The Routkdge Reader in
CARIBBEAN LITERATURE
Edited by
ALISON DONNELL and
SARAH LAWSON WELSH
LONDON AND NEW YORK
Contents
Acknowledgements
xiii
Sources
xv
General Introduction
i
1900-29
Introduction
Poetry and prose
27
TROPICA (MARY ADELLA WOLCOTT)
The Undertone
Nana
Busha s Song
42
42
44
TOM REDCAM (THOMAS MACDERMOT)
My Beautiful Home
O Little Green Island Far Over the Sea
Jamaica s Coronation Ode
45
46
47
J E C MCFARLANE
The Fleet of the Empire
My Country
49
50
ALBINIA HUTTON
The Empire s Flag
A Plea
53
54
H S BUNBURY
The Spell of the Tropics
56
ASTLEY CLERK
Islets Mid Silver Seas
57
P M SHERLOCK
Pocomania
58
EVA NICHOLAS
A Country Idyl
60
[v]
CONTENTS
CLARA MAUDE GARRETT
One
62
H D CARBERRY
Epitaph
63
CLAUDE MCKAY
My Native Land My Home
A Midmght Woman to the Bobby
The Apple Woman s Complaint
In Bondage
Outcast
Flame Heart
I Shall Return
H G DE LISSER
Janes Career
ARF
64
65
67
69
69
70
71
72
WEBBER
Those That Be m Bondage - A Tale of Indian Indentures
and Sunlit Western Waters
C L R JAMES
Triumph
78
84
Non fiction works
LEO OAKLEY
Ideas of Patriotism and National Dignity
91
HARVEY CLARKE
Miss Jamaica
94
J E C MCFARLANE
Claude McKay
EDWARD BAUGH
West Indian Poetry 1900-1970
Decolonisation
AMYJ GARVEY
91
A Study in Cultural
99
Women as Leaders
105
1930-49
Introduction
107
Poetry and prose
UNA MARSON
Renunciation
128
[vi]
CONTENTS
In Vain
If
Jamaica
In Jamaica
Quashie Comes to London
Kinky Hair Blues
Cinema Eyes
Nigger
128
129
130
131
132
137
138
140
GEORGE CAMPBELL
Holy
Oh1 You Build a House
143
143
LOUISE BENNETT
Jamaica Oman
Bed time Story
Proverbs
Tan a Yuh Yard
Beeny Bud (Mussirohnkina)
145
146
147
148
149
ROGER MAIS
Listen the Wmd
151
VERA BELL
Ancestor on the Auction Block
155
AJ SEYMOUR
Sun is a Shapely Fire
157
THE MIGHTY CHALKDUST
Brain Drain
THE MIGHTY SPARROW
Dan is the Man
159
161
Non fiction works
C L R JAMES
Discovering Literature in Trinidad The Nmeteen
Thirties
ALBERT GOMES
Through a Maze of Colour
THE BEACON EDITORIALS
Local Fiction
Local Poetry
J E C MCFARLANE
163
166
172
173
The Challenge of Our Time
174
[vn]
CONTENTS
VICTOR STAFFORD REID
The Cultural Revolution in Jamaica after 1938
177
ROGER MAIS
Where the Roots Lie
182
UNA MARSON
We Want Books - But Do We Encourage Our
Writers'
ALISON DONNELL
Contradictory (W)omens? Gender Consciousness in
the Poetry of Una Marson
MERVYN MORRIS
On Reading Louise Bennett Seriously
GORDON ROHLEHR
Images of Men and Women in 1930s Calypsoes
Introduction
Poetry and prose
MARTIN CARTER
University of Hunger
I Come From the Nigger Yard
I Am No Soldier
ELMA NAPIER
Carnival in Martinique
SAMUEL SELVON
Waiting for Aunty to Cough
JEAN RHYS
The Day They Burnt the Books
KARL SEALEY
My Fathers before Me
Non fiction works
HENRY SWANZY
)k
The Literary Situation in the Contemporary
Caribbean
GEORGE LAMMING
The Occasion for Speaking
[vm]
