"The beauty of the people’s first language"

April 30, 2008

In the current issue of the Guyana Review, Allan Fenty shares his memories of the late Wordsworth McAndrew: You would have hardly known from Wordsworth that he had been “a QC boy.” Not that he was modest, but he communicated his preference for “the University of the streets.” That is why he traversed the entire [...]

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May 2008 CRB: sneak preview

April 30, 2008

I am happy to report, dear readers, that the May issue of the CRB–which has occupied most of your humble Antilles blogger’s attention in recent weeks–is now in the hands of the printers, and will shortly be in the hands of subscribers. With this issue, the CRB in its current incarnation is four years old [...]

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Archie Markham remembered

April 27, 2008

Thanks to Antilles reader Alastair Bird for pointing me to two recent obituaries of E.A. Markham; one, unsigned, published a few days ago in the Telegraph, and the other by Peter Fraser in yesterday’s UK Guardian. Fraser includes this tidbit: Normally efficient, especially in his writing, he seemed to attract things that went awry, whether [...]

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Links, links, links

April 27, 2008

- The first proper review in the Trinidad and Tobago press of Patrick French’s Naipaul biography, The World Is What It Is–by Suzanna Clarke in Newsday. – Naipaul’s most recent book, A Writer’s People, has only just been published in the US–his American publisher there is lagging six months behind his British one, for who [...]

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"He always wore rubber slippers"

April 27, 2008

More on the late Wordsworth McAndrew in today’s Stabroek News; a brief statement by Guyana’s minister of culture, Frank Anthony, and a tribute by Oscar Ramjeet, which includes this entertaining reminiscence: Mac got the headlines in the newspaper when he rode off with his English bride on his bicycle after his wedding, wearing a dashiki [...]

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R.I.P. Wordsworth McAndrew, 1936-2008

April 26, 2008

The Guyanese writer, folklorist, and broadcaster Wordsworth McAndrew–“one of the most influential advocates for the collection, preservation and celebration of Guyanese folk life”, as today’s Stabroek News puts it, in some ways the Guyanese equivalent of Louise Bennett–died yesterday in New Jersey, at the age of 72. The Signifyin’ Guyana blog has posted a tribute [...]

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"Homme-volcan, Homme-révolte…."

April 24, 2008

Chimurenga, the literary journal based in Cape Town, has posted two tributes to Aimé Césaire on its website: a poem, “Quand Aimé Césaire disparut”, by Henri-Michel Yéré, and “Aimé Césaire: Le volcan s’est éteint”, an essay by Achille Mbembe. Quand Aimé Césaire disparut, les morceaux de roc étalés au sol regardaient ébahis le dos de [...]

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Hommage à Césaire

April 21, 2008

Before Aimé Césaire, only three French writers were given the honour of a state funeral: Victor Hugo, Paul Valéry, and Colette. Both Le Monde and Le Figaro point this out in their coverage of Césaire’s funeral on Sunday afternoon in Fort-de-France. Both newspapers have also posted galleries of images of the ceremonies. Le Monde: “Fort-de-France [...]

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Links, links, links

April 20, 2008

- In the Stabroek News, Al Creighton takes a look at the career of Sabga Award-winning David Dabydeen, and in the Trinidad Newsday Kevin Baldeosingh reports on Dabydeen’s talk last Monday at the National Library in Port of Spain: “Books are what we are. Long after we’ve forgotten who the Prime Minister of Trinidad and [...]

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"Paris soit ce soir une ville martiniquaise"

April 19, 2008

“This evening, Paris is a Martinican city”–a rather lovely line (roughly translated) from the speech made earlier by Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, at a memorial ceremony for Aimé Césaire. Le Figaro reports: Une minute de silence. Puis une veillée avec chants et musique créole. «Aux Antilles, la mort n’est pas un moment de [...]

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Remembering Césaire

April 19, 2008

Aimé Césaire on the front page of today’s Le Monde Some more of the tributes to Aimé Césaire that have appeared online since his death on Thursday: For poets such as Césaire, freedom is not an abstract idea. His legacy is for us to pursue freedom (self-actualization) in the body and the mind—the abilty to [...]

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