Caribbean Beat — March/April 2021 (#163)
In the latest issue of Caribbean Beat magazine — back in print for the first time in a year! — we head out to explore Trinidad's north coast by hiking trail, learn about the musical rhythms that animate Santiago, Cuba's second city, and consider three itineraries for a Barbados road trip. Also, meet T&T's iconic novelist Merle Hodge and St Lucia's most medalled athlete, Levern Spencer. Plus coverage of Caribbean music, culture, and more!
In the latest issue of Caribbean Beat magazine — back in print for the first time in a year! — we head out to explore Trinidad's north coast by hiking trail, learn about the musical rhythms that animate Santiago, Cuba's second city, and consider three itineraries for a Barbados road trip. Also, meet T&T's iconic novelist Merle Hodge and St Lucia's most medalled athlete, Levern Spencer. Plus coverage of Caribbean music, culture, and more!
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HELP PROTECT THE FOOD SUPPLY AND
NATURAL BEAUTY OF THE CARIBBEAN
Declare
Agricultural
Items
1
3
2
6
4 5
7 8
.com
9 10 11
12 13 14 15
16 17 18
19
20 21
22
23
24 25 26
27
29
U.S. Department of Agriculture
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Caribbean Plant Health Directors Forum
28
ACROSS
3. The chosen spokesperson for the Don’t Pack a
Pest program.
6. Pests and disease can be transported through
_______.
9. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
conduct inspections at various _______ of entry
that are pathways for the introduction of pests and
disease.
11. Unsuspecting _______ bring in food, plants
and other agricultural items containing harmful
pests and diseases.
12. Approximately 50,000 species of plants and
animals have _______ the United States.
14. Any good that is made from animal or plant
materials is an _______ item.
16. Passenger _______ is a critical component of
the Don’t Pack a Pest program.
17. Visit DontPackaPest.com to _______ yourself
on prohibited items.
20. The global economy spends $1.4 trillion
annually combating _______ species.
21. Straw hats and other woven goods can carry
the red palm _______ which causes severe
damage to palms and banana trees.
23. Is the Caribbean spokesperson for the don’t
pack a pest program.
25. A _______ dog is trained to target a specific
odor, thereby locating prohibited items.
26. Unprocessed _______ like carved masks and
other handicrafts can potentially harbor invasive
insects.
27. The Asian citrus psyllid is a vector that
carries huanglongbing, also known as _______
greening disease and arrived in the U.S. on
imported items.
28. Help _______ our food supply.
29. Each year these types of pests destroy
about 13 percent of the U.S. potential crop
production, that’s a value of about $33 million.
DOWN
1. The giant African land _______ is one of the
most damaging pests in the world because it
consumes at least 500 types of plants, can cause
structural damage, and can transmit disease.
2. Even one piece of _______can transport
harmful pests.
4. If you do not declare agricultural items, you
can be subject to _______ between $1,100 and
$60,000.
5. An invasive species can be any kind of living
organism, or even an organism's seeds or eggsnot
native to an _______ and causes harm.
7. Before traveling with agricultural items you
should ask yourself can I _______ it?
8. _______ all food and agriculture items when
you enter the United States or other countries.
10. Agricultural risks grow with the ever increasing
amount of this.
13. The USDA and state departments of
agriculture work together to _______ introduced
pests.
15. All agricultural items are subject to _______,
to try and detect and prevent the unintentional
spread of harmful invasives.
18. An acronym meaning animal and plant health
inspection service.
19. More that 110 CBP agriculture _______ teams
provide screening for agricultural goods.
22. APHIS and PPQ are acronyms meaning
animal and plant health inspection service
and plant protection and quarantine which are a
part of what U.S. federal department?
24. When you travel please remember Don't
_______ a Pest!
25. On an typical day CBP inspectors will _______
352 pests at U.S. ports of entry and 4,638
quarantinable materials, including plants, meat,
animal byproducts, and soil.
ANSWER KEY
ACROSS 3. Linus 6. travel 9. ports 11. travelers 12. invaded 14. agricultural 16. awareness 17. educate 20. invasive 21. mite 23. Sassy 25. detector 26. wood 27. citrus 28. protect 29. insect
DOWN 1. snail 2. fruit 4. penalties 5. ecosystem 7. bring 8. declare 10. trade 13. eradicate 15. inspection 18. APHIS 19. canine 22. USDA 24. pack 25. discover
REINSTATING HEALTHY AND SAFE TRAVEL TO THE CARIBBEAN:
NOVEL CARIBBEAN TRAVELLERS HEALTH ASSURANCE
STAMP AND MOBILE APP
The Caribbean Public Health Agency
(CARPHA), through its innovative
Tourism/Traveller’s Health Program (THP),
funded by the Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB), is committed to protecting the
health and safety of travellers coming to the
Caribbean.
CARPHA, partnering with the Caribbean
Tourism Organization (CTO) and the
Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association
(CHTA) continues to elevate Caribbean
tourism by building traveller’s confidence
and reinstating healthy and safer travel to
the Caribbean during COVID-19 through:
Proactive COVID-19 Health
Measures for Reopening Tourism
Proactive COVID-19
Health Measures
Travellers Health
Assurance Stamp
Caribbean Travellers
Health Mobile App
Proactive COVID-19 Health Measures
Early warning and response
travel/tourism information system
Training in COVID-19 health measures
for the hospitality sector
Hospitality health safety and
environmental operational standards
Caribbean’s
Travellers Health
Assurance stamp for
Healthier Safer Tourism (HST)
Caribbean travellers now have the added
assurance of a healthier, safer option
when trying to use tourism facilities that
have the HST stamp.
The HST stamp is a unique,
measurable and verifiable
travellers health assurance
and recognition award for
tourism facilities that are
implementing the
recommended, proactive
COVID-19 health measures.
Caribbean Traveller's Health
Mobile App
This app is a multi-faceted, Caribbean
traveller’s health information repository,
designed for travellers and health and
tourism stakeholders.
Health information and travel requirements
by each Caribbean destination
Health alerts
Identification of facilities that has been
awarded the HST stamp
Download the app on Google Play and the Apple Store.
@CARPHATHP
@tourismandhealth_carpha
@CARPHA_THP
www.carpha.org/THP
1-868-612-1690 ext 40278
carpha-tourismandhealth@carpha.org
A MESSAGE From OUR CEO
As those of us who usually travel
frequently know well, absence does
indeed make the heart grow fonder.
I know many people are missing the
opportunity to travel as they usually do,
whether that’s for leisure or business,
to journey to fresh places or familiar,
meeting new friends or old.
Alongside the changes to our daily
lives, there are constant reminders
of the massive impact the pandemic
has had on the world, in lives lost
and economies ravaged. Not least on
the airline industry, which has seen
demand fall more than sixty per cent
year on year.
Despite this, Caribbean Airlines has
continued operations where possible,
and maintained our laser-like focus
on passenger and staff safety, with the
addition of a whole range of new practices
and protocols to ensure air travel
is as safe as it can be from the threat
of the coronavirus. Caribbean Airlines
continues to work closely with public
health authorities and international
bodies to make certain that the protocols
we follow are in line with international
best practices.
And, as the largest airline network in
the region, we continue to support the
Caribbean wherever we can, whether
providing repatriation flights to many
countries, or enabling the transport of
temperature-controlled shipments of
vaccine to the Caribbean from several
territories worldwide, including Europe,
India, and the United States.
Our cargo operations have been
even more essential during these difficult
times. Throughout the pandemic,
they have transported goods into and
out of the region, maintaining muchneeded
connectivity and commercial
links. The cargo team continues to offer
expansive global and regional connectivity
through our scheduled freighter
services, specially approved flights,
charter flights, and interline arrangements.
And, even while we had to drastically
reduce the number of passenger
flights, we have continued to add
new destinations to our network and
ensured our people and fleet are ready
to support the return to travel normality,
when it comes. This includes developing
our services further, with digital
improvements, ever-expanding cargo
offerings, and enhanced duty-free.
For our Caribbean Miles and Club
Members, the heart and soul of our
business, there is also good news.
Your loyalty means everything to us,
so we’ve made sure your benefits will
remain intact until 2022.
By then, of course, we hope the
fantastic progress on vaccines has
enabled our way of life and commerce
to truly kickstart recovery. Meanwhile,
wherever, whenever you are traveling‚
we wish you a safe and wonderful
experience, and thank you for choosing
Caribbean Airlines.
Garvin Medera
Chief Executive Officer
Contents
No. 163 • March/April 2021
40
32
EMBARK
10 Wish you were here
St John’s, Antigua
12 Need to know
Make the most of March and April,
even during the time of COVID-19
22 Bookshelf and playlist
Our reading and listening picks
ARRIVE
24 Explore
Barbados by road
The most fun way to experience the
natural beauty and cultural riches of
Barbados? A road trip. Here are three
itineraries featuring the best of Bim
32 Offtrack
Paria bound
Nixon Nelson hits the trail to Paria
Bay — one of the hidden treasures
of Trinidad’s north coast, a stunning
landscape of beaches, mountains, and
forests
40 Backstory
The miseducation of merle
hodge
Five decades after she made her
literary debut with the now-classic
Crick Crack, Monkey, the Trinidadian
author is about to publish her third
novel. She tells Andre Bagoo where
her interest in childhood stories
comes from
46 Bucket List
Waitukubuli Trail, Dominica
Explore the stunning Nature Island
through the Caribbean’s longest
hiking trail
48
48 Destination
Són City
Santiago, near Cuba’s eastern tip,
is the country’s most musical city,
writes Donna Yawching — and the
soundtrack moves to the beat of són
54 snapshot
Higher and higher
St Lucia’s most medalled athlete,
high jumper Levern Spencer, made
her debut two decades ago. But her
biggest victory may still lie ahead, says
Sheldon Waithe
64 DID you even know
Are you a book lover? Think you know
Caribbean literature inside out? Let
our trivia column put you to the test
6 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
CaribbeanBeat
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landmark along the East Coast Road in
Barbados
Photo Above Barbados
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7
Connected
by the sea
Marine biologist Anjani Ganase explains how Caribbean
countries are connected by the welfare of the region’s
unique coral reefs
What lies beneath our Caribbean Sea is an underwater carnival
like nothing most of us have ever seen. Described as
busy underwater metropoles by Sylvia Earle, one of the first
female ocean explorers, coral reefs fringe most coastlines within the tropics
around the world. Caribbean coral reefs, in particular, are distinct from
any others. They have evolved separately from reefs in the Indo-Pacific
region. Show any coral reef scientist photos of coral reefs around the
world, and they will pick out the Caribbean reef in an instant.
