Three works by Caribbean authors were awarded in the 59th Casa de las Américas Literary Prize, held on January 25, 2018.The jury comprised of Elizabeth Núñez (Trinidad and Tobago), Jacob Ross (Granada), and Emilio Jorge Rodríguez (Cuba), evaluated the works written in English granting the main award was granted to the novel "Tracing JaJa", by Anthony Kellman (Barbados) and other two were awarded with Mention, the essay "Tell my mother that I went to Cuba, by Sharon Milagro Marshall (Barbados) and the poetry "Suite Canouan and other pieces" by Philip Nanton (SVG).(Read more)
Tracing JaJa is "an intense work of historical narration based on real events, revealing one of the atrocities of British colonial history”, the jury stated. The work involves the reader both emotionally and intellectually. We admire and transport ourselves to Kellman's depiction of African King Jubo Jubogha, his resilience and his refusal to submit to the humiliations imposed by his British colonial vigilantes. Much of the strength of Kellman's work lies in his lyrical recreation of locations, especially the Caribbean landscape. The portrayal of Barbadians captures both their pride in the African past and the suffering experienced. It is an extraordinary novel about human experience, our ability to find beauty and love in the darkest circumstances”.
The essay Tell My Mother I Gone to Cuba “is incomparably relevant as a sociological documentation of the times and circumstances of a people who had to grow roots in a foreign environment, adapt, resist and develop a whole new set of principles founded on the bedrock of the initial home-grown ones. It is a tale of resilience, bravery and ability to bend without breaking. It is sure to become the source on the subject of Barbadian migration to and settlement in Cuba”, according the critic by Carlos Moore, ethnologist and social scientist.
Barbadians were among the thousands of British West Indians who migrated to Cuba in the early twentieth century in search of work. They were drawn there by employment opportunities fueled largely by US investment in Cuban sugar plantations. Tell My Mother I Gone to Cuba: Stories of Early Twentieth-Century Migration from Barbados is their story. The migrants were citizens of the British Empire, and their ill-treatment in Cuba led to a diplomatic squabble between British and Cuban authorities. The author draws from contemporary newspaper articles, official records, journals and books to set the historical contexts which initiated this intra-Caribbean migratory wave. Through oral histories, it also gives voice to the migrants’ compelling narratives of their experience in Cuba. One of the oral histories recorded in the book is that of the author’s mother, who was born in Cuba of Barbadian parents.