The Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books
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VOLUME 12 THE ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA REVIEW OF BOOKS NUMBER 1 Rev. Birchfield Aymer on St. Luke Dorbrene O’Marde on Barbuda Lionel Hurst on Barbuda Paget Henry on Barbuda Edgar O. Lake on Clement White Elaine Olaoye on Glenn Sankatsing SUMMER 2019 Elaine Jacobs on Clement White Poetry with Sir Lester Bird, Elaine Olaoye and Clement White And much more …. Produced by the Office of University Communications THE ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA REVIEW OF BOOKS A Publication of the Antigua and Barbuda Studies Association Volume 12 • Number 1 • Summer 2019 Copyright © 2019 Antigua and Barbuda Studies Association Editorial Board: Ian Benn, Joanne Hillhouse, Paget Henry, Edgar Lake, Adlai Murdoch, Ermina Osoba, Elaine Olaoye, Mali Olatunji, Vincent Richards Paget Henry, Editor The Antigua and Barbuda Studies Association was founded in 2006 with the goal of raising local intellectual awareness by creating a field of Antigua and Barbuda Studies as an integral part of the larger field of Caribbean Studies. The idea for such an interdisciplinary field grew out of earlier “island conferences” that had been organized by the University of the West Indies, School of Continuing Education, in conjunction with the Political Culture Society of Antigua and Barbuda. The Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books is an integral part of this effort to raise local and regional intellectual awareness by generating conversations about the neglected literary traditions of Antigua and Barbuda through reviews of its texts. Manuscripts: the manuscripts of this publication must be in the form of short reviews of books or works of art dealing with Antigua and Barbuda. Thus reviews of works by writers and artists from Antigua and Barbuda such as Peregrine Pickle, Mary Prince, Tim Hector, Ashley Bryan, Novelle Richards, Gregson Davis, Jamaica Kincaid, Edgar Lake, Althea Prince, Keithlyn Smith, Adlai Murdoch and others will be particularly welcome. We will also welcome commentaries on reviews we have published. Reviews should be no longer than six double-spaced pages, with minimal if any footnotes. Submit reviews to Paget Henry, editor, as word documents at [email protected] for consideration. No portion of the Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books may be reproduced for commercial purposes without the permission of the Antigua and Barbuda Studies Association. Photo Credit: Map of the Leeward Islands (detail); John Arrowsmith, 1842; The London Atlas, London. Copyright © 2000 Cartography Associates Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books Volume 12 Number 1 Summer 2019 Dedication The Editorial Collective of The Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books dedicates this issue of our journal to the memory of Allison M. C. Hull (1956–2019). She was indeed very dear to us. Her enthusiasm for education in general and the University of the West Indies in particular made working with her a distinct pleasure. Without her contributions and eager collaboration our annual conference with UWI (Antigua) would not have been the successes they turned out to be. Ms. Hull was a vital and very valuable member of our community of scholars here in Antigua and Barbuda. Her dedication to the intellectual life of our twin-island state will surely be missed. Paget Henry Elegy for Allison Hull A light shone No fuss Through gentle love No outcry Dedication to so many Not even a sigh From an avowed small place Life, you understood, was to be lived A breeze across white sand Offered solace There you were From an epoch so fierce To the end Even hope sought counsel No fuss, no outcry Not even a sigh Your offerings, humble Yet so daring: You have joined the ancestors Knowledge Generations will come For the once forbidden Unaware of having, through you, Been blessed Yes, the sanctuary of that mind Your heart-warming smile—a Your eventual anonymity testament to courage Carries the paradox of memory Even when the Reaper’s shadow Allison, from aletheia, after all, was near Offers truth You continued for others’ sake — Lewis R. Gordon TABLE OF CONTENTS Editor’s Note . 7 FEATURE ESSAYS After the Storms: Barbuda and Antigua Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow . 11 Paget Henry Towards Win/Win: Antigua/Barbuda Crossroads . 37 Dorbrene E. O’Marde The Legal Progression of Land Ownership/Control on Barbuda 1627 to 2019 . 42 Lionel Hurst Esq. A Socioreligious Revolution: A Sociological Exegesis of “Poor” and “Rich” in Luke–Acts . 58 Birchfield Aymer The Conversation We Never Had -Reflections from the Diaspora- . 99 Margaret Aymer The Second Axis: Paget Henry a Scholar for the Ages . 107 George K. Danns Ph.D. POEMS BY ELAINE OLAOYE A Psychology of Climate Change . 116 A song to science . 