Typically, Caribbean reefs consist of some two hundred species of
reef-building coral, an array of large sponges, and giant swaying soft
corals that look like palm trees underwater. While Pacific reefs may have
over a thousand species of coral, Caribbean reefs – with fewer species
— grow three-dimensionally, with giant coral colonies that create magnificent
underwater sculptures, mini mountain ranges, and soft coral forests.
Caribbean reefs glisten under the ocean in shades of blue, green, and
brown, and, as you may guess, Caribbean reefs are home to unique fish,
adapted to live within our seascapes.
Coral reefs are not just a wonder to explore. Caribbean countries are
dependent on reefs as marine resources for fisheries, and for protecting
the coastline. These reefs are not only visitor attractions, they are an
untapped treasure trove for medicines and research. Caribbean territories
earn billions of dollars in revenue annually from tourism and food generated
from coral reefs. Yet very few Caribbean people — fewer than one
per cent — have ever experienced any underwater coral reef wonder for
more than a single breath. For this reason, Caribbean reefs, what they
look like, their importance and our impacts on them, are out of sight and
out of mind.
In the last fifty years, more than two thirds of Caribbean reefs have
become severely degraded. Many reefs are not managed for fisheries,
and are therefore over-exploited. Because island communities tend to
dwell near the coast, many habitats — such as beaches, and mangroves
that buffer the runoff of polluted water into the sea — have been altered
or removed completely. Whatever runs off our coastline gets flushed
directly onto coral reefs. As a result, many Caribbean reefs are impacted
by diseases exacerbated by global warming. The threat of climate change
to Caribbean coral reefs will precipitate a nearly complete loss (up to
ninety per cent) by 2050, unless there can be significant reduction in
carbon emissions, alongside more stringent measures for reef protec-
tion and management. Today, many Caribbean
islands are feeling the impacts on fisheries,
tourism, and coastal protection, and even their
social lifestyle.
Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. Years of
research have identified hope spots throughout
the Caribbean region where people have
learned to consider their marine environment as
part of the island ecosphere, and where governments
have started taking action to manage
and monitor reefs. There are many initiatives for
coral restoration as well. The Nature Conservancy
(nature.org), as one example, is working
with governments and communities across the
region to promote the protection of coral reefs
through the establishment of marine protected
areas, marine spatial planning, and conservation.
They used new satellite technology to map
coral reefs from thirty countries in the wider
Caribbean to support reef health monitoring and
management. Other research-based organisations
such as SECORE International
(secore.org) work on locations throughout the
Caribbean, including Curaçao, the Bahamas,
the Dominican Republic, and the US Virgin
Islands to implement restoration via coral breeding,
in order to build reef resilience against
climate change.
Caribbean people need to urgently speak out
for their reefs and the threat of climate change,
with one Caribbean voice. Caribbean nations
are connected by the same ocean and dependent
on the marine life in it, as well as common
cultural histories. Deepening the understanding
and sharing the relationship with the sea will
only improve our connections to each other,
fostering reliance and resilience. Let us use
these connections to learn together to protect,
preserve, and showcase Caribbean coral reefs.
Anjani Ganase is a marine biologist with a
special interest in coral reefs. She works with
the NGO SpeSeas (speseas.org) to improve
ocean conservation and awareness in Trinidad
and Tobago. Follow her on Twitter @AnjGanase
and Instagram @wildtobago.
This essay is part of a series reflecting on the
Caribbean Identity and what it can be.
WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM
9
wish you were here
10 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
St John’s, Antigua
Approaching Antigua and Barbuda’s capital from the
sea, you’re welcomed by the pastel-hued, perfectly
restored Georgian buildings of Redcliffe Quay, facing
the sheltered harbour. The twin towers of the Victorian
cathedral rise in the distance, overlooking the city,
where historic buildings are scattered among modern
structures. To learn more about the islands’ history, head
to the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda on Long Street,
in a former colonial courthouse.
Photography by Sean Pavone/Shutterstock.com
WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 11
NEED TO
KNOW
Essential info to help you make the most
of March and April — even in the middle of
a pandemic
Carole Anne Ferris/Alamy Stock Photo
Don’t
Miss
Kite
season
Dozens of kites dancing in the sky with
tails fluttering in the glorious breeze —
not to mention holiday-induced grins
on children’s faces — confirm it’s
Easter time. Trinidad’s Queens Park
Savannah, Barbados’s Garrison Savannah,
Grenada’s Fort Jeudy, Jamaica’s
Grizzly’s Plantation, Guyana’s Sea
Wall, and neighbourhoods around the
Caribbean are popular venues for kite
mania, at its height during the dry season.
Other traditional Easter activities
may not be possible during COVID-19
times, but the thrill of seeing your kite
soar aloft is perfectly suited to being
in the socially distanced outdoors —
whether you opt for a traditional hexagonal
kite handmade from paper and
cocoyea strips, or a fancy plastic model
bought at a toy shop.
Shelly-Ann Inniss
12
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Courtesy Neil Marshall
need to know
Word of Mouth
Little Thoughts on
Big Matters
Along with their ABCs and 123s, all school children should
know about the three Rs — reduce, reuse, and recycle, to cut
down on discarded waste that burdens and pollutes the natural
environment. In recent years, some Caribbean countries have even
banned single-use plastics, but this is just a start. We each have
to play our part for a cleaner, healthier world, says Maria Marshall
— an eleven-year old environmental advocate and perhaps the
youngest filmmaker in Barbados. Her multiple-award-winning
short film Little Thoughts on Big Matters has earned her global
recognition, including from Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley
and British actor and UNICEF Global Ambassador Orlando Bloom.
As we observe World Recycling Day on 18 March, Marshall tells
Shelly-Ann Inniss how recycling makes a difference
Are recycling, and
environmental mindfulness
generally, part of Barbadian
culture?
Yes, Barbadians tend to repurpose
items a lot, and this is noticeable with
the beautifully painted tyre gardens in
community parks and around homes.
Even at our schools you will see teachers
repurposing ice cream and formula
containers as crayon canisters.
At the government level, there are
signs, public service announcements,
numerous garbage bins, and posters
encouraging people to dispose of their
trash properly.
If you were a junior
environmental minister, what
are some activities or rules you
would implement?
With such a responsibility,and knowing
that most habits start at a very young
age, I would implement a new subject
within the school system that strictly
deals with environmental awareness.
Just as children learn maths and
English, they would learn how to
protect and care for their surroundings
and develop a thoughtfulness about
preserving the environment. The whole
world would benefit.
Do you have any favourite
items that you have up-cycled
or repurposed as a form of
recycling?
One of my favourite repurposed items
is a coconut shell. My aunt sometimes
makes coconut oil and uses a lot of
them. At my primary school, our theme
was “Go Nuts”, and each class had
to come up with an idea for how to
use materials from the coconut tree.
I decided to use the shells as small
hanging pots. Thirty students designed
and painted their own coconut hanging
pots and then planted small herbs in
them. It was so lovely to see all those
shells being used for something that
was beautiful and sustainable.
What tips do you have for
people who don’t know much
about recycling?
I think we make this thing seem
difficult, but it is actually easy.
Everyone can do it in their day-to-day
lives just by asking themselves some
simple questions: do I really need
to buy this right now or ever? Can I
repurpose this in some way? It is your
way of thinking about things that may
need a little tweaking. We only have
one earth, and we must all try our very
best to protect it.
Apart from your YouTube
channel, where can we tune
in for Little Thoughts on Big
Matters?
As much as my Little Thoughts on Big
Matters has travelled the globe, I am
still only eleven years old, and I have to
listen to my parents. So for now I am
only on YouTube, but hope to have my
new works showcased at various film
festivals locally, regionally, and hopefully
internationally.
You have been called the Bajan
Greta Thunberg. What does this
mean to you?
I am Barbados’s Maria Marshall. I believe
that we have the same hope of having
a safe, clean, and living Earth for all
people and animals, but I think our
approaches are different.
Watch Little Thoughts on Big Matters on YouTube at www.youtube.com/
watch?v=6dguJcEpC-s
14
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need to know
Must Try
St Lucian Easter treats
From bun and cheese in Jamaica to crab matoutou in Martinique, culinary treats
are a beloved Easter tradition across the Caribbean. So what do St Lucians look
forward to, come Easter weekend? Writer John Robert Lee, with help from his
wife Veronica, shares some of the island’s traditional Easter dishes with
Shelly-Ann Inniss.
Some Caribbean countries have
a go-to cookbook. Is there one
in St Lucia?
Our favourite St Lucian cookbook is
Manjé Kwéyòl: Food Culture in
St Lucia. It gives useful information
about how our food reflects Kwéyòl
culture, and provides recipes for
traditional foods and drinks.
What top Easter recipes does it
highlight?
Akwa lamowi — which are saltfish accra
or bakes — kolédé, and pennépis.
Kolédé is an accra made with a mixture
of small fish — for example, sardines,
or a tiny river fish called twi-twi caught
at the river mouth with baskets — and
flour batter.
And how would you describe
pennépis?
Pennépis, or “penny-a-piece” — or
“pain d’épice,” spice bread, as Derek
Walcott calls it in his poetry, using
the French spelling — with its strong
ginger taste was always a favourite
Easter treat — and still is. It is flat,
like a large brown wafer, crunchy, with
protuberances of the chips of ginger
over it. Some say the burning sensation
from the ginger will remind you of
Jesus’s pain and passion.
Do you have any fond memories
around cooking at Easter?
I’ll have to consult my wife Veronica for
her memories.
What does Veronica recommend
for an Easter snack?
She recommends the kolédé, also a
confectionary called konfiti patat, and
a drink called mango colada. All these
recipes are found in the Manjé Kwéyòl
cookbook, and no doubt familiar in
creative versions to our Caribbean
family. I’ll enjoy those, and some
pennépis.
Michelle Aleksa/Shutterstock.com
Pennépis
Ingredients:
½ lb flour
¼ lb sugar
½ cup water
¼ lb fresh ginger
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Combine sugar and water
in a pan. Simmer over medium
heat and stir until the sugar is
completely dissolved and forms a
syrup. Then allow mixture to cool.
Peel the light skin off the
ginger (you can do this easily
by scraping it with a small sharp
knife), wash, and grate finely, then
add ginger to flour.
Slowly add sugar syrup to flour
and ginger mixture and form into
dough. Do not make dough too
sticky.
