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No. 124 November/December 2013

ContentsMedia & Editorial Projects Ltd,

6 Prospect Avenue, Maraval,

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

Tel: (868) 622 3821/5813/6138

Fax: (868) 628 0639

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.meppublishers.com

Editor Nicholas Laughlin

General manager Halcyon Salazar

Online marketing Caroline Taylor

Design artists Kevon Webster &

Bridget van Dongen

The Caribbean Airlines logo shows a hummingbird in flight. Native to the Caribbean, the hummingbird represents flight, travel, vibrancy, and colour. It encompasses the spirit of both the region and Caribbean Airlines.

This is your personal, take-home copy of Caribbean Beat, free to all

passengers on Caribbean Airlines

An MEP publication

ISSN 1680–6158

Caribbean Beat is published six times a year for Caribbean Airlines by Media

& Editorial Projects Ltd. It is also available on subscription. Copyright ©

Caribbean Airlines 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may

be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the written permission of

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Sales & Marketing Manager

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Denise Chin

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52 64

EMBARK

19 DATEBOOKEvents around the Caribbean in November and December

26 WORD OF MOuThDiscover Trinidad’s Divali Nagar, Miami’s international art fair, and Jamaica’s annual pantomime

32 ThE LOOKJamaican designer Kesi Gibson draws on many influences to create her Kyu Mélange handbags

34 BOOKShELFThis month’s reading picks

36 PLAyLiSTRecent tunes to get your feet tapping

39 COOKuPthe taste of homeIn the Dominican Republic, Christmas is a time for feasting. But how do you recreate the taste of home when you’re far away? Clara Gonzalez gets creative

iMMERSE

42 CLOSEuPfrom island to end zoneCaribbean athletes are known for cricket and track and field, but

what about football? Not soccer — American football. Debbie Jacob talks to four young players with roots in Haiti, Barbados, and Jamaica — proud of their island roots, and changing the face of the NFL with their indelible Caribbean spirit. Meet Pierre Garçon, Ramon Harewood, Patrick Chung, and Trevardo Williams

48 SnAPShOTmaking her claimIn her debut book Chick, poet Hannah Lowe — born in the UK to an Afro-Jamaican father and white British mother — comes to terms with family history. She talks to Melissa Richards about finding her voice and identity in her poems

52 BACKSTORythe popop spiritFounded by artist John Cox in 1999, Nassau’s Popopstudios International Centre for the Visual Arts has become an international art contender while staying true to its family spirit. Sonia Farmer finds out how

58 OWn WORDS“you have to give them a good time every night”Trinidadian DJ Christopher Leacock, a.k.a. the Jillionaire, on recording off the radio, starting his first sound

system, and the twist of fate that led him to the international DJ project Major Lazer — as told to Tracy Assing

61 RiDDEM AnD RhyMEchristmas skankingGarry Steckles isn’t a fan of traditional Yuletide music, “classics” like “White Christmas”. Luckily, Caribbean musicians have created their own genre of seasonal tunes, with a real reggae or calypso vibe

ARRiVE

64 ESCAPESgreen days by the riverMarajó Island, in the mouth of the mighty Amazon River, is more than three times the size of Jamaica, and little known outside Brazil. nicholas Laughlin discovers it’s not exactly the middle of nowhere, but Marajó is as good a place as any to be temporarily cut off from the rest of the world

70 ROunD TRiPfloat awayIn the Caribbean region, our lives our shaped by proximity to water — whether the expanse of the sea that surrounds our islands, or the mighty rivers that drain the South American mainland. Water can be a boundary, a highway, and also a playground — as in these five adventures afloat

76 OFFTRACKfifty shades of blueJust a hundred miles north of Caracas, the archipelago of Los Roques is the kind of island paradise that should only exist in the imaginations of guidebook writers. Except its white sand cays and azure waters are the real deal. Laura Montanari finds Los Roques is not too good to be true

EnGAGE

84 GREEnwhat lies beneathDominica, the Antilles’ youngest island, is shaped by awesome volcanic forces beneath its surface — the key to an ambitious and sometimes controversial new geothermal energy project, as nazma Muller reports

86 On ThiS DAypalace of dreamsTwo hundred years ago, Haiti’s self-proclaimed king Henri Christophe completed his grand palace of Sans Souci. It was a sumptuous symbol of power, James Ferguson explains — but not for long

96 PARTinG ShOTEnd the year with a bang at Paramaribo’s Owru Yari celebrations

76

Sales & Marketing Representative

Caribbean & international

Karen Washington

T: (868) 767 4878, 622 3821

F: (868) 628 0639

E: [email protected]


Cover Washington Redskins wide receiver Pierre Garçon is proud of his Haitian roots — and brings Caribbean flair to a distinctly American game Photo Portrait by Jim Darling, background by Olga Bogatyrenko/ Shutterstock.com, digital imaging by MEP

This issue’s contributors include:

Jamaican Tanya Batson-Savage (“The view from the Roost”, page 30) is the author of Pumpkin Belly and Other Stories. Her career has run the gamut of teaching, cultural criticism, journalism, advertising, and creative writing. Find more of her writing at www.thebitter-bean.wordpress.com and www.susumba.com.

Angelo Bissessarsingh (“City of lights”, page 26) is a historian from Siparia, Trinidad. He is the founder of the Virtual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago heritage resource, and writes a column titled “Back in Time” for the Trinidad Guardian. Bahamian Sonia Farmer (“The Popop spirit”, page 52) is the founder of Poinciana Paper Press, a small fine press that produces hand-bound limited-edition chapbooks of Caribbean writing, based in Nassau. Her poems won the 2011 Small Axe Literary Competition, and have appeared in various publications. She holds a BFA in Writing from the Pratt Institute.

Debbie Jacob (“From island to end zone”, page 42) is a journalist and author of eight books. She is the head librarian at the International School of Port of Spain, Trinidad. Born in Venezuela, Laura Montanari (“Fifty shades of blue”, page 76) has lived in Spain, Italy, and Anguilla. She has written for Sint Maarten’s Daily Herald and the online young adult literary magazine pezlinterna.com. A passionate traveller in love with the Caribbean, she currently resides in London. Melissa Richards (“Making her claim”, page 48) was born in Trinidad and now lives in London. She is a former journalist and has worked in publishing in both London and New York.

14 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM

Welcome aboard the best airline in the Caribbean! It’s that time of year when families and

friends come together to share in the joy and festivity of the yuletide season, and at Caribbean Airlines, there is an air of excitement as our family ensures that your travel experience is filled with merriment.

Whatever your plans this season, let us take you to the destination that you call home. Whether you’re looking forward to pastelles and parang in Trinidad, baked stuffed turkey and ginger beer in Grenada, or even Christmas carols and ice skating in London, we can take you there.

Your checked baggage is free, the meals are on us, and we may even have some of your favourite seasonal movies in our in-flight entertainment presentation.

It is a very busy season, and we hope you also take advantage of our cargo services to ship all your goodies this season. From perishables to valuables, we take care to have your belongings delivered on time and with utmost care.

If this is your first time travelling with us, it is our pleasure to boast that we are officially the Leading Caribbean Airline. Yes! World Travel Awards has named us Leading

Caribbean Airline for 2013. That’s the fourth year in a row. And if you are one of our special loyal Caribbean Airlines travellers, we’re glad to see you on board again.

It’s a great honour to have you on board today, and the fact that you chose us as your carrier reflects the hard work and dedication of our thousand-plus staff at our twenty stations system-wide.

It has certainly been a non-stop year so far, and in that vein, we have recently started even more non-stop services on our most popular routes, like Toronto/Guyana and New York/Port of Spain. Our network connection is seamless and hassle-free. The response from our customers has been very encouraging, and reminds us of the loyalty we have earned on these key routes by offering reliable professional service and all-inclusive value. Caribbean Airlines has always linked the Caribbean and its peoples from across the globe, and we continue to do so.

With our online reservations, booking, and check-in facilities, plus our great frequent flyer miles programme, Club Caribbean benefits, and the most reliable air cargo services, we are truly the Leading Caribbean Airline! In addition, the best

From Team Caribbean airlines

The best airline inthe Caribbean

Visiting relatives in London? Let Caribbean Airlines fly you there!

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things in life are duty free. Visit our Duty Free Shop at Piarco International Airport, Trinidad, where we stock the best brands of liquor, perfume, and chocolates. Special purchases for the special people in your life.

Our extensive route map reads like a GPS locator for the most successful communities of the Caribbean diaspora. London, New York, Miami, Toronto: some of the world’s most vibrant and ethnically diverse cities, where food, fashion, and music have exploded through the collaboration with Caribbean peoples and our unique energies, flavours, and natural bubbling warmth. The Caribbean community has reached out to the world through us, and we connect them all.

We invite you to sit back, enjoy reading Caribbean Beat and watching our customised in-flight video magazine Caribbean Essence — or relax and start dreaming of your next flight on the Leading Caribbean Airline.

We look forward to showing you why we keep winning accolades.

Season’s greetings from our family to yours.

Team Caribbean

16 WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

Cal EvEnTs

Alicia Cabrera, Senior Marketing Manager, Caribbean Airlines, Brandon Moore, In-flight Purser, and Delia Bennett, Sales Executive, Jamaica, along with Chris Frost, Vice President, World Travel Awards.

cpl teams travel seamlessly thanks to caribbean airlines servicesKudos extended to all Caribbean Airlines teams who worked assiduously, ensuring our Caribbean cricketers were able to tour during the summer peak for the Caribbean Premier League games.

caribbean airlines wins leading caribbean airline award fourth time in a row

For the fourth year in a row, Caribbean Airlines has been named the “Caribbean’s Leading Airline” at the annual World Travel Awards function held in September at Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa.

Accepting the award on behalf of the airline, Alicia Cabrera, Senior Marketing Manager at Caribbean Airlines, said, “This fourth win really cements our position as the region’s premier carrier. That the category is judged based on travel industry professionals’ voting makes it even more prestigious, as our customers and travel agent partners clearly recognise the tremendous effort put forth by the staff to make each flight special.”

thanks from kiwanis club in Jamaica

Caribbean Airlines Jamaica recently lent its support to the Kiwanis Club of Mona for their Anniversary Wine and Cheese Cocktail event held at the Vice Chancellery at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus.

The club has successfully undertaken a number of major charitable projects which have had significant impact in the communities served in the Liguanea, August Town, Standpipe, Mona, Gordon Town, Barbican, Tavern, and surrounding areas.

Karlene Thompson (left), Flight Attendant, hands over the Caribbean Airlines–sponsored door prize

caribbean airlines invaders live in concert

Caribbean Airlines Invaders recently held “Versatility” The Concert at NAPA, Port of Spain, featuring acts such as former National Calypso Queen Karen Eccles, soca star Machel Montano, and young guitarist Jacob Tanker. Led by composer and arranger Arddin Herbert, the steel orchestra performed a wide repertoire to the delight of the captivated audience. We salute Caribbean Airlines Invaders Steel Orchestra on an excellent presentation.

http://www.worldtravelawards.com/gallery?t=c&i=76&p=1

http://www.worldtravelawards.com/gallery?t=c&i=76&p=1

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 19

DATEBOOK

Your guide to Caribbean events in November and December — from seasonal festivals to a cricket tour

don’t miss . . .

Trinidad’s Divali nagar, page 26

Miami’s international art fair, page 28

Jamaica’s annual pantomime, page 30

feel the rush

The Bahamas comes alive at year-end with the annual Junkanoo masquerade, as costumed dance troupes “rush” through the streets, performing their complicated routines to the sounds of cowbells, goatskin drums, whistles, and horns. Junkanoo festivities typically begin in the wee hours of the morning, and end somewhere around 9 am. The masqueraders’ elaborate and brightly coloured costumes are made from some combination of crêpe paper, fabric, cardboard, and wood, all in an attempt to capture the title of best Junkanoo group. While Bay Street in Nassau is said to be the best place to experience everything first-hand, Junkanoo parades also take place in Grand Bahama Island, Bimini, the Exumas, and the Abacos.

When: 26 December and 1 JanuaryWhere: Nassau and other venues around the BahamasFor more info: visit the Bahamas Tourist Board at www.bahamas.com

BaHaMas

The brilliant colours of Bahamas Junkanoo

Discover what’s possible

TMTrademark of the Bank of Nova Scotia, used under license (where applicable).

To find out more, start a conversation with us today.

Visit a Scotiabank branchor go to scotiabank.com

But it’s our customers that deserve all the credit.

We’re honoured to be one of the most highly awarded banks in the Caribbean.

At Scotiabank, we believe in serving the needs of our customers first. So much so, we were

recently awarded Global Bank of the Year, Best Emerging Markets Bank and Best Internet Bank,

to name a few. We’d like to thank all of our employees who have made these awards possible.

And though the awards are nice, it’s really the success of our customers that we care about the most.

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DATEBOOK

sT vInCEnT anD THE GREnaDInEs

go a-carolling

Nine mornings of carolling contests, competitions for the best illuminated communities and gardens, and early morning (4 am!) sea baths are just some of the things you can look forward to as St Vincent and the Grenadines celebrate their annual Nine Mornings Festival. And this year promises to be epic, as 2013 marks one hundred years of this unique tradition. A hundred-day countdown started on 7 September, there will be a special lighted street parade featuring traditional music, characters, and flambeau on 1 December, and the actual festival starts a couple of weeks later. With almost fifty-two communities involved across the islands, you can participate in something new each day — a quadrille, ring games, drama performances — and just revel in Christmas, Caribbean-style.

Where: venues around St Vincent and the GrenadinesWhen: 16 to 24 DecemberFor more info: call +784 451 2180 or visit the Nine Mornings Festival page on Facebook

nGC Bocas Lit Fest South CentralWhen: 16 and 17 NovemberWhere: venues in San Fernando and ChaguanasWhat: T&T’s literature festival puts on a special weekend-long programme of authors’ readings, performances, and workshops in the unofficial capitals of south and central TrinidadFor more info: visit www.bocaslitfest.com

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DATEBOOK

BaRBaDOs

embrace the stage

In past years, the Caribbean Secondary Schools’ Drama Festival has been held in Antigua, Guyana, and Jamaica. Students from those three countries, along with peers from Anguilla, Bermuda, and Trinidad and Tobago, will all participate in the 2013 festival — the seventh one since it was founded — which takes place in Barbados this December. Apart from a series of plays by visiting delegations, says festival co-founder Icil Phillips, the programme will include “cultural exchanges with local secondary schools, a teacher’s workshop on assessing the performing arts, the annual general meeting of the festival, a workshop on tuk [Barbados’s indigenous musical genre] and Landship, and a youth forum that discusses the state of theatre in the CSME.”

