West Indian History and Literature by Frank Birbalsingh

By Petamber Persaud

Frank Birbalsingh is not contented to rest on his laurels in any area of his expertise, including deserved labels/titles such as ‘literary critic’, ‘prolific book reviewer’, ‘exceptional anthologist’, ‘cricket historian’, ‘oral historian’, ‘specialist of West Indian and Indo-Caribbean literature’ and ‘author’.

His achievements include massive, and oftentimes, ground-breaking scholarly works like “Jahaji Bhai: An Anthology of Indo-Caribbean Literature” (1988); “Indenture and Exile: The Indo-Caribbean Experience” (1989); “Indo-Caribbean Resistance” (1993); “Jahaji: An Anthology of Indo-Caribbean Fiction” (2002); “Passion and Exile: Essays in Caribbean Literature” (1988); “Frontiers of Caribbean Literature” (1996); “Novels and the Nation: Essays in Canadian Literature” (1995); “Neil Bissoondath: The Indo-Caribbean-Canadian Diaspora” (2005); “Guyana and Caribbean: Reviews, Essays and Interviews – The Rise of West Indian Cricket” (1996); “The People’s Progressive Party of Guyana, 1950-1992: An Oral History” (2007); “Indo-Caribbean Test Crickets and the Quest for Identity” (2014); and “Guyana: History and Literature” (2016).

Resting on his laurels is not an option for Birbalsingh; rather, he now sits back and rearranges the feathers in his cap, shaping and designing them into monumental literary works. He aims at additional targets in his lifelong quest to share knowledge, correct falsification of our literary heritage and to bring elucidation. This is what he does in his two most recent publications: “Guyana: History and Literature” (2016) and “West Indian History and Literature” (2016).

The comprehensiveness achieved in “Guyana: History and Literature”, Birbalsingh tries to replicate in “West Indian History and Literature”, with slightly less success. With “Guyana: History and Literature”, he was dealing with the history and literature of one country – a place close to his heart, a place on which he was writing since his first major publication. With “West Indian History and Literature”, the scope of coverage/scholarship extends to numerous countries – all with varying cultural, social issues and political backgrounds – even though all of these countries share a commonality in sugar, slavery, indentureship, colonialism and Anglo-centric economic model, which had ‘psycho-sociological effects that instilled and codified cultural imitativeness, subservience and habits of dependence’.

Birbalsingh, a master anthologist and oral historian, was up to the challenge, producing yet another document of immense value.

“West Indian History and Literature” covers the history and literature of the Anglophone Caribbean, the West Indies – a region that was Columbus’ mistake – a mistake of a name that has come into common usage.

Basically, this significant document contains 88 reviews of books by 81 authors, of which more than one third are women writers. The themes explored are wide-ranging with far-reaching effects, coming from way in the past and reaching into the present, including exploitation, healing, innovation, psychological mimicry, identity, universal transience, emigration and the diaspora, divisions in race, colour and class, independence and its aftermath.

The most formidable element of this book is that its author relies heavily on works of fiction and poetry, staking his reputation of sound scholarship. But Birbalsingh knows the landscape too well to falter in his quest, as he states, “writers of historical fiction” … steer… “dexterously… between history and fiction, without slipping completely into either”.  He is circumspect and his reputation is intact, in fact, his reputation has grown.

And Birbalsingh supports his claims with samples of literature from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, bringing to the fore rare and out-of-print texts.

For instance, to kick-start his history of the region, Birbalsingh uses texts like “The Discovery of Guiana” (1596) and “Creoleana” (1842), the first novel by a native-born author.

To mark the end of slavery and the beginning of the Indian experience in the Caribbean, he cites “Busha’s Mistress” (1855); “Corentyne Thunder” (1941); and “The Cup and the Lip” (1953).

Fast forward to independence, which did not bring the promised changes, he turns to the pages of “Independence” (2014), and other works.

Then there was the creation of the diaspora and the pains of homelessness in the pages of “A Distant Shore” and “The Small fortune of Dorothea Q”.  Along with the history of the region, Birbalsingh matches the history of the region with the history of its literature in a seemingly seamless manner.

In the end, it is “all’s well that ends well” or so we hope as addressed in the closing paragraphs of both the preface and introduction in the book. In the preface, it states that “‘West Indian History and Literature’ offers observations, opinions and reactions that prove defiant, sustaining, enduring” and “a human capacity to endure trial and tribulation until evil exhaust itself”. And the introduction concludes with the moot that Caribbean experience is a collection of remnants and bits and pieces coming from our varies ancestries and “that daily, human transactions are largely a matter of mixing memories and matching fragments, improving, devising and creating in a continuing, daily, Caribbean effort to survive and endure”.

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com