Pull dough into two-inch
pieces, and using a rolling pin or a
clean one-quart bottle, roll into
paper-thin sheets.
Put rolled-out dough on
greased baking sheets and place
in oven. Pennépis are done when
they are golden brown, and you
have to constantly monitor them
because they cook very quickly.
Try placing just one sheet in the
oven at first — you may find you
can just about roll out one while
the previous one bakes. Don’t
let them overcook, or the sugar
might begin to taste bitter.
Source: islandeffect.com
16
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need to know
Top Five
T&T’s NGC Bocas Lit Fest
thrives online
The past year has been a trial by fire — or, more literally, a trial by pandemic
— for Caribbean culture, as COVID-19 health regulations, lockdowns,
and travel restrictions have resulted in closed theatres and galleries,
cancelled concerts and festivals, and general hardship for many who work
in creative professions. But some art forms, it turns out, are well suited
to this new socially distanced life. Curling up with a good book has long
been a solo activity. And while booksellers in many parts of the world
report bumper sales figures, literary festivals like Trinidad and Tobago’s
NGC Bocas Lit Fest have temporarily reinvented themselves in a virtual
format, broadcasting online to regional and international audiences.
In its eleventh year, Bocas promises a full programme of online events
— from workshops and seminars aimed at budding authors to discussion
panels tackling topical issues, and the popular Bios & Bookmarks series,
broadcast on Sunday afternoons, where authors read from and discuss
their recent books. The highlight is a virtual festival on the weekend of
23 to 25 April, offering two and a half days of sessions where stories and
ideas from the Caribbean are front and centre. Here’s our pick of the 2021
NGC Bocas Lit Fest programme — and a sneak preview of what’s in store
for book lovers.
Writer Vahni Capildeo,
chief judge for the 2021
OCM Bocas Prize
The OCM Bocas Prize announcement
The most coveted annual award for Caribbean
literature recognises winners in categories for
poetry, fiction, and non-fiction — with an overall
winner to be announced by chief judge Vahni
Capildeo on the evening of Saturday 24 April.
Look out, too, for recorded readings by the
shortlisted writers.
Imagining the Caribbean future
A high-level debate on the festival’s Sunday
morning brings together a distinguished panel
representing politics, science, and economics
to consider the way ahead for the Caribbean,
and answer questions posed by young people
from across the region.
A landmark novel turns twenty-five
Published in 1996, the now classic novel Cereus
Blooms at Night by Trinidadian-Canadian
author Shani Mootoo broke barriers in placing
complex queer Caribbean characters at the
heart of a story about love and loss. A special
event marking the book’s quarter-century
anniversary brings its author together with
writers of a younger generation to discuss its
legacy.
Remembering “Shake” Keane
Vincentian icon Ellsworth “Shake” Keane, who
died in 1997, is remembered for both his music
— he was a celebrated jazz trumpeter — and his
poetry. Writer Philip Nanton brings him to life in
a new biography, celebrated with an evening of
poems and music.
Celebrating 2021’s new books
At the heart of the festival programme, authors
of new books share their words and discuss
their ideas. Look out for sessions focused on
historical fiction, contemporary noir, magic
realism, transnational family stories, and more.
Hayley Madden, courtesy Bocas Lit Fest
For more information on the NGC Bocas
Lit Fest, visit bocaslitfest.com. The 2021
festival programme will be launched in
March, and virtual events are streamed
at youtube.com/bocaslitfest and
facebook.com/bocaslitfest
18
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need to know
Listen In
Everchanging
Amanda Choo Quan talks to Gillian Moor about the
T&T musician’s long-awaited album
“I’m honoured,” Gillian Moor responds. I’ve just thanked her
for the interview — one in which, in her soft but precise way,
she has guided me through her new album (“It’s the best
thing I ever made,” she states). In truth, I should have said
it first. Moor’s career started in 1992 as part of Homefront,
a trio making a name when rapso could sell out stadiums
in Trinidad and Tobago, and the Caribbean Sound Basin
studio was used to record music by the Notorious B.I.G. and
General Grant (instead of for, well, who knows?).
Despite the waxing and waning of T&T’s mainstream
interest in local, non-soca music, Moor has written and
performed on her own for a quarter of a century. She has
served as both griot and gatherer, turning venues into
confessionals with her raw kaiso-rock — and launching the
careers of others through Songshine, an open-mic series she
started in 2004 and paused in 2019 due to COVID. Musician
and actor Nickolai Salcedo has described it as his “first start.”
Documented sparingly, Moor’s songs have mainly been
the domain of the stage — ranging from sparkling numbers
performed acoustically at festivals (the folksy “Hold on
Tight”, for instance), to gritty, vulnerable feminist anthems
best heard at a club under cover of darkness (“Half a Heart”).
Everchanging, Moor’s new full-length album, is therefore
both retrospective and debut. “I have been in the space
so long, and yet . . .” she says. In the end, the album — the
summation of her career — was made possible partly by a
grant from the state-owned enterprise MusicTT, and partly
through extensive fundraising.
Finally released in July 2020, Everchanging is at once
intimate and political, truth-telling about the enduring
pain felt by society’s silenced (particularly by women and
the underclass). It’s also musically deft, steered by Moor’s
piercing vocals — rich and reminiscent of Lilith Fair — and
dipping into blues, funk, calypso, and hard rock. This is
all the work of Moor and her team, which includes the
producer Ravi Maharaj, a.k.a. a_phake, and musicians Joanna
Hussein and Jon Otway.
“When we crafted the order of songs, we wanted to take
people on a journey that would have a couple of unexpected
twists,” Moor explains. “Go dark at some point, come back
from that, show heartbreak, show anger, show despair. But
it always comes back to hope.” A standout is “Big Snake
(War on Crime)”, a rollicking protest anthem that borrows
melodically from extempo — replete with sly saxophone —
giving way to a harder, trickier rock rhythm over which Moor
wryly sings “We gonna lock up all them smokers / Kidnap
and murder stop / And give the police endless power / Trust
those cops.”
“Big Snake,” written long before Black Lives Matter, is
testament to the sticking power of astute songwriting. It
feels, as does the album, as though recorded live, bringing
to mind Moor lit up on stage, baring soul and teeth in a time
before. Let Everchanging tell us why it should not take a
pandemic to remember Trinidad’s surfeit of talent.
For more information about Everchanging, visit
www.gillianmoor.com
© copyright 2020 splice studios/abigail hadeed, courtesy gillian moor
WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 19
need to know
Courtesy Akilah Watts
On View
New Barbadian
artists at CaFa
For ten years and counting, Barbados’s
Caribbean Fine Art Fair (CaFa) has
celebrated the region’s visual artists and
their role in the international art scene. The
fair — which runs this year from 10 to 24
March, virtually and in-person — showcases
individual artists and small thematic exhibits
by art galleries. One 2021 highlight is a nontraditional
exhibit curated by Zoe Osborne
of Mahogany Culture Collective, featuring
seven up-and-coming Barbadian artists
— Brandon K. Best, Alex Gibson, Housing
Area, Sydney McConney, Akilah Watts, Chris
Rocket, and John Alleyne — at the Exchange
Centre Gallery in Bridgetown. Diaspora
Dialogue, a CaFa signature exhibit, is also
scheduled, including a virtual panel. Look out
for work by Dominica’s Earl D. Etienne and
Puerto Rican Diogenes Ballester, alongside
global diaspora artists from Africa and the
United States, and exhibits from US-based
galleries Calabar and Ebony Art.
Among the emerging artists featured at
CaFa 2021 is Barbadian Akilah Watts, who
works in media including drawing, painting,
and sculpture. Her most recent works
touch on issues of race and culture, as well
as ideas of belonging and beauty
Left Just a Roll and Set
(2020, acrylic, 24 x 24 inches)
Below Fresh to Death
(2020, acrylic, 24 x 24 inches)
For more information about the CaFA programme and participating
artists, visit cafafair.com
Courtesy Akilah Watts
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need to know
courtesy hairouna film festival
Word of mouth
Caribbean stories at the
Hairouna Film Festival
Vincentian filmmaker Aiko Roudette, director of the annual Hairouna Film
Festival, shares her perspectives on contemporary Caribbean film, as HFF makes
its virtual debut from 20 to 28 March
Each year, when reviewing films
submitted for consideration to be
screened at the Hairouna Film Festival,
we are filled with joy at what we
encounter: a flood of films from Trinidad
and Tobago, Cuba, St Lucia, Barbados,
Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Dominica,
Martinique, Puerto Rico, and of course
St Vincent. Films that are brave, hilarious,
and strange. Some are comedies, some
are dramas, but they are all love letters
to our beautiful region, born from
the committed vision of a Caribbean
creative. Even those films that deal with
darker themes of corruption, envy, or
abuse promote ideas of a strength and
manner of dealing with hardship that is
uniquely Caribbean.
These are our Caribbean stories, and
they come from the heart of who we
are. In Mama’s Story from Barbadian
filmmaker Chukwuemeka Iweza — an
official selection for HFF 2021 — the
character Ms Unis acknowledges the
role of folktales in passing along cultural
realities.“Every folk song got a lil bit of
truth in it,” she says. Akin to a folktale
passed from ear to ear, film is our twentyfirst-century
way of transmitting and
creating our own cultural truth.
In the last decade, filmmaking
equipment has become more accessible
across the Caribbean, resulting in a
steady stream of cultural production
that honours, celebrates, and upholds
our region. This vision of Caribbeanness
brings us together to exchange ideas,
bonded through different perspectives
on shared experiences. It is the unifying
quality of these films that presents
us with great healing potential on a
personal and collective level.
One of the Hairouna Film Festival’s
main objectives is to spread this
potential to as many Caribbean people
as we can. We consider ourselves an
equal opportunities social impact
project. Our festival is entirely free,
happens outdoors in public places, and
travels to approximately eight different
Vincentian communities each year. In
2021, we will be virtual, which means
that even more people across the region
and the world will have the chance to
participate. Workshops, screenings, and
post-screening Q&As will be held online
at the end of March. This year, we will
also launch the first ever National Script
Writing Competition held in St Vincent
and the Grenadines, open to Vincentian
nationals, including those living in the
diaspora. Finalists will be invited to a
three-day writing residency where they
will get mentorship from top industry
professionals, and the winner will be
awarded funds and supported through
the production of their short film —
bringing another unique Caribbean story
into the world.