When: 8 to 15 DecemberWhere: Queen’s Park Steel Shed, BridgetownFor more info: email the Barbados Association of Drama Educators at [email protected], or call +246 238 5625

Golden Rock Regatta When: 11 to 18 NovemberWhere: St Martin, St Barths, St Kitts, St EustatiusWhat: An annual event, the regatta includes seven races between the four islands. The weeklong programme will kick off with a party in Philipsburg, and end with a prize-giving dinner at Captain Olivers Restaurant in St Martin.For more info: email regatta chairman Juul Hermsen at [email protected], or call +31 40 2428392

TRInIDaD

hosay When: 11 to 17 NovemberWhere: St James and CedrosWhat: Shia Muslims parade tadjahs (replica mausoleums) through the communities of St James and Cedros to commemorate the assassination of the Prophet Mohammed’s two grandsons. It starts with Flag Night (11 November) and ends on Teejah Day (17 November), when the tadjahs are destroyed in the sea.For more info: visit www.nalis.gov.tt/Research/SubjectGuide/Hosay/tabid/565/Default.aspx?

nORTHERn lEEWaRDs

Dancing the red moon at Hosay commemorations in St James

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DATEBOOK

MOnTsERRaT

Stories by Mirissa De Four

new Zealand

keep score

The islands of New Zealand are on the other side of the world, but come December, Caribbean eyes will be looking that way, as the West Indies cricket team heads off on a five-week tour. The Windies will play against New Zealand in three Tests, five one-day internationals, and two T20 matches from December 3 to January 15, 2014. The tour will take the team through some of New Zealand’s top holiday spots over the Christmas holidays, so cricket fans will get a chance not only to cheer their favourite team, but also to experience the land of Lord of the Rings fame at its best. And in between Christmas preparations back home in the Caribbean, true believers will be following the series avidly on television, radio, and online.

West indies vs new Zealand, 2013–2014 tour schedule

3 to 7 December 1st Test University Oval, Dunedin11 to 15 December 2nd Test Hawkins Basin Reserve, Wellington19 to 23 December 3rd Test Seddon Park, Hamilton26 December 1st ODI Eden Park, Auckland29 December 2nd ODI McLean Park, Napier1 January 3rd ODI Queenstown Events Centre, Queenstown4 January 4th ODI Saxton Oval, Nelson8 January 5th ODI Seddon Park, Hamilton11 January 1st T20I Eden Park, Auckland15 January 2nd T20I Westpac Stadium, Wellington

nEW ZEalanD

Caribbean Rum and Beer Festival When: 22 to 23 NovemberWhere: Grand AnseWhat: For the second year in a row, Grenada will host the festival, with its taste contest, cocktail wars, culinary displays, and golf tournament. And that’s just a drop in a barrel, as connoisseurs sample some of the best rum and beer products in the world.For more info: visit www.rumandbeerfestival.com

Montserrat Christmas FestivalWhen: 14 December to 1 JanuaryWhere: Festival City, Little Bay Playing FieldWhat: Calypso competitions, the Festival Queen competition, costumed troupes, choral singing, a performing arts festival, and fetes are just some of the things that make up this two-week extravaganza, as Montserrat celebrates everything that makes this island paradise unique.For more info: email [email protected], call +664 491 8555, or check out the Montserrat Annual Festival page on Facebook

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Destination Hyatt Regency Trinidad.

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WORD OF MOuTh

Dispatches from our correspondents around the Caribbean and further afield

City of lights

every child in Trinidad and Tobago grows up with a rudimentary knowledge of the religion, culture, and customs of her peers, which is probably why this

nation can serve as a model for social tolerance. We all know about Divali, the Hindu festival of lights, which ostensibly commemorates the return of Rama, the hero of the Ramayan epic, to Ayodha after his long exile. The goddess Lakshmi is also paid homage, in the hope that she bestows prosperity on her adherents. In Trinidad, however, Divali — which falls this year on 2 November — has transcended its ethnic and religious roots to become a national festival that reaches out to the wider Indo- and non-Indo-Trindiadian community. And long before the thunder of bursting bamboo echoes through the villages, and in anticipation of the night when tens of thousands of tiny oil-lamps called deyas transform the darkness into a palette of splendour, there is the Divali Nagar.

The Nagar is best described as a grand fair centred around Divali that blends the ancient civilisation of India with the heady pulse and tempo of life that make Trinis world-famous. Located just east of Chaguanas, the bustling unofficial capital of central Trinidad, the expansive space that is transformed annually into the gaudy extravaganza was designated for this purpose in 1986, after the original location in a shopping mall car-park proved inadequate. From day one, the Nagar, which opens a few weeks before the Divali holiday, proved to be a wild success, with hundreds of vendors flocking to the area. It has since been upgraded to include a pavilion, an air-conditioned indoor hall, a magnificent statue, and landscaped grounds. An old locomotive and bogie cart — silent reminders of the island’s sugar industry (the original impetus for labour from India in 1845) — stands to the rear of the compound. The National Council for Indian Culture is the body that oversees the Nagar, and ensures that the fair opens with a dramatic event that draws a wide spectrum of people from every walk of life, from government ministers to the burgesses of Chaguanas.

To the first-time visitor, the Nagar experience assaults the senses. The aroma of pholourie, aloo pies, and saheenas frying in coconut oil clashes with the pungent curries being prepared just a few feet away. The riot of colour is almost psychedelic, as elegant silk saris, heavy with embroidery, mingle with delicate filigree jewellery crafted locally or imported from India. At all times, the fine sounds of classical Indian music can be heard, occasionally broken into by more invigorating Indo-Caribbean beats.

It’s an addictive experience, as evidenced by the thousands of cars and buses which converge every day while the festival is in session — full of visitors, all with the expectation of imbibing the essence of the Divali Nagar.

angelo Bissessarsingh recounts

the sights and sounds of Trinidad’s

Divali nagar, an annual grand fair

in the weeks before the hindu

festival of lights

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art Basel Miami Beach — also known as Miami Art Week — is a cultural experience true to its

host city: eclectic and heterogeneous. With the main fair (running this year from 5 to 8 December) and over twenty satellite events spread across the city, art lovers can easily feel overwhelmed. Dozens of international galleries exhibit contemporary artwork by established and emerging artists, and to fully appreciate the sheer number of shows, openings, and other events happening simultaneously over the four days, you need your diary at hand and your walking shoes on. Admittedly, this look may clash with the trendy attire of many art-fair–goers, but being selective definitely helps.

Considering Miami’s proximity to the region, it’s not surprising that Caribbean artists turn up at the fair. Jamaican Ebony G. Patterson was featured by Chicago-based gallery Monique Meloche in 2012, in Untitled, a new satellite fair curated by Omar Lopez-Chaboud. Untitled grouped artwork by forty galleries in a tent on the beach opposite Ocean Drive. Patterson’s mixed media drawings ref lected the artist’s distinctive aesthetics and focus on portraiture of Jamaican male youth and dancehall culture. Her work will once again be a focal point of Monique Meloche’s 2013 Untitled presentation, with a series of stunning gold-leaf paintings.

Miami’s art museums also introduce special exhibitions during Art Basel. I will always remember Isaac Julien’s 2010 exhibition at the Bass Museum of Art, which

kicked off during the fair. It featured Julien’s installation videos Baltimore, Vagabondia, and Paradise Omeros, a combination of installation and photography paying homage to Derek Walcott’s Omeros and St Lucia, home of Julien’s parents. These works showed a unique sensibility in their narrative rhythm, which drew you towards their “silent” stories.

The exhibition also premiered Julien’s Ten Thousand Waves in the United States. This audiovisual installation of nine massive screens tells stories of China’s past and present, while remembering the twenty-three Chinese immigrant cockle-pickers who died at Morecambe Bay in England in 2004, trapped by the high tide. I was completely taken aback by this installation, its poetic storytelling and audio-visual lyricism.

Marta Fernandez Campa previews Miami

Art Basel, the biggest contemporary art event

around the Caribbean, and recalls some hits

from recent editions of the fair

The art of Ocean Drive

Although most of the action is centered on South Beach, there’s a lot more to be seen around Miami’s Design District or Wynwood, whose booming art scene includes a series of amazing graff iti murals. And the Little Haiti Cultural Centre is a key location to appreciate the work of Latin American and Caribbean art ists. Here, Miami-based Hait ian artist Edouard Duval-Carrié has curated various versions of his Global Caribbean project. During Miami Art Basel 2011, this featured artwork by Cuban artist José Bedia, Dominican artist José Garcia-Cordero, and Duval-Carrié’s own work. The cosmological and spiritual visions of Bedia’s large paintings were set in conversation with Garcia-Cordero’s dark paintings of social critique and Duval-Carrié’s mythological focus. The opening of the show was accompanied by a brief preview of a Haitian opera based on the revolutionary hero Makendal.

At this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, apart from Ebony G. Patterson’s gold-leaf pieces, Caribbean art lovers can seek out new works by Trinidadian Christopher Cozier, who will be artist in residence at

the trendy Betsy Hotel in South Beach, creating a site-specific lightbox installation. And the Pérez Art Museum Miami will open its elegant new building with a series of exhibitions and projects including Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke’s For Those in Peril on the Sea, an installation of dozens of replica boats and ships suspended in one of PAMM’s new project spaces.

I only wish I still lived in Miami so I could see them live!

Untitled Lightz I (2013, mixed media on paper, 8.5 x 6.75 feet), by Ebony G. Patterson

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WORD OF MOuTH


The view from the RoostTanya Batson-savage remembers the

excitement of Jamaica’s annual pantomime

Anancy play in 1949 (Bluebeard and Brer Anancy, written by Noel Vaz and Louise Bennett). In 1954 there was a forceful move towards indigenisation, with the first Anancy cycle of plays: Anancy and the Magic Mirror (by Greta Fowler) and Louise Bennett’s Anancy and Pandora and Anancy and Beeny Bud.

The product ions have benef ited from and help to defined and develop some of the island’s best acting, writing, directing, musical, and choreography talent, including the legendary Miss Lou, Ranny Williams, Charles Hyatt, and Rex Nettleford. Not only was it a training ground for many in theatre, but it was also responsible for the birth of the School of Drama, now a part of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.

In its early days, the pantomime ran for a few weeks. Today, productions usually run for approximately three months. The themes over the decades

have been varied. Recent pantos have pulled from history in Combolo and Miss Annie, explored folk tales in Iffa Nuh So and Anancy and Goat Head Soup, and dealt with contemporary happenings in Runner Boy and Howzaat.

The 73rd pantomime, The Golden Maccafat, will continue the tradition of exploring contemporary issues through a folk prism, fuelled by dance and music. It opens on Boxing Day, 26 December, 2013 — with more than a few awestruck youngsters in the audience. n

i t’s called the Roost. Otherwise known as the nosebleed seats: those perched at the very top of the Ward Theatre,

the powder-blue grand dame of downtown Kingston. But to my eight-year-old self, as I gazed down at the spectacle taking place on the stage far below, they were the best seats in the house.

The occasion was the 1983 pantomime Ginneral B, and my entire family and I were dressed, pressed, and out with a throng of other Jamaicans from across the country to see the production. Ginneral B wasn’t my first panto, but it’s the earliest one I can remember. The memories aren’t very clear. Apart from the sight of actor Oliver Samuels in a bright white suit, and a car that somehow made it onto the stage, it is the feeling of awe that I recall more than anything else.

This has been the hallmark of Jamaica’s

annual pantomime, produced by the Little Theatre Movement: a bevy of spectacle, fuelled by catchy music, and populated by engaging sets and vibrant costumes.

Jamaican pantomime is the love child of the British Christmas pantomime and Afro-Jamaican traditions pulling from Jamaican folk culture, history,

and contemporary realities. The panto has become a staple of the Jamaican theatrical diet, so much so that in his book The Jamaican Theatre Wycliffe Bennett describes the national pantomime as “uncompromisingly Jamaican as rice and peas and ackee and salt fish.”

The first pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, was staged in 1941, and in those days it stuck close to its British origins. The panto had its first brush with Jamaicanised content in 1943 (Soliday and the Wicked Bird), and its first

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Photography courtesy Kesi Gibson

IN THE BAGJamaican designer Kesi Gibson of

Kyu Mélange creates handbags

inspired by different cultures

For more information on retail outlets and items for purchase, visit www.kyulmelange.com

We all know what it’s like to follow in our parents’ footsteps. With her mother creating mosaics using exquisite materials, it’s no surprise that Kesi

Gibson made the jump from finance to fashion to create Kyu Mélange. This Jamaican designer and alumna of the prestigious Wharton School of business in Pennsylvania designs beautifully handcrafted bags for both men and women, drawing inspiration from different cultures and combining vibrant raw materials from countries such as Turkey, Argentina, and Jamaica. Each has a wonderful combination of fabrics, is incredibly fresh, and is a functional wearable piece of art. Look out for Gibson’s holiday collection this November, and her expansion to cool jewellery.

Alia Michèle Oranestyle.aliamichele.com

Above As seen on the Caribbean Fashion Week runway, the Lulu shoulder bag is

for any woman on the go

Left A balanced combination of leather and silk makes this Makeda clutch a

must-have

THE lOOk

http://www.kyulmelange.com


santimanitay, by Nathalie Taghaboni (Commess University Press, 361 pp, ISBN 9780615873336)

The much-anticipated second book in Nathalie Taghaboni’s Savanoy family series is a lot darker than its predecessor Across From Lapeyrouse, and deals with issues that most families would sweep under the carpet: alcoholism, mental illness, infidelity, and even more morbid reality. In telling Carlton and Helene’s love story, the author brings more of the Savanoys’ history to light.

Without revealing spoilers, there is one passage where any woman who has had a child will put the book down to weep. This author’s ability to draw in and captivate a reader is quite unique. I don’t think I have ever been quite as invested in a book’s characters as I was with Santimanitay’s. You’ll leave this book feeling like the Savanoys are your own family.

Bridget van Dongen

a kind of Eden, by Amanda Smyth (Serpent’s Tail, 288 pp, ISBN 9781846688133)

Amanda Smyth’s second novel is a poetically violent contemplation of contemporary Trinidadian life, experienced through the jaded yet hopeful eyes of British police officer Martin Rawlinson. The foreigner navigates the island’s lush terrain with an uneasy appreciation, finding fleeting yet heady comforts in the arms of a younger local mistress. The author’s prose enacts a half-loving, half-

horrified portraiture of a savage and terrifyingly beautiful place. As the novel’s dubious hero vacillates between ideas of identity and transplantation, the sympathetic reader feels Rawlinson’s fear: how so many of his personal dreams for peace unhinge in the chaos of one violent night, and the difficult decisions he must make in the wake of his family’s endangerment. Smyth guides the narrative smoothly, invoking terror and reflective disquiet alongside descriptions of natural splendour.

SR

Jamaica in Black and White: Photography in Jamaica, c 1845–1920�, by David Boxer and Edward Lucie-Smith (Macmillan Education, 304 pp, ISBN 9781405098878)

BOOksHElF

The considered historical photography book can mean a broad significance of things: it may serve as an emotional treasury, a satellite to one’s past and the past of one’s predecessors. It may be a compiled series of waypoints by which archivists and historical aficionados might navigate the development of a nation, a phenomenon, or a collective identity. It has the potential to be both cultural criticism and sepia slideshow,

dually. This new compendium of photographs gleaned almost exclusively from the David Boxer collection, with accompanying texts by Boxer, former chief curator of the National Gallery of Jamaica, and art critic Edward Lucie-Smith, is both emotionally resonant and historically illuminating.

