“To remind you of life” | On Caribbean resilience

A note from our editor

1 May, 2020

Dear readers,

The past weeks have been a difficult and worrying time for many of us across the Caribbean and around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our lives, our daily routines, and our peace of mind in ways we could hardly have imagined not long ago.

The disease has also disrupted our freedom to travel, with borders closed, quarantine regulations in place, and thousands of flights cancelled. And it means that, for the first time in twenty-eight years, Caribbean Beat’s regular publication schedule has been interrupted.

The issue of the magazine we planned for May/June 2020 is postponed, and like many of you, the Caribbean Beat team is following social distancing measures by working from home. Since we can’t share a new edition with you now, we’ve done the next best thing. Every fortnight in May and June, we’ll curate a special online edition of Caribbean Beat that delves into our extraordinary archive — stretching back to 1992 — and pulls together articles on a relevant theme.

Our first special issue

For our first special edition, no theme seems more relevant than Caribbean resilience.

The history of our region is troubling and often violent. It includes centuries of colonial exploitation, wars and revolutions, slavery and indentureship. Yet Caribbean people, communities, and cultures have demonstrated their strength and resourcefulness over and over again. The tribulations of our past and present have inspired our audaciously rich culture.

In the articles we’ve assembled below, you’ll learn about the Caribbean’s indigenous First Peoples and their tenacious survival of colonial violence. You’ll travel to one of Jamaica’s Maroon communities, and meet the Merikins of south Trinidad’s “company villages.” You’ll read about the short but extraordinary career of Andy Palacio, who brought the music of the Garifuna of Belize to international attention before his untimely death.

You’ll also learn about ancestral traditions that have stubbornly survived through generations — like the complex game of warri, which originated in West Africa and is still played today in Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados, and the Ramayn performances brought from India in the nineteenth century by Trinidad’s Hindus. You’ll meet the dalang whose mission is to preserve the ancient Javanese shadow-puppet theatre in Suriname.

You’ll find the story of the thousands of men from the British West Indies who served in the First World War, and get an introduction to Guyana’s Red Thread collective, longtime fighters for the rights of women and young people.

For sports fans, there’s a profile of Donna Symmonds, the Barbadian lawyer who defied gender stereotypes to become the first woman to do live Test cricket commentary in the Caribbean; and a touch of comedy in an account of of a young woman running in Kingston’s Emancipation Park, persisting despite the unofficial commentary of bystanders.

For art aficionados, we have a profile of Guadeloupean Kelly Sinnapah Mary, whose provocative work tackles “riddles of survival.” Then hear how Jamaican poet superstar Staceyann Chin overcame a troubled childhood and homophobic prejudice on her path to fame.

Finally, end with a dose of literature. In “Cold Comfort” by Pamela Mordecai, you’ll meet a Jamaican woman whose job-hunt in a cold northern city takes an unexpected turn, while the late Irma Rambaran’s moving short story gives us “A Simple Man” who finds a way to cope with the memory of family trauma. Last but never least, we offer “Shandilay Bush”, a poem by Roger Robinson, published in our pages just a few months ago — a hymn of healing, “to remind you / of life, of oh sweet sweet life.”