Harry Belafonte: calypso with a conscience
In 1956, the year in which Elvis Presley topped the US singles chart with “Heartbreak Hotel”, America’s bestselling album was neither...
The remains of the Danes
The Caribbean, as we know, is a part of the world with a long, complex, and quite often unpleasant colonial history. We also know who the...
Who’s your granny?
In the 1950s and 60s, when Marxism was still fashionable, communist newspapers had suitably stirring names: Pravda (“Truth”) in the...
The Bianca C: into the deep
It’s fair to say the passenger liner MV Bianca C had its share of bad luck. It sank not once, but twice, and now lies in about 150 feet...
Historic gold: the earliest Caribbean Olympic heroes
Who would dare to guess what will happen to the athletes from the Caribbean at the Olympic Games in August? Will Jamaica’s Usain...
Wilson Harris — into the interior
By the time Guyana celebrated its independence in May 1966, its most famous author had already been away from the country for seven years....
Caribbean classics: under heavy manners
Ghetto poverty, gangland shootings, police brutality. Jamaica’s newspapers serve up a daily menu of atrocities and tragedies. Rival...
Voyager among gods
Eighty years ago, on 14 April, 1936, a forty-five-year-old African-American woman arrived by boat from New York City in Kingston, Jamaica....
