigre. The pretty, attractive ones were poisonous. Our teaching from age one to seven years was about seeing as a form of knowing, smelling as a form of knowing, and hearing as a form of knowing.

Sometimes we would venture far up river or down river. We were “We were taught about scorpions — if stung by one, we taught about all the fish in the river. What was edible and what can eat them. If we don’t like the [raw] taste, we can roast was not. The tayta, guabin, zangi, cuscorob, watamal, crayfish, them in fire and then eat them. We were taught about Jack maki, and buc. We would catch these fish with our hands or Spaniard wasps, which we call jep: jep cohong, jep tattoo, jep sometimes we use the old native plant, balbac. Our ancestors cesar. If stung by one, we must take three different types of loved and respected the river and we did the same. bush, grass, or herb and crush the leaves in our hands and “We were shown the trees and told the names and fruits. rub the juices on the jep sting to avoid swelling. Of course, Kapok, guatacare, tapana, crapo, oilver, mahoe, ceret, galba, all stings are more potent during the full moon, and although calabash, cazuka, anare, moriche, touca, balata, coffee, cocoa, we know all these remedies we must avoid getting stung by roucou, cayoneg, caimit, cashima, cashew, mamisepote, bees, snakes, scorpions, jep. So, always be alert whenever in aguma, guanabana, gree-gree, groo-groo, peewah, kereckel. the forest, on the estate, or by the rivers.

“On our treks through the forest for dry wood for the “We were taught about zagweeh, cheenee, santapee, fireside, we were taught about the animals, the trees, and congoree, tac-tac, marabuntas, fire ants, red ants, garapet, the herbs. We were taught about the iguana, the agouti, battimamzelles, butterflies. We were taught about insects quenk, tattoo, manicou, matapal, pillowee, porqupine. We with wings and without wings. were taught the hunt and the trails. There are ancient trails “We were taught about the birds: kweleebee, kai, ramea, connecting each mountain region to the other. chat, viennal, taoday, cravat, picoplat, toucan, chikichong, “We didn’t have money or a deed for land, but we were semp, zotola, greeve, pawi, guacharo, gabila, tuvatuva. We know never hungry.” these birds by their marking and colour, by their mating calls and their distress calls. In order to catch them, we were In Guyana, home to one of the Caribbean region’s largest First Peoples able to feed them by calling them for populations, September is officially celebrated as Indigenous Heritage food and using their distress call to get Month, a chance to learn about the diversity, legacy, and cultures of Guyana’s them closer to us. This ability comes indigenous peoples: the Akawaio, Arawak, Arecuna, Carib, Makushi, Patamona, from listening to the birds and mimicking Wai-Wai, Wapishana, and Warrau. Communities across the country stage their calls. The forest is like a school. exhibitions of art, dance, craft, food, native games, and sports.

“As children, we had lots of fun in the In nearby Trinidad and Tobago, a one-off holiday in October 2017 brought river. We would play ‘hide the stone’ in the country’s indigenous history to public attention. But the Carib community a pool. Which involved hiding a stone centred on Santa Rosa, near Arima, has commemorated its own Amerindian underwater and then the other people Heritage Week in mid-October for almost two decades, asserting the have to find it. We had swim races under presence of a people and a culture in defiance of historical amnesia. water. This helped strengthen our lungs.

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Illustration by James hackett

The Read

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need to know

Datebook Nevis Marathon and Running Festival

6 to 8 September Challenging marathon routes with enchanting views and distances suited for athletes — and stragglers — at any level.

iprachenko/shutterstock.com

More highlights of September and October across the Caribbean

Word on the Street Festival, Toronto

23 September A wide window opens onto Canada’s literary scene, as authors, artists, publishers, and lovers of the word come together. www.thewordonthestreet.ca

World Cocoa and Chocolate Day Expo, Trinidad

Daniel Korzeniewski/shutterstock.com

28 to 29 September Did someone say chocolate? Trinis are in everything, people sometimes joke, including chocolate: this is where the Trinitario cocoa variety originated. Plus the University of the West Indies’ St Augustine campus is home to the International Cocoa Genebank, and the oldest cocoa research centre in the world.

So the campus is the natural home for the WCCD Expo, bringing together emerging cocoa and chocolate entrepreneurs, and the chocolatiers who convert cocoa into an abundance of enjoyable products, edible and otherwise — like this overwhelmingly chocolatey body scrub, which you can try yourself at home:

Bonaire Sailing Regatta

10 to 13 October Sailors in all classes compete. There’s even a category for five-to-ten-yearold crews.

COCO Dance Festival, Trinidad and Tobago

26 to 28 October The Contemporary Choreographers’ Collective (COCO) presents the work of emerging and established choreographers from T&T and beyond, bringing together the worlds of arts and education. To mark its tenyear anniversary, the 2018 festival will feature the 2012 to 2017 winners of the COCO Choreographer’s Award.

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International Ballet Festival of Havana, Cuba

26 October to 2 November Caribbean dance lovers are spoiled for choice in October. The stunning Gran Teatro is the principal venue for this celebration of ballet. Over twenty dance companies — including the London Royal Ballet, the Scala de Milan, the New York City Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre — will perform impressive repertoires. With world premieres also scheduled at the Karl Marx Theatre and the Mella Theatre, Havana will transform into the beating heart of ballet.

SAI

1 cup raw cane sugar 3 tbsp raw cocoa powder 3 tbsp organic cocoa nibs 1/8 cup almond oil 1/8 cup cocoa butter (melted) 1/2 tsp chocolate syrup 5 drops Vitamin E oil Mix all dry ingredients together.

Melt the cocoa butter, and stir in the other oils. Add the oil mixture to the dry ingredients and mix using a hand mixer. Add chocolate syrup and mix gently. Et voila! Apply to your skin for a luxurious chocolatey experience.

Courtesy Eco-Truffles Lavish Body Treats

bookshelf The Art of White Roses

by Viviana Prado-Núñez (Papillote Press, 192 pp, ISBN 9781999776824) It’s 1957 in Havana, and Adela can’t close her eyes to the trail of los desaparecidos.

In the crumbling suburb of Marianao, she knows the names of the university students who go missing. She knows the city isn’t a safe place, that more is swept under the rug of complicit silence than can ever be aired aloud. When Adela’s cousin Miguel gets caught up in a bombing, the backlash of fear takes up residence in Adela’s blue-walled home: “If someone had stalked across the lawn and cracked the window open, they would have heard our hearts beating dull and muted, like the echo of someone tapping their fingers on the other side of a wall.”

This is Viviana Prado-Núñez’s debut, The Art of White Roses, winner of the 2017 CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature. The world it reveals to us is beset by suspicions, ravaged by everyday loss on a tragic scale, but the place itself is not immune to beauty. Whether it’s a box of brilliant red shoes, or a sumptuously fat lemon dangling just

The Beast of Kukuyo

out of reach, the author shows us how portents of allure and pleasure still linger — even if those very symbols turn sour eventually. It’s this attention to detail that renders this an unforgettable first book, for young adults and adults alike: it lacks nothing of the careful suspense, the searing irony, the heartbreakingly staggered revelations that mark work for older readers.

Even rarer still, The Art of White Roses is a compassionate novel without being a cloying one. It presents us with characters who are flawed and redeemable, from Adela’s own father Sebastián, full of false starts and halfbrewed lies, to Adela’s Tío Rodrigo, the once-burly policeman who shrinks in reverse proportion to the magnitude of his crimes. Prado-Núñez casts white roses into the thicket of this bitter revolution, charging an uncertain age with hard-won hope. This novel is for dreamers and revolutionaries: those who’ve disappeared and those who remember them.

Home Home

by Kevin Jared Hosein (Blouse & Skirt Books, 240 pp, ISBN 9789768267153)

by Lisa Allen-Agostini (Papillote Press, 100 pp, ISBN 9781999776831)

Looking for a Nancy Drew heroine?

Keep looking. In Kevin Jared Hosein’s The Beast of Kukuyo, fifteen-year-old protagonist Rune Mathura is plucky and resourceful — but she has the sense to know there’s darkness in the world that a flashlight and can-do attitude can’t fix. When her classmate Dumpling Heera winds up dead, Rune knows that the baleful secrets stirring in Kukuyo Village can’t stay hidden — not forever. In this second-place winner of the 2017 CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature, Hosein delivers a hair-raiser of a tale, replete with small-time gangsters, sad prostitutes swaying to Sundar Popo ballads, and survival of the fittest.

It’s tempting to call The Beast of Kukuyo the perfect Stephen King and Sam Selvon mash-up, but Kevin Jared Hosein’s voice is distinctively his own, tinged with dark humour.

Where is it safe to lay your head, when it’s your thoughts that turn against you? Home Home, the third-place winner of the 2017 CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature, lets us inside the mind of Kayla, a Trinidadian girl diagnosed with depression. Sent to recuperate at the Edmonton home of her lesbian aunt, Kayla’s uncertainty about her place in life is only one of the things that gives her pause. For instance, what does it mean to be LGBT? What does it mean when a cute boy who shares your taste in music also thinks you’re pretty? Home Home pulls no punches about an interior life with mental illness: Kayla is written compellingly, with compassion, sensitivity, and uncommon insight.

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bookshelf Q&A Kitch

by Anthony Joseph (Peepal Tree Press, 296 pp, ISBN 9781845234195) To tell the story of Lord Kitchener, calypso’s grand master with his navel string buried in Arima, Anthony Joseph harmonises genres. Kitch combines the power of the archive — the tools of biography — with literary fiction’s capacity to colour grand narratives. What might seem like an unlikely marriage of form suits this lyrical homage to Aldwyn Ro b e r t s , E m p i re W i n d r u s h pioneer, the pennant-bearer for calypso in the Queen’s Britain. Joseph, a prolific poet and musical performer, brings a laden basket of skills to this neo-novel: the prose does not so much describe as it animates, and everywhere in this story, melody peals forth. Why have there been no substantial biographies of Kitchener till now? Perhaps because a conventional approach to storytelling might tame a remarkable life: Kitch goes liltingly off-script, and the results are visionary.

Ricantations

by Loretta Collins Klobah (Peepal Tree Press, 128 pp, ISBN 9781845234232) From the vaults of Puerto Rico’s history, to the horizons of its contemporary life, Loretta Collins Klobah writes potent, spellbinding poems. Collins Klobah, who won the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for her debut collection, The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman, has wrought a second book that captivates while it dismantles complacency. Here are poems that work precisely on the imagination and wonderment of their reader. Steeped in the groundwater of Ricantations are the rising tides of women’s polyglot tongues: curious daughters, confident marketplace gitanas, mami watas with sharply erotic demands. The versatile, majestic energy of the feminine roves and somersaults in these poems, challenging the roots of virginity and harlotry in verse that stares the patriarchy down, Medusa-style.

Reviews by Shivanee Ramlochan, Bookshelf editor

Trinidadian Danielle BoodooFortuné’s debut book of poems, Doe Songs (Peepal Tree Press, 80 pp, ISBN 9781845234188), inhabits an exterior landscape of deep forest and rushing rivers, and explores an interior world of bloodlines and birth. In this Q&A, the author explains the significance of wilderness in her new poems.

Doe Songs is a powerful first collection, one concerned with the relationship between our human world and the wilderness. Did you access an inner wildness to complete this body of poems?

A sense of the inner wildness, the “untameness” that is always beneath the surface of people and places, is what drives many of the poems. In the process of writing and editing Doe Songs, I tried to access that inner wildness and to learn to see it in everything, to acknowledge that the domestic and the wild, the gentle and the feral are bound together so closely in all living things and places.

Tell us something of what animates your mothering poems, which are dense, lush inhabitants of the world between mother and child.

My mothering poems were written during the final trimester of pregnancy and in the first months of my son’s life. This period was so utterly strange and transformative that it allowed me to lift the veil, to see things in that in-between half-light. It gave me access to my mammalian creature self.

The mother and child relationship is both so intimate and so fierce, and it completely transforms the way we see ourselves, our capacity for love and pain, the limits of hearts and bodies.

The doe is a symbol of tenderness, but of surprising resilience too: this complexity in all things shines in your work. How has the doe as motif moved you as artist and writer?