Known photographs from the late nineteenth into the early twentieth century do not encompass Jamaican slavery’s denouement — they begin in earnest from the early days of post-abolition, continuing through to the rebuilding of Kingston in the aftermath of the devastating 1907 earthquake. Events that contribute to the bedrock of Jamaican history are captured in still images by photographers of the age (notably A. Duperly and sons, though many of the featured photographs retain little to no significant source information). The Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865; the

1872 construction of Victoria Market; the heyday and decline of the island’s railway system: these scenes from the architectural, civic, and resistance archives of daily life find a generous berth of representation in these pages. The auxiliary texts of Lucie-Smith and Boxer are intelligent sideline additions: the images are always focal, compass points of an era in Jamaican history reinvigorated with vitality through contemporary examination.

Of particular appeal are the book’s numerous portraits. From these, a sense of multi-faceted, many-chambered personhood emerges, in the formal and unforced studies of landowners, field labourers, ex-slaves, immigrants, children: considered as an extended treatment in human study, these images will both inform and fascinate.

Shivanee Ramlochan, Bookshelf editor


My allergy Depressed Optimist

Since the inception of Irie Fire Studios in Antigua a couple of years ago, I’ve been keeping an ear open, keen to hear what they would come up with. With the recent release of “My Allergy” by Depressed Optimist, my optimism has been well rewarded. The band is fronted by the multi-

talented Hani Hechme, who not also manages the studio but also composed, arranged, played guitar and bass, and sang the main vocals on the track, which features a plethora of young Antiguan musical talent. It begins with a moody monologue by Che Ferris on drums (if you are in Antigua you should see him live, playing with his other band, Monkey Tee-Lee), then bursts into superb guitar playing by Hechme. The backing vocals add to the moodiness of the sound, and the old-school record-scratching from DJ Quixx brings everything together. Their sound is very different to anything currently being played in the Caribbean. I’m eager to hear what else will come out of this exciting new addition to the Caribbean music scene. Check them out at www.iriefirestudio.com.

SC

Creole soul Etienne Charles

Born in Trinidad, and now an assistant professor of trumpet at the Michigan State University College of Music, Etienne Charles is fast becoming one of the biggest names in current jazz music. He opens his fourth album, Creole Soul, with voodoo priest Erol Josué chanting in Haitian Creole.

Inspired by a trip to Haiti, the first track, “Creole”, has an outstanding performance by drummer Obed Calvaire as he kicks off a fiery backbeat with a scintillating kongo groove. The tone then slows down for the ballad “The Folks”, which includes two excellent solos from Charles along with his tenor saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart.

To go along with the originals there are also four excellent covers. Two standouts are Bob Marley’s classic “Turn Your Lights Down Low” — given the obvious reggae treatment, but also including a mesh of soul and calypso. “Green Chimneys” (originally by jazz legend Thelonious Monk) is also arranged to showcase the calypso root in the melody.

That chant at the beginning of the disc translates into “I’m bringing the news,” but what Charles brings us is a vibrant and exciting album that isn’t just jazz, but a mash-up of everything Caribbean.

Sheldon Cadet

PlaylIsT

single spotlight

Trinidad Calypso 1939–1959 Various artists

Calypso conquered the world after Harry Belafonte’s 1956 Calypso album became an unprecedented success, but overseas fascination began far earlier, thanks to plentiful recording sessions that took place both in New York and Port of Spain. And many commentators agree that calypso’s “golden age” stretches from the late 1930s to the early

1960s, which is the era profiled on this double CD. Humour is naturally a big part of the proceedings, with Kitchener demanding that his girlfriend return “My Wife’s Nightie”, Terror fretting that “Chinese Children Calling Me Daddy”, and Houdini bemoaning a lack of “Gin and Coconut Water” in the United States. Of equal interest are intriguing calypso adaptations of traditional tunes, such as “Hol’ Em Joe” by Sparrow, the excellent “Kalenda March” by Roaring Lion, and “River Den Come Down” by the obscure Island Champions.

There are many perennial favorites, including Invader’s “Rum and Coca Cola”, Sparrow’s “Russian Satellite”, and Kitchener’s “Kitch”, but the uncommon gems bring the compilation to a higher level. For instance, there is a superbly sultry adaptation of the ribald “Fire Down Below”, credited to Beauty and the Brute Force Steel Band, and the pairing of actress Enid Mosier with a Trinidadian steelband for a rendition of Lord Melody’s “Boys Days” is an uncommon delight, as is Young Tiger’s “Calypso Be-Bop”. This fine compilation thus has plenty of interest for a broad audience, from the seasoned calypso hand to those not overly familiar with the form.

David Katz

http://www.iriefirestudio.com/


THE TASTE OF HOME

Far away from her native

Dominican Republic,

Clara Gonzalez decides

to recreate a traditional

Christmas meal. But where

do you find a pernil in

Denmark — or Dominican

batatas?

It’s easy to underestimate the importance of Christmas for Dominicans. Other countries celebrate many holidays with equal fervour, but this is not the case in the Dominican Republic, where Christmas is the year’s most noteworthy occasion.

With the exception of the Lenten season, no other festivity has dishes that are indelibly connected with the feast. The Christmas Eve dinner brings Dominican families together — it is a time to celebrate the ties that bind us. And wherever we find ourselves, we’ll try to bring a little of the flavour of the homeland with us. If you happen to end up in an area remote and disconnected from the Dominican Republic, well, it just means a little more effort has to be made, but nothing will stop a Dominican from keeping the tradition.

Over ten years ago I was in Denmark, where my husband hails from, spending the holiday season

with his family. Cold as it was, I was determined to bring a little of my own culture into a celebration which in Denmark is also steeped in ancient traditions.

I had the brilliant (read: insane) idea of treating everybody to an “authentic” traditional Dominican Christmas meal on 23 December. But, enthusiasm aside, creating dishes with ingredients native to, or popular in, the Caribbean turned out to be quite the predicament. To make matters worse, we were not even in the capital, Copenhagen, where finding some of the ingredients had a slightly better chance than a snowball in hell — or a snowball in the Caribbean, for that matter. Instead we were in a small tourist town far away from any major city.

This idea of mine proved to be the type of challenge that reality TV is made of. Even under these conditions, I was still able to procure yuca (cassava) and platanos (plantains) in a nearby city, and with considerable diligence, a pernil.

It’s easy to forget that what is common to the point of being unremarkable in our country may be considered exotic in another. For a country that consumes a heck of a lot

Photograph by Clara Gonzalez

Pan de batata

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42 Closeup from island to end zone

58 Own Words “you have to give them a

good time every night”

A courtyard at Nassau’s Popopstudios shows traces of the handiwork of its community of artists

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48 Snapshot making her claim

61 Riddem & Rhyme christmas skanking

52 Backstory the popop spirit

Christmas rice

Each family seems to have its own version of this dish, which has become an inseparable part of the traditional Christmas and New Year’s Eve dinner.

3 cups long-grain rice1 cup golden and dark raisins, mixed1 cup of flaked blanched almonds4 cups vegetable stock (see note below)4 tbs oilSalt

Heat the vegetable stock until it breaks a boil, and keep hot. Heat the oil over low heat in a cast iron or aluminium pot. Add two teaspoons of salt (but see note below).

Add the rice and stir for about three minutes. The rice should change a bit in colour, but do not let it burn. Add the vegetable stock and stir (careful with splatters!). Cook over low heat, stir two to three minutes. When the water has nearly evaporated, add the raisins and stir. Cover and cook over very, very low heat for twenty minutes.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the almonds and stir until they turn light golden, but do not let them burn. Uncover the rice, stir, and add the almonds. Stir again to mix them. Serve immediately.

note: If you do not have homemade vegetable stock, you can use a store-bought version, or dissolve a vegetable bouillon cube in boiling water. Take into consideration that they con-tain salt, so taste it. If the amount of salt seems sufficient for the rice, omit the additional salt from the recipe.

of pork, finding a fresh ham in Denmark proved to be quite the achievement. Luckily, my in-laws own a hotel and restaurant. They have a good relationship with the town’s butcher, who got us one after a couple of days’ waiting.

Whatever ingredients I couldn’t f ind, I adapted and substituted. No whole-grain bulgur for kipes (fried bulgur rolls)? I made kipes with peeled bulgur and added a bit of flour to help with the consistency. No yautia or ñame, Caribbean root vegetables? I made pasteles en hoja (traditional Dominican savoury cakes wrapped in plantain leaves) with yuca and platanos, and added a grated potato to add more starch. Since finding plantain leaves would be impossible in Denmark, I wrapped them in parchment paper.

The most difficult part proved to be guandules (pigeon peas) for a moro de guandules (rice and pigeon peas). Nobody in Denmark had ever heard of them. They seem to be quite uncommon outside the Caribbean. So I gambled and bought mung beans, based on appearance only, and decided to try them. Their taste is similar to the “ashy”, nutty taste of guandules. It turned out not a lot unlike the real thing. Or perhaps it was homesickness that convinced me of that.

Pan de batata (sweet potato pudding)

Pan de batata is a delicious dessert with a very exotic and spicy taste. The aroma of cinnamon and cloves and the touch of ginger make it the very embodiment of tropical cuisine.

The variety of sweet potato used for this dessert, although common in the Dominican Republic, may be more difficult to find elsewhere. It is bright purple with greenish flesh, and very sweet once cooked. If you can’t find this type, you should add three tablespoons of cornstarch to the mixture to compensate for the lower amount of starch in other varieties.

2 lbs sweet potatoes2 eggs1½ cup brown sugar1 cup whole milk1 teaspoon salt½ cup butter at room temperature (or 1/3 cup vegetable oil)½ cup finely chopped coconut2 tsp grated ginger1 tsp cinnamon powder1 tsp clove powder½ tsp nutmeg powder

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC). Use a teaspoon of butter to cover a nine-inch baking pan.

Peel the sweet potatoes. Grate with the least coarse side of your grater or pulse in the food processor until you obtain a paste. Add all the remaining ingredients to the sweet potato and whisk until it is well mixed.

Pour the mixture into the pan and bake until you test with a clean knife and it comes out clean (about thirty-five minutes). Cool to room temperature before removing from the pan.

And since finding batatas (Dominican sweet potatoes) in cold Denmark would be akin to finding rødgrød med fløde being served in the Dominican Republic, I used the more common sweet potatoes (the ones with the orangey flesh) and some corn starch (they have less starch than batatas) for my favorite dessert of the season.

While pan de batata (spiced sweet potato pudding) is not commonly associated with Christmas in the Dominican Republic, it has become a staple of our family Christmas celebration. Its spicy, gingery taste is the perfect ending to the night, and I wasn’t going to have a “Dominican” Christmas dinner without it.

Adaptation, experimentation, sweat, and frustration were the words to describe that feat of stubbornness. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but that didn’t stop me.

It worked. Everybody loved the dishes, the “exotic” flavors, and the idea

of a Christmas from beyond the sea, transplanted from an island of palm trees to the land of Vikings.

A holiday miracle! n

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 4342 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM

Who are the Caribbean’s best football players?

no, the other football: not soccer, but American

football, whose highest level is the national

Football League. unknown to most sports fans

at home, Caribbean athletes have exuberantly

infiltrated the nFL, bringing a distinctive spirit to

the artificially turfed field of play. Debbie Jacob

meets four football players from the islands who

are changing the face of this all-American game

hey are football players with Caribbean roots, but when these players dig their cleats into the artificial turf, they aren’t kicking around the soccer ball that defined their youth. They are playing American football — a misnomer for a game originally derived from rugby, but purposely changed in the nineteenth century when spectators lost interest in watching piles of players painstakingly pushing their way down a field.

As boys, they didn’t know of this North American sport where scoring points depends mainly on a quarterback

handing off the ball to a running back, or throwing it to designated receivers who never kick the ball. They never dreamed of playing American football, but — drafted or signed as free agents by a National Football League team — Caribbean players bring to the game the flair and confidence that defines the region.

From the New York Giants’ wide receiver Victor Cruz, who celebrates his goals and his Puerto Rican roots with salsa dances in the end zone, to the New Orleans Saints’ outside linebacker Jonathan Vilma, known for his brutal tackles as well as his Haitian ancestry, the NFL currently lists fifteen players with Caribbean ties. They are colourful and controversial characters both on and off the football field.

These Caribbean players have earned a reputation for being bold, tenacious, loyal, light-hearted, fiercely confident, and competitive. They play with all the pride they have inherited as West Indians, and they take every opportunity they can to claim their heritage. Their numbers are few, but there’s no doubt about it: in American football, Caribbean athletes are making waves.

ast year, wide receiver Pierre Garçon proved to be a key player in the Washington Redskins’ NFC East championship game. Best known for his passion for football and his pride in his Haitian roots, Garçon — formerly of the Indianapolis Colts — stamped an indelible image on the Colts’ 2010 victory over the New York Jets, when he celebrated by displaying the

Haitian flag. “That victory was a week after the earthquake in Haiti,” says Garçon,

Pierre Garçon

Washington Redskins #88

Born 8 August, 1986

6 feet, 0 inches; 212 pounds

ClOsEuP


“and I think I had the best game of my life. It was the blessings of everyone praying for me and my family and everyone in Haiti. I had a great hand in helping the team win that game.”

Most people who are unaware of his background assume Garçon is French. He uses that misunderstanding to claim his Haitian roots. “My whole family is from Haiti,” he explains. “My three sisters were born in Haiti. I was born two years after my parents arrived in the US. I grew up speaking Kreyol at home and learned English when I went to school. I still have family in Léogâne, and my family goes there as often as possible. My mom is from Port-au-Prince. My Haitian roots are very important to

football scout vacationing in Barbados recruited him to play college football in the US. Harewood transferred from the University of the West Indies at Mona to Morehouse University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he earned a degree in applied physics and engineering. At Morehouse, Harewood had to learn American football from scratch. Drafted in the sixth round by the Ravens, Harewood spent much of his first two years with the team on injured reserve.

Harewood credits his Bajan roots every chance he gets. “I was raised by an aunt after my mother died when I was ten,” he says. “I was raised to never say never — just keep fighting, and that’s all I did.”

Harewood sees his success in the NFL as an anomaly. “The reality is, football is not a Caribbean sport,” Harewood explains. “American football is not a sport you can pick up and play. You have to want to do it. When you put those pads on, you separate the men from the boys. You’re not born with a helmet and shoulder pads, and the deal-breaker for many athletes is the physical contact. As much as I would like to push American football here in the Caribbean, it’s just not the reality here.”