185
CONTENTS
SARAH LAWSON WELSH
New Wine in New Bottles The Critical Reception
of West Indian Writing in Britain in the 1950s and
Early 1960s
REINHARD SANDER and IAN MUNRO
The Making of a Writer - a Conversation with
George Lamming
^
261
269
EVELYN O CALLAGHAN
The Outsider s Voice White Creole Women Novelists
in the Caribbean Literary Tradition
274
1966—1979
Introduction
282
Poetry and prose
DENNIS SCOTT
Squatter s Rites
Grampa
298
299
ANTHONY MCNEILL
Residue
300
CHRISTINE CRAIG
Elsa s Version
301
MAHADAI DAS
They Came in Ships
302
RAJKUMARI SINCH
Per Aiie - A Tribute to the First Immigrant Woman
304
Non fiction works
SYLVIA WYNTER
We Must Learn to Sit Down Together and Discuss a
Little Culture
307
GORDON ROHLEHR
West Indian Poetry Some Problems of Assessment I
West Indian Poetry Some Problems of Assessment II
316
321
CORDON ROHLEHR
Afterthoughts
327
CERALD MOORE
Review Use Men Language
331
CONTENTS
KAMAU BRATHWAITE
Jazz and the West Indian Novel I II and III
KAMAU BRATHWAITE
Timehn
RAJKUMARI SINGH
I am a Coolie
DEREK WALCOTT
The Muse of History
JAMES BERRY
Introduction to Bluefoot Traveller
i980-1989
Introduction
Poetry and prose
LINTON KWESI JOHNSON
Street 66
Reggae fi Dada
MIKEY SMITH
Black and White
JAMES BERRY
Lucys Letter
From Lucy Holiday Reflections
Caribbean Proverb Poem 1
Caribbean Proverb Poem 2
JANE KING
Intercity Dub For Jean
GRACE NICHOLS
One Continent/To Another
Your Blessing
LORNA GOODISON
On Houses
My Late Friend
Guyana Lovesong
For My Mother (May I Inherit Half Her Strength)
I Am Becoming My Mother
JAMAICA KINCAID
Annie John
[x]
CONTENTS
HARRY NARAIN
A Letter to the Prime Minister
407
Non fiction works
DAVID DABYDEEN
On Not Being Milton Nigger Talk in England Today
410
SARAH LAWSON WELSH
Experiments in Brokenness The Creative Use of Creole
in David Dabydeen s Slave Song
RAMABAI ESPINET
The Invisible Woman in West Indian Fiction
DENISE DECAIRES NARAIN
Delivering the Word The Poetry of Lorna Goodison
The 1990s
Introduction
416
425
431
438
Poetry and prose
JEAN BINTA BREEZE
Testament
456
BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH
A Modern Slave Song
461
MUTABARUKA
dis poem
DAVID DABYDEEN
462
The Counting House
464
LAWRENCE SCOTT
Mercy
469
Non fiction works
SYLVIA WYNTER
Beyond Miranda s Meanings Un/silencmg the
Demonic Ground of Caliban s Woman
476
CAROLYN COOPER
Writing Oral History Sistren Theatre Collective s
Lionheart Gal
ALISON DONNELL
483
Dreaming of Daffodils Cultural Resistance to the
Narratives of Theory
[xi]
487
CONTENTS
MERLE HODGE
Challenges of the Struggle for Sovereignty Changing
the World versus Writing Stones
494
JEAN BINTA BREEZE
Can a Dub Poet be a Woman'
498
JOHN VIDAL
By Word of Mouth - John Vidal Gets in Tune with
Dub Poet Benjamin Zephamah
501
DEREK WALCOTT
The Antilles Fragments of Epic Memory
Bibliography
Index
503
508
532