Glaser, Marlies

Nowak, Helge

Pausch, Marion

English

Open Access LMU

C a r i b b e a n W r i t e r s Between Orality & Writing Les Auteurs caribeens entre l'oralite et l'ecriture Edited by Marlies Glaser & Marion Pausch A M S T E R D A M - A T L A N T A , G A 1994 Matatu Number 12 ISBN: 90-5183-735-6 (CIP) ISSN: 0932-9714 ©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - Atlanta, G A 1994 Printed in The Netherlands C O N T E N T S I n t r o d u c t i o n M A R L I E S G L A S E R & M A R I O N P A U S C H : Caribbean Writers Between Orality and Writing / Les Auteurs caribeens entre l'oralite et l'ecriture A r t i c l e s E M I L I O J O R G E R O D R I G U E Z : Oral Tradition and Recent Caribbean Poetry 1 C H A R L E S A . B O D U N D E : The Black Writer in the Multicultural Caribbean - The Vis ion of Africa in Edward Kamau Brathwaite's The A r r i v a n t s 17 M O Y A J O N E S P E T I T H O M M E : Forty Years Hence - Immigrants and Yardies in Sei von and Headley 35 A L E X A N D R A J E R M A N N : Les traditions creoles dans la litterature contemporaine de la Guadeloupe et de la Martinique 93 D E N I S E L O R E N Z : Baron Samedi ou la Fleur d 'Or? - L a culture populaire dans la litterature haitienne 115 C Y R I L M O K W E N Y E : L ' image de l 'Afrique dans le theätre antillais francophone 139 I n t e r v i e w s L I L L I A N A L L E N : "The message is the most important" (Christian Habekost) 47 M E R V Y N M O R R I S : "The labels pin them down" (Pam Mordecai) 63 O L I V E S E N I O R : " A shared culture" (Marlies Glaser) 77 P A T R I C K C H A M O I S E A U : "Exprimer la complexite antillaise ä l'aide de la tradition orale" (Marion Pausch) 157 X A V I E R O R V I L L E : " L e metissage n'est pas une tare mais un enrichissement" (Marion Pausch) 161 P A M E L A M O R D E C A I : Publishing in the Caribbean (Holger G . Ehling) 171 C O N T E N T S C r e a t i v e W r i t i n g P A M E L A M O R D E C A I : Poems: C a t c h t h e W i n d ; P r o t e s t Poem, M o n g o o s e ; L a s t L i n e s 13 G L O R I A E S C O F F E R Y : Poems: Guyanese R e f l e c t i o n s ; T r i c k s of t h e T r a d e 45 O L I V E S E N I O R : Story: Ycu T h i n k l M a d , M i s s ? 85 G L O R I A E S C O F F E R Y : Poems: N o M a n 's L a n d ; A f t e r t h e F a l l 91 J U D I T H H A M I L T O N : Poems: n i g h t f l i g h t ; l i m b o - m a n ; h i s t o r y class 111 E D W A R D B A U G H : Poems. C o u n t r y D a n c e ; D u s k Poem; The C a r p e n t e r ' s C o m p l a i n t ; Sometimes i n t h e M i d d l e o f t h e Story 135 E L A I N E S A V O R Y : Poems: m o o n s o n g o f s i s t e r r a b b i t ; t h e h o r s e a n d t h e b u l l ; flame t r e e t i m e ; o p t i m i s m 147 M E R L E C O L L I N S : Poem: U p a n d D o w n t h e D e c k 159 P A M E L A M O R D E C A I : Poems: M u s i c m u s i c m u s i c ; H a u p t b a h n h o f D i t t y 178 N l Y l O S U N D A R E : Poem: Text W o r s h i p 201 M a r k e t p l a c e W I M R U T G E R S : Dutch Caribbean Literature 185 Recent Editions o f Dutch Caribbean Fict ion (ed. Gordon Collier) 192 T A Y O O L A F I O Y E : The Stigma 197 N l Y l O S U N D A R E : H o w Post-Colonial is African Literature? 203 Book Reviews Rasse, K l a s s e u n d K u l t u r i n der K a r i b i k , ed. K A R L K O H U T (Thomas Bremer) 217 Afrique et Antilles francophones, ed. C L A U D E B O U Y G U E S (Andrea Pohl) 219 B A R B A R A B U S H , Slave Women i n C a r i b b e a n Society, 1 6 5 0 - 1 8 3 8 (Andrea Pohl) 220 E V E L Y N H E I N E M A N N , Mama Afrika: Das Trauma der V e r s k l a v u n g (Sabine Brock) 221 S T E P H A N P A L M I E , Das Exil der Götter: Geschichte und V o r s t e l l u n g s w e l t e i n e r a f r o k u b a n i s c h e n R e l i g i o n (Monika Wehrheim-Peuker) 224 B i b l i o g r a p h y of Women W r i t e r s f r o m t h e C a r i b b e a n , ed. B R E N D A F . B E R R I A N & A A R T B R O E K (StefanieGehrke) 226 viii C O N T E N T S C H R I S T I A N H A B E K O S T , V e r b a l R i d d i m : The P o l i t i c s a n d Aesthetics o f A f r i c a n - C a r i b b e a n D u b Poetry (Helge Nowak) 227 C a r i b a n a , N° 1, ed. L u I G I S A M P I E T R O (Ulrike Jamin) 230 J . B . A L S T O N , Y o r u b a D r a m a i n E n g l i s h : I n t e r p r e t a t i o n a n d P r o d u c t i o n (Christopher Balme) 231 C r i s i s a n d C r e a t i v i t y i n the New L i t e r a t u r e s i n E n g l i s h , ed. G E O F F R E Y V . D A V I S & H E N A M A E S - J E L I N E K (Ode S. Ogede) 232 S Y N D I C A T N A T I O N A L D E S E N S E I G N A N T S D U S U P E R I E U R ( S Y N E S ) , L a D e r i v e de l ' U n i v e r s i t e au C a m e r o u n , L i v r e B l a n c (Andre Djiffack) 234 Addresses ix Book Reviews 227 listed under the correct genre - an indication that the editors have compiled data from secondary sources, without examining the books directly. The considerable number o f spelling mistakes and errors o f transcription are a source o f irritation. The layout o f the book does not make entries easy to consult; because they are not highlighted, headings are not clearly identifiable. However, despite these shortcomings, the B i b l i o g r a p h } / Of Women W r i t e r s F r o m The C a r i b b e a n is a long overdue and highly valuable research tool for scholars specializing in Caribbean as well as women"s literature and criticism. It should serve as an excellent sourcebook, in that it not only collects data on l iving authors or authors whose work is still easily available, but has also endeavoured to recover "lost" women writers and their work. Stefanie Gehrke ( F r a n k f u r t ) C H R I S T I A N H A B E K O S T , V e r b a l R i d d i m : The P o l i t i c s and A e s t h e t i c s of A f r i c a n - C a r i b b e a n D u b P o e t r y . [Cross/Cultures: Readings in the Post/Colonial Literatures in English; 10]. (Amsterdam/Atlanta: Editions Rodopi, 1993). 262 pages, Hfl . 75.00, US$ 44.00. V e r b a l R i d d i m , the revised version of Christian Habekost's doctoral thesis (Mannheim 1991), is announced as the first book-length study of dub poetry, [...] a controversial genre which has polarized responses, [... and] a Performance art with an intimate intertextual relation to the urban and folk cultures from which it emanates. Habekost writes with first-hand knowledge and with expertise. Not only has he spoken to every one o f the dub poets treated; he has also been able to build upon a large stock of interviews. Moreover, he was the editor (as early as 1986) o f the first substantial anthology of dub poetry. He has since been influential in gaining these poets a wider audience in Germany by translating entire collections, by lecturing on them, and by organizing Performance tours. Habekost, who has himself performed both in Germany and in Trinidad (where he now lives for part o f each year), has even tried to establish the genre in the German language with a recently published collection o f his own dub poetry. Although in his study Habekost concentrates on dub poetry as written/performed by Jamaicans or by poets o f Jamaican descent l iving in Britain or Canada, he locates these works in the wider context o f a "riddim poetry" (6) that would include similar contemporary poems from Trinidad, Canada and South Africa, even i f they build on different traditions as wel l . The characteristic feature o f dub poetry - the attempt to fuse committed literature written/spoken from a " B l a c k " stance with the rhythm of reggae music (as a distinct part o f Black Jamaican culture) - leads Habekost to view this "verbal r iddim" in another context, too. A s a "musical Performance art" (44), it is linked to phenomena of "musical talkover" (37), such as the "toasting" o f Jamaican disc-jockeys in the 1970s or to musical styles such as "rap" or "raggamuffin," fashionable in North American or Caribbean dance-halls in the 1980s and '90s. In his introduction to V e r b a l R i d d i m Habekost defines his subject and describes his methodological approach as a pluralistic one (the combination o f the close reading o f individual poems with socioliterary analysis). Although his is really the first book-length study of the phenomenon that has appeared, the author lists a small but surprising number o f 228 M A T A T U preceding (yet still unpublished) theses. None of them apparently justifies an extensive review of research, though one would have