Members' Page

OBITUARIES

Dr. Ivan Perot M.D.

We lost one of our members, Dr Ivan Perot, M.D. from Trinidad in 2005. On seeing CACOEU TALK for the first time, just months before he died, Dr Perot expressed a wish to play an important part in the production of future CACOEU TALK Issues. He would be sadly missed by the editorial team. We extend belated condolences to his family in Trinidad.

John La Rose (1927-2006)

John La Rose was born in Trinidad in 1927. He lived in Finsbury Park, London for many years and was an inspiration to many young and new West Indian writers.

He founded New Beacon Books in 1966, introducing West Indian writers to the British public and encouraging aspiring writers to publish their books. He published Petronella Breinburg's first book Legends of Suriname in 1971. He would be missed by many academic Caribbean Londoners as well as anyone interested in Caribbean affairs. Everyone who knew John has a 'special' story to relate about him, his kindness, his generosity and his humour. Our thoughts are with his family.

NEW PUBLICATION BY DR PETRONELLA BREINBURG

Petronella Breinburg of the Children's committee has taken her first step into the world of The Novel for 'Adults'. She had taken one of the leading characters from her young novel for 15/16 year-olds, made him 19 years old, placed him in an adult college and sat back to see what happened. According to the back cover, 'INSTEAD OF ROSES AND RINGS' is a story of friendship, romance, love and mystery.

Nineteen-year Chris, a student returning to education, and his twenty -nine-year old supervisor, known as the 'Iceberg', have only two things in common: they are both human and share the same gender. That was where their commonality ended.

The story weaves back and forth, physically and through dreams and fantasy from the safe confines of the college to a rundown council house and an exclusive residence; a tribal religious marriage in the French Caribbean; and back to London to culminate in an apparent supernatural event.

Published by petrojass Publication, PO box 27966, London SE7 8WY

AWARD FOR DR PETRONELLA BREINBURG

Petronella Breinburg was presented with a Lifelong Achievement Award in Amsterdam on 16 April. The award was given by 'Podium Kwakoe' a cultural and literary organisation.

She gave her report of the associated event, a party and poetry reading thrown in her honour, saying: "there was a live band on stage, with couple of young people going up to sing me a song, this included a five year old girl. Live music and dance, drinks and food and after I was made to 'open the floor' as it is known. We, the literary addicts, went upstairs for quiet reading and discussion. Three poems where written and presented specially for me."

Petronella says she was "delighted and honoured" to receive the award.

CO-ABITARE

Co Abitare (living together) is an exhibition of carpets made by the Venetian Artist Anna Moro-Lin, on show at the Museo di Palazzo Mocenigo in Venice until 28th February, 2004.

Anna was waiting for the New Year 2003 to arrive with me in London when she began to plan her Art project for 2004. In January 2003, Anna asked her friends to write a short piece about themselves. She received forty replies, including poems, autobiographies, drawings, a music score, a family tree, and a prayer.

Anna was astounded at the response and began to think how best to incorporate them into a work of art. She said that the carpet idea came to her when she was in a garden in Venice with her students and she began to concentrate on the landscape. She mused on the unseen but most essential part of the garden, the Roots. These Roots, she said, create kepos (a Greek word meaning creativity space).

According to Anna a carpet often represents a garden; it occupies space and its shape establishes the borders with the outside world. She continued "Our link with the carpet is not only physical. It is mentally possible to stand on one and collect your thoughts, concentrate, pray, fly..."

A carpet is also the place where we can communicate with each other and where myths are born and developed. This was the thesis for her carpets.

The carpets Anna made are of flexible material and, Anna thinks, the colours chosen represent the message and the personality of the writer. The carpet is indicative of the ancient custom of the nomads of unrolling a carpet, which is carried at all times by its owner to enable him/her to invite a group of friends to sit in harmony and share a meal etc. Carpets are also transported by Moslems, often under their arms, and are unrolled to face Mecca in prayer.

In this case it is the Meeting of a Venetian and a Trinidadian creative psyche. My story which was of happy memories spent on the beach in Los Iros, South Trinidad has joined other happy memories of Anna's friends throughout the world to create carpets which follow the designs of oriental carpets, Kilim and Sumak, in particular, which have no knots or pile and through which harmony flows effortlessly.