For more information about the 2021 Hairouna Film Festival and its virtual
programming, visit www.hairounaff.org
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bookshelf
This month’s reading picks from the Caribbean
Reviews by Shivanee Ramlochan, Bookshelf editor
Inheritance: The
Story of a West Indian
Family
by Ian McDonald (Paria
Publishing, 88 pp, ISBN
9789768244437)
Prolific poet, essayist, and
fiction writer Ian McDonald
turns his attentions to
chronicling his redoubtable
family tree. What might
we expect from a veteran
Caribbean writer who
describes himself as
“Antiguan by ancestry,
Trinidadian by birth,
Guyanese by adoption,
West Indian by conviction”?
In Inheritance, the
worlds of McDonald’s
foremothers and -fathers
are peppered with exploits,
tales of warfare and
conquest, entrepreneurship
and landed interests. A
gold-hued plane propeller
hangs in pride of place
in St George’s Cathedral,
Antigua, a tribute to the
Royal Air Force hero after
whom the author is named.
Yet for every larger-thanlife
predecessor, this slim
volume heralds quieter
matriarchal lives, the vital
industry of women, and
the voices of those whose
records could not be
pristinely documented.
of colour
by Katherine Agyemaa
Agard (Essay Press, 180 pp,
ISBN 9781734498417)
“It is possible to spend
your entire life searching
for something that you
miss. / That thing can be
a colour.” To approach
of colour with a linear,
prescriptive architecture
of understanding is to be
dismayed. What Agard,
who has dual Ghanaian-
T&T citizenship, instead
presents is labyrinthine,
genre-combative meditations
on unbelonging, the
configurations of racial
identity both in and away
from “home,” and how the
self behaves when it is seeking
itself in art, politics, and
education. Drawing richly
on her family’s histories,
Agard summons visual
archives, chat exchanges,
historical documents, Peter
Doig’s Lapeyrouse Cemetery
paintings, and postage
stamps: all in service of
a visionary ethnography.
Braiding these cues, signifiers,
and markers is the
author’s disruptive, poetic
text, as confessional as it is
curious, as it is remarkably
urgent.
My Mother’s House
by Francesca Momplaisir
(Alfred A. Knopf, 304 pp,
ISBN 9780525657156)
In Haiti-born, US-based
Francesca Momplaisir’s dark
debut, the walls themselves
are scorched with terrors.
Wielding psychological
horror like a truncheon,
this tale of an immigrant
family’s settlement in New
York City twists conceptions
of expected diasporan
narratives, asking hard
and profound questions
about what it means to
belong, and to where.
Pushing anthropomorphic
tropes to grizzly limits,
Momplaisir rattles the
rafters of domestic safety,
casting the wildly unlikely
protagonist Lucien, whose
ambitions morph into his
own grotesque undoing
in the alleged land of milk
and honey. The house, La
Kay, is as important as the
family she holds within
her walls. Momplaisir
casts her scrutiny beyond
her inhabitants, creating
room in her dimensions for
wrenching reflections on
Amadou Diallo and Abner
Louima: both subjects of a
brutal America.
The Wondrous and
Tragic Life of Ivan
and Ivana
by Maryse Condé (World
Editions, 368 pp, ISBN
9781642860696)
Guadeloupean Maryse
Condé, who won the famed
2018 “alternative” Nobel
Prize (the New Academy
Prize in Literature), has
remarked that the win
placed Guadeloupe more
solidly on the global
cultural and literary map.
The Wondrous and Tragic
Life of Ivan and Ivana,
translated from the French
by Richard Philcox, plants
stakes in that specific firmament
of world literature, in
both satiric and subversive
flourishes. In Condé’s visioning
of the lives of fraternal
twins Ivan and Ivana lies
an energetic, compulsive
exploration of sibling interdependence
and aggressive
radicalisation, situated
at the divergent triplepronged
crossroads of faith,
mania, and superstition.
Guadeloupe and Mali are
front and centre, a canny
retooling of the canon to
signify the importance of
worlds outside the
Anglophone metropole.
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playlist
This month’s listening picks from the Caribbean
Reviews by Nigel A. Campbell
Single Spotlight
Feel Good Playlist,
Vol. 1 – Stripped
Sessions
Kalpee (FVP Records)
When artists strip away the
production value of an album
— an “unstripped” EP of the
same name was released last
year — down to just voice and
one instrument, the listener
becomes part of an intimate
dialogue that can go either
good or bad. Bad is easy to
do, good takes work. Clearly,
Trinidadian singer Kalpee has
done the work to move the
five songs here away from
minimalist island pop infused
by his Caribbean accent and
modern mechanical riddims
towards a sonic profile that
suggests acoustic chill and
mature reflection. His voice is
direct and clear, juxtaposing
ideally with a guitar at its
reverberating best. Here is
a chance to do more than
just mentally “go tropical.”
Instead, listen to the angst
and ardour, the adoration
and apathy of Caribbean
youth. With musical cues
suggesting reggae — “Put a
Record On” hints boldly at
Marley’s “Three Little Birds”
— and calypso on “Climb”,
the singable lyrics resonate
universally.
Aftermath — Reprise
Payge Turner (Middleman)
A funny thing happened
some months ago. Trinidadborn
singer Payge Turner
— now based in Seattle, via
Kansas — entered the US
television competition The
Voice and blew the socks off
a nation. Not the US, yet, but
her own native land — with a
voice and posture that point
to great things, if curated
wisely. On her new single,
Turner mines her song catalogue
to reprise a ballad that
speaks to a kind of traumatic
loneliness: “Deep down you
cripple the feeling you’re losing
your mind / Damn, don’t
you replay the pulse of the
aftermath.” The song takes a
turn from its original acoustic
alternative/progressive vibe
to develop a more traditional
electric rock tinge, progressing
towards a denouement
that finds peace again. Turner’s
voice — which wowed a
nation, chauvinistic but clueless
of a career — shows signs
of power that transcends
the easy connection to a
soul singer’s sonority. Talk
about discovering anew, or
the Columbus effect — this
song reintroduces island
greatness.
América Vibra
Natiruts & Ziggy Marley,
feat. Yalitza Aparicio (Sony
Music Entertainment Brasil)
The ubiquity of reggae music
is cemented by the fact
that Brazilian reggae band
Natiruts (say “natty roots”)
asked Ziggy Marley, son of
the icon, to share the singing
credits on this trilingual
song asking for unity in the
Americas. Joining the singers
is Oscar-nominated Mexican
actress Yalitza Aparicio of
Roma fame, to speak into
existence the words that
open the song, in Spanish:
“We don’t want walls. We are
bridges.” Released on the day
Donald Trump stopped being
US president, this song is a
precursor of a kind of hope
for a renewed connection
within the Americas to values
that affect all. Social justice is
highlighted in English lyrics by
Marley, and in Portuguese by
Natiruts vocalist Alexandre
Carlo. “Our dreams are so
big,” he sings, “they can’t fit in
the cellars of this ignorance
/ And the awareness of what
we are and can be is the
fire of hope.” The idea of
consciousness, of messaging
the Third World, has always
been at the centre of reggae
music. This wins.
I’m Thinking You
Should
Will The Wolf feat. X.O.
Drew (On Lock Records)
During the COVID-19 pandemic
of 2020, island artists
and songwriters had time
to reflect. They had time
to record and rejig careers
to fit the new space where
audiences are now. The
evolved sensibility of singersongwriters,
capturing these
times in short sound bites,
is appealing. At just under
three minutes, this song —
which could be a cautionary
tale of breakup confusion
and remorse — serves up
an island pop groove that
belies the singer’s origins.
Will The Wolf has transformed
from one half of the
introspectively acoustic
Trinidad pop duo Buffalo &
Black to become more than
a voice, but an entertainer
also using the medium of
video to tell stories that tug
at heartstrings and show
sides of Caribbean life that
are sometimes beyond the
mainstream. With production
from Michael “Tano”
Montano, the song percolates
at a cool tempo with a
modern hip-hop groove.
WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 23
explore
Barbados
by road
Barbados is world-famous for its spectacular
beaches — but when you’re ready to
experience the rest of the island’s natural
beauty and cultural riches, there’s no better
way than a road trip. A full gas tank, your
favourite playlist, and good vibes are all you
need to enjoy these three itineraries
Courtesy Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.
24 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
The rugged coast at
Bathsheba, one of the
classic sights on a drive
along the east coast of
Barbados
WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM
25
If you have a
whole day . . .
Loud whistles and the clickety-clack of train wheels on a twenty-four-mile
track were once familiar sounds through Barbados’s dense canefields,
forests, and gullies. Evidence of the island’s Victorian railway — in operation
from 1883 to 1937— still spans the former route from Bridgetown to
Belleplaine in St Andrew parish. Here’s what you’ll find along the way.
Foursquare Rum Distillery and Heritage Park: cleanse
your palate with rum, the island’s pride and joy — after
Rihanna, of course. Lively insights about the rum-making process,
from sugarcane to bottle, never disappoint.
Neighbourhood rum shops: these watering holes pop up
along the journey, sometimes with smiling invitations to join
a friendly game of dominoes. A casual meal of local fare and a
rum punch are recommended for refuelling.
Sunbury Plantation House and Museum: constructed
in flint and other imported stone for one of the island’s first
colonial settlers, it’s the only great house in Barbados with all
rooms open for viewing.
Hackleton’s Cliff: perched a thousand feet above the sea,
with sweeping views of the east coast almost to the northern
tip of the island. Ask locals about the associated folktales,
which you’ll never forget.
The Soup Bowl: dramatic waves frilled with white foam are
ideal for surfing competitions in Bathsheba, on the island’s wild
east coast.
St Nicholas Abbey Heritage Railway: though not on the old
train route, this is a bonus for railway buffs. An actual steam
locomotive excursion takes you past the historic great house
and ends at Cherry Tree Hill.
st nicholas abbey
soup bowl
hackleton’s cliff
Sunbury plantation
rum shops
FourSquare
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A rum tasting at historic
St Nicholas Abbey
Courtesy Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.
WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM
27
If you have
half a day . . .
Treasure hunts are only for children — said no one. Barbados is
full of scenic vistas, and some say the landscape gets more picturesque
the further north you go. There’s plenty to discover —sometimes
just around the corner, and in sunken gardens, too.
Arlington House Museum: this elegant threestory
eighteenth-century house in Speightstown
is full of memories of Barbadian heritage, told
through interactive technology.
Barbados Wildlife Reserve: roam freely and at
your own pace, like the animals in their natural
habitat. Green monkeys rustling in the bushes,
birds tweeting to each other, and reptiles basking
in the sun are just some of the attractions at this
sanctuary in St Peter.