wished to know a bit more about Julie Pearn's Ph.D. dissertation o f 1985, especially as Habekost later on repeatedly quotes from it (5, 22, 68, 75, 97, 162, 185). True to his methodological decision, Habekost balances close reading with a contextual approach, granting equal space to both considerations in the two main parts o f his study. In Part I, he provides extensive background Information on the historical development of dub poetry in Jamaica, England and Canada, and on the links between some of its practitioners. Due account is taken of the social, political and cultural Situation in all three regions, as this has had a decisive influence on the poets' subject-matter: not only did this kind o f committed poetry originate in the l iving conditions o f people in the Caribbean and of emigrants to London or Toronto, but the poems also show reactions to change within these societies, to the decreasing influence o f the Rastafarian ideology, and to the spectacular fall of Communist institutions on the threshold o f the 1990s. The aesthetic aspects o f dub poetry are made the subject of the third and fourth chapters. Habekost traces the musical origins o f " r iddim" (59-63), defines it as a poetological concept, and describes the basic structural elements of a dub poem (91-98): the specific rhyming pattern, the use o f alliteration, verbal repetition and onomatopoeia, and the composition o f the poem as a series o f minimal expressions (visible as brief lines of text in print). The connections between "verbal r iddim" and reggae music (and the presentation of the latter by the DJs) are competently analysed. In this and in other instances, dub poetry is described as part o f a larger African-Caribbean cultural tradition, a tradition apparent in the use made of creolized English as poetic language, in the poets' reference to the world-view and vocabulary of the Rastafarians, and in the essentially oral character of this poetry. One of the most striking features o f V e r b a l R i d d i m is Habekost's consistent presentation o f dub poetry as a form meant for the stage rather than for the page. Consequently (and thoroughly) he takes account o f Performance aspects in general as well as of individual styles, and discusses the media chosen. The changing appearance and effect o f a dub poem when presented before an audience, in recorded form (either as a s ing l e /LP /MC or as a video), or in print, are factors which are carefully considered in the analyses and interpretations that make up Part II o f the book. Habekost selects examples from the works o f such well-known practitioners as Linton Kwes i Johnson, Oku Onuora, Mutabaruka, Benjamin Zephaniah, Michael Smith and L i l l i an Al l en . He provides information about the production of and response to these poems and analyses their textual strategies, showing all his skills in poetry explication. The ten poems he discusses at length (and the various others that he analyses summarily) are intended as paradigmatic for a greater number o f poems devoted to specific human experiences or to the struggle for social and political change. In chapters 5 to 8, poems from the early years (mainly from the period 1977-82) have been selected which deal with "the ghetto experience" (ch. 5) or were written explicitly for political campaigns (ch. 7), whereas others come as prophesies of another, and better, life than that in "Babylon" (ch. 8). Later chapters are concerned either with the hypocrisies that arose when this poetry o f protest became radical-chic, or with the blind spots or distortions in its political outlook: one chapter is devoted to "women's dub poetry" o f the mid-1980s, thus adding a feminist perspective; another deals with reactions from the early 1990s (!) to the radically decreasing prestige o f visions o f social revolution after the downfall o f the Communist regimes. The Book Reviews 2 2 9 topicality o f this kind of poetry is underlined, and the author has obviously endeavoured to update his original thesis by references to poems performed or recorded even as late as 1993. In his study, Christian Habekost has successfully overcome the fundamental problems encountered by anyone who tries to write on a literary corpus