Lee Sanowar McKee

Carpet made by Anna Moro-Lin incorporating a story by Lee Sanowar McKee 2003 (London, Venice)

MEMBERS' ACTIVITIES - What members have been up to lately

Core members have been travelling, at their own expense to: "See Hear and Know further than our own backyard". Members then returned and shared with others through discussions, meetings and workshops.

Dr. Nilda Arduin has been to Suriname and took in a great deal of the diverse culture of that country. She has taken photographs of buildings and sites of interest. She noted the difference/similarity between her home island of St. Maartin and Suriname at the edge of the South American mainland.

Norma Francis to Barbados known as Little England. We are to hear why. Again the similarity /difference was noted between Norma's Guyana at the Edge of the South America main land where at least 45% of the population are Asian or Ameridian, with African Caribbeans being in the minority compared to the island of Barbados with a different population mix and hence language in use.

Donald Hinds spent about 29 days in the heart of the Black Culture of South Africa. We await his report on New South Africa through the eyes of an African Caribbean from Europe. He has taken photographs for us to discuss.

Lee Sanowar went first to Iceland and noted completely different scenes and Culture from that of her island of Trinidad. She was completely surprised to find a place on earth which is still in the process of evolution. There were active geysers spewing to order. There were glaciers which were melting at one foot a day and which fed the violent waterfalls and rivers which chaged direction constantly. There was the coastline, so violent as the massive waves broke about thirty metres from the beach churning the cold water into thick foam which lay almost frozen on the beach. The highlight of her visit was the Northern lights or Aurora borealis. Another fascinating fact is that bananas are grown in glass houses heated by the thermal springs in Iceland. They bear fruit. Lee also swam in a sulphur spring, in the open, in the middle of November (winter). She is now off to Turkey to visit the Mosques which are quite different to those in the Caribbean. We await her report.

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THE ROODE LOOPERS

The Roode Loopers is an annual weekend event in Amsterdam. From the Friday evening to the following Sunday 6-8 September from 5.00PM, all museums, literary and musical event, playhouses , exhibitions, fringes events as well as main stream are open to the general public. Entry is mostly Free though some museums charge a token entry fee in which case there is some light refreshments. Two of CACOEU's members attended this year's event. The first stop was the Museum Suriname of which Dr. Waldo Heilborn one of the Netherlands members of CACOEU is director. There was an excellent exhibition on Suriname people, and their daily life. The display, which attracted a long list of visitors, was researched and put together by CACOEU member Jules Rijssen and a young Turkish women, a law graduate with special interest in Suriname culture. Our member Petronella Breinburg was welcomed with flowers and refreshment.

The second stop was KIT Tropenmuseum (Tropical museum) which is basically an anthropological museum. There were the general exhibits but a specific theme these years was the Latin American and Caribbean link. The exhibition's emphasis is on religion ancient (Aztecs) and contemporary. It also dealt with some well-known activist of Surinam. Luisi Doogle and De Kom. Visitors were able to hear the various speeches of those two men which together with posters and photographs were on CACOEU's own exhibition during Black History Month 2001.

The third of many visits was the Slave monument in Ooster Park just behind the Tropical museum. This monument, erected earlier this year, shows a journey which begins with a group of black figures, men and women in chains, dragging themselves along. The next step shows a gate which the men and women went through. The third is Freedom. The monument had many visitors. Black and White some leaving flowers. Petronella placed three Red Roses at the start of the trail, walked through the gate then placed a plant on behalf of CACOEU members, regardless of their racial origin, at the freedom side of the symbolic gate.

