Let our lights shine - the Peter O'Connor column

Trinidad and Tobago, and indeed the whole Caribbean region, has produced a remarkable array of writers over the years. The sad truth is that I am not even aware of the full extent of important authors, and their works. But this is something that I intend to remedy. 

And indeed, if like me, you are not familiar with our authors and their works, you too should make a commitment to learn more of them and their works over the next couple of years.

I began thinking about this following two functions I attended recently, both on the same day. The first was a session of the ongoing government Panchayat at the Centre of Excellence, and the second was at the launch of the book “KAMLA: Ascent of a Woman”, by Rhona Baptiste.

At the Panchayat, Senator Mary King spoke of the need for a bona fide publishing industry in the Caribbean. She spoke about the difficulties Caribbean authors experience in trying to have their works published. 

Later that evening, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, speaking at Rhona’s book launch, echoed these sentiments. Our Prime Minister and our Minister of Planning, Economic & Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs both believe that there is an abundance of talent which is waiting to be revealed in the light of opportunity, if only the light could be allowed to shine.

Imagine, in the past few years we have had two Noble Laureates in Literature, Derek Walcott and Vidya Naipaul, plus a succession of noted authors like Samuel Selvon, Edgar Mittelholzer, George Lamming and others, and we cannot develop a publishing industry to present ourselves to the world? 

I understand that what we have in the Caribbean are “Printers”, who will print our works for a fee. Publishers are companies who will accept works and then print and market them. And I do not believe that we have a genuine publishing industry in T&T or in the Caribbean.

If we did, why would both our Prime Minister and our Minister of Planning be calling for the development of publishing businesses? And the “raw material” for any publishing business already exists: It is the extensive and proven literary talent of our people. But for local writers to be published, they must find sponsors who will provide the funding for the editing, printing, book launch and marketing.

It seems to me that we in the Caribbean are treating our authors and potential authors in the same way we treat all of our “raw materials”, like cocoa and sugar. 

Their works will only be acknowledged world wide when some foreign entity refines them and sells them back to us. In the case of literature, this means that when one of our authors is finally accepted by a foreign publishing house, the work will be printed, packaged and sold back to us. 

But our literature, like all of our art and culture, is really the soul of our people, and we should develop all of this here. And by “develop”, I do not mean working to create the inspiration and translating it to a book, a painting or a piece of music. That is already there, and the reason we seem unaware of it is the very reason we should invest in it, to make it known to us and the world.

Frankly, we should all be ashamed that that our Nobel and other prizewinning authors are being printed and published outside of the Caribbean. There is no technical reason for this, and certainly the quality of the product—the written word—is not in question.

So, with what we know to be tremendous latent talent hidden now in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean, why can we not lift the shade on this product and let its light shine forth? 

All that is truly needed is the will and the funding to turn this talent in literary works and creativity into books and sustainable careers for writers and publishers!

Certainly there can be no claim by the private banking sector that there is no money available to invest in an industry which is already there, just waiting to switched on, financially and promotion-wise. And this would be a noble investment (pun intended) in our development as a people.

You may be wondering why I am taking up this issue, as I have not been here before. 

So here is the commercial: I am one of many “unpublished authors” in T&T. If I am wrong in what I have said about no “publishing industry”, I throw out this challenge; and it is not a plea to publish my novel . It is simply a request that you read it. No one has rejected my work, because no one has accepted my request to read it.