David Chanderbali - Indian Indenture In British Malaya: Policy and practice in the Straits SettlementsSep 10, 2008 | by Voice of Guyana | Read | No Comments

Peepaltreepress.com: David Chanderbali’s book is a valuable addition to the small but growing literature concerning 19th century Indian indentured migration to work as labourers in plantation economies in the tropical world. It complements Hugh Tinker’s (and others) studies of Indian indenture in the Caribbean, Surendra Bhana’s (and others) of South Africa and those dealing with Fiji and Mauritius.
Whilst Chanderbali’s book is not the first to deal with Indian migration to the Malay peninsula, it is the first to deal comprehensively with the workings of the indenture system in that region. As such it makes several important contributions. It offers a contribution to South-East Asian studies by giving a more accurate and detailed account of the circumstances of the arrival of Indians in what is now Malaysia. It adds to the history of labour movements in the nineteenth century by confirming what was common to the system wherever it manifested, and establishing what was local and distinctive. In this case it involved features of the local Chinese rumah kechil system. Continue reading David Chanderbali - Indian Indenture In British Malaya: Policy and practice in the Straits Settlements

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Daryl Cumber Dance - New World Adams: Interviews with West Indian WritersJun 19, 2008 | by Voice of Guyana | Read | No Comments

In these interviews, held in the early 1980s, with twenty-two of the major writers of the English-speaking Caribbean, Daryl Dance brings together what is much more than just a valuable source book for readers of West Indian writing. The interviews are highly readable - by turns probing, combative and reflective and always absorbing. Daryl Dance brings to the interviews a rare breadth of knowledge and empathy with the work of the writers interviewed and the openly avowed insights of an African-American woman.

The writers interviewed include Michael Anthony, Louise Bennett, Jan Carew, Martin Carter and Denis Williams, Austin Clarke, Wilson Harris, John Hearne, C.L.R. James, Ismith Khan, George Lamming, Earl Lovelace, Tony McNeill, Pam Mordecai and Velma Pollard, Mervyn Morris, Orlando Patterson, Vic Reid, Dennis Scott, Sam Selvon, Michael Thelwell, Derek Walcott and Sylvia Wynter.

This second edition contains updated bibliographies for all the writers.

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Daryl Dance is Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond.

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Pearl Connor-Mogotsi MemorialMay 2, 2008 | by Voice of Guyana | Read | No Comments

Pearl Connor-Mogotsi
13 May 1924 – 11 February 2005

Opening Remarks

Professor Gus John - Moderator

On 11 February 2005, an indomitable spirit took flight. The spirit of a woman who from a very early age was consumed by an impatience for change and a consciousness of the place of art in shaping and humanizing society and giving expression to the fullness of our humanity.

She embodied that spirit in who she was, in how she was and in what she did: as a dancer, actor, theatrical agent, mentor, animateur, cultural and political activist, campaigner and social worker.

In a talk he gave at Harewood House, Leeds, in August this year, Milverton Wallace, who with Uncle Joe (Mogotsi), was the main organizer of this event, had this to say:

“Let me make a modest assertion: The present generation of performing artistes of African, Asian and African-Caribbean heritage now practising their trade in the UK may know nothing about her and the other pioneers whose struggles opened the door for them.

That is the prerogative of youth. Nevertheless, every black artiste, young or old, who now make a living in dance, music and the theatrical arts in this country, owe a big debt to her”. Continue reading Pearl Connor-Mogotsi Memorial

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