WORLD CREOLE QUEEN PAGEANT

The Island of Dominica in the Caribbean is now known as the Creole Capital of the world. It has grown along with the success of the 'World Creole Music' festivals. The importance of recent events was to highlight our Creole Heritage. One of the several activities was the "Creole Pageant' which attracted the Caribbean Region's Best performers. The pageant brought together representatives from regions with a Creole vernacular. The aim of the activity was to cultivate Cultural Heritage and exposing major Creole langauge forms. Through the Creole Pageant, Dominica was presented to the world as a reflection of the cultural diversity and creativity and deep spirituality of the Caribbean region. This pageant introduced various young ladies through their artistic and intellectual expressions to the community. Patrika Evence and Shannon Carelee Vigilante were chosen to carry the banner personifying our CREOLE HERITAGE.

Info from "The Home Companion: St. Lucia's most popular Magazine" Vol.7 No.3, dent in by CACOEU's St. Lucia Rep.

In Central America, one part of Costa Rica which tourism publicity pamphlets do not usually mention, is Limon. Even when visitors are already in Costa Rica and they mention going to Limon the response is, íLimon, what for? There is nothing there', or words to that effect. I went, I saw, and I must say that Limon was for me a fascinating discovery. It was like a delightful discovery of a ëlost or forgotten tribe after negotiating rain and cloud forest with the strong odour of sulphurous smoke billowing from the Cartago province volcano nearby.

Limon, one of the provinces of Costa Rica, sits on the Caribbean coast side of the country, separated from the rest of Costa Rica by the notorious Talamanca mountain range, the highest peak of which is given officially as 3,819 metres above sea level. Native Limonians (a name created by me) think that it is higher than that! The mountain range acts as a fence between Limon and the rest of Costa Rica and takes a two-hour, sometimes hair-raising, drive to cross.

The Talamanca mountain splits the country not only geographically, but culturally and linguistically. In the larger part of the country the language is Spanish (heaven help the visitor who has no Spanish) and during my stay there I saw only two people (apart from the African-Americans at the conference) who could be of African descent. One of those is Quince Duncan, a highly acclaimed writer of a third generation Jamaican (pronounced Hamacan) in Costa Rica.

From the two papers he gave at the conference for Afro-Hispanic Literature and Culture Studies at the University of Costa Rica, we learnt about the history and culture of the Jamaican origins in Limon. Quince Duncan was born in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, but was soon returned to Limon to continue growing up. His papers, one presented in Spanish and one in English (for non-Spanish speakers mainly from the USA) at what was a bilingual conference, gave an insight into and evoked interest in Limon.

Limonians are predominately of Jamaican descent. The trek from Jamaica began in 1872 when a group went over to work as contracted labourers to help build the railway which was meant to have linked Puerto Limon with the other side of the mountains. The now neglected and brave but failed attempt at such a railway over the mountains took many lives. Anyone who has experienced those horrendous, though beautiful, mountains can understand why the venture failed and suspect that among the many who lost their lives there would have been Jamaicans. Later, other Jamaicans went to work on the banana and pineapple plantations of which the best are said to be in Limon. Some Jamaicans went from helping to build the Panama Canal next door but chose Limon in which to settle. At first, as Duncanís work explained, the idea was to earn as much money in as short as possible a time, then return to Jamaica. But that return never came; hence, todayís Limon is almost entirely third generation Jamaican; even fourth generation Jamaicans are beginning to emerge. Here then, we have an English speaking Caribbean province as part of a Spanish speaking country. The Limonians, contrary to their fellow Costa Ricans on the other side of the mountains who are generally monolingual Spanish, are bilingual in English and Spanish.

On the Limon side, there is the town of Puerto Limon where ships collect and bring in vital goods, a lifeline for Costa Rica. There is what is locally known as the 'Black Liner' (with its own bilingual magazine) so named because almost all the workers on the docks of Puerto Limon from labourers to officials are black, mainly third generation Afro-Jamaicans. Some Limonians have never been across to the 'other side', just as many of the 'other side' (the Pacific Ocean side) have never been across those mountains to the Caribbean Seaís side. It is also at the Limon side that there are the largest banana, coffee, and pineapple plantations. The local story goes that because of the Irazu volcano, the largest of the Costa Rica volcanoes, nicknamed 'the deadly powder keg of nature', that part of the country is the most fertile.