In the freezing Baltimore winters, Harewood often thought of Barbados. “I tell everyone Bajans are good, wholesome, decent people,” he says. “That’s what I miss most — the people, and my childhood friends. The majority of the friends I grew up with still live in Barbados.”

me. It’s my identity,” says Garçon.“I tell people Haiti has the most beautiful people

and beautiful beaches. It has the best food.” At home, Garçon savours his mother’s red beans and oxtail, creole shrimp and plantains. Being Haitian, Garçon says, serves him well. “It makes me appreciate life. It shows me how to work extremely hard through difficult times, because that’s how we have dealt with life as a people. We came through tough times throughout history, and we survived.

“Being from Haiti gives me strength. As a football player, I never give up on anything or any task. I represent Haiti everywhere I go.”

he Baltimore Ravens won 2013’s Super Bowl XLVII, the championship game at the end of the football season, with the help of Ramon Harewood, the NFL’s only player from Barbados. In September, Harewood became a free agent in search of another team after the Ravens

released him. Still, he is the only Bajan with a Super Bowl ring.Harewood grew up playing volleyball, cricket, and rugby, and

became a football player quite by accident, when an American

“The reality is, football is not a Caribbean

sport,” Ramon harewood explains.

“you’re not born with a helmet and

shoulder pads, and the deal-breaker for

many athletes is the physical contact”

hiladelphia Eagles safety Patrick Chung was born in Jamaica, where his mother Sophia George was famous for singing “Girlie Girlie”, a 1985 reggae hit. Chung migrated to the US with his family when he was ten. Far ahead of American students, Chung finished secondary

school and enrolled at the University of Oregon at the age of sixteen.

He describes himself as a Jamaican-American. Chung is often questioned about his Chinese name, and he spends time educating Americans about the ethnic diversity of his home country. “Growing up in Jamaica teaches you about diversity,” he says, “and it teaches you race doesn’t matter. It’s how you live life and how you treat people.”

He still remembers settling into the US. “When I got here, no one could understand me when I talked. I was a young kid speaking a different language, Jamaican Creole.” One day Chung came home from school and broke the news to his mother that he wanted to play American football. “She said, ‘Can’t you be on the swim team?’ She didn’t want me to hit people.”

Chung sports tattoos that remind him of his roots. “Kingston and August, my birthday, are on my right bicep, and Jamaica is on my left bicep,” he says. “I never forget my Jamaican roots.” He tells everyone that Jamaicans are down-to-earth, good people. Chung is a Bob Marley and reggae music fan, and he’d eat jerk chicken every day if he could.

Patrick Chung

Philadelphia Eagles #23

Born 19 August, 1987


Ramon harewood

Currently free agent

Born 3 February, 1987



With his wife Celia, Chung recently launched the Chung Changing Lives Foundation, based in Massachusetts, to help children cope with school and life in poor areas. Eventually he hopes to expand his charity work to Jamaica.

He credits his Jamaican roots with shaping him as a hard-working, relentless NFL player. “I realise I come from a small place,” he says, “but so many West Indians have shaped the US. I’m proud of that, and I know I can make a difference on the field. Jamaicans are fast and quick, and that helps us in football.”

He adds, “I’m not just a Jamaican. I’m from the West Indies. That means pride, hard work, and being kind to people. My parents would slap me if they ever found out I wasn’t kind to someone.”

nly one new West Indian player found his way to the NFL this year. At the 2013 NFL draft, the Houston Texans snatched up outside linebacker Trevardo Williams, who was born in Trelawny, Jamaica, just east of Montego Bay. Williams migrated to

Connecticut when he was fourteen, to join his mother. He’s twenty-eight now, so he’s spent half his life in the US. But Williams still has a strong Jamaican accent, and at home he speaks Jamaican Patwa.

“It’s cool to know I’m the only person from the West Indies in this year’s draft,” he says, when I inform him during an interview after football practice. Like other Caribbean players in the NFL, Williams says he’s sure his roots shape his morals and his work ethic. “In Jamaica, I was a church guy in the Pentecostal church,” he says. My values are home and family. I come from a tight-knit family.”

Williams, who has a degree in sociology, hasn’t been back to Jamaica since migrating to the US, but he says, “I’m up-to-date with my culture, the food — my favourite is stewed chicken and fresh cabbage — and the music.”

He dreams of returning to Jamaica to research his family tree. He vividly remembers Jamaica: playing cricket, dice, and the game “mama lash she,” and running through the countryside.

“My mother came to America when I was four,” he says, “so I was raised by my maternal grandmother. I’m always going to be a Jamaican at heart. My best memories are in Jamaica.” n

Trevardo Williams hasn’t been

back to Jamaica since migrating

to the uS, but he says, “i’m

always going to be a Jamaican at

heart. My best memories are in

Jamaica”

Trevardo Williams

Houston Texans #54

Born 31 December, 1990

6 feet, 1 inch; 237 pounds

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Despite the swell of her belly, Hannah Lowe is perched, apparently comfortably, on a wide bench at the British Library in London. The child who is coming will bear her father’s name, she

says. “It’s important for me not to lose the name, because the child won’t feel the connection to the Caribbean that I do.”

Chick, Lowe’s f irst collection of poetry — published in February 2013, and shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection — is also named for her father. A mixed-race Chinese-black Jamaican immigrant to Britain, Chick was a professional gambler who was already in his fifties when Lowe and her brother were born. They grew up in Ilford, just outside London, where their white British mother was deputy head teacher at a primary school.

The complex legacy of her father’s life is at the heart of Lowe’s writing. Not only was he a gambler,

he was also willing to stack the odds in his own favour. Lowe and her brother knew their father gambled for a living, but that he played dishonestly was something they saw only in glimpses. Her brother caught him ironing cellophane around a pack of cards, to make them appear new; in a hall cupboard there was a little guillotine for shaving the sides off of cards; there were pots of ink, penknives, and scalpels around the house, and a dentist’s drill her father used for loading dice. These objects inhabit her poems, but only past childhood did she make sense of them.

“When I said to my mum later, ‘Where was Dad doing this?’ she said, ‘Oh, love, he’d be doing it wherever you weren’t.’ The way that that sort of shifts the memories of your childhood is quite incredible,” Lowe explains. “And then these little things start to make sense: I remember seeing him loading dice and not knowing what he was doing, and the door sort of being pushed shut in my face.”

All of this within the façade of white middle-class family life. Both children looked white. “We both really identified as being white, because we were both treated as white. We are white in one way, but I think there was always the sense of feeling very different as well,” Lowe says. More than just the presence of their black father, there was, for example, the fact that they ate Jamaican food. Their father spent nights out gambling, returning to the family home at dawn, then much of the day asleep, but he did all the cooking. “He was a house husband. But he wasn’t like a traditional man — he was happy to do all the cooking, make cakes and puddings. He loved all that.”

Lowe’s was a childhood full of contradictions. Her father both was, and was not, part of family life. They all went on family holidays together, but Lowe says he sometimes felt like a lodger. He ferried the children around, but Lowe was known to tell friends he was a taxi driver her mother had sent to collect her. “I was always having to explain him to other people,” she says, “but it wasn’t just the fact that he was black and I was white. It was the fact that he was so old. He looked like a grandfather, and often he’d just got out of bed because he’d been playing cards all night, so he was this old dishevelled man with his hair stood on end.” One of the difficulties about promoting Chick, she says, is getting across that it’s “not just about having a black dad,” but about all the things her father was.

Ralph Lowe (“Chick” was a gambling nickname) had a tragic upbringing. Born in Jamaica in 1925 to a Chinese immigrant

MAKING HER CLAIMThe daughter of an Afro-Chinese Jamaican

father and a white British mother, writer

hannah Lowe grew up feeling “white”

but at the same time different. Coming

to terms with her father’s life and death

prompted her earliest poems — and

publishing her debut book Chick has

forced a reckoning with her own identity.

Melissa Richards learns more

hannah Lowe’s was

a childhood full of

contradictions. her father

both was, and was

not, part of family life.

They all went on family

holidays together, but

Lowe says he sometimes

felt like a lodger

Photograph by Tim Ridley

snaPsHOT


shopkeeper and his black servant, he believed that his own father had “bought” him from his mother to use as a lackey in the shop. Lowe says her grandmother gave up all claim to her son and later refused to acknowledge him, and her father found a receipt which seemed to indicate money had changed hands. Ralph was brutalised by his father, and would often run to his mother’s house, begging her to let him stay, only to be sent back. Lowe says her father was haunted by the knowledge that his mother didn’t want him.

Much of what Lowe knows about her father’s early life is from notebooks and tapes he used to document his own story. Lowe was studying literature at university, “and I kept doing courses in black women’s writing and postcolonial literature, but I wasn’t putting it together. I just thought, Oh, I’m interested in this. I was just beginning to realise that perhaps I was interested in the story of his life, and in my identity and how race is constructed, all of those things — and then he died.”

Because of his age and lifestyle, her father had been ill for much of her childhood, but was diagnosed with cancer while she

was at university. The cancer went away, but came back two or three years later, by which time Lowe had started a master’s degree in refugee studies. It was just three weeks between this new diagnosis and his eventual death. Her mother called her at university and told her to come home. “By the time I got there, he could hardly talk any more. It put me — without being overly dramatic — into a sort of psychic crisis. I realised that I needed to know his story, and he was going to die, and there was nothing I could do to bring him back. It was just too late.” When he lost consciousness, Lowe was completely grief-stricken. “But it was not just the grief of losing a father, it was a sort of cultural grief, really.”

For “years and years and years after,” she would dream he was still alive. “In these dreams I go out into the street. I’d be looking for him, the road signs would be all

wrong. They were sad dreams. I can laugh about them now, but I was always dreaming that I had the chance to talk to him again.” Long after his death, and after many years of academic writing, Lowe began writing poems about Ralph. She joined a creative

writing class, and it became a running joke that every week she would bring in a new poem about her father. A decade on, with the publication of Chick, and having just found a publisher for a family memoir which intersperses chapters about her own childhood with fictionalised chapters about 1930s Jamaica based on her father’s notebooks, she may finally have gone as far as she needs to into her father’s life. Although her racial identity remains an open question.

At a recent history conference, Lowe witnessed an eminent white historian being challenged by a woman in the audience, who wanted to know when he felt the narrating

of black history should be in the hands of black people, and what

he was doing to facilitate this. Lowe seems personally affected by having witnessed the exchange. She says that after years and years of never making any claim on a black identity — “for all the reasons that I wouldn’t, because I have had all the privileges of a white upbringing, to the extent that I know those privileges still exist” — the experience of publishing Chick made her realise that hers is accepted as another black British voice. “But to hear that woman say that — I still can’t square it.” The only thing of which she is certain is that there are no absolutes. “Twenty or thirty years ago in Britain, when minority literature, black literature, started getting studied, things were said like, ‘These are voices from the margins that have unique insights,’ and I think things that I can say complicate that a bit, because I’m not a voice from the margins at all.”

She wonders if the things that she can say might make people think about “passing” and ideas around it — “because, let’s face it, two hundred years ago, if I’d been born in Jamaica, I’d have been a slave. On the ‘one drop’ theory of racial purity, plantations in Jamaica had people working on them who looked like me . . . Does it make people think, actually, what is race, what does ‘black’ look like?” Lowe wants the child she is carrying to share the legacy of her father, although she’s still unsure how this will be communicated. Will it involve having to say something like, Oh, my dad was black? “For years and years and years I never said anything like that. It was in poetry that I got to make a claim.” n

A decade on, with the publication

of Chick, Lowe may finally have

gone as far as she needs to into

her father’s life. Although her

racial identity remains an open

question


When artist John Cox decided to turn a

small family cottage in nassau into a modest

studio and gallery, he had no idea that

Popopstudios — named for his grandfather

— would grow into the driving force behind

contemporary art in the Bahamas. Fourteen

years later, Popopstudios international

Centre for the Visual Arts is becoming a

contender in the international art world,

but as sonia Farmer explains, its creative

community still has a family dynamic

THE POPOP SPIRIT

Rolling up to Popopstudios International Centre for the Visual Arts on any given day is a bit of a risk. Not because the art space is nestled in the heart of Chippingham, a once well-to-do west Nassau neighbourhood that has fallen into disarray — in fact, the cheerful yellow picket fence enclosing

psychedelic pink porches emits a welcoming glow, a sign that a special community thrives here.

It’s because any member of that community could be huddled away in one of eleven or so studio spaces, or installing work in the main gallery, or teaching a workshop, or gathered around one of those porches for a quick chat that gradually and inevitably develops into deeper meditations on life and art.

At any given time, ready to welcome any visitor could one be

artist, or two, or all of them. Every person who has become part of Popopstudios’ community has contributed a particular energy to its ebullient spirit. The building reverberates with a constant hum of creative energy that rises and falls in pitch depending on who inhabits the space.

Almost always, you get lucky, and spend hours touring the studio spaces, on the receiving end of some true Bahamas hospitality from the varied resident artists — who at any given time might include painters, photographers, sculptors, ceramicists, filmmakers, jewellery-makers, and quilters, and who might hail from Nassau, from the Caribbean region, or even the wider world. If you’re really lucky, you might even become part of the family and begin to tap into the intangible core of what Popopstudios is all about.

Popopstudios’ colourful façade welcomes visitors to meet its community of artists

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her partner Dylan Rapillard were among the first to snatch up a shared space. Since then, they have been constant pillars of the Popop community. Brown credits Popop with changing her perspective on her creative practice.

“The support from everyone here is so natural and informal — Popop is my art family,” she says. “You go through those moments where you question yourself and the way your work is going, and then someone like Dylan or John would come in and give feedback. It’s definitely very personal and emotional — you don’t feel like you’re just renting a space.”

When artist Heino Schmid returned home to Nassau in 2003 after studying abroad, he quickly formed a creative kinship with Cox and became a central member of the Popopstudios community. “There was no other place I could think to go for contemporary Bahamian work,” says Schmid. “People underestimate how important it is for an artist to feel like they can activate an area. It’s very important to feel like you can manipulate the physicality of the space your work exists in,” he explains, “because it sort of thickens the content. There was no other place on the island that allowed for that opportunity.”

Now, in his role as Popop’s exhibitions director, Schmid pushes for shows that generate conversation about contemporary Bahamian art. And in March 2013 there was a chance to expand that conversation, when Popopstudios ICVA represented Schmid’s work at the VoltaNY Art Fair in New York City. To fund the VoltaNY project, the community rallied behind Schmid, as he organised a special exhibition of his work in Popop’s gallery space. The turnout, says Schmid, showed that people not only support him as an artist, but recognise the relevance of the institution. His work at VoltaNY went on to be viewed by an estimated fifty thousand guests.

“There’s no other place like it,” says Schmid of Popopstudios. “If I had to work someplace else — I don’t actually know where that would be. I tell people all the time, when I travel and I get homesick, I don’t miss my house — I miss my studio.”

In 2010, Popopstudios gained non-profit status, and became an International Centre for the Visual Arts: part of a push towards expanding its community beyond the Bahamian artists

based in its studios. Workshops and critical discussions, offered by resident artists as well as artists from the wider community, were the beginnings of what Popop hopes will become a rigorous education programme, making the space a dynamic school of arts. Artists’ residencies are also part of the plan.

