Editorial Volume 10 Numbers 1 and 2 (2014-15)
The tenth Volume of The Arts Journal is a significant milestone in the
work that the Journal has set itself. The objective of the Journal
remains the critical examination of neglected aspects of the written
literatures, histories, oral traditions, the visual cultures and
cultural expressions of the region. The appeal of the Journal continues
to be its accessible language.
The Arts Journal has raised consciousness in Guyana and the Caribbean
region and, indeed, in the Diaspora, of an additional avenue for
publishing scholarly work and for offering more analytical perspectives
that deepen our understanding of who we are and our place in the world.
Over the years The Arts Journal has issued volumes that mark
significant events in our history: the 1st Issue (2004) is an attempt
to document Indian-Guyanese visual artists whose works were neglected
in mainstream art commentary and hardly existed in the national
consciousness. The 4th issue (2006) explores Caribbean cultural
identity through creative writing, memoir and criticism. In 2007, a
double issue celebrates the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Trade
in captured Africans. In 2008, a double issue is devoted to the
experiences of (East) Indians in our midst, and their creative and
traditional arts one hundred and seventy years after they first began
to arrive in British Guiana indentured to British sugar plantations. In
2012, a double issue is dedicated to the indigenous peoples of Guiana
and the Caribbean region, their arts and cultural traditions. It seems
fitting that this tenth Volume that coincides with the 50th anniversary
of Guyana’s independence should continue its quest into the question of
identity and belonging begun in previous issues.
The Arts Journal has made a conscious decision to focus on creative
efforts, particularly from new writers, and in Volume 10, eight short
stories, four of which are from first-time writers, have been accepted
for this issue. Two short stories are from Stephanie Bowry, and one
each from Pauline Lachman and Cyril Dabydeen; the last two mentioned
writers have had their works published in various Journals. Lachman’s
“Guanzhou Mud” is the story of a young Chinese entrepreneur living in
Toronto who travels to China in the hope of acquiring knowledge to
perfect cultural artefacts in order to attract customers and enrich
himself. In China he has a rude awakening. Cyril Dabydeen’s “Forgive us
our Sins” tells of a group of immigrants gathered to bid farewell to a
colleague but not without memories of the land and lives they left
invading their consciousness. Stephanie Bowry has published three
volumes of wonderfully witty stories, many of them based on colonial
life and titled True True Stories Volumes 1, 2 and 3. Bowry has another
collection of short stories in press, titled Lilawattie and Other
Stories, with more riveting tales of life in coastal Guyana. Her two
short stories, “Don pass Fifteen” and “Bachoo in the House”, featured
in this issue are reminiscent of the lived life.
Subraj Singh whose two short stories, “The Boy who Loved Neesa Gopaul”,
and “Shame” are carried here, has won the Guyana Prize for Literature
(2014) for his first collection of short stories titled Rebelle and
other Stories. Mariam Pirbhai’s “Outside People” is a creative
rendition of a visit to an orphanage. Daizal Samad’s “The Sour of
Tamarind” is a poignant tale of an adolescent schoolgirl who allows
herself to be misled and the choices open to her after she realizes her
mistake. Nazreen Kadir’s “Shooting the Pig” is an absorbing story of a
young man from a rural village who is caught between the ways of
village, town life, and the pull of England where a part of his family
has preceded him.
Valerie Coddett states, “Living with the Masters is a story that takes
place in the world of art and reflects the interaction between me and
works of art I have encountered. The paintings and I have been living
in overcrowded rooms for many years”. Coddett offers readers a glimpse
of selected paintings from her collection – by artists from Haiti,
Ghana, Guyana, and Cuba – with a subjective but fascinating commentary
on each work and the impact these works of visual art have on her
consciousness.
Professor Victor Ramraj’s article, “Literature without Borders:
Perspectives on Historical and Cultural Particularities”, presented in
1995 and published in 2001, has been reissued in this volume as a
Tribute to a friend and colleague who passed away last year. It is a
timeless and fascinating compendium of views on notions of difference
and affinities as well as on the struggle for identity and selfhood
explored in post-colonial and post-modern theories of which Ramraj was
a foremost exponent.
