TORONTO, February 20, 2002 -- Widely acclaimed Caribbean author, lecturer and activist George Lamming will deliver the fourth annual Jagan lecture at York University on Saturday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m. in Vari Lecture Hall A, 4700 Keele St.
Lamming will examine the racial and ethnic tensions underlying many present-day political problems in the Caribbean. Among them is the recent elections in Trinidad and Tobago in which the United National Congress and the People's National Movement each garnered 18 seats, dividing Parliament along race/ethnic lines, and resulting in a political stalemate and calls for new elections.
York English Prof. Frank Birbalsingh, one of the key organizers of this year's lecture, says that Lamming is highly respected throughout the Caribbean for his outspokenness regarding Caribbean politics. "Scarcely any event occurs of significance to the region that Lamming is not consulted for his analysis or opinion. Lamming’s reputation is not simply as spokesman on Caribbean affairs, but as a widely respected elder whose opinions are received with implicit trust and grateful acceptance."
Lamming produced six novels between 1953 and 1972, most notable among them his first, In the Castle of my Skin (1953). His writing was politically influential during a period when issues of impending West Indian independence and federation were eagerly embraced and hotly debated.
Lamming’s fiction Castle and succeeding novels The Emigrants (1954), Of Age and Innocence (1958), and Season of Adventure (1960) depict the social, cultural, economic and political structure of Caribbean territories that were plantation-based for centuries, and subject to a sordid history of slavery and exploitation. His fiction also depicts the uneasy confluence of varied races, colours, ethnicities and classes, and the dilemma of eliciting coherent notions of identity and nationality. His two later novels Water with Berries (1971) and Natives of my Person (1972), probe searchingly into the consequences of colonialism on ordinary Caribbean people.
Lamming lives in the Barbados, where he engages in trade union affairs and periodically serves as writer in residence or visiting professor at various North American universities.
The annual Jagan Lecture series was established in March 1999 as a tribute to the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan, former president of Guyana, Caribbean thinker, politician and visionary who helped lead his country, then called British Guiana, to gain independence from Britain in 1966. The series is jointly organized and sponsored by the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) and York International, together with a standing committee composed of members of the Toronto Caribbean and York University communities.
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For further information, please contact:
| Marshall Beck | Prof. Frank Birbalsingh | Ken Turriff |
| CERLAC | English Department | Media Relations |
| York University | York University | York University |
| 416-736-2100, ext. 88705 | 416-736-2100, ext. 22036 | 416-736-2100, ext. 22086 |
| mbeck@yorku.ca | birbalsi@yorku.ca | kturriff@yorku.ca |
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