Popopstudios’ residency programme is twofold. On the one hand, visiting artists-in-residence get to expand their artistic practice in a new context, while also providing the Bahamian community with glimpses of the international contemporary art scene. On the other, Popop’s Junior Residency Programme — a partnership with the D’Aguilar Art Foundation and artist Antonius Roberts — gives young Bahamian artists a chance to find their bearings in the art world.

Now in existence for five years, the Junior Residency Programme has proven to be a turning point for its participants. Veronica Dorsett, a 2012 Popopstudios Junior Resident, recently participated in Caribbean Linked II, a residency based in Aruba. Dorsett credits her time at Popopstudios with giving her a context for her artistic practice, and the confidence to apply it to other creative opportunities. “During the residency,” she says, “the reality of creating my own points of interest and subject matter was the biggest eye-opener. Popop gave me an inkling of hope that I could be a functioning artist.”

“I feel like, in a way, that’s the mysticism of Popop,” says its founder, Bahamian artist John Cox. “It kind of manifests itself in different bodies, in different ways. There is a

compassion there, and sometimes it manifests itself in warm and inviting and welcoming ways, and other times it comes across as kind of a dragon, more ferocious. Both things are important.”

For Cox, balance is not so much a goal as a constant exercise in conscious creativity. His mixed media paintings and assemblages often engage the life cycle of balance: struggle, transcendence, and acceptance. This drive encapsulates not only his creative work, but also his pitch as curator at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, his mentorship of emerging artists as a professor at the College of the Bahamas — and his journey to build a hub for contemporary Bahamian art at Popopstudios.

That journey now faces a crossroads, as the space tries to find the right approach to stand on its own in a globalised conversation about art. “We’ve always been a place that is about the ‘art’ part of art,” says Cox, “because art has a lot of parts, the majority of which are not about art, and which become more

convoluted every day.” He adds, “We need to understand those things, and we need to realise how important they are.”

He expresses constant amazement at how Popopstudios, which started as his personal artistic practice, has grown into something beyond his ability to define. It began in a cottage on the family property in Chippingham, built by his grandfather Edward Dillet — known affectionately as “Pop Pop.” In 1999, in the large working space he built next door to the cottage, Cox exhibited a series of dynamic chair designs branded “Pop.Pop Studios.” For the next seven years, Popopstudios existed as an alternative gallery space in both cottage and studio, not only for works by Cox but also for several of his peers — Toby Lunn, Heino Schmid, Blue Curry, Michael Edwards, and Jason Bennett. Their group exhibitions, approaching subject matter, material, and installation in unconventional ways,

finally gave contemporary and experimental artwork a platform in the Bahamas. Cox was surprised that people sought out the space, in order to see how Bahamian art was progressing.

“At the beginning,” he says, “we wanted to create a community of artists who shared the same philosophical stance. It was about having similar intentions with our work — kind of bucking the system and its nostalgic view of the landscape, and challenging presentation.

“My work and work of close friends were not seen as part of the mainstream,” he adds. “The older generation had done their thing, but I felt like there was such a generation gap. I felt like we could cultivate something that took that momentum they started for Bahamian art and take it even further.”

The chance to expand the community came in 2007, when Cox’s aunt Iris Dillet-Knowles, proprietor of Dillet’s Guest House, handed the property over to him. The guesthouse was previously the family home, cobbled together by none other than Pop Pop himself. A self-made man who left school to pursue a prosperous career in the building trade, Pop Pop regularly added to a modest

central structure to make space for extended family members, eventually ending up with more of a compound than a house.

Cox never met his grandfather, who died in 1964 — almost a decade before Cox was born — yet he remains in many ways a reincarnation of Pop Pop’s exuberance, kindness, and creativity. The property, too, he decided, needed a reincarnation worthy of its eighty-five-year-old history.

“When we came here for the first time, I remember driving through Chippingham and thinking, Oh gosh, where are we?” says artist Danielle “Dede” Brown. “I

love it here, the whole vibe of the property.”In 2008, when Cox turned the numerous bedrooms of the

house into a collection of artists’ studios for rent, Brown and

“At the beginning,”

says John Cox, “we

wanted to create a

community of artists

who shared the same

philosophical stance.

it was about having

similar intentions with

our work”

Left Collaborating on a Popopstudios silkscreen

Below One of the art centre’s studio spaces

Artist John Cox, founder of PopopstudiosLI

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The expansion of Popopstudios ICVA has brought both exciting opportunities and har rowing

realities as it looks to the future. The biggest anxiety is an all-too-familiar struggle for art spaces: fundraising. The second-biggest is a little harder to define, but includes the shift of responsibility for running the space. Along with a new board, Popopstudios has gained a manager of operations to move the space through its new set of growing pains.

Jay Koment is a freelance art dealer who previously ran New Providence Art and Antiques. No stranger to the less glamorous details of running an art space, Koment knows the importance of the big picture, but is aware that the devil is in the details. “Popop needs to be a place where people can do what they do, which is make art,” he says. “That’s the endgame. People have to be comfortable making their work here.”

Slowly, over the years, the mission of Popopstudios has shifted from its anarchic origins into something more all-encompassing: a community that thrives on its own internal debates about art. In a way, Popopstudios ICVA is John Cox’s single greatest creative work, if only for its struggle to find the perfect balance between maintaining its inspiring organic pace and recognising the need to harness, categorise, and formalise that inspiration, to make Popop a weighty contender in the

regional and international art world. Popop’s biggest hope is also, paradoxically, its biggest fear:

what if its growth and the attendant bureaucratic realities begin to formalise the space in a way that hinders its very spirit? What if the family becomes too big for the space? But like his grandfather Pop Pop before him, Cox knows there is a way to make room in the house for everyone.

“The most important thing is the spirit of Popop,” says Cox. “The most meaningful part is the hardest thing to articulate, and what we are trying to do is expose people to that experience.”

“I’ve been blessed enough to have this experience over and over again, and most artists know what I am talking about. We want to take that to everyone.” n

Over the years, the mission

of Popopstudios has shifted

from its anarchic origins

into something more all-

encompassing: a community

that thrives on its own internal

debates about art

Artist Michael Edwards leads a workshop at Popopstudios

SABA

ST. LUCIA

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Photograph by Lou Noble

Trinidadian DJ Christopher Leacock, a.k.a

the Jillionaire, frontline member of the

international DJ project Major Lazer,

on starting off with bootleg cassettes,

negotiating fame, and taking Caribbean

music to new audiences around the

world — as told to Tracy assing

“YOU HAVE TO GIVE THEM A GOOD TIME EVERY NIGHT”

Notting Hill Arts Club. We met that night. That was the first year I went for Carnival. I had some Jah Melody vocals for him. I remember standing outside, genuinely having no idea who I was going to meet, and then he came out and he grabbed us and he played the Machel Montano and Destra “It’s Carnival” road mix.

I can’t take any credit for introducing anybody to anything. These fellas all have a rich musical background. What I did do was be a huge nuisance, and say all the time, you should work with these guys. Now we’ve done tracks with Machel Montano, Swappi, Bunji Garlin, Sherwin Winchester. Just this year we’ve hooked up with a bunch of guys and hopefully will keep working with them, build that relationship.

In the beginning it wasn’t as glamorous as some might think. It was a lot of hard work and dedication. I was still running the Corner Bar [formerly on Ariapita Avenue, Port of Spain], and I had to make a decision: I could either go out there and pursue this DJ thing, or I could stay in Trinidad and go back to IT consulting.

I tell people I slept on every couch in every secondary market in America. It was a weird experience for me, because first of all I wasn’t really like eighteen years old, going, I wanna be a DJ. But when I had this opportunity present itself, I was just like: well, OK, cool.

When you step out there and you look out and you see ten thousand people, or however many,

“i’ve never really

been a spotlight kind

of person. i like the

music and i like the

vibes of it, you know

what i mean? i like

the lime and i like

participating”

My thing is, I’ve just always kinda been a lucky fella, you know.

As a kid I didn’t have enough money to buy albums — I was buying bootleg

cassettes, mix-tapes. I remember recording off the radio on a Saturday morning, which was kinda difficult, because even though they playing all the hits on 95 FM, you still had to clean the house. The earliest song I remember taping off the radio was Prince’s “When Doves Cry”. I don’t think my first inclinations were to the mix-tape, but I liked listening to the DJs: Chinese Laundry, Tweeze, and The Professionals.

We had a sound system called Mount Zion One Sound System, and we used to listen to a lot of [sound] clash tapes. At the time, the only place you could get those in Trinidad was in the Drag

Mall [a collection of small craft stalls, packed tightly together, which once stood at the corner of Frederick Street and Queen Street in Port of Spain].

We used to play a lot of roots reggae. Even from that starting point, we were already like, yo, let’s try and get the freshest tunes. We were all about playing the records before anyone else had them. That was the thing that would make you stand out. It wasn’t like now, where you go to a torrent and you download the Beatport Top 40. It was a lot more competitive, and you had to be a lot more creative as well.

Then, I linked up with Hypa Hoppa [DJ Kwesi Hopkinson] and became part of [hip-hop group] Radioactive. It was a movement. There were so many people involved, and there were people that were quote-unquote “a part of it,” you know. But the thing about a sound system or a DJ group or whatever you want to call it is that it could only really have one or two or three stars — you know what I mean?

All ah we cyar be in that spotlight at the same time all the time. I kinda recognised that from early, and I’ve never really been a spotlight kind of person. I like the music and I like the vibes of it, you know what I mean? I like the lime and I like participating. I like choosing what tunes we should play and what dubs we should voice, and that type of thing. That’s where it all comes from, in terms of being a good selector, and even now that’s kinda like my thing.

Sometimes it is still weird, because I am not really trying to get on stage and say: hey, allyuh, look meh!

The first time I saw Wes [Thomas Wesley Pentz, a.k.a. Diplo, founder of Major Lazer] deejay was in west London, YoYo’s at the

they come to have a good time, they come to have a memorable experience, and you have to give them that every night.

Major Lazer is a very close family. If you come backstage, we’re very low-key. We’re very much to ourselves, and it’s cool, because we’re all friends as well, and we were friends before this and we’ll be friends after this.

I think the cool thing about Major Lazer is that it allows people to do something outside their regular zone. Anybody who is singing music, or is in a band, or whatever it is, has a relationship with reggae music, with Caribbean music.

I’m even doing a little production now, and it’s weird, because it’s still kinda new to me, and I am still very useless at it, but I think I work best in a collaborative format. I think I fancy myself a kind of P Diddy or Rick Rubin type of producer, where I have an ear for what sounds good. I know what arrangement will work, but I’m not really the best person to be sitting at a console pressing buttons and twisting knobs and putting on filters and things like that. I can sit with my buddy Richie [Beretta] or I can sit with my brother

Hanif [Tawab, a.k.a. Phat Deuce] and be like: here’s a song, this is what we should be working on, this is what I think it should sound like. I could write a drum pattern or I could write a synth line. I could come up with ideas, and then we could turn those ideas into songs.

From the very first time I started travelling, I would meet kids who were doing amazing things, who were way more talented than I was, who were building scenes in their own towns, and they were making their own music and having a lot of fun doing it.

With my label, Feel Up Recordings, these were the first people I signed. It’s stuff that we’re all passionate about and we think should be heard. The people that I work with are people that I am passionate about, because they are passionate about what they do.

I’ve always been interested in meeting more people who are doing cool stuff. So it’s always like, yo, maybe there is something cool that we can do together. That’s always fun. n

OWn WORDs


garry steckles

Photograph by David Corio

Christmas skanking

“Jingle bells”? “deck the halls”?

ubiquitous on the radio come

october, the usual yuletide “classics”

fill garry steckles with dread. but

reggae and calypso musicians

have created a whole genre of

christmas music rooted in the

caribbean and with a vibe

to persuade any scrooge

Jamaican producer Lee “Scratch” Perry gets festive

RIDDEM & RHyME


Fishermen on the Paracauary River, Marajó

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64 Escapes green days by the river 70 Round Trip

float away

I’m not, I have to confess up front, a huge fan of traditional Christmas music. I’ve heard Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas” more than once too often, and I’ve heard dozens, if not hundreds, of people trying to do something new and different with the same

song, probably the best known of all Christmas standards.

The overkill doesn’t help, either. Come late October, no matter where you go, it’s virtually impossible to avoid “Feliz Navidad”, “Mary’s Boychild”, and “Deck the Halls”. I did get some light relief from these staples during a couple of Christmases spent in the United Arab Emirates not so long ago — but that’s another story.

Despite these misgivings, most years, come lateish December, I’m perfectly happy to get into the spirit of the season — and no, I don’t just mean rum. I’m talking about Christmas music.

Caribbean Christmas music, that is.The tried and trusted melodies are transformed

when they’re recorded with a soca, reggae, or calypso riddim. And the equally tried and trusted lyrics take on a new life with a light rewrite introducing a touch of island wisdom or humour. My real favourites, though, are something that’s a rarity in most parts of the world: original Christmas music that embraces both the spirit of the occasion and the region it’s being celebrated in.

Let’s start with reggae, and with one of Jamaican music’s greatest producers, songwriters, arrangers, singers, and studio maestros, Lee “Scratch” Perry. The song I’m thinking about is one that’s been on heavy rotation Chez Steckles, and not just at Christmas, for the past decade or so. It’s called, simply, “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year”, and it’s one of the greatest numbers ever recorded by Perry, whose CV includes more reggae classics than perhaps any producer other than Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, Scratch’s employer, teacher, and mentor in his apprenticeship era. The basic riddim’s downright hypnotic, the melody’s equally addictive, and Scratch’s quirky vocals are complemented by Sandra Robinson’s sweet alto.

“Merry Christmas, Happy New Year” also happens to be included on a collection that I’d recommend as a one-stop shop for anyone wanting to add a collection of seriously good Christmas reggae to their music collection: Trojan’s Christmas Reggae box set. It features a smattering of original Christmas compositions and a slew of reggae versions that breath new life into the classics. Among the former are Yellowman’s “African Christmas”, the Ethiopians’ “Ding Dong Bell”, John Holt’s “Lonely This Christmas”, Alton Ellis’s “Merry Merry Christmas”, Desmond Dekker’s

“Christmas Day”, and the Maytals’ “Merry Christmas”. The latter include a bunch of the great Jacob Miller’s previously hard-to-find reggae takes on Christmas (think “Deck the Halls” with lots of colly), and reggaefied standards by A-list vocalists such as Holt, Don Carlos, Peter Broggs, and Freddie McGregor.

Speaking of A-list vocalists, it’s not widely known that a not-too-shabby reggae singer by the name of Marley — first name Robert — recorded a couple of Christmas songs during the Wailers’ early years with the aforementioned Clement Dodd’s

Studio One label. There’s a slow, semi-ska version of “White Christmas” (“not like the ones I used to know,” sings Bob) and the full-tilt ska “Sound the Trumpet” (the melody of which incorporates a straight steal of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”), the highlight of a various-artists album titled Reggae Christmas from Studio One.