Travelling across those gigantic mountains and through dense rain forest can be quite an experience and is a confrontation with nature which appears to have the upper hand. Anyone who has travelled over 3,000 metres above sea level would appreciate the feeling of being short of breath due to the lack of oxygen and can image what a thunderstorm would sound like when stuck up the highest peak of a mountain. Dangerous mudslides often accompany the violent thunderstorms. But it is well worthwhile. The sights are stunning. The lush vegetation and flora, some of which have never been seen elsewhere; the small rivers of sulphur flowing from Irazu join a black water river and flow together for a short while then go their own way. Driving through the ëcloud forest' was like a spiritual experience in which you are surrounded by the mysteries of nature.

Those of us who decided to take time off after the conference booked a minibus together with a specialist driver/guide never regretted the venture in spite of the somewhat hair-raising experience on top of the mountains.

We were welcomed in Puerto Limon by third generation Jamaicans, now Limonians, with hugs, kisses and the occasional tears because most of us looked like them. We spoke English as they did and often depended on one of them to translate if our Spanish was too poor to make ourselves understood.

We were offered hospitality at the Marcus Garvey Museum, known as the Ethnic Museum and Culture Centre. In the hall of honour we saw the portraits and names of early Jamaicans and their good deeds. There was only one non-Jamaican among those on the honours list, a Barbadian, and only one woman. It is clear that the Jamaicans and their descendants, now referred to as Afro-Costa Ricans (at conferences), have been highly successful in various fields including in Limonís officialdom. A young dance group and poets, including a Native American who works closely with the Afro-Costa Ricans, entertained us. We were told of a Pimento Hill where there are Maroons but they lived in almost inaccessible terrain up the mountains. We had no chance of getting there by minibus.

There were some interesting encounters along the mountain: e.g., the friendly, though apparently carefree sloth, hanging sluggishly from a mango tree where we had stopped for refreshment. Almond trees, the fruit of which provides us with our almond essence, were in abundance along the way.

There are biological reserves and wildlife protection parks. My favourite animal was what is known locally as 'the white faced monkeyí, who looks like a white-faced old man with a beard. The bilingual Spanish/English book on National Parks of Costa Rica gave some insight into the animal kingdom of Costa Rica and mentions Limon.

The only difficulty during our venture was the enormous thunderstorm that tried to spoil our visit. We were saved from the worst part of that storm by the foresight of (or perhaps by sheer coincidence) our young driver who looked to me to be very much a Native American. He had decided, out of the blue, that we should make a brief stop before negotiating one of our highest climbs. Within a few minutes a hellish thunderstorm came crashing down on our heads. It was as if the gods were hurling boulders onto the heads of the humans below. The rain was torrential; so, instead of a short break for coffee and conveniences we stayed a long time, waiting until the storm had worn itself out. But all was not yet well! On our way up the mountain pass news came to the young man (our driver), who appeared to be well informed of what was happening down below, that there was a mudslide ahead.

We climbed further up, our ears ëpoppingí as we went higher. When we began to descend we came across a car accident, the third such accident we had met during our trip across. This one looked nasty: it was obvious that the car, trying to climb to where we had just come from, was now laying on its back with its wheels up in the air. Then came our mountain traffic jam. It was clear that the road down was blocked by the mudslide and nothing was coming up or going down. There was nothing to do but to sit quietly, silently praying that the mudslide could be cleared before nightfall. To me, with its chilly silence, that huge rain forest looked spooky. In its stillness it was as if people or creatures were watching us from the dense vegetation on both sides but we could not see them. I would have preferred hearing the noise of animals and birds. It was the eerie silence and chilliness of the atmosphere there that was nerve wracking. After a long wait, we heard the sirens of the ambulance and police vehicles coming up the mountain. Then, two mudscrapers came up and we began to descend further. But going through the ëcloud forestí was still to come. Visibility was so poor that our driver at times had to lean over his steering wheel to be able to see enough to pick his way through. Our driver became unusually quiet and his silence caused us to be quiet too. But soon the strong odour of sulphur from Irazu, the 'deadly powder keg of nature' which towers 3,432 metres above sea level and covers an area of 5,000 square kilometres was actually welcome because we now knew that we were getting nearer to our destination and safety.