During the process of writing these poems, the doe kept coming back to me, until I could no longer ignore how central it was to the collection. The doe is both vulnerability and resilience. It reminds me of the power there is in tenderness, and of the value of intuition. For me, the doe is also motherhood, magic, and relationship with landscape.

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playlist Born in Darkness Freetown (Damascus Media) From lyrically drenched acoustic Caribbean folk music to island pop songs with metaphorical gravitas, the evolution of Freetown has been a revelation of the idea of crossing over.

Making it into a global music market without “selling out” has been the mission of Caribbean musicians and singers for decades. Born in Darkness has the aesthetic merit to breach the consciousness of audiences anywhere right now.

A balance between seven full-length songs and

In the Moment Larnell Lewis (self-released) Toronto can seem a multicultural paradise, more so for a number of artists and a second generation from the islands. Drummer Larnell Lewis, of Kittitian heritage, is the premier drummer in the city, landing a job with Grammy winners Snarky Puppy and collecting a couple of statuettes for himself. On his debut album, he calls on his Caribbean diaspora friends and his Snarky Puppy bandmates to add to this novel

Kontraband Kabaka Pyramid (Bebble Rock Music) Kabaka Pyramid belongs to a new generation of Jamaican reggae artists who are part of a noticeable renaissance in conscious music and roots reggae sounds that harkens back to the days of Bob Marley’s global domination. It’s not surprising, since this new album was executiveproduced by Bob’s sons, Junior Gong and Steven. That genetic heritage has guided this sixteen-track album towards a reckoning of Single Spotlight

Field Trip Jah9 (VP Records) Jah9 delivers her songs with a diction and enunciation that could make one forget Jamaican patois is the de facto language of reggae. This delivery further cements her identification with what she calls “Jazz in Dub . . . a rich imaginative blend of vocal clarity and complexity.” A well-articulated melody swings around an Afro-beat groove reminiscent of Fela Kuti to set this song on another level. Of the title, Jah9 explains that “the real field trip is

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four powerful interludes that have hit potential proves that producer Keron “Sheriff” Thompson of Differentology fame understands how to juxtapose these odes into popular soundscapes where Caribbean ideas can become universally relevant. Muhammad Muwakil and Lou Lyons, as crafty songwriters, show how personal angst can become cathartic — “Dem cyah understand this / Thought you could keep me down and sick / Underground, I’m volcanic / And I’m not dormant, no!” — to shine a light on our collective island importance. A winner.

referencing of jazz from the perspective of a black North American jazz musician who is not African-American, freed from conjecture and the obligations of jazz heritage. That freedom allows Lewis to explore rhythms and harmonies that suggest New Orleans (“Beignets”), gospel jazz (“Rejoice”), Latin jazz (“Coconuts”), fusion (“Change your Mind”), bebop — the solo on “No Access” is a drum masterclass — and tropical World Music (“Essence of Joy”). Memories and moments of Lewis’s life are freed to inspire this joyous set of ten sparkling tunes. social lyrics that address longstanding concerns, but with a sonic profile grounded in the twentyfirst century. Sarcastic jibes on the song “Well Done” — “Well done, well done, Mr Politician Man / You’ve done a wonderful job of tearing down the country, Mr Demolition Man” — point to a growing cynicism and exasperation among the younger generation of Caribbeans. Whether politics, global concerns about refugees, or the efficacy of “herb,” a topical menu of subjects is assayed effectively with a few star collaborations to give this album impact. within. That is the final frontier, and if we do this we will find new elements of our self,” giving a philosophical hook to a jam that does not stop throbbing. The musicianship on this single also reflects an improvised blues ambience, certainly when the tenor saxophone solo comes in near the end, reminding us that the jazz sensibility is not lost in production. Taken together, these elements point to a new World Beat feeling where the reggae is subsumed, but the beat just keeps grooving — like you will.

Reviews by Nigel A. Campbell

screenshots

courtesy khalik allah

raped it became a service economy.

That’s why I felt it was necessary to show the underbelly. In order to do that, I had to focus on the everyday people.

When we hear about Jamaica we hear about Bob Marley and “No Problem.”

But there are a lot of problems. I wanted to show the problems, but I also wanted to come with the good news.

“My understanding of Jamaica is spiritual” Khalik Allah, now thirty-two, shot to prominence with his first documentary, Field Niggas (2015), an immersive portrait of an intersection in Harlem in his native New York City. For Black Mother, his follow-up, Allah — also an accomplished photographer — ambitiously extended his canvas from a street corner to an entire nation, Jamaica, in a hypnotically impressionistic conjuration of his mother’s home island.

Imagining Jamaica as a nurturing matriarch, and split into “trimesters,” Black Mother interlaces audio testimonies from ordinary Jamaicans with a collage of images of the island and its people, shot in a beguiling assortment of film formats. The result is a challenging work of visionary power, a tribute to everyday resistance and survival, and a cinematic representation of Jamaica unlike any before it. In this Q&A with Jonathan Ali, Allah discusses sidestepping island clichés, and the highly personal aesthetic he brought to bear on the film.

What’s your relationship with Jamaica like?

My mother is from Jamaica and my father is from Iran, so I have both these heritages within me. But because I grew up around a lot of my Jamaican family, I always felt more connected to Jamaica. In my childhood we were going to Jamaica frequently. As I got older, I would go on my own and spend time with my grandfather, a deacon.

I would sit at his feet and receive wisdom that really structured my life, so my relationship with Jamaica stems from that.

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Is that what inspired your approach to making the film?

I wanted to make a film about Jamaica that wasn’t about reggae. For me, my understanding of Jamaica is spiritual. It has always been a place where I’ve been able to go and be baptised in a sense, you know? So it was extremely important that I focus on the soul of the people.

You also avoided the clichés often associated with “Brand Jamaica.”

Those are the things people are familiar with. They’re used to the tourist attractions. Jamaica’s a poor country, remember. It was raped by the British through colonialism. And after it was

Why the title Black Mother?

Jamaica is the mother. It represents the earth, the food, the soil, the fruits, the vegetation, the fields, the water — all of that is symbolic of the mother. So the title truly comes from understanding that the mother is the doorway into this world, and into other worlds.

You shot the film in different formats: Super 8-mm film, 16-mm film, and digital. Why? Jamaica is a very small island. It’s smaller than Long Island. It’s a whole country that’s smaller than a little piece of New York, but it’s a huge country in terms of its history and its spirituality and its relationship to the rest of the world. So using these different formats and building out the film like a collage was a device I used to show how dynamic Jamaica is and how many textures there are.

Black Mother is asynchronous — the audio we hear does not match the visuals we see. This could prove a hurdle to some viewers. Does this concern you?

My films challenge people to use their minds. You may have to work a little bit.

You may have to apply some of your own consciousness in order to extract the meaning. I expect my audience to do that. And it’s the type of film that’s so dense and deals with so many different topics that I tell people, “Look, man, if you want to close your eyes and stop paying attention for a couple of minutes, that’s totally fine. You don’t gotta be stuck to the screen for every detail of the film. Drift away if you want.”

Black Mother Director: Khalik Allah Jamaica/USA, 2018 77 minutes

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cookup

Some like it sweet

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Illustration by Shalini Seereeram

It used to be that sweet-toothed Caribbean people were satisfied with a good oldfashioned sponge cake. But, as Franka Philip explains, the profusion of delectable dessert images on Instagram in recent years has raised expectations, and more sophisticated tastes. Bakers and pastry chefs across the Caribbean are keeping up, with unexpected flavours and elaborate techniques

I

’m the first to admit I’ve spent more than enough time on the social networking platform Instagram looking at “food porn.” That isn’t some kind of bizarre fetish — it’s a term used to describe ridiculously amazing-looking food, food so gorgeous it makes you weak with desire.

And, undoubtedly, much of my lust is reserved for gorgeous desserts, especially incredibly ornate cakes and anything that screams chocolate decadence.

Social media — particularly Instagram, with its more than eight hundred million users — is the place where people with cameras who love food post everything from photos of their “best spicy doubles” to the high-end meal they just had at renowned restaurant The Cliff in Barbados. But Instagram doesn’t just titillate foodies like me — it’s also been pushing chefs and restaurants to raise their game on the presentation front.

“Most of us who document our meals online are amateurs, but there exists a sizeable, and hugely profitable, industry of professional food bloggers and Instagrammers, whose pristine food styling sets the tone for a whole aesthetic movement,” says British chef and food writer Ruby Tandoh in her UK Guardian food column.

This “aesthetic movement” in social media has also driven a whole new class of culinary entrepreneurs: cake and pastry makers. A decade ago, most people were satisfied with a moist chocolate cake, cheesecake, or a hearty pound cake for special occasions, but now customers — largely driven by social media and food television — are asking for bespoke cakes with more complex designs and a more creative fusion of flavours. And these cakes are not cheap. Interestingly, in the Caribbean, although many countries are facing difficult economic times, the demand for cakes and desserts is as huge as ever.

In Trinidad, for example, brilliant cake designers can be found across the country.

Sherikah Singh, the woman behind the Sundara Cake design studio in Central Trinidad, doesn’t have a storefront and conducts her business exclusively online. “I started building my business solely via word of mouth, so social media for business is a fairly recent choice for me. I’m still getting the hang of it, but so far it has been great,” she says.

“I’m able to show more of what I can do to a wider audience. I’m garnering new followers every day, resulting in new clients for my business, with the majority of them staying with me long-term. People have almost instant access to me and my products, so the convenience for both myself and my clients is certainly an advantage.”

Singh, who has been baking professionally for about fifteen years, believes that social media is a big factor in the rising demand for specialty cakes. “Most times, we see something we like online, then we find someone who can recreate it. What’s popular online also seems to be directly related to what becomes popular here [in Trinidad]. For instance,

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the increase in elaborate dessert tables at events, and our newfound love of French macarons.”

Singh has developed a reputation for the innovative use of unexpected flavours in her cakes. “I’m known for my curry cake with coconut buttercream, my masala chai carrot cake with cream cheese buttercream and scratch-made salted caramel, and my ponche de crème cake at Christmas.”

But the most popular cake among her clients is a classic rich chocolate mud cake with couverture chocolate ganache. “Can’t beat a good old-fashioned chocolate cake,” she notes.

M

eanwhile, award-winning Bajan pastry chef Javon Cummins has found that experiments with local products excite his clients. Cummins was awarded the title of Pastry Chef of the Year at the highly competitive Taste of the Caribbean event in 2017. He’s known as one of the most dynamic pastry chefs in the region.

“There is a desire to push local desserts, but the thing is to elevate them while keeping that traditional flavour and taste,” he says. “For example, molasses is one of the ingredients in my smoked chocolate cake, and I’ve even used local sweet potato flour to make a decadent dark chocolate sweet potato brownie.”

Another challenge for chefs and bakers are the myriad dietary issues their clients face. Port of Spain cake maker Lisa-Marie Stewart — known as the Cake Madame — suffers from nut allergies. Because of this, she makes it a point to tell potential customers they must inform her of any allergies or dietary options so she can customise her recipes accordingly. She now makes a range of gluten-free, flourless, and eggless cakes.

Not only are people buying more cakes and desserts, they are also eager to learn to make them at home. In the short time they’ve been around,

Check out our chefs and bakers on Instagram: Sundara Cake Studio: @sundaracakestudio Javon Cummins: @billionare_chef The Cake Madame: @thecakemadame The Academy of Baking and Pastry Arts: @thebakingacademytt

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the Academy of Baking and Pastry Arts in Port of Spain has taught hundreds of eager foodies to refine their technique. The Academy specialises in “artistry of patisserie, gateaux, and boulangerie” — or for those who don’t know much French, pastries, cakes, and bread-making. According to Rayne Kirpalani, director of the academy, the dessert and baking courses tend to attract caterers who want to beef up their dessert-making skills, as well as passionate home bakers.

She explains that courses on classic cakes, classic cheesecakes, and macarons do well, but an unexpected favourite is cupcakes. “Wow, Trinis love a cupcake,” she says. “We do a course called Cupcakes Unlimited where we incorporate a lot of Caribbean f lavours, incluing alcohol. So we have rum and Coca-Cola–f lavoured cupcakes, Malibu pineapple and piña colada cakes.