Farley Hill National Park: majestic in its glory
days, this hilltop mansion — now an awesome ruin
surrounded by mahogany woodlands — overlooks
the east coast. It’s a cosy and shady escape to
nature for a picnic, a wedding, and serenity.
Hunte’s Garden: once a natural limestone gully,
transformed in the 1950s into a lush utopia of miniature
secret gardens and rare exotic plants, best
admired on a stroll.
Arlington house
museum
barbados wildlife reserve
farley hill national Park
Hunte’s garden
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A profusion of tropical
flora at Hunte's Garden
Simon Dannhauer/Shutterstock.com
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29
If you have a
couple of hours . . .
If you have just a morning to spare, Bridgetown and its Garrison — a
UNESCO World Heritage Site — is a must-do. Explore the historic centre
of the island’s capital on foot, then head by car through the western outskirts
and along the south coast.
Agapey Chocolate Factory: from bean to
bar, pleasure your tastebuds with a tour of this
cocoa workshop on Hincks Street.
Wickham Lewis Boardwalk: a picturesque
gateway to the city’s Broad Street, bopping
catamaran cruises, and flight-seeing via helicopter
tours.
National Heroes Square: a prime stage for
cultural events in the city against a backdrop
of historic monuments and architecture,
including the nineteenth-century Parliament
Buildings.
Drill Hall Beach: just a stone’s throw from
the historic Garrison Savannah and its military
environs, tranquillity abounds — and so do
baby turtles scurrying to the sea.
agapey
chocolate
factory
National heroes
square
wickham lewis
boardwalk
bridgetown
Garrison
savannah
drill hall beach
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National Heroes Square at
the heart of Bridgetown
AGF Sri/Alamy Stock Photo
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31
offtrack
Ziad Joseph
32 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
Just south of Paria Bay,
a short hike into the
forest, the river takes a
plunge at Paria Falls
Paria
bound
Trinidad’s north coast, where
mountains tumble down to the sea, is
home to popular beaches like Maracas
and Las Cuevas — but also to littleknown
bays accessible only by hiking,
plus forest trails, waterfalls, and some
of the island’s most dramatic scenery.
Nixon Nelson heads out to Paria Bay,
one of the gems of the north coast
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33
About an hour into the hike to Paria
Bay, I lost my sole. More precisely,
the sole of my left sneaker. Perhaps
it was not entirely unexpected. My
favourite and most comfortable
sneakers were at least eight years
old, visibly tattered, and I’d wondered if they were
up to one last big hike. The answer came on an uphill
stretch of the trail which recent rain had churned up
into a slick of mud.
Some prompt bush engineering was called for.
Luckily, my companions were an architect and a
designer. With a length of wiry vine, a shoelace
rejigging, and a few careful knots, my left sneaker
was soon sufficiently repaired to get me through
the rest of the day, and I could once more turn my
focus from the state of my footwear to the spiritraising
scenery of Trinidad’s north coast trail.
Trinidad’s Northern Range rises abruptly
from the sea, creating a dramatic
landscape of forested slopes, sheer rock
cliffs, and sandy bays
Ziad Joseph
Matthew Tung
In most Caribbean islands, you can follow
almost the entire coastline by paved road. But
thanks to overlapping quirks of geography and
history, the north coast of Trinidad — a fifty-mile
expanse between Scotland Bay in the west and
Point Galera in the east — is only partly accessible
by road. The island’s Northern Range rises abruptly
from the sea, creating a dramatic landscape of
forested slopes, sheer rock cliffs, and sandy bays,
but the mountains also cut off the north coast from
the populous plains to the south. In the nineteenth
century, as Trinidad’s agricultural economy shifted
from lowland sugar to hillside cocoa and coffee,
numerous small estates were established here,
connected to the capital, Port of Spain, by boat. But
the tiny villages and homesteads dotted along this
34 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
Preparing for the Paria trail
Depending on your level of fitness, the hike
from Blanchisseuse to Paria Bay should take
approximately two to three hours each way.
Leave as early as you can, to get started before
the hottest part of the day. The trail includes
some fairly steep stretches, but nothing too
strenuous for a fit hiker. Wear sturdy sneakers
or hiking shoes — and consider boots in the
rainy season, when conditions can get muddy.
A trekking pole or walking stick may be helpful
on the includes and declines. You’ll almost certainly
want a sea or river bath at Paria, so wear
or bring a swimsuit and lightweight towel. Make
sure to bring adequate water — you’ll probably
want two litres per person for the entire day.
The trail crosses several small streams that are
usually safe to drink from, once the water is
running freely. Time your departure from Paria
to allow enough time to get back to your car.
If a full day on the trail sounds too strenuous,
you can also get to Paria by boat from
Blanchisseuse, though it can be a choppy ride.
Above The broad sweep
of Maracas Bay, Trinidad’s
most popular beach
Opposite page Sunset at
Macqueripe Bay, with the
mountains of Venezuela
in the distance
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35
Along the coast
Hiking trails, waterfalls, caves — Trinidad’s
North Coast has them all, but the top
attractions are its beaches. From popular
bays with parking, changing, and eating
facilities to near-secret coves accessible
only by hiking and climbing, this fifty-mile
stretch of coastline takes years — or a
lifetime — to fully explore.
Maracas Bay
Ever popular, and always crowded
on weekends, Trinidad’s most
celebrated beach is the place
for traditional shark and bake —
and still manages to be a quiet
escape on weekdays
Yarra Beach
A picture-perfect beach
with a small river lagoon.
Keep your eyes peeled
for the sign along the
North Coast Road
Saut D’eau
The trail to this tiny bay starts in
the mountain village of Paramin.
It’s a challenging downhill trek
— and an even more challenging
uphill return — but worth it for
the sheer tranquillity
Las Cuevas Bay
Just a fifteen-minute drive
past Maracas, Las Cuevas
is quieter and calmer, and
better for swimming
Macqueripe Bay
This small and perfectly sheltered
bay is perfect for swimming — and
offers clear views of Venezuela
across the Bocas del Dragon. A
zipline crosses high above the
bay, for the adventurous, and a
nearby trail leads to an abandoned
satellite tracking station built when
Chaguaramas was a US Army base
Blanchisseuse
Named (in French Patois) for the longago
washerwomen who bleached their
garments on sun-baked river stones,
this once sleepy village is now home
to a scattering of holiday homes and a
couple of modest resorts and restaurants.
Marianne Bay is the main beach
attraction, and a hike up the river brings
you to the celebrated Three Pools
wild, beautiful coast remained relatively isolated
for decades.
Then came the Second World War. The British
government leased Trinidad’s Chaguaramas Peninsula
to the United States to establish a sprawling
military base, and residents of Port of Spain
were suddenly deprived of their most accessible
beaches. In recompense — the story goes — the
US Army carved a winding road up through the
Northern Range to Maracas Bay, which soon
became, and remains, Trinidad’s most popular
beach, as famous for its shark-and-bake vendors as
for its broad horseshoe of sand.
Today the North Coast Road runs past Maracas
and Las Cuevas to the village of Blanchisseuse,
halfway along the coast. At the island’s northeastern
tip, the villages of Toco, Grande Riviere, and
Matelot are similarly connected to the eastern
towns of Sangre Grande and Arima. But the central
eleven-mile stretch of coast remains inaccessible
by car — a largely unspoiled reach best known to
fishermen, hikers, and campers.
Coming from the west, the hike to Paria Bay
starts more or less at the Blanchisseuse
Spring Bridge — a historic suspension bridge
over the Marianne River. A ninety-minute drive from
Port of Spain, the bridge marks the end of the paved
thoroughfare and the start of a dirt road which
tends in the rainy season to a condition of muddy
adventure. The first couple of miles past this point,
beach houses perch along the rugged shoreline,
36 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
Paria Bay
The broad beach lined
with coconut trees and
the perfect waterfall
are rivals for the main
attraction at Paria
Grande Riviere
In recent decades, the beach at Grande Riviere has
become celebrated as one of the best places in the
world to see endangered leatherback turtles as they
come ashore to lay their eggs
Toco
This quiet, close-knit village
strung out along the coast is the
closest part of Trinidad to the
sister isle, Tobago
Madamas Bay
Some call it the most
beautiful beach on the
north coast, with its fine
sand, clear lagoon, and hills
towering behind. It’s also
one of the most remote
Matelot
In Trinidad, the name of this
village is almost proverbial
for somewhere far away. It’s
the end of the paved road
from Toco — “behind God’s
back,” residents will tell you
with some pride
Point Galera
The Northern Range
tumbles into the waves
where the Caribbean
Sea meets the Atlantic
Ocean — overlooked by a
white-painted Victorian
lighthouse
Gran Tacarib
A couple hours’ hike past
Paria, Grand Tac feels a
world away from
Trinidad’s bustle. Great for
an overnight camping trip,
or accessible via a (usually
rough) boat ride
eventually giving way to modest farms.
At small Laspor Bay with its rocky stacks, the
hike really begins. The trail narrows to single file,
and enters what feels like true wilderness.
Various hiking guides and websites describe
the Paria trail as anything from moderately challenging
to difficult. The challenge depends partly
on your fitness level and, indeed, partly on the
weather — several months into the rainy season,
parts of the trail can be a muddy slog. But the
topography offers a welcome alternation of uphill
and downhill slopes, and long level stretches no
more strenuous than a stroll. Experienced Paria
hikers know that on the outbound journey, the second
of the big “hills” after Laspor is the toughest.
Mostly hugging the coastline, with inspiring
River meets sea
at Yarra
views of glistening water and crashing waves far
below, the route occasionally veers inland. It’s
all but impossible to get lost — this trail has been
well tended for generations. On official maps of
Trinidad, it’s even labelled as the Paria Main Road
— a name that dates back a century and a half, to
Ziad Joseph
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37
Right Cathedral Arch
frames the view at
Paria Bay
Below The view from
Turtle Rock, along the
Paria trail
when the trail was first cut to allow access on foot
or by donkey to the old cocoa estates.
The sights and scents of the forest change
gradually over the months, as different trees move
through their blossoming and fruiting seasons —
today you catch a whiff of ripe hog plums, another
time it might be the musky perfume of a flowering
cannonball tree. You can see or hear dozens of bird
species flitting through the forest canopy. And it’s
easy to spot one of the trail’s most striking wildlife
species, the emperor butterfly, its wings flashing
a brilliant iridescent blue as it lazily flutters by.
