Tag Archives: African

Africa, Caribbean, General T&T, Ghana

Art and culture in West Africa and the Caribbean

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 23, 2023

The following is a lecture delivered at the Pa Gya! A Literary Festival in Accra, Ghana.

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeFirst of all, I wish to thank the hosts of this marvelous festival for inviting me to participate in it and for allowing me to share my ideas of how literature, art, and culture have helped in understanding, achieving and reimagining the histories that link West Africa and the Caribbean. This is an enormous assignment. I will speak of how the West African culture, literature, and the arts helped to shape the identity of my Caribbean people. I will pay special attention to what transpired in Trinidad and Tobago, and then relate those experiences to the larger whole.
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Africa, General T&T, Race and Identity

Emancipation foibles

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 03, 2023

PART I

“So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.”

—Ecclesiastes 4, Verse 1

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt’s Emancipation Day (Tuesday)and all the politicians, the proprietors and the bankers are trotting out their lies about freedom and emancipation. They may even quote the words of our prophet Bob Marley (“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery/None but ourselves can free our minds”), to demonstrate how the ordinary black person has misused the opportunity to free himself/herself mentally in this country. But take it from me, “All of dat is damn lies.”
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General T&T, Racism Watch

Splitting Hairs

By Raffique Shah
July 10, 2023

Raffique ShahIt did not surprise me when last week senior officials at the Ministry of Education, in teachers’ and parents’ organisations, as well as the best entertainers we have learnt to accept because they are plentiful, colorful and cheap-man on the street—were chiming away on an issue I had no idea existed, far less worthy of comment. But the controversy that erupted when Trinity College at Moka Invoked their rule on specific hairstyles students, graduating students especially, were not allowed to sport at the graduation ceremony, was the proverbial— storm in a calabash. Lawyers, other professionals, anyone connected with education or, inevitably, politics blew the issue wholly out of proportion.
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General T&T, International, Police, Racism Watch, USA

Living While Black in America

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By Dr Kwame Nantambu
June 08, 2023

Dr. Kwame NantambuThe violent, brutal beating/murder of the 29-year-old black man Tyre Nichols on January 7, 2023 by five black Memphis police officers immediately pushes to the fore the inherent, insecure and dangerous existence of black life in America today.

Indeed, there was a time when blacks were considered “three-fifths of a person”, but it seems that that evaluation has now totally been relegated to zero.
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General T&T, International, Racism Watch, USA

Voting Rights in America

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 24, 2022

“Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the right to vote.”

—Frederick Douglass (1865).

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeA few days ago, in the United States Senate, the Democrats fought vigorously against the suppression of the rights of black people to vote that were passed by 19 Republican-controlled states of the union.

In spite of their best efforts, the Democrats failed to achieve their objective, which led Carl Hulse to opine: “It was a disheartening moment for congressional Democrats, who put the full force of their majority behind the issue, despite the long odds of success” (Boston Globe, January 26).
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COVID-19, General T&T, Health, NJAC

Death, Be Not Proud

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 10, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDeath has stalked our land this past year with particular fury. More than 3,000 have died from Covid-19; 448 people died from homicides in 2021 and, blissfully, there were only 76 road fatalities—the lowest number since 1957. Yet, we only talk about death in mournful terms rather than what it might mean to those who are still alive.
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Education, General T&T

Human rights, equality and diversity

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 20, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDespite its fancy-sounding title, “Human Rights, Equality and Diversity: An Inquiry into the Right to Equal Access to Education with Specific Focus on the Under-performance of Schools in Port of Spain and Environs”, the children in this area (mainly Africans) will be condemned to educational backwaters even as the Ministry of Education (MoE) continues with its anachronistic approach of not-educating our children.
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Education, General T&T, Racism Watch, USA

Beloved

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 01, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeBeloved is an excruciatingly intense novel about the slave experience written by Toni Morrison, an acclaimed African-American writer. She is the only Black woman to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature. She also won a Pulitzer Prize for Beloved in 1987. In 2012 President Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award that can be bestowed on a civilian.
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General T&T, Protest, Racism Watch, Sports

Giant leap by a Black man

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By Raffique Shah
September 27, 2021

Raffique ShahLast Sunday, dealing with the potential I saw in many of the young players who competed in the recently-concluded CPL T-20 cricket tournament, I introduced the issue of race in sports as highlighted by several Black American athletes who used the stage of the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 to confront racism head-on. I cited the iconic photograph of sprinters and 200-metres medallists Tommie Smith, who won the event in a new world record of 19.83 seconds, Australian Peter Norman who was second in 20.00, and John Carlos, who was third, also in 20.00. The fourth finisher was Trinidad & Tobago’s Edwin Roberts, who clocked 20.30.
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Culture, General T&T, Passed on, Race and Identity

The Passing of the Pointer Man

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 16, 2021

PART 1

“I maintain that art at its best reveals to us the fullness of what it means to be human.”

—Ben Okri, The Theatre Diaries

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeNo creative personality writes, paints or sculpts outside of his/her time and place. Necessarily a product of his history and his geography, s/he always tries to cast a light on the perils that confront his people. In so doing, s/he reflects on the truths and failings of humanity as well. LeRoy Clarke, our master-blaster, resided in that elevated region of greatness. He took on the persona “The Eye” to illuminate the perils that confronted his nation. In the words of our Orisha devotees, he was a Seer (he would have said Obeah) man, who strove assiduously to illumine the darkness that enveloped his people.
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