I find a lot of people are coming for new flavour creations, and to learn to master that technique.”

Kirpalani also notes that many clients are keen to get into the catering business. “When people come to us, they say, ‘I’m starting my own business and I want to perfect these skills’ — they want to learn the proper methods, and so they really ask the chefs for a lot of tips.”

As far as trends in desserts and baking go, Kirpalani believes people want to enjoy delicious desserts while keeping one eye on their health.

“The gluten-free thing is still going very strong.

Eggless desserts are as well.”

Sherikah Singh looks to fields like art and architecture, culture and nature for inspiration, but her cakes are largely based on what will keep her customers happy. “It’s more a reflection of my clients rather than my personal design aesthetic.

I’m hoping to show more of myself in my work going forward.”

“I see a lot of highly textured cake designs, and more earth tones becoming a staple, as well as hand-painted designs,” Singh says. “We’re really looking at cakes as a blank canvas for expression.”

For his part, Javon Cummins sees the classics as the basis for the new direction in cakes and desserts. “We are taking classic desserts and deconstructing them. We’re serving desserts in glasses, and mousse cakes are becoming much more popular.”

And on Instagram? When I last lusted — I mean, looked — I was drawn to the feed of Chef Jason Licker, one of my favourites, who prides himself on being ahead of the curve. Who’s up for chocolate and caramel passion cake served with Chinese five spice chocolate cream? I know I am! n

Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo

Immerse

Backstory 44 Remembering

Windrush

Own Words 50

“I woke up with an

entire song in my head�

Snapshot 50 Her side of

the story

Trinidadian singer Mona Baptise arrives in Britain on the Empire Windrush, June 1948

backstory

Remembering Windrush Seventy years ago, the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in the River Thames, and hundreds of West Indian passengers disembarked. It’s remembered as the beginning of a period of large-scale immigration from the West Indies to the United Kingdom, and the dawn of a new multicultural Britain. A new exhibition at the British Library in London marks the anniversary of that storied day

T

he history and culture of Britain have been shaped in all kinds of ways, obvious and subtle, by the country’s relationship with its former Caribbean colonies. When the first British settlers landed in St Kitts in 1623 with a royal patent from King James I — establishing the “mother colony” of the British West Indies — it began a centuries-long, worldchanging, and still ongoing exchange of people, commodities, language, culture, and ideas across the Atlantic.

But in that long history of movement back and forth between the British Isles and the Caribbean archipelago, one moment has become especially celebrated: the arrival of the Empire Windrush on 21 June, 1948, with its more than eight hundred West Indian passengers. Legally British subjects, with rights of citizenship, they arrived in postwar London to try their chances in the imperial capital. They were not the first, but the extensive press coverage of their landing at the Port of Tilbury led to an association in the public memory between West Indian immigration and the Windrush.

They were also certainly not the last. Encouraged by the UK government and industries hampered by labour shortages, thousands more West Indians travelled to Britain over the next decade. Taking up jobs with the National Health Service, British Rail, and London’s public transport, they helped the war-ravaged country get back on its feet. By the early 1960s, there were almost 200,000 people in Britain born in the West Indies.

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Inevitably, there was a backlash. West Indians in Britain faced racial prejudice in all forms, from rejections by potential landlords to outright violence. The intolerance and conflict of the 1950s and 60s continue to shape British society today. But the migrants who came to be known as the Windrush generation, and their children and grandchildren, also enriched the UK immeasurably. Twenty-first-century Britain is inconceivable without their contributions to politics, commerce, arts, and sports (just look at the England team at the recent FIFA World Cup).

Windrush: Songs in a Strange Land draws on the extensive collections of the British Library to tell the story of the Windrush generation through documents, photographs, sound recordings, and other archival materials — looking for “the deeper reasons why the arrival of the Windrush became a symbol for the origins of British multiculturalism,” putting the wave of postwar migration into a wider historic perspective. As co-curator Elizabeth Cooper explains, the exhibition “seeks to open up a conversation about the ways slavery, colonialism, and race have through history structured British identity and society — a context that is today more relevant than ever, given the recent headlines relating to the Windrush generation.”

She adds: “culture has been fundamental to struggles for freedom and belonging.” As visitors to the British Library explore the artefacts collected here, they’ll surely reflect that those struggles are far from over. n

Contraband Collection/Alamy Stock Photo

The Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury with 1,027 passengers — more than eight hundred of them West Indian immigrants, considered UK citizens under the British Nationality Act

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courtesy the british library

courtesy the british library

The migrants who came to be known as the Windrush generation, and their children and grandchildren, enriched the UK immeasurably. Twenty-first-century Britain is inconceivable without their contributions

Left This photo from the British Library exhibition depicts a newly arrived West Indian woman, waiting with her luggage

Above In addition to artefacts from the British Library’s own collections, Songs in a Strange Land also includes objects borrowed from other institutions and from private collections — like this souvenir postcard, purchased on board the Windrush by Jamaican Winston Levy, which now belongs to his daughter Andrea Levy. A celebrated writer, Levy is best known for her novel Small Island, inspired by the lives of Jamaican immigrants in London

Windrush: Songs in a Strange Land opened at the British Library on 1 June and runs until 21 October, 2018. For more information, visit www.bl.uk WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

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courtesy the british library

Opposite page West Indian immigration to the UK didn’t start with the Windrush. This Second World War poster explains the contributions of West Indians in Britain to the war effort

courtesy the british library

Right The 1959 novel To Sir, With Love, about a West Indian teacher working in an East London school, was based on the real-life experiences of writer E.R. Braithwaite, born in British Guiana.

Braithwaite’s original typescript shows his extensive revisions, some of them made in response to racial tensions in the late 1950s.

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own words

I

“I woke up with an entire song in my head”

come from a very musical family. My grandfather played several instruments and also sang, so my father was raised in an environment that was full of music. He wrote traditional songs for a folk group called La Jeune Etoile. He also played goatskin drum, harmonica, and twelvestring guitar.

Like him, I developed a love of music as a result of growing up with it all around me. We did a lot of singing at home — the family would actually make a point of it — and my mum says I was just two years old when I started.

We were like the Grand Bay von Trapps!

Musical influences were diverse. My father listened to country music and reggae, so at home I would be exposed to a mixture of Kenny Rogers, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and Bob Marley. Local music came from the likes of Ophelia Marie, Gordon Henderson, and the Midnight Groovers.

Growing up here in Grand Bay was also a factor. Calypso, a very traditional Carnival, and the annual Fete Isidore were all vibrant events. People would compose songs especially for them — there would be colourful costume parades that began at the church just across the street, and they would draw in performers and crowds from neighbouring communities such as Petite Savanne, Bagatelle, Dubique.

I studied music theory and learned to play classical flute at the Kairi School of Music in Dominica, which is sadly no more. I was also a member of its junior choir, and would often have lead singing roles in the school’s musical productions. When I was fourteen, I came fourth in a regional singing competition in Barbados, and it sparked something in me. I thought, I could do this, I could compete at a high level. In 1995, I won a song contest here in Dominica, and after graduating I went straight into music. I was bitten by the bug.

At the age of sixteen, I joined a jazz band called Impact, where I was a vocalist and flautist — and where I met my bass-playing husband, who is now also my producer. I knew about jazz, but didn’t sing or play it before joining the band.

Although I perform different genres, such as zouk and cadancelypso, I love the expressiveness of jazz, and I have had the opportunity to perform with jazz greats such as Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke. They were amazing experiences, and the fact that I sang and played flute with them on their tours

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Singer-songwriter Michele Henderson, performing at October’s World Creole Music Festival, on her musical childhood and her transition to the international stage — as told to Paul Crask, at her home in Grand Bay, Dominica Photography by Paul Crask made me feel even more determined to continue and succeed with jazz composition.

Impact actually cut a jazz album called Islander before the band kind of fizzled out as an entity, and the members supported me as a solo artist. This gave me the opportunity to write and compose all my own songs, a process I really enjoy, and which I would like to do more of for other musicians.

C

omposing music happens in different ways for me. Sometimes I just develop lyric ideas while I am working around the house and homestead, feeding the chickens, weeding vegetable beds, and so on. Then afterwards I figure out a melody that goes with it. Other times I get a tune in my head and the process works in reverse. On one occasion, in Paris, I woke up with an entire song in my head — I had a dream where I was singing this song, and I wrote down the entire thing in the morning. It was just there, waiting to come out.

I compose songs in both English and French Creole, though I have not always spoken the latter.

My grandmother outlawed French Creole around the house because it was viewed as a peasant language — she saw herself as a higher status, I suppose. The funny thing was she would actually reprimand us about it in French Creole. So, even though I was not allowed to speak it about the house or in the yard, I grew up hearing the language around me — it is the unofficial first language of Grand Bay. My father was also raised that way, yet he ended up composing many Creole folk songs.

Even though Creole was outlawed at home, it was

always in my head, and in the end speaking and writing songs in the language came to me quite easily.

I have a following in the French islands, so composing and recording songs in Creole is a conscious decision that makes a lot of sense because, combined, Martinique and Guadeloupe are a huge listening audience, much bigger than here at home.

So far, I have recorded six albums and put out a live DVD. Lately I have been doing a lot of travelling — both performing and trying to spend more time with

“Sometimes I just develop lyric ideas while I am working around the house . . . Then afterwards I figure out a melody that goes with it” my two daughters, who are studying in the USA and Canada. But I feel that right now I would really like to write and produce more. I have tons of albums in mind. I would like to do a Christmas project with a focus on island traditions.

I would also really like to take some of our local folk songs and put them to jazz.

I have done this live with a song called “Sa Sa Ye Sa” — it’s on YouTube — and it’s a fun way to introduce and perform a traditional Dominica song to a new audience. It keeps it alive. So I would like to make an album with more of that, rearranging those old tunes into a Creole jazz style.

Being an international artist comes with responsibilities, of course. I am a

goodwill ambassador for Dominica, and have had the opportunity recently to perform at benefit concerts in the wake of Hurricane Maria. I was here during the storm. It was intense living right on the coast. Big trees came down, the church roof ended up in our yard, waves were coming right up against the wall. The strength of the wind was extraordinary. And the morning after, stepping outside to see the devastation was simply shocking.

In light of Dominica’s recovery from all that, it will be nice to perform at World Creole Music Festival again in October — this time with Mizik A Nou All-Stars, which was a project that was started at the very first World Creole Music Festival [in 1997]. The songs we composed back then were very popular on the radio, so it will be great to revive that repertoire. I’m looking forward to it. n

Dominica’s World Creole Music Festival takes place annually over the final weekend in October. The 2018 festival will begin on Friday 26 October and end on Sunday 28 October. For line-up and ticket information, visit www.dominicafestivals.com

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snapshot

Her side of the story Photography by Mark Lyndersay

S

avi Naipaul Akal exudes poise and presence.

And charm. Buckets of charm. For our interview at her home in Valsayn, east of Port of Spain, she leads me to a table covered with a crisp white tablecloth weighed down by homemade cakes and finger sandwiches. The huge floral arrangement sitting in the middle stems from her own garden.

I am here to find out what motivated her to trade the ease of her twilight years for the graft of writing her recently published memoir, The Naipauls of Nepaul Street, launched in April 2018 at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest.

Akal offers a selection of teas from her family’s own luxury brand. I decide on the evocatively named Tobago Afternoon blend. As she pours, Akal remarks that although she knew the story of her parents, Ma and Pa, deserved to be written, she never imagined it would be by her pen. Writing was the purview of the Naipaul men — starting with her father, Seepersad Naipaul, and her brothers Shiva, who died young, and of course the Nobel laureate, Vidia — known to the world as V.S. If any of the five Naipaul sisters were to write the family history, then Kamla, the eldest, once seemed the most likely.

Indeed, Savi halted work on an earlier draft of her book because Kamla had declared her intention to undertake a similar project.

Despite their differences, Savi graciously gave way to her sister, reasoning that Kamla had eight years more information and perspective on their shared history — and, as first born, was entitled to a certain deference. But Kamla passed away in 2009 without publishing a text.