Meanwhile the sea breeze never pauses, rustling
among the treetops.
An hour past Laspor Bay, keep an eye out for
Turtle Rock, a gnarled outcropping jutting into the
sea. A narrow branch off the main trail descends
Rachel Lee Young
through wind-stunted trees to the giant crag, offering
views for miles up and down the coast. It’s the
place to pause for a snack, catch your breath, take
a selfie or two, before the last stretch of trail.
Paria Bay announces itself with the so-called
Cathedral Arch, an example of nature’s own
architecture and an almost obligatory backdrop for
photos. It marks the westen end of the bay, a halfmile
sweep of sand and pounding waves. Fill your
lungs with sea air, and revel in the view. If you’re
tempted to a swim, trek down to the farther end of
the bay, where a patch near the mouth of the river
is sheltered from the swells and tides.
But the day’s adventure isn’t over. You’ll have
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Ziad Joseph
to get back on the trail to experience Paria’s true
gem. Halfway along the beach, a sandy trail heads
inland before meeting the bank of the Paria River.
Clumps of bamboo offer shade, and soon you’ll
hear the muffled rush of the Paria waterfall. It
takes a bit of a rocky scramble — or a wade and
swim — to get to the natural pool where the waterfall
cascades thirty feet into cold, emerald-green
water. Most days, you’ll have this gorgeous spot
to yourself. Flowering trees tower high above the
gorge and schools of small fish dart around your
knees as you ease your way into the pool. Float
away and let the delicious cool soothe your aching
muscles. Let your senses free. n
The sights and scents of the forest change
gradually over the months, as different trees
move through their blossoming and fruiting
seasons
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39
backstory
The
miseducation
of Merle Hodge
Trinidadian writer Merle Hodge began
her career by publishing what would
become a beloved Caribbean classic,
Crick Crack, Monkey, in 1970. Five
decades later, as she prepares to
publish her third novel, Hodge tells
Andre Bagoo what took so long — and
what drives her interest in capturing
the often confusing experience of
Caribbean childhood on the page
Photography by Mark Lyndersay
It may be hard for some to picture it, but Merle
Hodge was once a schoolgirl. Before she
became a doyenne of Caribbean literature
— her 1970 debut Crick Crack, Monkey is
now considered a classic; Haitian-American
writer Edwidge Danticat calls her “a giant” —
she was like one of the children in her books. Each
of her novels is an elegant précis of the distortions
wrought by colonialism in pre-Independence
Trinidad. In that Trinidad, school is no gateway to
enlightenment: it becomes the conduit by which the
subject is disciplined and punished.
“During my student days in England, I went
to Denmark from time to time, and worked in
a children’s home,” Hodge tells me, in reply to
emailed questions. “When we took the children for
walks in the woods, they could tell you the name
of every tree, flower, or weed along the way. When
we read to them from their storybooks, I saw that
the stories were peopled by characters who looked
just like them.
“All of this was in sharp contrast to my childhood experience,” she continues.
“These children had a strong sense of who they were, and what that meant. Nobody
was suggesting to them that they would be better people if they were somebody else,
somebody from a different place. Crick Crack was, to a large extent, a looking back at
my childhood from this vantage point.”
It is a vantage point relevant to all Hodge’s work. After Crick Crack, Monkey came
the novel For the Life of Laetitia (1993); an influential manual on grammar, The Knots in
English (1997); and now, fifty-one years after her debut, One Day, Congotay, scheduled
for publication in September 2021 by Peepal Tree Press.
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41
Hodge was born in Curepe, Trinidad, in
1944, one of four children. Like her sisters,
she spent time in two households: that
of her parents and that of her grandmother. Her
grandmother had a separate home, but sometimes
visited to take care of the children. (Hodge chafes
against the notion of the “nuclear family,” which
ignores the fact that, in the Caribbean, children
frequently inhabit a network of households.) With
the aid of scholarships, Hodge went to Bishop
Anstey High School in Port of Spain, then to
the University of London, where she studied
French language and literature and Latin. She left
Trinidad in 1962, the very year the country became
independent. Crick Crack, Monkey was written
between Britain, Denmark, and France.
The novel is a bildungsroman, narrated by Tee.
After the death of her mother triggers a custody
battle, Tee moves between two worlds: the semirural
realm of cantankerous Tantie and the urbane
sphere of waspish Aunt Beatrice. This movement
brings about a clash of intersectional values surrounding
class, culture, community, and race.
Tee’s “education” is not limited to academics. Soon
there are competing claims to her loyalty. By the
novel’s last line, as she pays Tantie a painful final
42 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
Each of Merle Hodge’s novels is an elegant
précis of the distortions wrought by
colonialism in pre-Independence Trinidad
visit, Tee looks upon Tantie with disdain: “I desired
with all my heart that it were next morning and a
plane were lifting me off the ground.” It is a line
that resonates, I feel, with the conclusion of V.S.
Naipaul’s Miguel Street, where the unnamed child
narrator scornfully looks upon all the characters
he has just described, and flees “walking briskly
towards the aeroplane.”
But Crick Crack’s politics play second fiddle to
its stylistic verve. The strength of its prose comes
from its perspective: it is written from the view of
the child, forcing a distillation. For long stretches,
it is clear Tee is yet to come to terms with her
mother’s death (in childbirth) and the subsequent
disappearance of her Papa (who, having gone off
“to sea,” may have migrated, may have taken ill,
may have —). It is not that children are unable to
process truth; it is that they find themselves within
narratives they cannot control. Pre-destination
and fate: these are concerns, to some extent, of
all writers. But through these inferences, Hodge
questions the future of the Caribbean project itself.
The impression is powerful.
Similar elements take flight in For the Life
of Laetitia, a novel which, published almost
two decades after its predecessor, revisits and
reverses some of the choices made in Crick Crack.
Just as Tee splits into a double character, so too
does Laetitia. But while more is at stake in the
second book, Laetitia eventually exudes agency
and self-determination.
“In the late 1970s, I taught [in Trinidad] in a
newly built senior comprehensive school,” Hodge
says of the origins of her second book. “I set out, I
think, to look at the high school experience in the
era of Independence — almost two decades in —
that had brought on an expansion of secondary
education.
“In contrast to Tee lifting off to escape and
disown her world, Laetitia insists on going home,
embracing and claiming her heritage. She has
stood up to the classist and racist teacher in
defence of her friend Anjanee. In this respect,
Laetitia can be seen as a companion novel. Tee’s
capitulation is replaced by Laetitia’s resistance.”
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Talking to Merle Hodge
Excerpts from the writer’s interview with Andre Bagoo.
In recent years, “young adult” fiction has become a big subgenre
in the writing world. Your books for me are relevant to
all ages, but they could fit into this category nonetheless.
Is the “young adult” label useful? Or should we simply focus
on the writing and what it achieves?
Over the years many people have told me, to my surprise at
first, that children from that age upwards have been reading
[Crick Crack, Monkey] with interest. World literature contains
many novels which employ a child as protagonist, or as
seeing-eye, but are not aimed specifically at children. Some
of these works appeal to young readers, and some don’t. Child
readers might understand and enjoy a piece of fiction at one
level and not decipher everything in it. For example, we might
read Alice in Wonderland as children and be quite entertained
by it, but need to read it again as adults to gain a full understanding
of issues involved. In the labelling of books by readership,
it might be enough to indicate that a book is suitable
for readers “of all ages” — your apt formulation — rather than
label it categorically into “young adult,” which could perhaps
deter adult readers.
In your first two novels, children are often treated as pawns or
collateral to the agendas of adults, caught up in adults’ egos,
ambitions, agendas, prejudices, insecurities, etc. In T&T, we
now have a Children’s Authority to investigate violations of
children’s rights, but it seems unable to keep up with reports.
Looking at current events, do you think we have made enough
progress on recognising children as full human beings?
Recognising children as full human beings? We have some
distance yet to go. Slavery has left its impact on Caribbean
culture. Adults may view children with the apprehension that
the slave-owner felt about the enslaved — the potential of
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Hodge has spent decades teaching and
lecturing in several countries, administering
writing residencies — for twenty years she
has led the Cropper Foundation’s biennial writers’
workshop in T&T, alongside Funso Aiyejina — and
sitting on a range of key advisory bodies in the
Caribbean. Activism has been part and parcel of
her career.
For example, in 2017 Hodge wrote a letter to
the editor of the news website Wired868 after
political rhetoric about re-introducing corporal
punishment resurfaced. “Let’s leave the children’s
well-being out of the politicking, please,”
Hodge urged. “In the twenty-first century, to
beat or not to beat children is no longer a topic
up for debate.” Even her manual on grammar,
The Knots in English, makes an impassioned case
for distinguishing between Creole grammar
and English grammar: “We have a language of
our own, and English is another language that
we have to learn.” Activism is a central theme,
too, in her new novel, which, at the time of our
interview, Hodge was still putting the finishing
touches on.
“All three novels have been written in occasional
snatches of time in between other work –
studying; demanding day job; activism,” she says.
“One Day, Congotay has been about twenty-five
years in the making.”
The new novel, Hodge explains, is set in
Trinidad in the period between 1900 and 1955.
The protagonist is Gwynneth Cuffie, a school
teacher. Teacher Gwynneth puts her energies
“All three novels have
been written in occasional
snatches of time in between
other work,” says Hodge.
“One Day, Congotay has
been about twenty-five
years in the making”
into the struggles of her time, such as the battle
for political and cultural self-determination and
the early labour movement. She also engages in
struggles that are of another time: her advocacy
for children, and her ideas regarding a woman’s
place, go against the grain of mainstream opinion.
Gwynneth’s activism is closely interwoven with
her personal life, and the novel is as much a
glimpse of a people’s history as it is the story of
one woman.
The classroom of today — with its laptops, tablets,
mobiles, online distractions — looks nothing
like the classroom of pre-Independence Trinidad.
All of Hodge’s novels are time capsules, but they
challenge us to ask how much things have really
changed. From first to last, her projects manifest
the fact that, as formidable as she is today, Hodge
is fully aware of, indeed has written paeans to, the
wisdom of children. n
the latter to get out of hand and overpower their owners.
Hence the whip and the range of other inhumane punishments
devised for keeping the enslaved in check. Hence
the strong resistance of adults, right up to the twenty-first
century, against abandoning corporal punishment in favour of
a non-violent approach to child-rearing.