The other great hotbed of Christmas music in the English-speaking Caribbean is Trinidad. The annual celebration of parang, brought

to the island from nearby Venezuela, is as much a part of Christmas in Trinidad as midnight mass, ham, turkey, and sorrel, and parang musicians, known as paranderos, trek through neighbourhoods serenading residents, who traditionally show their appreciation with seasonal food and drink.

Trinidad also has an abundance of Christmas music on record by just about all of its leading artists, including Sparrow, Baron, Scrunter, Daisy Voisin, and Machel Montano. My personal favourite Trini Christmas album, though, is a venerable six-tune gem titled A Calypso Christmas, starring three vintage Christmas songs by the incomparable Lord Kitchener: “Christmas Greetings”, “Bring de Scotch for Christmas”, and “Father Christmas”, all showcasing the Grandmaster’s sublime melodies, and all touching on the ample supply of beverages, not of the non-alcoholic variety, on hand for the celebrations.

Christmas with Kitch. I’ll drink to that. n

the tried and trusted christmas melodies

are transformed when they’re recorded

with a soca, reggae, or calypso riddim. and

the equally tried and trusted lyrics take on

a new life with a light rewrite introducing a

touch of island wisdom or humour

76 Offtrack fifty shades of blue


Morning traffic on the Paracauary River

Green days by the riverin the mouth of the mighty Amazon River is an

island more than three times the size of Jamaica,

home to unspoiled beaches, vast stretches of

forest and savanna, and many, many water

buffalo. Little known outside Brazil, the ilha do

Marajó is not quite cut off from the world — but

it’s a good place, nicholas laughlin finds, to

pretend that you are

Photography by Nicholas Laughlin

On weekdays the Praia do Pasqueiro is almost deserted. But on even a somewhat overcast Sunday the neatly thatched huts lined up above the high-water mark are full of holidaymakers eating and drinking away the hot hours. Waiters ferry trays of drinks and food — fried fish, rice, salad — from kitchen sheds further back on the beach to the plastic tables and chairs clustered in the palm-thatch shade.

Closer to the water’s edge, a handful of sunbathers recline in deckchairs, and a dreamy-eyed couple canoodle under a large striped umbrella, sharing sweet nothings and plates of seafood. Youngsters prance on the wet sand and plunge into the shallow waves. Teenagers stride out into the warm water until it’s nearly deep enough to swim.

Terns skitter along a sandbank. Far away and above, clouds sail along an oceanic horizon. But the slight tang in the breeze isn’t sea salt. It’s something greener, muddier, more vegetal. The Atlantic swells far out to the north, but its currents only rarely make their way to this beach. And the flotsam fragments scattered on the sand around my feet are bits of jungle detritus: twigs with glossy green leaves, the seed pods of unknown trees, a piece of palm trunk covered with four-inch thorns.

The expanse of brown water that stretches as far as my eye can see is in fact the outflow of the world’s mightiest river. I am standing at the north-eastern tip of Marajó Island, in the mouth of the Amazon — the world’s largest island surrounded by fresh water.

EsCaPE


meat and cheese — a soft mozzarella — are ubiquitous on restaurant menus, and exported to other parts of Brazil.

Adrift in the Caribbean Sea, Marajó would be a major Antillean island, but here on the shoulder of Brazil, South America’s largest nation, it remains relatively little-known, even to most Brazilians. Rio do Janeiro and São Paulo are both more than 1,500 miles to the south, though the nearest major city, Belém, is just a three-hour ferry ride away. In the age of mobile phones, high-speed wifi, and satellite TV, you can’t really describe Marajó as isolated. But with its slightly rugged frontier charm, its rustic daily pace, and still unspoiled beaches and wetlands, it’s as good a place as any for the kind of trip where you play at being blissfully cut off from the rest of the world.

Which is why I find myself at Praia do Pasqueiro, watching the waders, the swimmers, the

busy waiters and happy Sunday lunchers — and noting with surprised approval that table service is prompt and efficient under these thatched huts on the shore of an island at the edge of the Amazon jungle.

When we too have waded, swum, and lunched, my companion and I decide it’s time for a late siesta. Luckily we’ve pre-arranged transport back to our pousada. We wait at a bench where the dirt road to the beach trails into

white sand, outside a bar shack with a portrait of Che Guevara and red, gold, and green stripes. Only ten minutes late — or exactly on time, by the Marajó clock — two motorcycle taxis come roaring round the bend. Riding pillion, we have an exhilarating twenty-minute journey, the drivers obligingly slowing down when we want to take photos of an especially winsome buffalo, or a concrete-block house decked with balloons and streamers for a birthday party, blasting music and overflowing with guests.

By sheer luck (our original hotel cancelled our booking at the last minute) we’ve found ourselves in exactly the spot we’d have chosen to stay, if we were old Marajó hands. The pousada, a single bungalow divided into eight small rooms, is perched on the eastern bank of the Paracauary River, about two miles from the centre of Souré, the island’s capital. There are a few acres of rough lawn, dotted with fruit trees, where two ponies graze early in the morning, and a ginger-rumped capybara forages. A kitchen and dining-room are built on stilts at the edge of the water, and almost hidden behind a thicket of flowering shrubs is a long jetty leading out over a mangrove patch to the river.

It’s also sheer luck that the pousada has no Internet connection, and although there’s probably an Internet café somewhere around, I’m yet to go looking. For the first time in years, I’m properly cut off from email, Facebook, Twitter, and online news, and already I’m feeling the salutary effects — and a distinct absence of curiosity about what may or may not be happening anywhere else in the world.

Post-beach and post-siesta, I grab towel and paperback and head barefoot down the sloping lawn to the jetty. The river — flowing into the Pará, and thence the Amazon — is rising fast, swelling with the far-off Atlantic tide. As I sit reading, I glance across occasionally to see how much higher the water-level has crept up the jetty posts. A pert sandpiper keeps an eye on things. Eventually I give in to a craving for a swim, but as I dip into the

water, the strength and swiftness of the current are a surprise. I make sure to stay within arm’s length of the jetty, lest I’m swept away to Souré.

As the afternoon light goes rosy and gold, the silty river water seems to turn silvery green. Delicate pink flowers float down from a nearby tree, to be snatched by the current, and a pair of toucans hop about overhead, trading comical croaks. The water is just a few degrees cooler than the balmy air, and the only thing that can tempt me to emerge is the thought of a sunset caipirinha before dinner.

Twenty years ago, visiting Marajó was for the truly intrepid. It’s much easier now. There are morning and

afternoon ferries to and from Belém, and several dozen small hotels and pousadas offer accommodation to visitors. You can even stay on one of the island’s large

ranches — buffalo rides included. The main beaches around Souré, like Praia do Pasqueiro and Praia da Barra Velha, are easy to access, with those aforementioned restaurant shacks and waiters eager to offer refreshments. Marajó merits mention in the main Brazil guidebooks, and growing numbers of international visitors come in search of adventure, but most tourists are from other parts of Brazil, and few locals speak much or any English. (Luckily, my companion is a quick study at foreign languages, and does all necessary interpretation. My Portuguese is limited to basic and essential words, like “caipirinha.”) We may have chosen a slow week for our visit, but on Marajó we don’t encounter a single other non-Brazilian.

Which fits perfectly into my plan for a real retreat. And, unable to follow most of the conversations going on around me, I can indulge my non-verbal observation skills, listening for tones of voice or laughter, watching the flashes of facial expression among a quartet of fishermen chatting in a moored boat, the casual ease with which moto-taxi passengers play with their mobile phones as they whiz past.One hundred and eighty-five miles long by one hundred and

twenty-six miles wide, the Ilha do Marajó is more than three times the size of Jamaica. On the map, it looks like a

chunk of Brazil that broke away and got itself lodged in the mouth of the Amazon. Much of the island is a landscape of seasonally flooded savanna, with patches of forest on higher ground, and its population of 250,000 is mostly clustered along Marajó’s eastern edge, facing the Pará River, which flows into the Amazon.

Agriculture is the main activity. That flooded savanna happens to be the ideal habitat for water buffalo, a species native to Asia. But about a century ago — no one seems to know exactly when — providence arranged for a boat carrying a small herd of the placid beasts to founder within swimming distance of Marajó’s shore. The buffalo castaways thrived in the heat and mud, and today the island’s herds outnumber the human population three to one. The evidence is everywhere, grazing along unpaved roads or wallowing in mudholes. Even the Marajó police sometimes patrol on buffalo-back, and buffalo

The slight tang in the breeze isn’t

sea salt. it’s something greener,

muddier, more vegetal. The

expanse of brown water that

stretches as far as my eye can

see is in fact the outflow of the

world’s mightiest river

Left and opposite page Sunday at Praia do Pasqueiro

SOuTh AMERiCA

Marajó island marajó

Belém

Souré

Paracauary River

n


We spend an afternoon making a lazy tour of Souré. We start at Delicias da Nalva, Marajó’s most famous restaurant, in an enclosed porch attached to the house of Nalva herself, the owner. After a slow and copious lunch, and having declined Nalva’s gentle entreaties to order dessert, we set off for a stroll down a long red-dirt avenue, shaded by massive mango trees.

Few of its streets may be paved, but Souré is laid out in a careful grid, with a covered market, a square decorated with fountains and arches, and a handful of surviving Art Deco or Portuguese colonial-style buildings among less ornate concrete-block houses and shops. The obligatory water buffalo is grazing at a strip of green above the river. Three young men lead ponies down a slipway to the water and they all trot into the water, heading out for a swim. A dozen scarlet ibis wing past, red streaks against the blue sky.

We pass hardware stores, a bank, shops with hand-lettered posters advertising fresh açai — the Amazon palm fruit celebrated for its nutritional properties — and a tour

operator or two. We can, if we wish, arrange a hiking trip, a buffalo trek, a fishing expedition, or hire a car to drive us some hours into the heart of the island, to an archaeological museum housing the remarkable decorated pottery created by Marajó’s long-ago Amerindian inhabitants.

But our jetty on the Paracauary is waiting, the river is streaming past all green and silver, it’s another hot day — and what could be nicer than a swim? The tide is low this afternoon, and the water has dropped ten feet. Mudskippers flop

about among the mangrove roots, and children are splashing and shouting near another jetty further upstream. Yesterday’s current has disappeared, and the Paracauary is gentle as a lake.

It’s half a mile to the other side, where the bank is lined with coconut palms, flowering trees, little houses. The occasional boat goes by, painted red and blue or orange and green.

Somewhere in the world, someone is emailing me right now, but it will be days before I know it, or even care.

There are hours and hours left before dusk, in which to float in the slowly rising river, look out for toucans and parrots, eavesdrop (without understanding a word) on fishermen.

And then will come sunset, and faint lights twinkling on the far bank of the Paracaurary, and another caipirinha. n

Caribbean Airlines operates daily flights to Paramaribo, Suriname, with regular air connections to Belém, Brazil. From Belém there are daily ferries to Marajó

Somewhere in the

world, someone is

emailing me right now,

but it will be days

before i know it, or

even care

12_236_Teleg_RoamingOudbound_nw_fareisha_210x276mm.indd 1 5/11/12 8:59 AM

A lazy afternoon on the Paracauary

Float awayAn island is defined — literally — by water. And

in the Caribbean our daily lives are shaped by

proximity to the sea. it is part of our landscape,

a channel for communication, an economic

resource — and a playground. These five

adventures afloat are delightfully different

ways to enjoy being out on the water

For Trinidadians, “up the islands” means the Lesser Antilles, but “down the islands” refers to the craggy and

hauntingly beautiful islets off Trinidad’s north-west peninsula. Counting west

from the tip of the “mainland,” Gasparee, Monos, the twin Huevos,

and Chacachacare, with their forested ridges, haunting bays, and rustic holiday

cottages, are best explored by pirogue, but watch out for the restless currents

that churn through the Dragon’s Mouths, the channels that lead to the open sea


In most of the Caribbean, “open water” means the sea. But in Guyana, the land

of many waters, it can also mean one of the thousands of rivers that criss-cross the interior. The Rewa River, pictured

here, flows into the Rupununi — which is itself a tributary of the Essequibo, the

largest river between the Orinoco and the Amazon, more than twelve miles

wide at its mouth

RO

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ROunD TRIP

On the north coast of Vieques, off Puerto Rico, is one of the Caribbean’s natural wonders. Surrounded by mangroves and nearly cut off from the sea, Bioluminescent Bay is home to a peculiar micro-organism that glows like neon when the lagoon’s placid waters are disturbed. When night falls, the slightest movement — whether the passage of a sleepless fish, the slice of a kayak’s paddle, or the strokes of an intrepid swimmer — creates an unearthly blue light-show you’ll have to see to believe

A tall ship and a star — or a perfect white-sand cay — to steer her by?

The Antilles are famous as a yachties’ paradise, and no stretch of the

archipelago offers more heavenly sailing than the Grenadines. Over six

hundred islands, small and even smaller, are scattered across a patch of sea in a shade of turquoise that sometimes

defies belief, divided between Grenada to the south and St Vincent and the

Grenadines to the north

72 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM w w w . v i s i t t o b a g o . g o v . t tTobago! It’s not as far as you think.

Aqua-blue waters with clear skies to match, warm sun bathing down and the contrasting cool, island breeze of the Caribbean – how could one resist

indulging in the breathtaking ambience of it all? Simply, one cannot!

Whether it’s ripping through the waves with style or just enjoying a casual sail on tranquil waters – Tobago is the place to be. Kite Sur�ng, Paddle

Boarding, Wind Sur�ng, Wake Boarding and numerous other water sports are available to both locals and tourists alike.

So take a dive into the wonderful world of water sports in one of the Caribbean’s best-kept secrets – Tobago!

Tear up the Tide in Tobago

Liberating, thrilling and ful�lling – the horizon’s the limit for water sports in Tobago.

Facebook Twitter

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The Caribbean’s coral reefs are among the world’s most spectacular. You

can explore these eerie underwater landscapes, teeming with marine life, with snorkel or scuba-tank — or save

yourself the swimming and enjoy a ride in a glass-bottomed boat, like this one

off Jamaica’s north coast. The submarine world unfurls before your eyes like a

blue-tinted movie

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Photography by Dri Castro

Fifty shades of blueOff the north coast of

Venezuela, Los Roques is an

archipelago of white sand cays

surrounded by numerous shades

of breathtaking blue sea. it

sounds too good to be true, but

laura Montanari discovers that

sometimes the tourist brochures

don’t exaggerate

OFFTRaCk


Eighty miles off the coast of Venezuela, scattered near the more famous ABC islands of the Dutch Antilles, the Los Roques archipelago is a secret hidden in plain sight. The islands are just a thirty-minute flight from Caracas, but accessing a new and little-known place is almost always an adventure.

The flights leave very early in the morning, and the aircraft is small — very, very small. Venezuelans call the aeroplane a tara, the local name for a big grasshopper. But as you approach El Gran Roque, the main island of the group, you feel more like you’re piggybacking on a flying fish. This is the real Caribbean deal: an unspoiled archipelago of pristine white sand beaches and see-through turquoise water. The views out the plane window are so enchanting, you can almost feel all those shades of blue surrounding you already. It may sound like the stuff written for tourist brochures, almost too good to be true, but in Los Roques that is precisely what I found.