With Kamla gone, and Vidia now aged and incapacitated, it was Akal’s moment. The stories begged to move from her mind

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The Naipauls are Trinidad’s most famous literary dynasty, and their story has been told, in fiction and memoir, by Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul. For decades, writing was the exclusive domain of the Naipaul men — but a new memoir

by Savi Naipaul Akal has changed that, and told a different side of the family story. Ingrid Persaud learns how The Naipauls of Nepaul Street came to be and become words on a page. Still, she dithered. But a chance lunch with Arnold Rampersad, emeritus professor at Stanford University, changed everything. He encouraged, no, insisted that Savi write her memoir. Jenny Naipaul, Shiva’s widow, echoed Rampersad. Akal is certain the book would not have happened without their active encouragement. Draft after draft landed on Rampersad’s desk. With kindness and patience, he read, argued, and gently pushed her, while Jenny did the final editing before UK-based Peepal Tree Press snapped it up.

While she had never previously published anything, Akal found writing her memoir a natural and fluid process. I was stunned to hear that, even though her drafts were handwritten before being passed on to be typed up, it took her only eighteen months to complete her two-hundred-plus-page work. It turns out Akal has always been a secret writer, filling journal pages daily, the act of writing her mode of making sense of her lived experiences.

As she speaks, her voice breaks slightly, tinged with regret at not having, in her eyes, a proper career. I find this interesting coming from a woman, now in her early eighties, who has had a portfolio of careers. In her time, Akal has been a respected high school teacher, a decent administrator, and for more than three decades a successful businesswoman running an upmarket boutique. All this she did while raising three impressive children and supporting her husband’s career as a much-sought-after physician.

W

hile Akal makes light of what she has achieved, it could not have been easy producing a book when so much has already been written about the Naipauls.

A House for Mr Biswas (1961) is V.S. Naipaul’s highly fictionalised account of Pa’s relationship with his wife’s people — the wealthy

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and politically prominent Capildeo clan. Later, he also wrote explicitly of his father’s thwarted writing ambitions and his indebtedness to Pa in Finding the Centre (1984), and the family correspondence was published in Letters Between a Father and Son (1998). Whatever was not publicly known about Sir Vidia was exposed by Patrick French in his biography The World Is What It Is, published a decade ago.

Yet in these narratives the Naipaul women are at best secondary, and sometimes almost invisible — even after Pa passed away.

A corrective text was necessary. Brought up to fulfil the role of a

Writing was the purview of the Naipaul men. If any of the five Naipaul sisters were to write the family history, then Kamla, the eldest, seemed the most likely traditional Hindu wife, Droapatie Capildeo, Ma, was by nature conservative. She obeyed her husband, brought up the children, and accepted her lot in life. Discipline in the form of quick slaps came from Ma, leaving Pa free to indulge their children. Whenever Pa, a journalist, regaled the family with embellished tales loosely based on events he covered for the newspaper, Ma would admonish him for filling the children’s heads with foolishness. Of all the siblings, it was Savi who was home the longest to enjoy Pa’s stories, and was perhaps closest to him. And of course it also

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meant she inherited the pain of her father’s unfulfilled ambitions.

But Akal believes it is also time to recognise Ma’s contribution. The family could not have risen from their humble beginnings to produce a Nobel laureate in the lightning speed of one generation without her. Like many immigrants, both parents believed in the power of education to dig their way out of poverty. Usually this meant churning out children who become professionals — doctors, lawyers, or, at a push, accountants. But Pa had an audacious plan. They would write their way out. Ma may not have understood how this was possible, or even agreed with the idea, but she dutifully followed, endlessly sacrificing to help her husband fulfil his dream. Three generations later, look how far Pa’s crazy idea has come.

M

a’s contribution wasn’t only in the scrimping and saving and making-do to ensure that both her sons — and, remarkably for that time, all five of her daughters — received a university education. She was also the main repository of the family’s oral history. Much of the research for V.S. Naipaul’s books came from what Akal describes as savage “interrogations” of their mother. Ma remained proud and loyal of that son, despite finding out about both his knighthood and his Nobel Prize only from the newspapers — and she certainly was never invited to any of the celebrations.

Akal’s memoir also charts Ma’s quiet path to a state of independence. Without seeking anyone’s permission, she took a job at her brother’s quarry, saving her wages to help the household and later paying for a trip to India which, at her insistence, she did alone. I ask Akal what else her readers might be surprised to learn. Her eyes twinkle. Unusually, for both her parents this

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was a second marriage. And while their family were atypical in being urban Indo-Trinidadians, many were surprised at her in-depth knowledge of the life of Indians in the countryside. Few also knew of the Naipauls’ precarious finances, never seeing beyond the smart dresses they sewed themselves or the polished wooden floors of their home.

What I also discovered from The Naipauls of Nepaul Street was that the self-effacing woman in front of me had sacrificed her own education and intellectual fulfilment several times for what she saw as the greater good of her family. Akal possesses a deep sense of duty and loyalty to her family — a loyalty that

In Nepaul Street

M

An excerpt from chapter three of The Naipauls of Nepaul Street, by Savi Naipaul Akal

y father had bought the house in Nepaul Street from a young man and his mother, named Nieves. Of Portuguese descent, Mr Nieves worked as a solicitor’s clerk. He had supervised the building of the house, where sills and frames were often crooked (I know, because I made the draperies).

Apparently his aged mother was no longer able to climb the steep and uneven steps to the upper floor.

Our home, which seems so small today, was bright and beautiful and inviting. A two-storey building, the bedrooms and the bathroom were on the upper floor, while the livingroom, dining-room, and kitchen were on the ground floor. Upstairs, between the two bedrooms and facing the street was an open-sided gallery on the southwestern corner which was immediately turned into a half-bedroom for Vidia. The wooden partitions between the rooms had open woodwork grilles at the tops. The windows remained open except during rain, and the winds skipped through both bedrooms. The openness of the ground floor, with its lattice panels on which a bleeding-heart vine grew, mitigated the smallness of the house and allowed plenty of light and good ventilation. No part of that small, compact house was dark or claustrophobic.

Our parents’ bedroom had its SlumberKing bed, with the hat-rack pinned on the back of one of its doors.

A tiny desk was in the corner and later

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meant she always kept Ma close, nursed her dying sister, and loves her youngest sibling fiercely, even if that baby sister, Nalini, is now herself a grandmother. Even as Akal exposes the chaos and uncertainty of their upbringing, it is clear it comes from a place of love.

The quiet of the house is interrupted by her eldest son Rai dropping by for an unexpected visit. Her charming husband appears, and announces teatime is over. Would I try one of his famous martinis?

And, just like that, I am welcomed into their daily routine of a dry martini, as we watch the sun set fire to the sky. n

they would add a cypre wardrobe with a full-length mirror. The girls’ bedroom had a tall iron four-poster with a smaller bed in which Kamla and Shiva slept.

There was room for a decent corridor between the beds. We also had a bureau with four drawers to hold our belongings and a draped makeshift cupboard behind one of the doors that held our dresses, with shoe-boxes on the top. The two-tiered cotton curtains, graduating from cretonne to broderie anglaise over the years, allowed privacy and easy laundering. All laundry was done by hand over a washtub by our mother.

With Pa’s gardening skills, through each bedroom we could view greenery: the hills and acacia tree to the north, our neighbours the Sudans’ breadfruit tree to the south, and our struggling plum tree to the east, which finally grew into view bearing few fruit but shiny leaves. That the property faced west into the afternoon sun was a definite drawback. But with everyone out of the house except on weekends and during the school holidays, we managed the heat of the early afternoons. We had a very small yard with a curved driveway to the garage. In retrospect, the size of the plot made it easier to manage, with a tiny garden on three sides and a back area for the laundry lines.

Our arrival at 26 Nepaul Street was unforgettable. There was a hubbub of activity involving only our family. Pa and Vido had to mount the beds while Ma and Kamla were putting up the

salmon-pink draperies and encasing the cushions of the Morris chairs with matching flowered cretonne. The Morris chairs had come as part of the deal with the house.

With polished floors and matching rugs, a small table and a shining brass pot with three legs and the heads of lions, and the smell of new linoleum on the kitchen floor, we were buzzing with joy and experiencing a lightness that would carry on for days. Mira, Shiva, and I had nothing to do but keep out of the way. Sati must have been doing some kind of pleasurable chore like hanging our teacups on the cup-hooks left by the previous owners. The Rediffusion box on the wall in the gallery upstairs provided news and music, and our world seemed complete. (These boxes, or closed-circuit transmitters, rented by the month and operated

by Radio Trinidad, were everywhere in homes before radios became cheap and the government granted licences for other stations to operate.) With time, the old kitchen table that held our pots and pans would be replaced and Ma would enjoy working on her two-burner kerosene stove. We as children were happy and carefree, but we had no idea what this, our new home, would have meant to our parents, who had struggled over the years to get to home base.

The Naipauls of Nepaul Street (ISBN 97818452323648) is published by Peepal Tree Press

pete oxford

ARRIVE

Destination 58 Guyana by the score

Explore 72 Falling for Havana

Neighbourhood 70

South Coast, Barbados

In the Bag 80

“In my dreams, my travel journals

look like illuminated manuscripts”

Guyana’s vast rainforests are home to hundreds of bird species and other extraordinary wildlife

pete oxford

destination

The Rupununi River is a wild playground at the heart of Guyana

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Guyana by the score Guyana, on an island scale, is vast: 83,000 square miles of Atlantic coast, mighty rivers, savannahs and forests stretching to the horizon. It can be overwhelming for a first-time visitor — so we’ll help you narrow it down. Here are twenty key places, events, and things that capture the true spirit of “the land of many waters”

1

The Rupununi

The Rupununi River — a tributary of the Essequibo — lends its name to this expanse of rolling savannahs in Guyana’s southwest, bisected by the Kanuku Mountains.

Sere grasslands dotted with sandpaper trees — named for the texture of their leaves — suddenly turn lush green with the arrival of the mid-year rains, and temporary lakes form as quickly as mirages. The river and its many creeks, lined

by strips of forest, are home to dozens of extraordinary species: from giant river otters to parrots and macaws.

Many indigenous communities of the Rupununi — such as Surama, Nappi, Rewa, and Wowetta — now run their own eco-tourism outfits, hosting visitors in rustic quarters and offering wildlife tours and trekking. And two of the immense cattle ranches established here in the nineteenth century survive as tourism outposts: Karanambo in the north and Dadanawa in the south, both offering familystyle rugged comfort.

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pete oxford

The celebrated Victoria amazonica lily, with its six-footwide leaves and night-blooming flowers, is a treasure of the Rupununi

2

Shell Beach

Near Guyana’s northernmost point, past the mouth of the Pomeroon River, a ninety-mile stretch of untouched coast is the annual nesting ground for no fewer than four species of endangered sea turtles. Unlike the Atlantic mudflats further south, Shell Beach is made of up countless seashells pulverised to sand: perfect terrain for sea turtles to lay their eggs in excavated nests.

Backed by mangrove forest and ité palms, the region is also famed for its diversity of bird species — everything from scarlet ibis to kingfishers, spoonbills to flamingoes. Visits to this remote region are organised via the Guyana Marine Turtle Conservation Society. Don’t be mistaken, this is no luxury vacation: the beach camp accommodation definitely qualifies as roughing it, but the extraordinary natural surroundings make it worth the effort.

3 Iwokrama Near Guyana’s geographical heart, on the west bank of the Essequibo River, the Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development manages 1,432 square miles of rainforest, a hotbed of biodiversity — and makes this pristine ecosystem accessible to visitors. A hike up Turtle Mountain to gaze down upon the unbroken forest, a nocturnal jaunt on the river looking for the bright eyes of submerged caiman, a heady climb along Iwokrama’s treetop canopy walkway — these adventures all help support the centre’s research and generate income to protect the rainforest for future generations.

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4

Pakaraima Mountains

Extending over five hundred miles from west to east, the Pakaraimas are among the world’s oldest mountains, part of the 1.7-billion-year-old Guyana Shield. They form the northernmost boundary of the Amazon basin, as well as the border region dividing Guyana from its neighbours Venezuela and Brazil. Many of the Pakaraimas are tepuis, distinctive flat-topped mountains that seem to float above the clouds like islands — and mightiest of all is Roraima, where the boundaries of Guyana, Venezuela, and Brazil converge. The best way to visit? Try the annual Pakaraima Safari, in which a convoy of intrepid 4x4s make their way through valleys and over passes down to the Ireng River.