It is worrying, though, as we think of those friendly people, that it may be only a matter of time before Irazu carries out its threat and erupts. If it did, those good people of Limon will be in the thick of it all. One can only hope that this might not happen and that Irazu, which some local folklore believes has red-eyed demons living underneath, will just be threatening and is not really planning to erupt.

VISIT OF A YOUNG TRINIDADIAN

Among some recent visitors to London from the Caribbean was young Brandon from the Dunross Prep school in Trinidad and Tobago.  This young man spent sometime enjoying the delights of the Millennium Dome with the author of CARIBBEAN STORIES and two members of CACOEU.  He was later presented with a copy of CARIBBEAN STORIES to take back to his school.  The author, Petronella Breinburg, promised to visit his school when she is next in Trinidad and Tobago.

MEMBERS' THOUGHTS

To known where you are going you have to known where you come from (we have to known about background in order to known and plan where we are going) -- Anon.

In the beginning there was the Word and the Word was God (St John 1 verse 1): John has made it clear that there is no greater force than the spoken word) -- sent in by D.C.

But then who was it that said "The pen is greater than the sword"?

Rites: In traditional African Caribbean Communities, the role of fulling the Rites of Passage was not left to the biological parents or the schools, it was a role in which the entire community played a part. There is the Rites of children to be guided by their elders; and the Rites if elders to pass on their wisdom to the young.

POSTCARD FROM WASHINGTON by the Secretary

A recent visit to Washington, DC in winter left me little option but to visit the Museums. At the National Museum of Americam History I thought that it might be interesting to see their Art and Artifacts, woven rugs etc, but what I saw became academic. The various tribes were all depicted in tableau form in showcases, rather like the extinct dinosaur or the cavemen.

There are many native Americans practising the old ways and customs, somewhat modified, and they are not extinct. Is this the way to represent a group of people who in this case are the natural inhabitants of the land or are they represented in this manner as they may eventually become extinct? What do other members think?

POSTCARD FROM ST LUCIA

POSTCARD FROM ST MAARTEN

As I stood by the Grand Salt Pond and watched a piece of waste paper floating along the water it was as if I could actually see the sad ghost of an Amerindian chief, rising white faced and covered in glittering salt crystal, rising by the waste papers and empty drinks can also floating . What has happened to "Sualouiga -- Land of Salt"?

Sualouiga was the name given to what is now Sint Maarten (Dutch) and Saint Martin (French): one small Island divided into two sections after years of battle for it by the Spanish, British, Dutch and French. The Amerindian original inhabitants thousands of years before Columbus set foot there were forgotten or rather disposed of. Those Amerindian, original inhabitants used salt from the ponds to season their food. When the Dutch arrived,after the Spanish, they cried "Zout" meaning salt. The discovery of salt on the Caribbean island of Bonaire, and Sint Maarten was a blessing for the Dutch. The Dutchman Willem Beukelszoon became famous for "harringkaken", a method in which herring was preserved in salt.

The Grand Salt Pond in Philipsburg , the capital of the Dutch side, stretched across from one end of the town to another. Salt was the life line of St Maarten. There was the famous Fogo Salt Factory of Sucker Gardens. Older folk still talk romantically about those days of the Rise, then the Fall of Sualouiga. Children used to have great fun sliding along, on wooden boards nailed together, across the pond. Next to the great Salt pond was a smaller one known as Fresh pond. There was always great excitement for children who raced pebbles thrown across the crust on the pond. The crust was salt dried from salt water from the sea trapped in the pond.

Men were employed to break the salt with pickaxes and women carried the bits of salt in wooden trays on their heads . For years many Sint Maartens made a living from the salt which where exported to several parts of the world.Then came the decline of the salt industry. Salt production was stopped on the Dutch side in 1949. In 1967 the French filled their side of the salt ponds near Grand Case.

MEMBERS' ACTIVITIES

Congratulations to Paul Dash, who received an award from Goldsmiths London University for innovation in education and teaching. (June 2001)

BOOKS & PAPERS PUBLISHED

Breinburg, Petronella (March 01) Jeremia and the Trumpet Man