The three hundred and fifty islands and cays of Los Roques are part of a national park, in an area of “controlled access,” which is not exactly a term used to describe a well-connected place. At the same time, this status gives protection to the archipelago, and offers some guarantee that it will remain a spotless piece of crystal-clear heaven.

Even though they boast plenty of accommodation and activities for visitors, the inhabited islands — which have just 1,500 permanent residents — still look like fishing villages. Exploring El Gran Roque on foot (the walk is worth every step!), it is almost shocking to experience the normality and friendliness with which locals treat their “guests.” There isn’t a fancy big hotel in sight, although there are comfortable privately owned posadas (the local name for B&Bs). And the attitude of the Roqueños guarantees satisfaction wherever you go.

n

VEnEZuELA

Los Roques

Caracas

los roquesEl Gran Roque

Like a tourist brochure photo, but real: a beach on El Gran Roque


A boat trip around the archipelago is a good way to get your bearings. I had never sailed on a catamaran before, and I didn’t know what to expect, but at that point I

honestly didn’t mind: I was already a happy visitor. There is an eighty-foot limit for all boats entering the national park, so forget about huge cruise ships: this is a human-scale experience, and a very comfortable one at that, with refreshments, food, and all the equipment you’ll need during the day.

As we started our journey, I discovered the net at the back of the boat, and I stayed there, feeling the breeze and the sea spray on my skin, while enjoying the endless blue. We sailed around for some time with no purpose other than to get the passengers even more excited by the panorama, before arriving in Francisquí, one of the many islets of Los Roques. Given its proximity to the main island, this is one of the most visited cays, but don’t worry: here you won’t find any of the inconvenience you encounter on a crowded beach.

The cay is divided into three parts, and received wisdom is that the most beautiful of them is Francisquí Medio, but in reality I couldn’t tell: to me it was all stunning. Nearby is a shallow area called La Piscina (the pool), a lagoon of sorts in the middle of the sea, ideal for snorkelling. I could write a book about the beauty I encountered there. I literally lost track of time and space among turtles, starfish, corals, and many other creatures that are the subjects of undersea documentaries. I left Francisquí feeling a bit like Jacques Cousteau, discovering unexplored territories.

It’s funny how an experience like this can change your whole expression. My joy at the end of the day was so obvious that when I arrived back at my posada, one of the members of staff smiled at me with a knowing wink in his eyes: another one bites the sand.

Later, I wandered around Gran Roque’s four hundred acres, and felt compelled to walk to the only historic

building on the island, the lighthouse, located atop the only hill. Sunset brought a dramatic display of light.

Visiting the lighthouse made me wonder about the history of the islands, so I went straight to the source, and asked some locals. But the past is elusive in Los Roques, not least because you find people from very different origins living in Gran Roque, many of whom were once visitors like myself, who became enchanted by the island and decided to stay here for good. Eventually I learned that Los Roques has been considered part of Venezuela since 1589, although in the nineteenth century the archipelago was populated mostly by foreigners from the neighboring Antilles. A lasting legacy of this heritage can be seen in the names of the many islets — Francisquí, Madrisquí, and others with the same phonetic termination, which originates in the English word cay (or key), rather than the Spanish cayo. Later on, fishermen arrived from nearby Margarita, another Venezuelan island. The national park was established in 1972, and today the islands are especially popular with European tourists, though little known to the rest of the Caribbean.

In Los Roques you’ll find that history is not a chronicle of events, but rather a cycle of things to come (and gone): the rainy season, the tourist high season, the turtle-hatching

Venezuelans call the aeroplane

to Los Roques a tara, the local

name for a big grasshopper. But

as you approach El Gran Roque,

you feel like you’re piggybacking

on a flying fish. The views out the

window are so enchanting, you

can almost feel all those shades of

blue surrounding you already

Opposite page Exploring one of Los Roques’ numerous

small cays Above Seabirds enjoy the

view on El Gran Roque


season, the fishing season, and so on. History is written in the life of its residents, so if you want to find it you will have to talk to them. But be warned: you must be willing to be delighted by a very diverse array of stories that constitute the collective memory of many cycles past.

There are mornings when you wake up before the alarm goes off, and you know it’s going to be a good day. The start of my second day was filled with the smell of

traditional Venezuelan food: arepas, a cornmeal patty filled with cheese, ham, or whatever is on the table. After breakfast I went for a stroll along the shore, and was surprised by the presence of pelicans fishing right in front of me. I couldn’t resist taking a swim among them. These creatures are so reassured of their space, and so accustomed to the presence of the odd tourist, that they will let you be in their company — actually, they will almost swim with you.

The destination of my second day’s cruising was Madrisquí, another cay in the vicinity of Gran Roque. Here you’ll get two islands for the price of one: From Madrisquí you can reach Cayo Pirata over a shallow sandbank that will make you feel like you’re walking on water. One of the peculiarities of this place is that there is a privately owned house — rare in Los Roques — built before the archipelago became a national park.

The next morning, boarding the tara that would fly me out of paradise, I felt as though I had unfinished business. Most people will visit Los Roques for just a few days, but once there I discovered there are many more things to do and cays to visit — such as Cayo de Agua, which features one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, or Dos Mosquises, which is a turtle reservoir; or the fishing of lobsters, which takes place between April and November every year; and so on. In the spirit of Los Roques, I hope to return soon, and rejoin the cycle of things to come. I hope you’ll get the chance too. n

Caribbean Airlines operates daily flights to Caracas, with regular air connections to Los Roques

in Los Roques, you’ll find that

history is not a chronicle of

events, but rather a cycle of

things to come (and gone).

history is written in the life of

its residents

Dominica’s Valley of Desolation, despite its name, may hold the key to the country’s energy independence

IMA

GES

DO

MIN

ICA

EnGAGE

84 Green what lies beneath 86 On This Day

palace of dreams

A Los Roques sunset


The subterranean volcanic activity that

shapes Dominica’s dramatic landscape

is also the key to an ambitious new

geothermal energy project. Although

the venture has been controversial,

reports nazma Muller, the government

is going full steam ahead, and exploring

the promise of enough green energy

to supply the whole of Dominica, and

Martinique and Guadeloupe too

WHAT LIES BENEATH

Dominica’s Valley of Desolation is actually a place of great hope — if you know what you are looking at, that is. This desolate, moss-covered rock valley floor is wreathed in mists of steam, the

result of very hot water being pushed up through volcanic mini-geysers and fumaroles (cracks in the Earth’s crust). These hot springs, for which Dominica is renowned, come in shades of grey, blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, and black — the residue of mineral deposits that have seeped out of the Earth into the stream beds.

You pass through the valley en route to Dominica’s most alluring natural sight: the Boiling Lake, a 207-foot-wide flooded fumarole, which sits inside a deep basin. A chamber of molten magma beneath the lake heats its grey waters to temperatures that cause the centre to bubble alarmingly. Along the edges, the temperature ranges from 82º to 91.5º Celsius.

While many Caribbean nations are looking upwards to the sun for an alternative source of energy, Dominica is looking in the opposite direction: down. The last island to be formed in the Caribbean, about twenty-six million years ago, Dominica was created by volcanic action. It lies on two opposing tectonic plates, which explains why its highest peak, Morne Diablotins, soars to 4,747 feet. The most mountainous island of the Lesser Antilles, its volcanic peaks are the cones of lava craters. Dominica is composed almost entirely of volcanic rocks, and it is also the most volcanically active island, with nine potentially active centres.

All of which means that Dominica is a hotbed of geothermal energy — perfect for exploitation.

Beneath our feet, the Earth is silently (and sometimes not so silently) generating enough heat to supply all of humanity’s energy needs.

At its core, temperatures can reach a mind-boggling 5,000ºC, the result of radioactive decay of minerals and the original processes that formed the planet. The heat is conducted to surrounding rock, which can melt due to the temperature and pressure, creating magma. This in turn heats rock and water in the crust, sometimes up to 370ºC. The geothermal gradient —

the difference in temperature between the core of the planet and its surface — drives a continuous outward conduction of thermal energy.

Until recently, geothermal power generation was limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries. However, advances in technology have dramatically expanded the range and size of viable resources. For example, in Iceland, which has seventy years of geothermal experience, ninety per cent of homes are heated using geothermal energy, and it is used by most industries. There’s even a restaurant where all the food is cooked with steam rising directly from the earth. Although the wells release greenhouse gases trapped deep within the earth, these emissions are much lower per energy unit than those released by fossil fuels.

In 2008, a European Union–funded exploratory programme found that the geothermal resources in the Wotten Waven area of Dominica could potentially generate 130 megawatts of electricity — enough to supply the entire island with green energy, and maybe even export some too.

Experts from Iceland were brought in to verify the reservoir capacity and the quality of the geothermal fluid. They estimated that the Laudat-Wotten Waven geothermal field was about fifteen square kilometres in extent, with temperatures ranging between 250º and 300°C. Alongside the government of Dominica, the project is being financed by the French Development Agency and the European Development Fund. The French joined the

project in the hope that Dominica’s geothermal field would be able to produce enough electricity to supply their nearby territories, Martinique and Guadeloupe, with fifty megawatts each, via undersea cable. If successful, the strategy would save the French government one hundred million euros per year in fuel subsidies.

The Martinique-Guadeloupe deal was dealt a serious blow in April 2013, when Electricité de France (EDF), the largest utility company in the world, and the sole electricity company in Guadeloupe and Martinique, withdrew from the project. EDF was supposed to have built and operated the electricity-generating plant in Dominica. But the French Development Agency is prepared to f inance the construction of a smaller initial fifteen megawatt geothermal plant to provide electricity for local consumption, and the French government is still interested in financing a larger plant and in buying electricity from Dominica. Meanwhile, three strategically located exploratory wells, ranging from one thousand to two thousand metres deep, have already been drilled, with plans for more drilling in the works.

Env i ronmenta l is t s have voiced concern over the potential impact of deep drilling on Dominica’s water table, and the release of noxious gases. However, the government of Dominica has already invested more than US$12 million in developing the geothermal industry, and has sought the advice of the Clinton Climate Initiative on the way forward. The island’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vince Henderson, told the sixty-seventh session of the UN General Assembly in October 2012 that “Dominica’s energy initiative has the potential to transform its economy and to improve the quality of life of its people.”

In fact, if the project is a success, it promises a major impact on Dominica’s carbon footprint. As Henderson explained, “We anticipate that by 2017 all of our electricity needs will be met by a combination of sources: hydro and geothermal. By 2020 we expect to be exporting electricity to our neighbouring islands via submarine cables. This, coupled with our sustainable development practices, means that Dominica will be not only carbon neutral, but carbon negative, by 2020.” n

Beneath our feet, the Earth

is silently (and sometimes

not so silently) generating

enough heat to supply all

of humanity’s energy needs.

At its core, temperatures

can reach a mind-boggling

5,000º Celsius

Photography by Images Dominica

The grey waters of Dominica’s Boiling Lake are heated by an underground chamber of magma

GREEn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magma

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_gradient

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tectonic_plate_boundaries


and foreign visitors. A few miles further into the mountainous interior, and out of range of French naval cannon, stood the vast fortified hulk of the Citadelle Laferrière, an impregnable fortress built to withstand insurrection or invasion. Both palace and fortress were symbols of royal power, and Christophe’s determination to keep Haiti independent at all costs.

Yet the turbulent and divisive nature of Haiti itself meant that Christophe’s kingdom was vulnerable. Pressure from Pétion’s southern republic combined with resentment in the north against the king’s autocratic style and system of forced labour, and a peasant and army uprising broke out. As insurgents approached Sans Souci on 10 October, 1820, an ailing and

prematurely aged Christophe retired to one of the palace’s suites and shot himself — reportedly with a silver bullet. He was quickly and discreetly buried by loyalists in the Citadelle. Ten days later his son was murdered by a mob in Sans Souci.

Thereafter the palace, looted and vandalised, fell into disrepair,

and was badly damaged in the catastrophic earthquake of 1842. It stood abandoned

and largely neglected until 1982, when Sans Souci and

the Citadelle were designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Now visitors pay to enter the grounds of the palace and to hire a mule and guide for the long, steep ascent to the Citadelle.

Christophe’s rise and fall has an epic quality, and Sans Souci

plays an important part in the Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier’s vivid “magical realist” novel The Kingdom of this World. Even now, surrounded by green

mountains and overlooked by the gaunt, ruined form of Sans

Souci, it is possible to imagine that seven-year period when former slaves

and revolutionaries gathered in their aristocratic finery on the palace lawn to pay their respects to King Henry. n

Illustration by Rohan Mitchell

PALACE OF DREAMSWhen the haitian Revolution brought

General henri Christopher to power, he

proclaimed himself king and decided

he wanted a palace. Completed two

hundred years ago, Sans Souci was

both a luxury playground and a symbol

of power — but not for long. James

Ferguson tells its tale

The small community of Milot is pretty much what any visitor to northern Haiti might expect to find: a few streets of wood and corrugated iron dwellings, the cheerful hustle and bustle of a busy farming community, a backdrop of mountains which, unlike many in the country, still

appear lushly forested. The town (population about 5,500) seems unremarkable — until you walk to its southern end. There, where the potholed streets peter out, stands a massive white basilica, topped by what looks like a Russian Orthodox onion dome. To its right, an elaborate double set of iron gates bar access to what lies beyond on a slight incline: a vision like something from a Werner Herzog film, the imposing ruins of a baroque palace set in a tropical valley.

It takes a moment to appreciate the splendour — and sheer incongruity — of the site. For here indeed is a palace, built by the Caribbean’s only self-proclaimed king, and completed two hundred years ago in the last months of 1813.

Strangely, the palace owes its existence to the Haitian Revolution, a fourteen-year conflict that ended the French colony of Saint-Domingue and created the independent black state of Haiti. In the course of the revolution, black leaders rose to prominence, and one of them was Henri Christophe, a former slave who, it is thought, was born in Grenada in 1767. We know little about his early years, but it seems he was freed from slavery

and worked as a waiter and manager in a hotel in the sophisticated French colonial town of Cap-Français. When the first uprising broke out in 1791, he threw in his lot with the revolutionary leader Toussaint L’Ouverture, and until 1802 served with distinction, eventually being promoted to the rank of general. He also fought under Toussaint’s successor Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and when he in turn was assassinated, Christophe found himself close to power.

But it was only partial power, as Haiti was d iv ided between the nor th, control led by Christophe, and the south, ruled by the lighter-skinned general Alexandre Pétion. Moreover, the French still harboured ambitions to retake their colony and re-impose slavery, so Christophe’s rule was from the start marked by a siege mentality. At first he declared himself president, but in April 1811 he had himself crowned as King Henry (the anglicised spelling perhaps a nod to his Grenadian

origins), “Destroyer of Tyranny, Regenerator and Benefactor of the Haitian Nation, Creator of her Moral, Political, and Martial institutions, First Crowned Monarch of the New World, Defender of the Faith, Founder of the Royal Military Order of Saint Henry”.