that is both contemporary and meant to be listened to rather than read. V e r b a l R i d d i m is rounded off with an extensive "Discography and Primary Bibliography" that lists relevant works, in all modes o f publication, up to 1993. Compared with its counterpart in Habekost's earlier anthology, V e r b a l R i d d i m presents a revised canon: nearly all the poets added to the second edition of the anthology (1987) have been "dubbed out" again, whereas Canadian dub poets in particular appear for the first time and even poets not treated in the text are included. This is certainly an indispensable tool for the fascinated lay reader as well as for researchers in the future. Scholars w i l l profit, too, from the numerous interviews that Habekost has conducted over the years, excerpts from which add to the material basis of his study. It is indeed hard (and unnecessary) to find fault with Habekost's book, which is the result of at least a decade of concern with the subject. For a scholar and an extra-mural promoter as deeply committed to the cause, he is astonishingly capable of taking a Step back, o f seeing the poetry in its wider contexts. Added to this, he does not refrain from pointing out qualitative differences among the poets, and he takes account of criticism averse to the genre as a whole (arguments which he tries to counter, of course). Yet though he gives room to both, Habekost clearly favours that group of practitioners which "unequivocally supported and promoted the term 'dub poetry'" (44), and he is at times rather critical o f another group (made up of Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mutabaruka and Jean "Binta" Breeze) which rejected the label (see, for instance, pp. 18, 29, 45-46, 215-17). A s Jean Breeze has meanwhile publicly distanced herseif from dub poetry proper, it is o f course problematic to include her (as Habekost had done earlier in his anthology). But as her poetry, then and now, has shown all the features Habekost describes as characteristic o f "verbal riddim," she would have merited more than just a passing analysis (202) - especially as the author includes other examples o f "r iddim poetry" (the "rapso" poems of Brother Resistance) which are not indebted to Jamaican reggae music but stem from a different tradition, that of the Trinidad calypso. (Here, Habekost once again transcends the limits of the 1986 anthology, this time to broaden the perspective.) If Habekost's handsomely produced and yet affordable study should appear in the second edition it deserves, a few minor points should be seen to: the studies o f Bone, Bones, Walters and Roberts (mentioned on pp. 10, 52 and 83) should be added to the bibliography, the variant reading of " M e Cyaan Believe It" in Faristzaddi's i t a t i o n s of j a m a i c a o f 1982 (which is listed) should be mentioned in the text, and readers would certainly profit from an index to the book. The future w i l l show whether dub poetry, which was less visible in the second half o f the 1980s in Britain (a fact that is mirrored in Habekost's selection of poems), is more than a significant yet transient phenomenon. Habekost himself Stresses the point that dub poetry up to now has been the sum of the works o f a few populär individual practitioners rather than the conscious endeavour o f a proper "movement" (48-49, 238-40). Either way, Habekost's V e r b a l R i d d i m , as it Stands, w i l l account for the development o f a characteristic part o f Caribbean poetry up to the early 1990s. A s a study of another aspect o f oral culture in the Caribbean, V e r b a l R i d d i m ranks with Errol H i l l ' s and Keith Warner's "classic" studies o f carnival and calypso in Trinidad, and it makes an important contribution to the history o f reggae and Rastafarian culture. Habekost's Performance deserves a large audience indeed. H e l g e N o w a k (Düsseldorf) 

Rezension von "Verbal Riddim. The politics and aesthetics of african-carribean dub poetry" von Christian Habekost

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Rezension von "Verbal Riddim. The politics and aesthetics of african-carribean dub poetry" von Christian Habekost

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