The women’s movement has done enough advocacy
to convince most of the population that a man beating his
female partner is just as unacceptable as any adult beating
any other adult — called “assault” under the law. Yet a woman
or man beating a child is seen as natural and necessary behaviour.
Advocacy for non-violent behaviour has not had much
impact there. Verbal or emotional abuse of children is also
quite in order. Some of our interactions with children do suggest
that we do not see them as fully human.
Crick Crack, Monkey was published in 1970, For the Life of
Laetitia in 1993, and now, three decades later, you’re about
to publish a third. What are the factors that contribute to
how long you take to write? Can you describe your writing
process for readers?
I don’t have anything as planned and disciplined as a set
process, except for a lot of self-critique and rewriting. This
ongoing revision might be part of what accounts for long gaps
between one book and another. And then, I don’t generally
have the whole novel in my head when I begin writing. I’m not
sure any writer does. Often an individual scene from somewhere
along the chronology of the story will come into my
head, and I write it down as soon as I get the time. I don’t have
the luxury of writing continuously for any significant stretch
of time. What makes the “process” even more haphazard is
that sometimes there is time but no inspiration to write.
After One Day, Congotay, when is the next novel coming?
I might attempt some short stories. I would hate to start a
novel and not live to finish it.
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45
bucket list
Courtesy Discover Dominica Authority
Waitukubuli Trail,
Dominica
The Caribbean’s longest hiking trail takes
you through the stunning landscape of the
Nature Island
dominica
From Scotts Head in the south to Cabrits National Park in the north,
Dominica’s Waitukubuli National Trail runs for 115 miles across the
island, through some of the Caribbean’s most dramatic scenery. Opened
in 2013, the trail — which bears the indigenous name of the island — is
divided into fourteen segments, many of them challenging, each a good
day’s hike. For the intrepid, the two-week journey, with overnight stays at
villages and campsites, is an unforgettable experience, while more casual
hikers can tackle individual segments, many of which run past some of
Dominica’s most famed natural attractions.
Roseau
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Boeri Lake in Morne Trois
Pitons National Park, near
the Waitukubuli route
Courtesy Discover Dominica Authority
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47
destination
Són city
Near the eastern end of Cuba,
Santiago is a regional capital, a
treasure house of history — and,
Donna Yawching writes, the
island’s most musical city. The
soundtrack is driven by the rhythms
of són, she learns — and the soul of
Santiago is in its musicians’ fervour
for their heritage
On Calle Heredia, people are dancing. Swirling,
swaying, shimmying: complicated patterns
of movement turning sound into substance.
Underlying it all, the driving rhythms of són,
the music that defines Cuba’s eastern provinces.
Santiago de Cuba, the regional capital, is
beyond a doubt the island’s most musical city. It throbs, day and
night, with everything from sexy salsa to romantic bolero; from
primal drumming to intricate choral confections. Music — most
of it live — exudes from bars, parks, concert halls, patios, even
private homes. Rhythm, in this city, is life, and dancing is as
inevitable as breathing.
Not surprisingly, Santiago and the surrounding Oriente province
are the birthplace of són (pronounced “song”), a genre which
has branched out in multiple directions, the best known today
being salsa. (Cubans, in fact, are somewhat dismissive of salsa,
despite its worldwide popularity. “Soneros say that salsa doesn’t
really exist,” declares Fernando Dewar, leader of the Septeto
Santiaguero, a band which has won two Latin Grammy awards.
“Salsa is a movement, not a genre. Són is the trunk of the tree.”)
Every tree, of course, has roots; and these are what make
Cuban music so rich. With its history of Spanish colonialism, the
enslavement of Africans, and French immigration, the threads
have wound together to create an intricate tapestry of sound that
hearts and feet and hips cannot resist. From the soulful bolero
to the wicked guaracha, the intimate trova to the compelling
conga, the polyrhythms of the various Cuban musical traditions
bring joy to a society where life is often hard.
At the heart of it all, says Juan Carlos Berbes, a specialist
at Santiago’s Museo de la Musica, is la trova — music
born of one man and a guitar, the trovador, the cantante
ambulante. “You could find him on a street corner, a park bench, a
barbershop, under a balcony, anywhere.”
48 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
Looking over the rooftops
of Santiago de Cuba
to the towers of the
cathedral
Vadim Nefedoff/Shutterstock.com
Trova — clearly an offshoot of the European troubadour
tradition — appeared on the Cuban scene around the end
of the nineteenth century, with the legendary José “Pepe”
Sánchez, who moulded the music into something distinctly
Cuban. “It is, in fact, the first genre of real Cuban music to
rise up,” Berbes says. “All the subsequent genres come out of
la trova, and bear some aspects of it; they took the elements
that suited them and created something new. Trova enriches
them.” Trova is not, primarily, meant for dancing; it is poetry
on the hoof. “The songs tell a tale, a story, something that
happened, en una manera pausada: tranquilly, poetically. It is
to be listened to.”
Drifting from the countryside into the city, trova became less
picaresque, picking up a few additional instruments on the way:
Santiago de Cuba is beyond a
doubt the island’s most musical
city. It throbs, day and night, with
everything from sexy salsa to
romantic bolero
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Tony Pleavin/Alamy Stock Photo
Són vs salsa
Salsa dancers rehearsing in a
courtyard in Santiago de Cuba
So where does salsa come into the picture? Every Cuban dances it, but every
Cuban musician declares that his music is són. According to Fernando Dewar,
leader of the Grammy Award-winning Septeto Santiago, salsa is “not a genre,”
but rather a fusion of styles created in New York, when Latin musicians from
various countries and traditions came together to play.
A new mix emerged from these collaborations, with hotter rhythms and —
for the dancers — quicker turns. Són, I am told, is danced “a contra-tiempo” to
the bass, while salsa is danced “a tiempo.”
“For someone who doesn’t know the genres, it’s complicated to tell the difference,”
says Dewar. “There are many small details.”
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Conga
Completely separate from the són tradition, conga is
nevertheless a vital part of the Santiageuran identity. Far
removed from the silly conga lines of American movie
tradition, Cuban conga delves all the way back to the
roots of the enslaved Africans who were brought to the
island by Spanish — and later French — colonials, mostly
in the nineteenth century.
Conga is essentially an ambulant percussion group:
various styles and sizes of African drums beat to age-old
rhythms as large crowds shuffle and dance (it’s called
arrollando) behind them. Community-based, they came
about as accompaniment to the African celebrations and
festivals during and after the days of slavery. Today they
are an essential part of the annual Santiago Carnaval.
and listen appreciatively, són sweeps you irresistibly to your
feet, mojito forgotten on your table as you abandon yourself
to the beat. “It invites you to dance,” says Berbes, in the year’s
understatement.
“The són cubano is the fusion of Spanish and African music,”
says musician Ernesto Valera, explaining its infectiousness.
“Són is characterised by its cadenza, or rhythm: not too fast, not
too slow.” Valera is the leader of the Familia Valera-Miranda, a
group famous for being among the region’s earliest performers.
Dating back to 1868, this musical family played at rural celebrations
and fiestas, passing their lyrics and melodies from generation
to generation. Valera views it as his sacred mission to keep
the tradition alive. “It’s an obligation,” he says simply.
maracas, clave, a bit of percussion. The poetry became more
important than the wandering; today, most Cuban towns and
cities have a Casa de la Trova, where this form of music, and its
offshoots, are performed.
By 1925, trova music was evolving into something more
lively, with the appearance on the scene of Miguel Matamoros,
initiator of the són and bolero movements. The prolific Trio
Matamoros dominated the scene for more than thirty years,
generating such standards as “Són de la Loma”, “Lagrimas
Negras”, “Alegre Conga”, and “Juramento” — all of which
remain popular today, thanks to the ubiquitous music groups
that perform them in Santiago’s many bars and patios.
The essential quality of són, says Berbes, is that it is bailable
— danceable. While trova encourages you to sip some rum
While trova encourages you to sip
some rum and listen appreciatively,
són sweeps you irresistibly to your
feet, mojito forgotten on your table
as you abandon yourself to the beat
This is a sentiment echoed by many of the city’s soneros.
There is a widespread consensus that the country’s
traditional music needs to be staunchly defended from
modern incursions such as the hip-hop–inspired reggaetón,
beloved of Cuban youth. “Són has lost strength,” laments Valera.
“Reggaetón has invaded. I don’t like it — the lyrics are stupid,
empty, gross, insulting to women.”
“It is inevitable that the young people are attracted to music
coming from different countries,” points out Maria-Mercedes
Soto, leader of Morena Són, one of the rare all-female groups.
“The outside influence is very strong.”
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Attila Kleb/Alamy Stock Photo
The government, however, has pushed back. “Five years ago,
all you heard on the street was reggaetón,” says Berbes. “But now
the traditional music has returned and is making a comeback.
It is being presented in many venues, all over the place. The
authorities want to keep the tradition alive.” And what the Cuban
authorities want, the Cuban authorities get. Traditional musical
instruments (such as the trés guitar, the clave, the bongos) are
now taught in the conservatories, alongside the classical.
“Before, the trovadores were street musicians,” says Soto.
“Now they have better technical formation.” Her own band is an
There is a widespread consensus
that the country’s traditional music
needs to be staunchly defended
from modern incursions such as
reggaetón, beloved of Cuban youth
example, with all her musicians possessing the sought-after Aval
de Professionalidad, a performing licence granted only after a
stringent audition before an official panel of top musicians. The
licence may be essential for the soneros to find work, but as for
the music itself — “nuestra musica,” Soto adds with a smile, “ya
en la sangre está” (“it’s in the blood”).
Today, the heart of Cuban són is the city of Santiago, where
bars such as ARTEX and the Casa de la Trova on Calle Heredia
offer trova and són (in all its variations: bolero-són, guarachasón,
són montuno, són guaguanco) from 11 am to 7 pm daily. The
Sala de los Grandes (above the Casa de la Trova) takes over at 10
pm, presenting the larger, louder groups to an enthusiastically
dancing audience of locals and visitors alike.
The Septeto Santiaguero is a big favourite at this venue —
when they’re not busy touring abroad or producing Grammyaward–winning
albums (2015, 2018). The group plays “traditional
music with contemporary amplification,” says Dewar. “We
have to defend the tradition. If we lose this music, we lose the
essence of who we are.” n
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The instruments of són
What creates those unique rhythms,
those catchy melodies and complex
harmonies? Són throws a couple of
unfamiliar instruments into the mix.
The clave: Essentially, two short hollow
sticks, knocked together to keep time.