“Seepersad & Sons: Naipaulian Creative Synergies” is the title of a
Conference (Trinidad – October 2015) hosted by the Friends of Biswas.
It represents the first attempt anywhere to explore the connections in
the writings of three important Trinidadian writers: Seepersad and his
two sons, Vidya and Shiva, who collectively have given the world an
impressive body of literary works. In his Keynote Address to the
Conference, Emeritus Professor Kenneth Ramchand makes the point that
Seepersad Naipaul was the first person of Indian origin in Trinidad to
work as a journalist on what used to be called a mainstream newspaper.
He began writing for the Trinidad Guardian in 1929 and meanwhile
transitioned to short stories, poems and cultural criticism in addition
to hard news.
In “The Shaping of the Indo-Caribbean People: Guyana and Trinidad to
the 1940s” Emeritus Professor Clem Seecharan’s meticulously traces the
economic, cultural and political progress of the East Indian in the
West Indies and his ties with India.
Professor Daizal Samad and Shazeena Seetayah offer a perceptive
critical analysis of Wilson Harris’s earliest novel Palace of the
Peacock which reveals Harris striving through art, “urgently and
vitally towards a sense of home, of authentic community”— an authentic
voice for the fragmented peoples who comprise West Indian society.
This volume features three poems by artist and poet Carl Hazlewood that are sure to startle and please readers.
Dr. Paloma Mohamed offers a perceptive review of Professor Vibert
Cambridge’s study, Musical Life in Guyana: History and Politics of
Controlling Creativity in which Cambridge begins groundbreaking work
into neglected aspects of the musical life of the diverse peoples who
populate Guyana.
Professor Frank Birbalsingh reviews Jan Shinebourne’s fourth novel, The
Last Ship, an instructive study of Chinese experience in Guyana, their
concerns over creolization and the issue of cultural authenticity of
immigrants to this land, their children and grandchildren, their
alienation and disillusion at a certain juncture of our history. This
novel was shortlisted in the Guyana Prize for Literature, Best Book of
Fiction category, for 2014.
The release of this 10th Volume of The Arts Journal coincides with the
50th anniversary of Guyana independence but the political morass of the
last 50 years seems to have stagnated intellectual development. This
Journal is perhaps a reminder that no democracy can survive without
critical examination of its cultural past, whether such raw material
come to us in the form of subversive fiction, objective history, oral
traditions, visual images, through music, song or dance, through film
or another art form.
Ameena Gafoor
Table of Contents
CREATIVE WRITING
The Boy Who Loved Neesa Gopaul
Subraj Singh
Outside People
Mariam Pirbhai
Don Pass Fifteen
Stephanie Bowry
Forgive Us Our Sins
Cyril Dabydeen
Guangzhou Mud
Pauline Lachman
Shame
Subraj Singh
Bachoo In The House
Stephanie Bowry
The Sour of Tamarind
Professor Daizal R. Samad
Shooting The Pig
Nazreen Kadir
Living With The Masters
Valerie Codde
Literature without Borders:
Perspectives on Historical and Cultural Particularities
Professor Victor Ramraj
Carl Hazlewood. Poem: Tabula Rasa
Seepersad & Sons:
Naipaulian Creative Synergies
Emeritus Professor Kenneth Ramchand
Carl Hazlewood. Poem: The Third Warm Day of Spring
The Shaping Of The Indo-Caribbean People: Guyana and Trinidad to the 1940s
Emeritus Professor Clem Seecharan
Carl Hazlewood. Poem: Pour and Pool
Painting on A Torn Canvas: Reaching for Ethnic Harmony in Wilson Harris’s Palace of the Peacock
Professor Daizal Samad and Shazeena Seetayah
BOOK REVIEWS
Musical Life in Guyana: History and Politics Controlling Creativity
Dr. Paloma Mohamed
The Last Ship
Emeritus Professor Frank Birbalsingh