Over the years that I spent researching and writing the biography of Sir Frank Worrell, I often referred to him—sharing snippets and soliciting information—through this column. The book, Son of Grace, was published six months ago, and I found myself curiously unable to mention its existence, feeling awkward to say …
Read More »Vaneisa: Teaching our history to younger generation would enrich our societies
Discovering Frank Worrell through a comic book was a powerful moment in my primary school days. A voracious reader, I was growing up with the idea that heroic figures were remote figures from faraway lands. The one major investment in books in our home had been a set of encyclopaedias …
Read More »Vaneisa: “We curse off the WI cricketers for being us”—a case of us and them
We can divide the discussions into two. The internal, what’s happening inside the body of West Indies cricket, its circuitry; and the external, the factors contributing to its current state. It’s really an analogy for the state of our region. Everything applies to what’s happening in our societies. We have …
Read More »Brinsley Samaroo: A Historian of the People who saw potential all around him
I first met UWI Professor Emeritus Dr Brinsley Samaroo many years ago on a radio programme, where I brought up an aspect of race relations in Trinidad and Tobago that I thought his explanation was missing. He agreed with me, and we spoke for a long time following the programme. …
Read More »Noble: Indian Arrival Day provides opportunity to reflect on persistent struggle to control immigrants
I am sure you would remember this truism: “Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder!” I accepted this aphorism as a means of teaching that persons could have divergent views about the same incident. Professor Richard Drayton at King’s College, London, in 2011, wrote: “History is not merely reflection; …
Read More »Vaneisa: The Sabina mystery continues—inspirational tale, or historical misinformation?
Alas, the mystery of Sabina Park’s name remains a matter of speculation. Three things are clear however. There was a woman named Sabina Park. There was a place called Sabina Park Pen, and Sabina Park is a Test ground in Jamaica. The most probable explanation is that the ground was …
Read More »Dear Editor: The African legacy of Tobago’s Davidsons and Denoons
“[…] With a family tree consisting of thousands of relatives, this important aspect of our history—which was researched and confirmed by Dr Jeff Davidson, former leader of the Tobago House of Assembly—was told to me as a child, and narrated during our great family reunions over in Tobago. “Knowing our …
Read More »Vaneisa: History matters; why Min of Education should promote Prof Brereton’s pioneering collection
True story: ‘In 1919—over 80 years after Emancipation—a Trinidadian petitioned the King for compensation for 31 freed persons previously owned by his grandfather, which he claimed had never been paid.’ It’s one of the astonishing tales recounted by Professor Emerita Bridget Brereton in her newly released book, History Matters: Selected …
Read More »Claude’s comments: To Javier Carbajosa, Ambassador of Spain—the mother of white supremacism
Are we truly a banana republic? Or have we gotten too accustomed to the imperial arrogance of US ambassadors? Is the government beholden to Spain to such a degree that we have to servilely kowtow to the absurdities thrown at us by Spanish Ambassador Señor Javier Carbajosa Sanchez? As other …
Read More »Culturecide, subversion and African hair: Dr Fergus on ‘Dada’ hair and ‘Bantu’ knots
The scale of natural justice weighs negatively against the Ministry of Education for allowing 2019 to end without unambiguously prohibiting discrimination against natural African hair texture and basic African hairstyles, and mandating school administrators to root out the practice whenever it rears its ugly head. Ultimately, it might necessitate amending …
Read More »“Children like when I call them by their names!” Day in the life of a security guard
“Sometimes I am so disoriented that I don’t even know what day of the week it is, to be honest. One shift is usually 12 hours. Sometimes we work 36 or 48 hours; but most times it is 24 hours. “If no relief is sent for me when I’m done …
Read More »Of what bloody use is (African) history anyway? Gilkes responds to trivialisation of non-Western narratives
What the hell is History good for anyway? I mean really? Well I suppose the answer depends on what you use History for. Napoleon Bonaparte called it a set of lies mutually agreed upon, which is a very important point to consider when studying how the West has used ‘history’ …
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