5 1763 Monument Arguably Georgetown’s most significant public artwork, the 1763 Monument, designed by Philip Moore, stands at the head of Brickdam, one of the capital’s main avenues. Depicting the historical figure of the heroic revolutionary Cuffy, the monument commemorates the first major uprising of enslaved Africans in what was then Dutch Guiana — a full seventy years before Emancipation.

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Guyana seeks the best mix of local and foreign investments to drive a dynamic, diversified, and evolving economy. Investment opportunities abound in sectors such as agriculture, agro-processing, tourism, and manufacturing.

Guyana’s flat lands, rich soil, ample water resources, and temperate climate provide an incredible scope for investments in non-traditional agricultural cultivation of potatoes and onions, as well as tropical fruits and vegetables, including coconut, oil palm, plantains, pineapples, hot peppers, breadfruit, soursop, and ruminant production. Guyana’s unique geographic positioning and beneficial trade arrangements put it at the gateway of South America and the Caribbean, and allow for easy access to the North American market.

Guyana offers remarkable investment prospects for eco-tourism and recreational facilities, with unspoiled rainforests, rivers, plains, and exotic wildlife as well as flora and fauna, plus increased opportunities in aviation, transportation, residential and commercial construction, accommodation, and healthcare.

There are two international airports in Guyana with regular flights from several regional and international carriers, making this location accessible to international destinations.

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7 Orinduik Falls Where the Ireng River on its southward journey tumbles over jasper terraces, the Orinduik Falls offer a dramatic setting of cascades and pools. The Pakaraima Mountains loom in the distance and on the far side of the river, five hundred feet away, is Brazil. Remote on the map, Orinduik — with its nearby airstrip — is actually a popular destination for tourists, as it’s often included in the itinerary for a Kaieteur day-trip. Pack your swimming suit and towel!

8 Bartica and the Mazaruni At the confluence of the Essequibo, Mazaruni, and Cuyuni Rivers, Bartica still has a rough frontier charm befitting its status as the last outpost before the wilds of Guyana’s North West — the place where itinerant miners come to buy supplies, trade their mineral goods, and spend their hard-earned cash. The best reason to come here — if you’re not a budding gold prospector yourself — is the hour-long journey from Parika by speedboat, the perfect way to get a sense of the sheer size of Guyana’s largest river. Bartica is also the stopping-off point for one of Guyana’s key historical sites, the ruined Dutch fort of Kyk-Over-Al, on a small island in the Mazaruni. Thought to have been founded in 1613, the fort once represented Dutch colonial authority and ambition — but today all that’s left is a single stone arch.

At Orinduik, the Ireng River cascades over jasper terraces

6 Berbice

pete oxford

The third of the original Dutch colonies — alongside Essequibo and Demerara — the region of Berbice, named for its main river, has long been celebrated as the birthplace of Guyana’s greatest cricketers and writers — and for its fertile land, where sugarcane fields and rice paddies line the coast. The capital, New Amsterdam, still boasts a series of historic buildings, documented by the Guyana National Trust in the New Amsterdam Heritage Trail. A day-trip here from Georgetown is a fine way to see the Demerara coast, with its many villages still marking the boundaries between the old coastal plantations, and preserving their names.

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pete oxford

The Victorian clocktower of Stabroek Market is central Georgetown’s main landmark

9

Georgetown’s traditional architecture

The abundant timber of Guyana’s forests and the waterlogged soil of Georgetown led to a tradition of wooden architecture. Neglect, changing tastes, and fire have claimed many of the capital’s fine wooden residences, but enough of them survive to make it clear why Georgetown was considered the Caribbean’s loveliest city a century ago. You can do a self-guided tour on a morning’s stroll along Main Street and Camp Street — look out for traditional Demerara windows, intricate fretwork, and classical columns worked in native woods. And don’t miss St George’s Cathedral, with its pristine white exterior and awesome timber vaulting inside — completed in 1894, and still one of the world’s largest buildings constructed entirely of wood.

The Rupununi Savannah is still the territory of traditional vacqueiros

10 Stabroek Market Stabroek was what the Dutch called their settlement at the mouth of the Demerara River. Centuries later, the name survives in Georgetown’s landmark Stabroek Market, with its clocktower rising above a boisterous square that serves as a transport hub. Built in 1881, it remains the heart of a city in a phase of rapid change. Many shoppers now prefer shopping malls and supermarkets, but Stabroek Market is still a must-see for anyone visiting Georgetown. Any and everything seems to be offered for sale under its two-acre roof: from vegetables and fruit from farms along the coast and gleaming piles of river fish to jewellery crafted on the spot from Guyana’s highquality gold.

11 Lethem Rodeo

pete oxford

Horseback skills are still essential for many residents of the Rupununi, and once a year at Easter they gather in the plucky border town of Lethem to show off their tricks in the saddle. Vacqueiros (Portuguese for cowboys) in leather chaps and Stetsons vie in bronco-bucking and steer-roping competitions, with a funfair at hand to entertain the kiddies.

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Ramada Georgetown Princess Hotel +592 265 7009 (reservations) Track ‘BS’ Block ‘Z’ Plantation, Providence, EBD, Guyana, SA reservations@ramadageorgetown.com

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From the vantage-point of a small aircraft, Guyana’s rainforest stretches as far as the eye can see

12 Walter Roth Museum In an elegant old house on Main Street, the Water Roth Museum of Anthropology — named for a pioneering researcher of Guyana’s indigenous culture — houses a small but remarkable collection of artefacts from all of Guyana’s indigenous peoples (there are nine officially recognised “tribes,” depicted in a series of life-size paintings by artist and archaeologist Denis Williams, the museum’s former director). Look out in particular for the spectacular Wai-Wai headdresses decorated with macaw feathers.

13 Castellani House

pete oxford

Once the official residence of Guyana’s president, nineteenth-century Castellani House, on the edge of Georgetown’s Botanical Gardens, is now home to the national art collection — over seven hundred paintings, drawings, sculptures, and works in other media. Here you’ll find Denis Williams’s acclaimed Human World (1950) alongside works by Aubrey Williams, Stanley Greaves, Philip Moore, Bernadette Persaud, and dozens more. Castellani House also hosts a regular film series, free and open to all.

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ADVERTORIAL

14 A Guyana reading list Out of a rich cultural tradition, Guyanese literature is especially celebrated.

Where to start? Perhaps with The Guyana Quartet of Wilson Harris, who died in early 2018 — Guyana’s most eminent (and some might say most mindboggling) fiction writer, whose novels bring together elements of science fiction, philosophy, and historical analysis in an unmistakable landscape of forests and rivers. Or else with the poems of Martin Carter, Guyana’s literary conscience, whose subjects ranged from anti-colonial politics to the metaphysics of identity, and whose verses are imprinted in the memories of many of his readers. Or seek out the books of Jan Carew, A.J. Seymour, Ian McDonald (Trinidad-born, but Guyanese by adoption), Pauline Melville, Fred D’Aguiar, Jan Shinebourne, David Dabydeen, Mahadai Das, Oonya Kempadoo — the list is long, and growing.

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“A key focus of TOTALTEC is building the workforce of the future,” said Lars Mangal, president and CEO. The graduates of the two schools are making us proud. The feedback from companies where they are working has been very positive. The flexibility we offer through scholarships, sponsorships, and internships is being well received.” www.totaltec-os.com

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Left Guyana’s diverse cultural mix includes traditional and popular Indian music and dance

amanda richards

Below Sweetened coconut is the key ingredient in salara, a popular Guyanese pastry

The country’s many ethnic influences — Amerindian, African, Indian, Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese — give Guyana’s cuisine a mouth-watering diversity. The cassava extract cassareep is the heart of pepperpot, perhaps the closest thing to a national dish — unless that’s metemgee, a stew of meat, fish, ground provisions, and coconut milk. Then there’s roti: some swear that Shanta’s on Camp Street in Georgetown is the next best thing to the homemade version. Cookup rice, garlic pork, fried river fish — that’s even before you come to desserts, like salara, which looks like a Swiss roll but is filled with sweet coconut, or pineapple tart. Just remember: an old saying claims if you eat labba (a kind of wild meat) and drink creek water, you’ll find yourself returning to end your days in Guyana . . .

16 Diwali As in nearby Suriname and Trinidad, the Hindu festival of lights is a major celebration in Guyana’s calendar, with half of the country’s population descended from the Indian subcontinent. The days and weeks leading up to Diwali are a season of culture as much as faith, with numerous performances of music and dance. On the night of Diwali itself, illuminated parades bring a pageant of history to life in the streets, while Hindu Guyanese share magnificent feasts with their friends and neighbours.

17 Essequibo resorts Think of an island resort, and you probably imagine something in the Grenadines: a white sand island surrounded by turquoise water. A Guyanese resort may indeed possess white sand, but the water is more likely to be a CocaCola–tinted river, its waters stained by the tannins of fallen forest leaves.

And one of the most pleasant ways to experience the Guyanese rainforest is at one of the several resorts along and in the lower Essequibo River — Baganara Island, Shanklands, and Saxacalli are three of the best known. Here you’ll find comfortable cottages, ample meals made with local ingredients, traditional Guyanese hospitality, and the chance to explore river and forest with trained guides.

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amanda richards

15 Guyanese cuisine

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pete oxford

A calm stretch of the upper Essequibo, Guyana’s biggest river

18 Canals and kokers Much of the inhabited Guyanese coast, home to the greater part of the country’s population, lies below sea level. For that, we can thank the ingenious Dutch, who spent generations perfecting the complex series of dykes, canals, and sluice gates of their own low-lying country — and then brought the technology and know-how to their Guyanese colonies in the seventeenth century. You can spot the signs on the drive into Georgetown from the airport along the Demerara, and all through the city, and the drainage system is worth a closer look. Water collects in the canals, and at low tide the sluice gates — still called kokers, a Dutch word — are opened to drain them into the sea. And the whole system depends on and is protected by . . .

19 . . . the Sea Wall Stretching for miles and miles along the coast, this immense dyke shelters Georgetown and nearby villages, and also serves as a public gathering spot.

At its western end, near the mouth of the Demerara, the Georgetown Sea Wall features a Victorian bandstand and benches for taking in the view over the Atlantic. Strollers and joggers go back and forth across the wall itself, which is kite-flying central during the Easter season. On Friday nights, the stretch of Sea Wall on the city’s eastern outskirts becomes an informal outdoor party, as people park their cars, turn up their sound systems, and crack open bottles of El Dorado rum.

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20 Kaieteur Falls How could we complete the list without Guyana’s most celebrated natural attraction? Rising in the Pakaraima Mountains, the Potaro River flows across a great sandstone plateau, slowly eroded over many millennia. At the head of the Potaro Gorge, Kaieteur — as any Guyanese can tell you — is the world’s largest waterfall by volume, with a 741-foot plunge (that’s twice the height of Victoria Falls and four times the height of Niagara). The centrepiece of a national park, Kaieteur can be visited on an airborne day-trip from Georgetown — or you can opt for the more adventurous route, travelling upriver for four days and overnighting at the falls’ cosy guesthouse. n

Caribbean Airlines operates several flights daily to and from Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Guyana, with direct routes to Trinidad and North America and connections to other destinations

Vol.18 No.2

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courtesy barbados tourism authority

neighbourhood

South Coast, Barbados The sheltered south coast of Barbados is a visitors’ playground — but alongside crowded beaches and lively nightlife, you’ll find lots of history and touches of nature, too

Beach days

Streetscape

There’s no point coming to Barbados and resisting the call of the sea — and the south coast boasts some of the island’s most accessible beaches. Accra may be the most popular, and it’s easy to see why — broad stretch of white sand, warm turquoise water, laidback beach bar, and ample parking. Further east, Dover Beach is popular on weekends and located on the very doorstep of St Lawrence Gap. Head towards Oistins and you’ll stumble on Enterprise Beach, known to many locals as Miami Beach (above), quiet on weekdays and packed on weekends.