Given this sense of self-aggrandisement, it is perhaps not surprising that Christopher wanted a palace. Work had begun in 1810, overseen by French and German architects, on the site of a former plantation and close to the cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, finished six years earlier. Christophe’s chief propagandist, the Baron de Vastey (one of the forty barons and many counts, knights, and dukes in the royal court) boasted that the palace and church were “erected by descendants of Africans, [and] show that we have not lost the architectural taste and genius of our ancestors who covered Ethiopia, Egypt, Carthage, and old Spain with their superb monuments.”

Be that is it may, the palace’s style was distinctly European. Its four floors, according to Edward E. Crain’s Historic Architecture in the Caribbean Islands, covered fourteen thousand square feet. There were reception halls, luxurious suites, and even a private theatre. No expense was spared with the fittings — marble, mahogany, and mosaics, mostly imported from Europe. A state-of-the-art cooling system brought cold water from springs through underground channels, while outside different levels of landscaped gardens and an elaborate network of water features and fountains reinforced the atmosphere of luxury. Possibly

in recognit ion of the architectural influences in play, the palace was named Sans Souci (“carefree”), like the summer palace of the Prussian King Frederick the Great, built at Potsdam in the 1740s.

While Christophe forced the recently freed slaves of his northern realm back to work

on the plantations (and hence traded profitably with Britain in sugar), his selected coterie of nobles enjoyed themselves at Sans Souci, where there were banquets, balls, and concerts. The palace also accommodated a school and hospital, where European teachers and doctors ministered to the needs of the royal elite. Christophe had his own royal emblem designed, a pair of lions, and appointed his son and heir Jacques-Victor Prince Royal of Haiti. Ex-slaves who had remained loyal to him were rewarded with titles, such as the Duc de Marmelade or the Comte de Jérémie.

Sans Souci was built to impress — both Christophe’s subjects

While henri Christophe forced the recently

freed slaves of his realm back to work on the

plantations, his selected coterie of nobles

enjoyed themselves at Sans Souci, where

there were banquets, balls, and concerts

On THIs Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World


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PuZZlEs

across1 What you get if you park badly in London (7)5 Wallows, but you can stir and gulp it down (7)9 It’s big, and full of instructions for your device (5)10 Could the hero of Omdurman have sung calypso in

Trinidad? (9)11 Grainy Andean crop delights vegetarians (6)12 Sweet payback: first bite of a profiterole (6)16 Measures the strength of the wind (10)17 Fiery recording studio in Antigua (4)19 A little duck, maybe greenish-blue (4)20 It’s really not made clear (10)22 It’s well established, maybe deep in the earth (6)23 What you do to the gear when you’re ready to drive (6)26 Art is an alarming thing for the skilled craftsman (9)28 When a seat is full, even if there’s no one there (5)30 Small falcon that hovers before swooping (7)31 Thin, coiling offshoot of a climbing plant (7)

Down1 River that flows through Cambridge (3)2 A chain of islands (11)3 Correct procedure on formal occasions (8)4 British version of a levee (4)5 Dog lowers its hindquarters to the ground (4)6 What nature thinks of a vacuum (6)7 Short Local Interconnect Network (3)8 Where Kingston’s Christmas pantomime is held (4, 7)11 He calls the shots for the offense (11)

13 Cacophonous firework, even in Paramaribo (11)14 Red dye, good for hair, nails, fabrics (5)15 Describes a molecule with reduced oxygen (5)18 Waterborne mass of tiny creature and plants (8)21 Old Faithful is the famous one (6)24 First stage of analysis, possibly Freudian (4)25 What you have left when the air has gone (4)27 It is, but you wouldn’t say so now (3)29 Zero Nothing No goal (3)

gsasgbrackishggceantamilibrarygaonaumsatollmymertdndbacrosbycayphpcilhelmetpnjseeiyoeezionaicoenrpenreorifmrarrtmeecancbseaoiliiaraeuauthrzgmaselsofcfeibrouaztrsbahfaamtyneneseemiamangrovenrtliclramayanaeltelkopermisslouemyir

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE by Gregory St Bernard

Spot the Difference answers


Sudoku 6x6 - Puzzle 4 of 5 - Hard

2 1

3

5 6

4

5 4 6www.sudoku-puzzles.net

Garland is higher; colours of large balls on garland are swapped; trees in background are shorter; turkey’s tail feathers are longer; turkey’s right wing is repositioned; turkey’s right foot is repositioned; fork is repositioned; “K” on pendant is repositioned; Kaiso’s left hand and glass of sorrel are repositioned; pattern on Kaiso’s shorts is different; pig’s ears are larger; pig’s tail is longer; boots are added to pig’s feet.

There are 13 subtle differences between these two pictures. how many can you spot?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10

11 12 13

14 15

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18

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21

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30 31

Incorporation date27 September 2006

Websitewww.caribbean-airlines.comwww.airjamaica.com

Airline codeBW

Fleet16 Boeing 737-8002 Boeing 767-300ER5 ATR 72-600

On-time performance85% (2013 year-to-date: 30 June)

Incorporation date27 September 2006

Websitewww.caribbean-airlines.comwww.airjamaica.com

Airline codeBW

Fleet16 Boeing 737-8002 Boeing 767-300ER5 ATR 72-600

On-time performance85% (2013 year-to-date: 30 June)

Operational Launch01 January 2007

Corporate headquartersIere House, Golden Grove Road,Piarco, Trinidad, West Indies+ 868 669 3000

Reservations+ 800 744 2225 (toll-free)+ 868 625 7200 (Trinidad & Tobago)

Operational hubPiarco International Airport, Trinidad, West IndiesNorman Manley International Airport, Jamaica (Air Jamaica brand)

Corporate headquarters

MarketsAntigua (ANU) Barbados (BGI)Trinidad (POS) Tobago (TAB)Caracas, Venezuela (CCS) St Maarten (SXM)Paramaribo, Suriname (PBM) Georgetown, Guyana (GEO)St George’s, Grenada (GND) Castries, St Lucia (SLU)Gatwick, London (LGW) Miami, Florida, USA (MIA)

Kingston, Jamaica (KIN) New York, New York, USA (JFK)Toronto, Canada (YYZ) Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA (FLL)Orlando, Florida, USA (MCO) Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ) Nassau, Bahamas (NAS)

MarketsAntigua (ANU) Barbados (BGI)Trinidad (POS) Tobago (TAB)Caracas, Venezuela (CCS) St Maarten (SXM)Paramaribo, Suriname (PBM) Georgetown, Guyana (GEO)St George’s, Grenada (GND) Castries, St Lucia (SLU)Gatwick, London (LGW) Miami, Florida, USA (MIA)

Kingston, Jamaica (KIN) New York, New York, USA (JFK)Toronto, Canada (YYZ) Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA (FLL)Orlando, Florida, USA (MCO) Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ) Nassau, Bahamas (NAS)

Cargo & Parcel ServiceCAL Cargo Freighter Service operates five times weekly, Monday through Friday, offeringconnections to North American, the Caribbean and European gateways. There is also a daily small package delivery service, JET PAK.

Loyalty programmesCaribbean Miles, Club Caribbean and 7th Heaven Rewards

Cargo & Parcel ServiceCAL Cargo Freighter Service operates five times weekly, Monday through Friday, offeringconnections to North American, the Caribbean and European gateways. There is also a daily small package delivery service, JET PAK.

Loyalty programmesCaribbean Miles, Club Caribbean and 7th Heaven Rewards

Caribbean Airlines Facts


Caribbean Airlines Across the World

Trinidad Head OfficeAirport: Piarco InternationalKilometres from capital: 26Transport: TaxiReservations & information: + 868 625 7200 (local)Ticket offices: Nicholas Towers,Independence Square, Port of Spain;Golden Grove Road, Piarco;Carlton Centre, San FernandoBaggage: + 868 669 3000 Ext 7513/4E-mail: [email protected]

AntiguaAirport: VC Bird InternationalKilometres from capital: 8Transport: TaxiReservations & information:+ 800 744 2225 (toll free)Ticket office: VC Bird International AirportHours: Mon – Fri 8am – 4pm. Closed on weekends and public holidaysBaggage: + 268 480 2927 Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sun, or + 268 462 0528 Mon, Wed, Sat.Flight information: 268 480 2945E-mail: [email protected]

BarbadosAirport: Grantley Adams InternationalKilometres from capital: 18Tranport: TaxiReservations & information:+ 800 744 2225 (toll free)Ticket office: Sunjet House,Independence Square,Fairchild Street, BridgetownBaggage: + 246 428 1650 and 426 428 1651E-mail: [email protected]

GrenadaAirport: Maurice Bishop InternationalTransport: TaxiReservations & Information: 1 800 744 2225 (toll free)E-mail: [email protected]

Jamaica (Kingston)Airport: Norman Manley InternationalKilometres from capital: 18Transport: Taxi, busReservations & information:+ 800 744 2225 (toll free)Ticket office: Trafalgar Road, Kingston 5Baggage: + 876 924 8500E-mail: [email protected]

St MaartenAirport: Princess Juliana InternationalKilometres from capital: 14Reservations & information:+ 011 599 546 7660/7661(local)

Ticket office: Princess Juliana International AirportFlight information: + 011 599 546 7660 Baggage: + 011 599 546 7660/3E-mail: [email protected]

TobagoAirport: Crown PointKilometres from capital: 11Transport: TaxiReservations & information:+ 868 660 7200 (local)Ticket office: Crown PointInternational AirportBaggage: + 639 0595 / 631 8023Flight information: + 868 669 3000E-mail: [email protected]

Fort LauderdaleAirport: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Transport: Taxi, coachReservations & information:+ 800 920 4225 (toll free)Ticket office: Fort Lauderdale-HollywoodInternational Airport, Terminal 4 – departures level (during flight check-in ONLY – 2.45pm to 6.00pm); 300 Terminal Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33315 (situated at departures level, 2nd floor)Hours: Daily 6.30 pm – 10 pmBaggage: + 305 359 9114Flight information:+ 800 920 4225 (toll free)E-mail: [email protected]

MiamiAirport: Miami InternationalKilometres from capital: 14Transport: Taxi, coachReservations & information: + 800 920 4225 (toll free)Ticket office: Miami International Airport, South Terminal J – departures level (during flight check-in ONLY – 11.45am to 3.45pm); 4200 NW 21 Street, Miami, Florida 33126Baggage: + 305 869 3795Flight information: + 800 920 4225 (toll free)E-mail: [email protected]

New YorkAirport: John F Kennedy InternationalKilometres from capital: 24Transport: Taxi, subway, coachReservations & information: + 800 920 4225 (toll free)Ticket office: Concourse B, Terminal 4, JFK International Airport, Jamaica, NY, 11430 (situated at departures, 4th floor)Baggage: + 800 920 4225Flight information: + 800 538 2942

E-mail: [email protected]

TorontoAirport: Lester B Pearson InternationalKilometres from capital: 27Transport: Taxi, coachReservations & information: + 800 920 4225 (toll free)Ticket office: Terminal 3Ticketing available daily at check-in counters 422 and 423. Available 3 hours prior to departure timesAirport telephone: + 800 920 4225Baggage: + 905 672 9991Flight information: + 800 538 2942E-mail: [email protected]

CaracasAirport: Simón Bolívar InternationalReservations & information: + 58 212 762 4389 / 762 0231Ticket office: Boulevard Sabana Grande, Edificio Galerias Bolivar – Torre A, Piso 1, Of. 11-A CaracasE-mail: [email protected]

GuyanaAirport: Cheddi Jagan InternationalKilometres from capital: 42Transport: Taxi, busReservations & information: + 800 744 2225 (toll free)Ticket office: 91-92 Avenue of the Republic, GeorgetownBaggage: + 011 592 261 2202E-mail: [email protected]

SurinameAirport: Johan Adolf Pengel InternationalKilometres from capital: 50Transport: Taxi, busReservations & information: + 597 52 0034/0035 (local)Baggage: SURAIR Ground Services NV. + 597 325 437E-mail: [email protected]

LondonAirport: GatwickKilometres from capital: 45Transport: Taxi, bus, trainReservations & information: + 44 870 774 7336 Ticket office: Caribbean Airlines Limitedc/o AVIACIRCLE, Building D, 28 – 29 The Quadrant Business Centre, 135 Salusbury Road, London, NW6 6 RJBaggage: + 44 (0)772 542 2892E-mail: [email protected]


WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 9594 WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

OnBOaRD EnTERTaInMEnT

the smurfs 2Smurfette knows a secret spell that can turn Gargamel’s creatures, the Naughties, into real smurfs. However, she is kidnapped by Gargamel and taken away. Now the Smurfs must join forces with their human friends in order to rescue her.

Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris, Brendan Gleeson • Director: Raja Gosnell • comedy, animation • PG • 105 minutes© 2013 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

r.i.p.d.A murdered Chicago cop is recruited to work for the “Rest in Peace Department” — Heaven’s police force. Now, paired up with a veteran sheriff, they must protect and serve the living from an increasingly destructive array of souls who refuse to move peacefully to the other side.

Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon • Director: Robert Schwentke • comedy, action • PG-13 • 96 minutes © Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

grown ups 2When Lenny decides to move back to his hometown, he doesn’t anticipate that he and his buddies will be dealing with old bullies, new bullies, drunken cops on skis, and four hundred costumed party crashers.

Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock • Director: Dennis Dugan • comedy • PG-13 • 101 minutes© 2013 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

nativity 2: danger in the manger!The unforgettable pupils of St Bernadette’s are heading to Wales to compete in the “National Song for Christmas” contest. Travelling with a donkey and assorted characters in tow, the gang is running dangerously late for the competition. But under the stars one magical night, the sparkle and shine of Christmas once again come to life.

David Tennant, Marc Wootton, Jason Watkins • Director: Debbie Isitt • comedy, family • NR • 105 minutes© Mirrorball Films (N2) CP Limited/Entertainment One UK Limited 2012.

nO

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northbound Southbound

5ChAnnEL

pop

7ChAnnEL

christmas ballads

6ChAnnEL

easy listening

8ChAnnEL

ska

9ChAnnEL

east meets west:

chutney

10ChAnnEL

reggae

11ChAnnEL

parang

12ChAnnEL

pan showcase

audio

© 2

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BIG BANG

In many parts of the world, people welcome the New Year with fireworks and music. In Paramaribo, capital of Suriname, Owru Yari (Old Year) festivities on 31 December jam the city’s downtown with

partying crowds, live music, and hair-raising pyrotechnic displays, as massive garlands of firecrackers ignite along the main streets to an uproar of cheers.

Photograph by Ingrid Moesan

Georgetown

CBJ Airport

Harbour Bridge

Police, Gas Stations

10 minutes

5 minutes

2 minutes

30 minutes

PaRTInG sHOT

caribbean beat magazine issue 124: november/december 2013

Entertainment & Humor