118 Elegy to humankind .. 120 To Look at Anyone . 121 Democracies, Autocracies, Oligarchies and Monarchies . .. 123 MORE POETRY Caregivers . 125 Clement White 5 Stars In The Universe, Our National Heroines and Island Girls . 127 Sir Lester Bird Review of 5 Stars In The Universe, Our National Heroines and Island Girls by Sir Lester Bryant Bird . 129 Lionel Hurst INTERVIEWS Paget Henry Interviews Allison Hull: On the Evolution of the UWI Open Campus (2018). 131 BOOK REVIEWS Mary Geo Quinn’s Hol’ de Line and Other Stories . 151 Bernadette Farquhar Featherstone, David, Gair, Christopher, Høgsberg, Christian, Smith, Andrew, Eds. Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket: C.L.R. James’s Beyond a Boundary. 154 Leslie R. James REVIEWING THE WORKS OF CLEMENT WHITE In the Shadow of Ozani . 176 Edgar O. Lake A Review Essay of Come Lemme Hea’ Yoh Yank Soursap: Indulging Virgin Islands Creole . 185 Elaine Jacobs Virgin Islands Creole: A Mark of Cultural Identification . 192 Valerie Knowles Combie REVIEWING THE WORKS OF GLENN SANKATSING Analysis and Review of Glenn Sankatsing’s Quest to Rescue our Future . 197 Elaine Henry Olaoye Caribbean Ecological Ethics: A Review of Glenn Sankatsing’s Quest to Rescue our Future . 211 Paget Henry A Partial List of Antiguan and Barbudan Books . 223 Notes on Contributors . 227 Volume 12 Number 1 Summer 2019 Editor’s Note Welcome dear readers, old and new, to this issue, Volume 12, of The Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books, the official publication of the Antigua and Barbuda Studies Association (ABSA). As in past issues, we have assembled here a collection of essays, poems, and reviews that illuminate the tradition of writing in our nation, which has engaged the problems we have inherited from our colonial past, the challenges we face, and continues to suggest ways of moving forward. One of the major themes of this issue is Barbuda, its ecological and socio-political significance. Focusing on Barbuda, in our feature essay section are the papers by Paget Henry, Dorbrene O’Marde, Lionel Hurst, and George Danns. Barbuda is also the theme of our 2019 annual conference, which we have been doing in conjunction with the University of the West Indies, Open Campus and The Antigua and Barbuda Youth Enlightenment Academy. This special focus on Barbuda is definitely a part of a larger reaching out to our sister isle after the devastation of hurricane Irma in September of 2017. The paper by George Danns was first delivered at the second convening ... of the W.E.B. Du Boisian Scholar Network, during which I was presented 7 with the Network’s W.E.B. Du Bois Award for Distinguished Scholarship. ... So, Aldon Morris, Jose Itzigsohn, Karida Brown, Prabhdeep Kehal, Ricarda Hammer, Laura Garbes, and other leaders of this innovative movement, my heart-felt thanks and appreciation. In addition to Barbuda, another important theme of this issue is the Afro-Christian tradition of thought as it has developed here in Antigua, through the works of scholars like the Rev. Kortright Davis and Edith Oladele. In this issue, the focus is on the work of the late Rev. Birchfield Aymer, who was a strong supporter of ABSA. Before his passing in 2018, he expressed a strong desire to have published in our Review the chapter from his dissertation, which is included in this issue. We were unable to do this earlier because of the number of un-translated Greek passages in the chapter. At the suggestion of his brother Sam Aymer, his niece, Rev. Dr. Margaret Aymer contacted me and offered to help with the publication of this chapter. A scholar of both theology and Greek, the female Rev. Aymer was the perfect person for this task. With great enthusiasm and skill, she undertook the introducing and editing of this chapter along with translating its Greek passages, all of which has turned it into the highly readable essay it is now. Margaret, many many thanks to you! A third important theme in this issue is the Open Campus of the University of the West Indies here in Antigua and Barbuda. This focus on the Open Campus continues what was the central theme of last year’s 7 conference and a major concern of the last issue of our Review. Here we continue our look at the Open Campus through an interview with Ms. Allison Hull, who was its former Program Officer. In our poetry section, we feature the work of three poets. The first is a poem by our former Prime Minister, Sir Lester Bird. This is a new departure for the Prime Minister and we hope there will be more. Our second poet is Elaine Olaoye, author of the well-known collection, Passions of My Soul. Third and finally is a poet and Professor of Hispanic Literature from St. Croix, Clement White. You will have a fuller encounter with Professor White in our review section. The poem included here, “Caregivers”, is one that he dedicated to me, and it is based on a story I told him of one of the super-mothers of Antigua and Barbuda.