It looks dead simple, but it is the heart
of the music: all the other instruments,
and the singers (and the dancers), take
their tempo from the clave. “It is the
boss,” says Juan Carlos Berbes. The
player must have a rock-solid sense of
rhythm; if he falters at all, says Ernesto
Valera, “puede ser un desastre” (“it
could be a disaster”). The clave’s different
tempos and rhythms define if a
piece is trova, són, bolero, rumba, etc.
The trés: This is a guitar like no other,
the lead instrument in són. Described
by Wikipedia as a “three-course
cordophone of Cuban origin,” the trés
(“three”) is somewhat smaller than
a regular acoustic guitar, and tuned
differently. Its six strings are strung in
pairs; it is not strummed, but rather
intricately picked to support or play
counterpoint to the singer. Complex
trés improvisations are common; one
veteran tresero described his instrument
as “the piano” of són.
The botijuela: This unusual instrument
is actually made of clay: an earthenware
jar formerly used to transport
liquids. Musicians blow into a small
hole carved in the side; the low hollow
sound emerges through the mouth
of the jar. While sometimes used in
són, the botijuela is more commonly
to be found accompanying the purely
African rhythms of the conga.
The quijada (jawbone): Teeth and
all! The cleaned and dried jawbone
of a donkey or cow, this is struck and
shaken, to click and buzz and rattle as
part of the percussion. It’s most likely
to be found in the more folkloric versions
of són.
Opposite page Musicians on
Santiago’s Plaza de Dolores
Right The distinctive trés
guitar, lead instrument in són
Bildagentur-online/Schickert/Alamy Stock Photo
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53
snapshot
Higher
and higher
LPS/Roberto Tommasini/Alamy Live News
54 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
For years, the title of St Lucia’s
most medalled athlete has been
held by high jumper Levern
Spencer, who first made her
mark at the age of fourteen,
over two decades ago. Her
career is a textbook example of
the value of persistence, writes
Sheldon Waithe — and her
biggest goal, an Olympic medal,
still lies ahead
Levern Spencer at the 2019
Palio Città della Quercia
athletics meet in Italy
There’s something to be said for perseverance. Elders
know what they’re speaking about when they impart
their gems of wisdom to unsuspecting young folk,
and the adage of doggedness holds particular value,
particularly in the sporting arena. Levern Spencer
epitomises this attribute in spades, along with the
other maxim of fine wine only getting better — or, in her occupation,
higher — with age.
The lanky high jumper is the most decorated athlete in St Lucia’s
history: that’s across gender as well as time. If that suggests she’s
been at the international forefront for many years, then that’s correct
— but it’s within the last decade that Spencer has combined
talent, skill, belief, and experience to make giant leaps forward at
major global athletics competitions. And that’s meant medals by the
bucket-load for St Lucia.
Spencer’s ability was apparent from her early ventures into athletics
at secondary school, but her career has still been a pleasant
surprise. “I had no idea sports would take me this far,” she says. “I
was just running around, jumping, having fun, but then I broke the
St Lucian national record when I was only fourteen. Just breaking it
meant that’s something — you can take this up as a career.”
The Carifta Games, the annual regional competition that consistently
spawns future world-beaters, soon followed. Spencer did not
exactly waltz in to take the top step of the podium — rather, it took
her three years to finally earn Carifta gold, in 2001. Then something
clicked within. The realisation that she could win at that level
pushed her to claim a bronze medal at the World Youth Championships
in Hungary that same year. It was the further confirmation
required to set her on a path to the top. Spencer completed 2001
with gold in the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Championships.
St Lucia took notice, and named her Sportswoman of the
Year. No one could have predicted then that she would take that title
a further fourteen times (and still counting).
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55
Peters won gold at the 2019
World Championships with a
throw of 86.89 metres
Jaroslav Ozana/CTK Photo/Alamy Stock Photo
For Spencer, representing her nation is a
source of both pride and motivation. Her
exploits made her an unofficial envoy for
years, before St Lucia made it official in 2019,
bestowing the title of Goodwill Ambassador. “As I
travelled around the world, the question ‘Where is
St Lucia?’ is one I’ve had to answer many times,”
Spencer says. “And that question is normally asked
after I have defeated opponents from so-called big
countries. I have always seen my sport as one way
of promoting my country.”
The support of her immediate family —
together with her strong faith and her relationship
with numerous sponsors — spurs her forward
year upon year, helping to explain Spencer’s
age-progression equation. However, it’s what she
deems her extended family — her nation — that is
her biggest motivation, a fact that Spencer revisits
consistently. “It is always comforting to know that
when you have given of your best to make your
country known, your efforts are recognised and
appreciated by the people who matter. And that is
all of St Lucia,” she says.
Spencer looks to her countrymen even when it’s
not all medals and titles. “Even when I have been
criticised for not meeting expectations, I looked
at it as they wanted me to be the best — and so I
used that criticism as a stepping stone in my quest
to get to the top.”
56 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
“There are still goals to be
achieved and dreams to be
realised,” says Spencer
“I had no idea sports would take me this
far,” Levern Spencer says. “I was just running
around, jumping, having fun, but then I broke
the St Lucian national record when I was
only fourteen”
Fact file
Levern Spencer
St Lucia
High jumper
Born 23 June, 1984
Height: 5 feet 9 inches
Personal best: 1.98 metres (Athens,
Georgia; 8 May, 2010)
Spencer achieved middling results in the
2002 Commonwealth Games and 2003 Pan
Am Games — her first major competitions
— a trend that continued at her first senior World
Championships in 2005. But by the time the
Commonwealth Games came around again, she
was a true contender. By then she was in the US
college system, gaining the all-important finishing
touches of technical support at the University of
Georgia, where she studied health promotion and
behaviours. The university has a proud history of
producing Olympians in swimming and athletics,
and Spencer was determined to be added to that
list. “Georgia has really good academics, but also
really good coaches,” she explains. “My teammates
were really supportive. Everybody cheers, even in
practice, making it like a competition every time.
With the balance of academics, it was a really good
place for me.”
Graduation was not only literal: on the field
she stepped up to a bronze in her second Pan
Am Games, and achieved the qualifying mark
to attend her first Olympics in Beijing, as part of
St Lucia’s three-person team. The standard
attained, she began her remarkable decade of
achievement and elevation: bronze at the 2010
and 2014 Commonwealths, attending her second
Olympics in 2012, CAC Games gold in 2014 —
then the first really big one, gold at the 2015 Pan
Am Games. Her nation welcomed home their
heroine with typical Caribbean revelry, celebrating
their first gold medal.
Spencer made the 2016 Olympic final, eventually
leaping to sixth place, surpassing all expectations.
Then she obliterated the field at the 2018
Commonwealths, to banish past disappointments:
once again, St Lucia celebrated an unprecedented
gold. She continued their party with a second Pan
Am gold in 2019.
St Lucia’s iconic volcanic spires, Petit Piton and
Grand Piton, symbolise the ups and downs
that led to Spencer’s eventual triumphs: a
smaller peak of early success, followed by a trajectory
towards the larger peak that truly dominates all as it
reaches for the sky. So it’s apt that Spencer enjoys
spending time around her island’s iconic landmarks.
“I love to climb the Pitons, and walk around the
beautiful scenery in St Lucia,” she says. “This twentyyear
journey has not been smooth sailing. I’ve had
mountains to climb and rivers to cross, but with the
help of God, support of my management team, and
unfailing love of my St Lucian people, I have pressed
towards the mark.”
The winner of the high jump at the Rio Olympics
was thirty-seven years old. Levern Spencer
turns thirty-seven this year. The chance of St Lucia
earning its first Olympic medal has never been this
good, and when the Tokyo Olympics finally happen,
Spencer aims to deliver. “There are still goals
to be achieved and dreams to be realised.” There’s
that perseverance once again . . . n
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57
CaribbeanAirlines
Cargo
did you even know
Get lit
The month of April brings the start of the Caribbean’s
literature festival season, with T&T’s NGC Bocas Lit Fest
on the weekend of the 23rd to the 25th. Are you a book
lover? Think you’re well read in Caribbean literature?
Try our trivia quiz, and check your score in the answers
below!
1. What was T&T author V.S. Naipaul’s first published
book?
Miguel Street
The Mystic Masseur
The Suffrage of Elvira
A House for Mr Biswas
2. Which of these authors famously writes under a pen
name?
Olive Senior
Jamaica Kincaid
Caryl Phillips
Dionne Brand
6. Pitch Lake is a book by which of these T&T authors?
courtesy Ingrid Persaud
3. Which Jamaican author’s debut novel concerns a
fateful struggle between two village preachers?
Alfred Mendes
Valerie Belgrave
Lawrence Scott
Andre Bagoo
John Hearne
Patricia Powell
Marlon James
Kei Miller
7. How many Nobel Laureates in Literature has the
Caribbean produced?
4. T&T-born Ingrid Persaud (pictured above) recently
won the 2020 Costa Book Award for best debut novel,
with Love After Love. Her book takes its title from a poem
by which Caribbean writer?
Eric Roach
Lorna Goodison
Kamau Brathwaite
Derek Walcott
5. Which of these novels was adapted into a BBC TV
series directed by Horace Ové?
Wide Sargasso Sea,
by Jean Rhys
The Orchid House,
by Phyllis Shand Allfrey
Two
Three
Four
Five
8. Aldrick, Sylvia, Fisheye, and Pariag are characters in a
novel by which of these writers?
Austin Clarke
Ismith Khan
Earl Lovelace
David Dabydeen
9. And a question for the most faithful Caribbean Beat
readers: who is the only fiction writer ever to appear on
the cover of the magazine? Check our online cover gallery
if you can’t figure it out!
The Ventriloquist’s Tale,
by Pauline Melville
Brother Man,
by Roger Mais
George Lamming
Merle Hodge
Oonya Kempadoo
Elizabeth Nunez
Answers: 1 The Mystic Masseur 2 Antigua-born Jamaica Kincaid, whose real name is Elaine Potter Richardson 3 Marlon James, John Crow’s Devil 4 Derek
Walcott 5 The Orchid House 6 A trick question! Alfred Mendes published his novel Pitch Lake in 1934, and Andre Bagoo published a book of poems with
the same title in 2017 7 Three: Saint-John Perse of Guadeloupe (1960), Derek Walcott of St Lucia (1992), and V.S. Naipaul of T&T (2001) 8 They are all
characters in The Dragon Can’t Dance, by Earl Lovelace 9 Oonya Kempadoo — our March/April 2002 issue
64 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
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