The stretch of coast between Needham’s Point to the west and South Point to the southeast is Barbados at its liveliest, and the island’s tourism hotspot. Close to the airport, blessed with a succession of splendid beaches, and well-connected by public transport to Bridgetown, the south coast boasts dozens of hotels and resorts, interspersed with quiet residential streets (gaps, as Bajans call them), restaurants, and bars galore. Few buildings rise higher than the treetops, and neat gardens and flowering shrubs still outnumber neon signs. There are areas that seem to never sleep — see St Lawrence Gap on the facing page — and dozy corners designed for quiet retreat.

The best way to take in the lie of the land — or, rather, the coast? A stroll along the boardwalk, which hugs the shore from Bridgetown, running south and east, with refreshing sea views and equally refreshing sea breezes.

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Come for the fish The small town of Oistins is the main fishing port and fish market in Barbados — the place to buy fresh flying fish to cook yourself at home, or, come Friday night, to enjoy the local delicacy prepared by the experts, delectably seasoned and fried over an open fire. The Friday-night fishfry is a Barbados must-see — or, rather, must-taste. And a must-dance?

Because alongside numerous fish vendors and open-air bars flowing with rum and Banks beer, music fills the air and the party runs late.

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Vroom, vroom

courtesy ins and outs of barbados

abovebarbados.com

Car fanatics — we all know one of those — should make a beeline for Pavilion Court in Hastings, home of the Mallalieu Motor Collection. For decades, businessman Bill Mallalieu has indulged his passion for classic cars, and for the modest admission fee you too can marvel at stylish autos dating back to the 1940s, from some of the most celebrated names in motoring: Bentley, Daimler, Volvo. Each vehicle is kept in perfect running order, and if you’re lucky enough to meet Mr Mallalieu himself, you’ll soon discover that each comes with a story of speed and daring.

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Georgian style On the southern outskirts of Bridgetown, the Garrison is an open-air history museum. Once the headquarters of the British West India Regiment, its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Georgian buildings surround the Garrison Savannah, formerly a military parade ground and now used for horse racing. Here you’ll find the National Cannon Collection, with more than two dozen historical armaments, and the landmark clocktower of the Main Guard building, now housing an information centre. The Barbados Museum occupies a building once used as a prison — some of the dark little cells are preserved as part of the exhibition displays, alongside period furniture, a map gallery to thrill cartophiles, and natural history specimens.

Not far away, the George Washington House (below) is named for the United States’ first president, who lived here for a few months in 1751, visiting Barbados with his brother — the founding father’s sole foreign trip.

Mind the gap

Co-ordinates 13º N 59.6º W Sea level

BARBADOS

Westend61 GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo

The most famous nightlife strip in Barbados, St Lawrence Gap has the proverbial something for everyone, from upscale dining to inexpensive street food, relaxed cafés to nightclubs pulsing through the wee hours, and bars of every description. This is the place to take in live music, have a first date, celebrate a special occasion, or drown your sorrows. The mile-long stretch of beachside road also includes hotels ranging from budget to budget-breaking, and even a church — perhaps for Sunday morning meditations after a wild Saturday night out.

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explore

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Falling for Havana Few cities in the world have such an aura of history and glamour as Havana.

As Donna Yawching writes, the Cuban capital has its gritty side — right next to world-class architecture, amazing culture, and a spirit that has to be experienced to be understood

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Havana’s classic cars are an icon of the city

uba: the very name evokes a social and political history that can fairly be called unique in the Caribbean, a history of revolution and defiance, of pride and pain and victory and more pain. It has stood unflinching against the greatest power in the world, and has suffered the consequences in countless ways — yet has somehow kept its sense of nationhood intact. Cuba, as one bus driver told me, is “una maravilla”!

Many of the country’s hard realities can be ascribed to the infamous US embargo (known locally as El Bloqueo), which has crippled Cuba’s economy and development for more than half a century, forcing her inhabitants to develop a resilience and an ingenuity seldom seen elsewhere.

Snubbed by the United States after Fidel Castro’s revolutionary army took control of the government on 1 January, 1959, the new administration turned to socialist Russia for support, and the rest was — sometimes very scary — history. When the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991, the sugar-daddy relationship that had kept Cuba afloat also crumbled, and the fledgling nation found itself facing very difficult times indeed.

Castro, always ready with a fine phrase, dubbed this time of deprivation the “Special Period.” The Cuban people, with their own wry humour, refer to it as “Los años de la vaca flaca,” the years of the thin cow. Basic foodstuffs were in short supply, and not only the cows were thin: it is estimated that the average Cuban lost about twenty pounds during the Special Period.

The solution was inevitable: Cuba — a beautiful island with some magnificent beaches — turned to international tourism in a desperate quest for hard currency. A society that had long been shut off from the Western world was suddenly courting visitors from Canada and Europe. Americans were legally banned (by their own government, with the threat of severe penalties) from travelling to the island.

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For years, Cuba’s tourism was restricted to the all-inclusive hotels in places like Varadero and Holguín, as the government attempted to safeguard the purity of its socialist revolution by keeping such crass capitalist enterprises in-house. But, under the table, a few people were still finding a way to skirt the rules, albeit on a very small scale. I recall my first visit to Cuba in 2006, when a local man approached me furtively and asked if I’d like a good home-cooked meal. My hotel’s food was uninspiring, to say the least, so I agreed — and had to follow him two steps behind so the ever-present police wouldn’t catch on.

It was all very cloak-and-dagger, and, thankfully, no longer necessary. In the last decade, necessity and common sense have led to a loosening of these strictures, and the system of casas particulares — rentals of rooms in private households — and paladares — privately owned restaurants — came into existence. The casas now offer a budget-conscious way to visit the island, as well as a far more authentic cultural experience for those who believe that travel is more than just piña coladas and salsa lessons on the beach.

Cubans have leapt onto the capitalist bandwagon with a gusto that must have made Castro’s revolutionary heart sink while he still lived. Anyone with a passable spare room can apply for a licence to put it up for rent. The resulting income has greatly improved the homeowners’ quality of life, and no doubt benefited the government’s coffers as well, since the rooms are highly taxed.

As is always the case with tourism, this change has been a mixed blessing: in heavily marketed tourist areas such as Varadero, Viñales, and Trinidad de Cuba, almost every house is either a casa or a restaurant (or both), to the point where the town

is nothing more than a tourist playground, all authenticity lost.

And, increasingly, people are leaving professional jobs because they can make more money renting out their guest room. Who can blame them? The official Cuban salary is exceedingly low by Western standards: anywhere from the equivalent of US$15 per month at the low end, to US$60 or so for doctors, for example.

Meanwhile, the basic casa room rents for US$20 to 25 a night, and up, depending on location and facilities.

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nd for a first visit to Cuba? The capital city is still the place to start.

I love Havana: it’s a dynamic place, full of contrasts, frustrations, and rewards. But it takes time, and a certain mindset, to fall for this city, which was once the pride of the Spanish empire. It is a streetscape of beautiful historic buildings, and — right next door — crumbling ruins.

The crippling of the Cuban economy by El Bloqueo left little money for maintenance, and magnificent buildings have literally fallen down.

In 1982, UNESCO — describing the city as “the most impressive historical city centre in the Caribbean and one of the most notable in the American continent as a whole,” with “many buildings of outstanding architectural merit” — designated Old Havana and its fortification systems a World Heritage Site. That in turn triggered significant restoration works in the intervening years.

Today, you will find lavishly restored buildings in some parts of the city (usually the tourist areas) and absolute squalour in others. Visitors with bemused faces stumble along on the erupted sidewalks, skirting piles of rubble and rubbish, trying not to look aghast. Yet, even on the worst-looking streets, this is

It takes time, and a certain mindset, to fall for Havana, which was once the pride of the Spanish empire

In a traditional bar in Old Havana, there’s always time for a cigar

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A leafy stretch of the Paseo del Prado

the safest city I know, day or night. And the Cuban people, hands down, possess the most irrepressible warmth and joyfulness of spirit in the world. I wouldn’t say this if it wasn’t true. Any salsa club will bear me out.

The trick to Havana is to ignore the grunge and seek out the culture. (Or, you could just stay in the Old City and down mojitos — that works too.)

Museums abound, some large, some eccentric — like the Museum of Playing Cards, or the Museum of Firemen. Be aware that most of the documentation will be in Spanish, with no translations — a particular drawback in the culturally important Museo de la Revolución, where almost all of the exhibits need to be read. Other displays, such as the Museo de la Ciudad and the Museo Napoleónico, are more accessible, and worth a visit, if only because of the splendid buildings that house them. And anyone interested in art will be bowled over by the splendid collection of paintings in the Cuban arm of the Museo de Bellas Artes (situated right behind the Museo de la Revolución).

In music and dance, too, Cubans are extraordinary. Some of the most exciting jazz to be heard anywhere can be found at La Zorra y el Cuervo, a nightclub on Avenida 23, any night of the week, starting at 10.30 pm. For salsa, the Casas de la Música (there are more than one, in different parts of the city) serve it up live and hot, and the locals take to the dance floor like

superstars. For traditional Cuban music, the intimate Patio de la EGREM (on somewhat sketchy Calle San Miguel, if you can find it) swings to the rhythms of son, salsa, or rumba every evening at 6.30 pm, ending at 8 — and again, it’s a dance party where all are welcome. For the uninitiated, private salsa lessons abound in Havana — it’s the new growth industry. Take a few, then head to EGREM or the lovely Hotel Florida on Calle Obispo to show off your shoulder-shimmy.

On Saturdays at 3 pm, check out the rumba jam at Calle 4 #103, hosted by the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional, and note that Cuban rumba is not that tame stuff you see on Dancing with the Stars. On a more classical note, the Alicia Alonso Ballet Company is worldrenowned, and can often be found at the Gran Teatro on the Prado, but tickets go fast.

The Gran Teatro is next door to the Capitolio, where the national government carries out its affairs. (The Capitolio was inspired by its Washington, DC, namesake, but — Cuban one-upmanship — its dome is twelve feet higher! It has recently reopened to the public, after eight years of restoration.)

Meanwhile, the Teatro Nacional, near the Plaza de la Revolución, is where you’re most likely to find classical music, while the Teatro Melia, on Linea, offers a varied programme of popular performers and contemporary dance groups. Its garden patio is often the scene of live music and dancing.

The Cuban people, hands down, possess the most irrepressible warmth and joyfulness of spirit in the world.

Any salsa club will bear me out

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The streets of Old Havana are alive with traditional music

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hose are the formal attractions. But much entertainment is to be had just sitting on the Paseo de Prado and watching the world go by. The wide eyed visitors; the young (and not so young) Cuban girls in skin-tight clothing; the young men dressed head to toe in dazzling white; the noisy knot of older men arguing over sports at the top of their voices. The live music wafting from the sidewalk terrace of the historic Hotel Inglaterra; the crazy traffic circus of cars, buses, taxis, bici-taxis, and horsedrawn carriages, all competing for the same space. And in the background, the line of fabulous vintage convertibles, pink and

yellow and blue, like a flock of exotic birds —high-finned Chevvies just waiting to whip you off on a tour of the city, racing down the Malecón with the wind in your hair. Yes, Havana can make this secret dream come true.

The Prado is the promenade that delineates the entrance into Old Havana, where music and mojitos await on every corner.

The Plaza Vieja, once the heart of the original city, has been splendidly restored with UNESCO’s assistance, and boasts what might possibly be the most eccentric piece of sculpture in the world, and certainly one of my favourites: a life-size

Some Cuba dos and don’ts Cuba is a very special place, but unexpected things can lessen your enjoyment. Here is a short list of practical tips.

1. Don’t, a big don’t, travel with US cash or credit cards.

You will be charged a hefty (ten per cent) premium on cash before the actual exchange rates, and US-based credit cards like American Express are not accepted, even in banks.

Blame it on the Bloqueo. Canadian and European cash and cards are fine.

2. Do change a small amount of your cash into Cuban pesos, a.k.a. Moneda Nacional, which is the local currency used by most Cubans. It is useful for buying small things, like street snacks, fruit, and bici-taxi rides.

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3. Don’t expect to find wi-fi everywhere. It’s still a work in progress. Your host or hotel can help you figure it out.

4. Don’t visit Cuba if you are physically handicapped, unless you have a lot of personal support. It is largely inaccessible to anyone with mobility issues. And washrooms will present insurmountable problems.

5. Speaking (generally) of washrooms, do carry a stash of your own toilet paper at all times.

6. Do, also, carry a plastic bag or shopping bag if possible.

Many shops and groceries do not offer them with purchases.

Martin Thomas Photography/Alamy Stock Photo

Passing the time in Havana’s Plaza Vieja

bronze woman, naked except for thigh-high boots, seated on an oversized, um, male chicken (you understand my hesitation), and carrying a giant dining fork. You’ll have to journey far to beat that one! Other popular streets in the historic area are Calles Obispo and Mercaderes. Artists’ studios, legendary bars, and street musicians abound, and the architecture is frequently splendid. The cathedral is also lovely, if you’re lucky enough to find it open.

Behind the Capitolio lies Havana’s version of Chinatown, possibly unique in the world, in that there are virtually no Chinese people, and — apart from an ostentatious arch at the mouth of Calle del Dragón — very little indication of Chinese culture. Apparently, there used to be a f lourishing little community, but the word “socialist” in Castro’s revolution acted like magic.

Bags were swiftly packed, and all that remains today is a small alley with two or three Chinese restaurants and caged songbirds for sale.

Getting around Havana can be overwhelming to the newcomer. There are municipal buses, which the locals call gua-guas (“wah-wahs”) because of their noisy diesel engines in the old days. They cost next to nothing, and are usually jampacked. Avoid them, unless you really know your way around.

Then there are the almendrones, which are the rattletrap old American cars dating from the 1950s, held together by faith,

love, and duct tape. These are collective taxis (common in the Caribbean) which run particular routes within the city. They are very cheap, but again, you need to know your way around, and have a certain amount of patience, since they run at will.

For the casual tourist, taxis or bici-taxis are the best bet, and quite reasonably priced.

To get to other parts of the island, the best option is the Viazul, the national bus line designed for tourists. Unlike the local gua-guas, these are large, comfortable coaches with padded seats and purring engines. They leave and arrive pretty much on time, and are priced very reasonably. However, it is advisable to purchase tickets at least a day or two in advance.

Other options are longdistance collective taxis, or renting a car. There is a rail network in Cuba, but it comes highly dis-advised

by Cubans themselves. As they point out, there are no toilets on board!

A common mistake made by visitors to Cuba is to think it’s “just a little island,” and try to visit too many places in a limited time.

Cuba is actually quite big, and journeys take longer than you would expect. It’s more rewarding to slow down and explore Havana in depth than to spend only two days there and then rush off to Viñales or Cienfuegos or Trinidad or Santiago. Allow yourself to open up slowly to this esoteric island. Allow yourself to be surprised — and, ultimately, enchanted. n

It’s more rewarding to slow down and explore Havana in depth than to spend only two days there and then rush off to Viñales or Cienfuegos or Trinidad

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in the bag

“In my dreams, my travel journals look like illuminated manuscripts” Georgia Popplewell — Trinidadian writer, media producer, and frequent traveller — on one essential item in her luggage: a decent notebook Photography by Georgia Popplewell

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few months ago, I came across a tiny camel-coloured, leatherette-covered pocket diary, the kind that was popular years ago and often came with a miniature pencil that fit into the spine. This one was filled with notes and scribbles, including, on the January 3rd page, the Paris address of a writer I admired, scrawled in ballpoint ink that had soaked into the thin paper over time to give the letters an oily blue halo. What I was planning to do with the address I can’t now remember: stalking isn’t my style, but I might not have been averse to lurking in a nearby café and engineering a chance meeting.

I have a cupboardful of such notebooks and diaries, in various styles and sizes and degrees of shabbiness — a tangible, if disorganised, record of parts of my life, including some I’d rather forget. Some are primarily work-related and filled with schedules and diagrams and notes and ideas for projects that never came into being and meetings I don’t recall having attended. But most are a hybrid, as I’ve never been good at setting firm boundaries between my work and play lives.

A part of this record exists in digital form, in an array of text files created during the period when my faith in the security and everlastingness of digital media was unshaken, and I revelled in the illusion of control over the contents of these files, including the ability to search and find at will, and their near-invisible physical “footprint.” But lately I’ve returned to pen — mostly fountain — and paper, and my shelves have begun filling up once more. These tools have made a good dent in my wallet, for paper that tolerates liquid ink doesn’t come cheap these days. But I tell myself that in this time of devices and consumption a shelf of personal notebooks, even filled with little of consequence, is a sign that one has resisted, in some small way, the tendencies of the age.

These days, my daily journal is an A5 notebook, often a hardcover, which measures roughly six by eight inches. A softcover A5 contains most things related

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to my work life. A pair of smaller notebooks live in my handbag, strapped together between leather covers — one for shopping lists, the other devoted to on-the-go journal entries, notes, and the odd sketch.

Another small notebook sits at my bedside.

This proliferation of notebooks has implications for travel, of course, especially in this era of shrinking baggage allowances, and while packing for a recent twenty-six-day, six-city trip, I decided to leave the A5s at home and experiment with a smaller format. I took along a few different sizes, but the final record of my travels ended up between the covers of three smaller notebooks, which turned out to be just the right size to carry around in my handbag for note-taking on the go, but still worked for “proper” journaling after hours.

These tools have made a good dent in my wallet In my dreams, the pages of my travel journals look like illuminated manuscripts or high-class scrapbooks, richly embellished with watercolour sketches, gorgeous hand-lettering, and a carefully curated selection of museum tickets and other mementos from my travels. In reality, they’re mostly filled with my handwriting, which isn’t bad but hardly calligraphic, and the mementos are bundled together and stored away in a manila envelope.

On this recent trip, however, I made a small step in the direction of improving the aesthetic appeal of my notebooks, by adorning the covers and spines with postage stamps. This had the added benefit of making them more easily identifiable on my bookshelves. Maybe this is the start of something. n

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ENGAGE

Green 88 Jaws of

life

On This Day 94 A plague from above

Since Biblical times, locusts have been feared for the damage they can do to crops

green

Jaws of life Sharks may be the most feared of ocean species, but that reputation belies their key role in keeping marine ecosystems healthy. In fact, a sea without sharks is a sea in dire trouble.

As Erline Andrews reports, after decades of neglect, serious efforts are finally under way to protect the Caribbean’s sharks — which could be good for tourism, too 82

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n late 2017, aquatic environment experts from around the Americas came together at UN House in Marine Gardens, Barbados, for the region’s biggest-ever meeting devoted to the ocean’s most important resident. The building’s sleek exterior is dominated by glass panes as azure as the water off the beaches surrounding many Caribbean islands, making the location even more fitting.

“Sharks play an important role in maintaining the balance of marine ecosystems,” said Vyjayanthi Lopez, a representative from the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, welcoming more than thirty men and women from fifteen countries, which included the United States, the biggest, and Antigua and Barbuda, the smallest.

The FAO organised the meeting.

“Aside from contributing to the ecological sustainability of marine life,” Lopez continued, “the shark species also contribute to social and economic sustainability.”

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The Barbados meeting was the culmination of a burst of activity within recent years, after decades of apathy that saw shark numbers dwindle because of overfishing and habitat destruction. About a third of shark and ray species in the Americas are listed as endangered, vulnerable, or threatened by the international organisation responsible for keeping track. But the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has only been able to give assessments for species for which there are enough data to make a determination. Almost half of the sharks and rays in the region have been deemed “data deficient” — not enough information has been collected about them.

To help make up lost ground in shark monitoring and protection, a couple of data collection projects started in 2012, with the Belize-based research organisation MarAlliance using underwater cameras, tagging, and other techniques to track sharks and rays in Belize, Cuba, and elsewhere in the region. In 2015, Florida International University started the Global FinPrint, a three-year underwater camera survey of sharks and rays around the world. Researchers in the Caribbean countries of Belize, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands are participating.

The only legally binding multilateral agreement to protect wildlife in the Caribbean, the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (known as the SPAW Protocol), last year for the first time extended protections to sharks and rays, prohibiting the commercial exploitation of one type of sawfish and listing whale sharks, oceanic

About a third of shark and ray species in the Americas are listed as endangered, vulnerable, or threatened whitetip sharks, hammerhead sharks, and manta rays as vulnerable and in need of fishing controls.

In 2015 and 2016, environmental philanthropist Richard Branson cohosted symposia in the Bahamas and Sint Maarten, bringing government leaders together to hear marine experts and activists promote shark sanctuaries, areas prohibiting shark fishing and the trading of shark parts. This led to a group of Caribbean countries declaring their waters as shark sanctuaries.

Shark sanctuaries around the world are located in areas that rely on sun and sea to attract tourists. And the health of the sea relies on sharks, which are at the top of the ocean food chain. Like other predators, they control the populations of animals lower on the chain and maintain balance in nature.

The Bahamas established the first shark sanctuary in the Caribbean in 2011. It was followed by the British Virgin Islands (2014), the Caribbean Netherlands (Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Bonaire, 2015), the Cayman Islands (2016),

Why sharks matter When most people in the Caribbean think of sharks, they either imagine them as scary predators — thanks to pop-culture depictions like Jaws — or, conversely, as a source of meat. But shark species play a major role in keeping marine ecosystems healthy. At the top of the ocean food chain, sharks help keep fish populations in check.

When sharks disappear, other fish species can explode in numbers, throwing things off balance. Other carnivorous fish start to dominate, at the expense of algae-eating fish which keep coral reefs healthy.

There’s another reason to protect sharks in the tourism-dependent Caribbean.

Around the world, shark tourism is estimated to earn more than US$300 million per year, as eco-tourists pay to observe and experience sharks in the wild. It’s already a thriving business in the Bahamas, and other Caribbean countries stand to benefit also — if they can keep their shark populations from disappearing.

Sint Maarten (2016), Curaçao (2016), and Grenada (2016). “Our surveys have shown that most tourists come for our pristine waters and vibrant marine ecosystem,” says Johanna Kohler, a shark researcher and conservationist in the Cayman Islands. “Most divers love to see sharks when diving, and even tourists who don’t want to see a shark while diving or swimming appreciate knowing that sharks are present, because it is a well-known fact that sharks are important to our oceans.”

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ne country on its own can protect the animals in its land space. The sea is a different prospect, especially in a region as small as the Caribbean. To have any real impact, efforts to protect marine life need the involvement of all or most countries in the region.

“We’ve tagged a tiger shark in Sint Maarten, and it swam the breadth of the Caribbean,” says Tadzio Bervoets, who’s heading a research and public education project in the Dutch Caribbean called Save Our Sharks. “It swam all the way to Trinidad, then it went to Barbados, hung out there for a while. Then it swam up to the Dominican Republic, almost made it to Jamaica. Now it’s hanging around Puerto Rico,” he says.

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Tadzio Bervoets/courtesy Nature Foundation Sint Maarten

Tagging a shark off Sint Maarten

“It’s not like the shark is not going to go to St Lucia because there’s a risk of being caught there. A joint effort has to be put in place to manage our ocean resources sustainably.”

The FAO’s Caribbean reps have put together what’s called an RPOA — a regional plan of action to protect sharks. The hope is that each country will take the RPOA and design an NPOA — national plan of action — that meets its own needs and abilities, empowered through legislation and enforcement.

An IPOA — international plan of action — was already issued by the FAO at the turn of the century. Only four Caribbean countries — Cuba, Belize, Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda — followed up with an NPOA. As laid out in the RPOA, shark conservation efforts would require research, training, enforcement, monitoring, public education, and financial investment. Countries are at different stages of making the commitment.

Jamaica was not part of the FAO meeting, and it has not ratified the SPAW Protocol. The country’s attitude has a possible explanation in an academic survey of divers conducted between 2015 and 2016, to analyse the effectiveness of shark sanctuaries by comparing them to places without sanctuaries.

The researcher couldn’t get participants from Jamaica — she was told, “there are no sharks here.” This may not necessarily be the case, Barbadian marine biologist Nikola Simpson explains.

“The average individual is highly unlikely to see a shark where they usually swim. Most sharks are found further offshore,” she says. “It’s hard to tell what our regional population [of sharks] is because no one has really done an extensive study of it.”

Trinidad and Tobago did have a representative at the FAO meeting. The country’s support for shark conservation is important, because it is a major shipping point in the shark fin trade, which provides the main ingredient for a popular Asian soup. The trade has been condemned because it leads to the cruel and wasteful practice — called finning — of cutting off a shark’s fins and throwing the dismembered animal, still alive, back into the sea to drown or be eaten.

T&T also has its own popular shark-based dish: bake and shark. The country has ratified the SPAW Protocol, and at the FAO meeting indicated that it planned to draft an NPOA. In 2014, alarmed that it ranked high on a list of the countries that were the biggest exporters of shark fins, the government added T&T to the growing list of countries that banned finning. But there’s skepticism about how well the ban is being enforced.

“We are an international shark trade hub,” says Trinidadian environmentalist Marc de Verteuil. “If we were an international ivory trade hub, there would be a greater sense of emergency.”

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nd as some countries decide on whether or when to act, there’s disagreement about how exactly to act. There are reasons to doubt the effectiveness of shark sanctuaries. “Any fishing, especially with nets and longlines, is going to catch sharks and negate the basis of a sanctuary,” says Rachel Graham, a renowned shark researcher and conservationist who founded and runs Belize’s MarAlliance.

Sanctuary legislation mandates the release of incidentally caught sharks. But, says Graham, “fishers usually leave nets and longlines to soak for several hours if not overnight, and there is therefore little chance that most captured sharks or rays will survive. I much prefer a focus on banning the use of certain fishing gears that are really unsustainable, like nets. Or at least restricting their use during certain seasons.”

Graham recommends “some really wellenforced closed seasons, so females can live to give birth and pups have a fighting chance to grow.” She adds: “And the areas where the young pups grow up — called nursery areas, which also benefit many other marine species when they’re young — might be set aside for more stringent protection.”

The FAO researchers, writing in a report following the Barbados meeting, agree there’s no single way to protect sharks. It will take multiple different actions by each country in the region, making adjustments for the particular conditions in that country. This makes shark conservation in the Caribbean a complicated process. The FAO sets a long-term timeframe of seven to ten years for implementation of the recommendations in the RPOA. The worry, of course, is the likelihood of irreversible depletion of shark species, harming not only the environment and national economies, but robbing us of learning from and enjoying the presence of these often misunderstood creatures. Part of speeding up the shark conservation process is convincing people that sharks should be treasured, not feared.

“I know people are afraid of them, but they’re amazing,” says Nikola Simpson. “When you see them in the water, it puts everything into perspective. They gracefully glide through the water.

They’re beautiful.”

“Quite often you’re lucky to see a shark,” she adds. “There’s a quote I use sometimes. I can’t remember who it’s by. It says, ‘If you’re in the ocean and you don’t see sharks, you should be afraid.’ If you are diving where you expect to see sharks and you don’t, then you know something is wrong.” n

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on this day

A plague from above Thirty years ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Gilbert, another apparent disaster arrived in the Caribbean, without precedent: a vast swarm of desert locusts, blown across the Atlantic. But as James Ferguson recounts, the voracious insects didn’t manage to thrive in our region Illustration by Rohan Mitchell

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plague of locusts is not something to be taken lightly. When, in the Book of Exodus, God was threatening Pharaoh in order to force him to let the Israelites escape slavery in Egypt, He had a number of unpleasant sanctions in mind: frogs, lice, hail, boils, and locusts. “They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields.”

God was, of course, referring to the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), one of Creation’s less thought-through products. Plagues of these voracious creatures have been making a misery of the lives of farmers in the Middle East and Africa for thousands of years. Eating their own weight in vegetation each day, their arrival can spell disaster for almost any crop, ranging from rice to bananas.

Locusts are most destructive when swarming in large groups (hence their Latin name), and can number up to a hundred billion in a vast cloud

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covering as much as 1,200 square kilometres. The swarming process, which transforms the normally solitary insect into a tiny part of a ravenous horde, usually occurs after a period of drought, and is an aerial search for vegetation. As the locusts swarm, they reach up to two thousand metres in altitude, carried along by winds, and covering up to two hundred kilometres per day.

They have gone as far north as Spain and Russia, and as far south as Kenya and Nigeria.

With this in mind, you might be excused for thinking that with nearly five thousand kilometres of ocean separating the west coast of Africa and Barbados, the Caribbean would be safe from any locust-related plague. But you would be wrong. Thirty years ago, in early October 1988, the first-ever reported arrival of desert locusts in the region took place, due in large part to unprecedented meteorological conditions.

The previous month had witnessed the devastating arrival of Hurricane Gilbert, which left a trail of destruction from the Windward Islands to Jamaica, before crashing into Mexico and Central America. A total of 318 people lost their lives and damage worth an estimated US$2.98 billion was recorded between 8 and 19 September. But nature, it seemed, had not finished its destructive work. A series of tropical storms and depressions followed, including Hurricane Joan, which developed off the African coast on 5 October and ravaged the region from 15 October to 2 November.

According to one theory, the development of Joan coincided with locust swarms moving from the desert of Mauritania towards fertile Senegal, at which point strong winds blew many of the insects out to sea. “Swarms take flight during the day, increasing the possibility that thermal updrafts will carry the insects to high altitudes where they can be transported by fast-moving, upper-level wind currents,” said Professor Nathan Lovejoy of the University of Toronto.

Pointing to another African coast tropical disturbance on 9 October, Calvin R. Grey of Jamaica’s National Meteorological Service observed that “It took six days for the Atlantic crossing, a distance of about three thousand miles. Fast-

Locusts are most destructive when swarming in large groups, and can number up to a hundred billion in a vast cloud moving indeed. Now, a low-level jet of 29 to 40 miles per hour was associated with this tropical wave and the wind speeds decelerated rapidly on reaching the Windward Islands, possibly allowing the locusts to drop down in that area.”

Vast swarms had been reported in the Cape Verde islands, and then ships further west in the Atlantic radioed news of sightings. The first evidence of their arrival was the infestation of an AMOCO oil platform thirty miles off the east coast of Trinidad, followed by further cases of positive identification in a dozen more islands. A subsequent report by the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation in Agriculture estimated that around one hundred million locusts had made the journey, with St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica worst affected. One of six swarms arriving in Dominica was thought to have numbered twenty million.

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nxiety among regional governments was understandable. According to journalist Canute James, “The agriculture sector is the main support behind the domestic and export economy in most countries in the eastern Caribbean. Agriculture accounts for 28 per cent of gross domestic product in Dominica, 22 per cent in Grenada, and 14 per cent and 17 per cent in

St Lucia and St Vincent, respectively.”

But, despite these alarming numbers and statistics, damage was limited. In Dominica, the locusts fed on coconut and cedar trees and on some crops, but time was against them. There, and across the wider region, they began to disappear rapidly after a period of five to ten days.

Their extinction seemed to be based on several factors. They were exhausted after their transatlantic odyssey and unable to recover. They were victims of local predators, especially cattle egrets and blackbirds, which feasted on this gastronomic novelty. Above all, they were out of their environmental comfort zone in the moist, tropical, and post-hurricane climate of the Caribbean. Desert dwellers, they were simply not cut out for a life in the islands.

Yet the mystery remained of how the locusts had managed, for the first time in recorded history, to travel across the Atlantic. Certainly the exceptional weather conditions, with strong westerly winds propelling them from Africa, was a vital factor. But there was another, rather more grisly, hypothesis discussed in National Geographic News in December 2005: Another possibility is that locusts flying at the front of the swarm may have become exhausted and died in the ocean, forming floating mats of dead insects. Other members of the swarm could have landed on these mats.

“Locusts are quite cannibalistic, so it seems very likely that they could have fed upon the corpses below, thereby obtaining enough energy to sustain additional flight,” said Greg Sword, a research ecologist with the US Department of Agriculture.

Sword had inter v iewed Barbadians who reported that masses of dead locusts had been washed up on beaches for several days in November 1988, thereby supporting this hypothesis.

“Because a single swarm can contain billions of locusts, it could create a series of ‘rafts of the dead’ and still contain enough live insects to reach the Americas in large numbers.”

In any case, this particular plague was to prove short-lived in a region prone to other natural threats, not least hurricanes. But to return to plagues, Exodus, and the Israelites: it seems that locusts have become the snack of choice since an invasion in March 2013, in — Israel. Considered kosher, the insects are now receiving a taste of their own medicine, as they are farmed then deep-fried and devoured. You can even buy them ready-prepared under brand names such as Crunchy Critters. n

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Spot the Difference

by James Hackett There are 12 differences between these two pictures. How many can you spot?

Spot the Difference answers The man has different shoe styles; the woman has different prints on her dress; there are more details on the man’s cap; the man’s shirt is different; the woman’s handbag has different details; the woman’s hair is different; the man’s stall has a different sign; the top of the stall is in different colours; the stall’s umbrella has different patterns; the building at back right is different; there are birds in the sky in the left image; did you notice the hanging wires?

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Caribbean Airlines CARIBBEAN Trinidad Head Office Airport: Piarco International Reservations & information: + 868 625 7200 (local) Ticket offices: Mezzanine Level, The Parkade, Corner of Queen and Richmond Streets, Port-of-Spain; Golden Grove Road, Piarco; Carlton Centre, San Fernando Baggage: + 868 669 3000 Ext 7513/4

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classic

It’s a brown world

A favourite from the magazine archives: Caroline Taylor on the complications of her multi-ethnic heritage, first published in our January/February 2004 issue

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visual generation/shutterstock.com

“

sssst! Red gyal! Spanish!”

After “family,” those are the greetings I most often get from our always-friendly Trini male population. You may accuse them of being boldfaced, but you can’t say they don’t have a strong grasp of Trini ethnography. Brown skin and curly hair, like mine, usually mean a girl is one of two things: “red” (a white-and-black mix), or “Spanish” (some mix of white, black, Indian, Chinese, or any or all of the above). So Trinis basically have their finger on the ethnic pulse.

Step outside of Trinidad, however, and it’s a totally different melting pot.

I guess I should not have been surprised to find people in the United States misclassifying me. I spent the first two years of university in a sleepy New England town, where the school and the neighbourhood were mostly white. Most people thought I was either Latina or South Asian, until they heard me speak.

The characteristic Trini singsong is a dead giveaway. But when in my third year I studied in New York and London, cities much more ethnically diverse and complex, I could have been anything. There seemed to be no end to the possibilities of who I was, or the ethnic groups who assumed I was one of them. In New York, people would start talking to me in Spanish. Not even a preparatory “Hablas español?” They were warm and familiar and treated me like a new neighbour. After sleepwalking through seven years of Spanish in school, I would try to stop them. “Lo siento, no hablo español!” I would protest. They would stare at me, baffled. Looking like this, how could I not be Hispanic, probably Puerto Rican or Dominican? (Actually, this was useful, because I discovered that nobody could work wonders with my hair like the Dominicans.)

But I was claimed by other groups, too. Sometimes I was South Asian, sometimes Arab, sometimes even Jewish. Airport security officers regularly pulled me out of queues to see if I was a terrorist. I earned a multi-ethnic nickname: Lupe Muhammed.

As politically incorrect as it comes in this xenophobic world, but there you are.

Nobody in London talked to me in Spanish. The Hispanic

community there is much smaller, mainly from Spain, with a few South Americans. But as I walked among the ethnic shops and neighbourhoods, I collected a whole new set of identities. I was definitely Middle Eastern, right? No, no, she’s North African, can’t you see?

I had the greatest trouble with the Turks, who flatly refused to believe I was not Turkish. One of them even began speaking in Arabic, to see if I would give myself away by betraying some understanding of that language. Another, who ran a Turkish restaurant, was so intrigued that he started making plans to come to Trinidad to see for himself. Like a true Trini, I’m hoping to collect a commission from the Trinidad and Tobago tourist office.

If you look at the ethnic cauldron that is the Caribbean, and the cosmopolitan cities of the north, it’s not hard to see that one day we shall be a beautiful, brown world. No more wrangling over classifications, no more “us-and-them.” So, as a born-andbred multi-racial Trini Caribbean girl, I am the face of the future.

Take dat!

I suppose there will still be light brown, dark brown, khaki brown, brown with kinky hair or straight hair, brown eyes or green. But I’ll leave that haggling to the next generation, and enjoy my ability to “pass.” At least it gets me a discount at that Turkish restaurant. n

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