“A life in full circle.”
That is how LiTTscapes author Dr Kris Rampersad described Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul who passed away on August 11. Noting that today marks his 86th birthday, she stated: “With all the acclamation pouring in on his death, the awards he has from the literary world including the highest, the Nobel Award for Literature; with more than 30 works to his name, two honours from the Queen of the Commonwealth, and holder of the highest national honour of T&T, the Trinity Cross, it cannot be said that Sir Vidia died “unnecessary and unaccommodated.”
Rampersad said: “Throughout his life he seems to have been haunted by the sense of nonbelonging and metaphoric homelessness that surfaces in many of his works and captured in the early pronouncement in his epic and most quoted biographical novel, A House for Mr Biswas: How terrible it would have been…to have lived without attempting to lay clam to one’s portion of the earth; to have lived and died as one had been born, unnecessary and unaccommodated.
“To recognise the value and volume of Naipaul’s literary contribution we will embark on a yearlong series of LiTTributes to the LaureaTTes here and abroad,” said Dr Rampersad,who noted that her book, LiTTscapes—Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago, defines and captures the sense of place locating them not only in landmarks, but also in cultures, lifestyles and experiences of Naipaul along with a hundred other writers.
Rampersad, who spearheaded the Year of Derek Walcott with Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott in his 75th years, is inviting collaborations and partnerships for The Year of LiTTributes to the LaureaTTes.
She states that this is to revive appreciation, respect and understanding of the land, culture and peoples that inspired the works of Naipaul, and Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott who died on March 17, 2017.
“There has been much talk of how Naipaul may be remembered by the land of his birth, if at all. As I reminded on the death of Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott with whom I collaborated over several years for culling a literarily-friendly environment, we are not doing them, but ourselves, any favours by such remembrances. All we can aim to do is pass on the value of their ingenuity to next generations that is reflected in their life’s work,” said Dr Rampersad, an independent sustainable development heritage educator.
Dr Rampersad, who has been promoting T&T’s literary heritage at home and abroad through a series of LiTTributes and LiTTours—already staged across the Caribbean, the Americas, Canada, the UK and Europe—is also the author of Finding A Place, which Naipaul himself acknowledged as unearthing much about his father Seepersad, that he, Naipaul did not know, she notes in her blog posting on Naipaul’s death.
Now out of print and evolving into an illustrated multimedia new edition, Finding a Place has been critically acclaimed as an original and groundbreaking study in its mapping of the literary history and heritage of our islands and the antecedents of writers as Sir Vidia Naipaul as it traces the social, political, cultural and literary processes over the century that saw the blossoming of a national literature and the nation of T&T into Independence.
It involved intimate study of not only Naipaul and other writers through their works, manuscripts and collections housed at Universities in America and Britain but also from other written and oral accounts in T&T and the Caribbean. This knowledge fed into LiTTscapes and she is in the process of collating the full array of this research for future study, she explained. (See emokrissy – www.kris-rampersad.blogspot. com).
Rampersad added, “These are the islands that nurtured the literary leanings and the genius of the likes of Nobel Laureate Sir Vidia Naipaul and substantially inspired Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott and the literary canon of Trinidad and Tobago. This is what LiTTscapes celebrate.
The LiTTributes and LiTTours, launched in conjunction with the book, invite intimate engagement with not only writers, but to engage with those elements of value in whatever spheres and fields, that create and sustain a nation, including spheres of education.
“The ‘Year of Derek Walcott’ included Evening Epic and the piloted awards for literature, drama and film in conjunction with the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, and a tribute to Naipaul on receipt of his Nobel Laureate in 2001.”
Dr Rampersad recalled: “From the Year of Derek Walcott, St Lucia developed and instituted on its national events’ calendar a week in tribute to its Nobel Laureates. MovieTowne, which was a sponsor of what we pitched as the award for film scripts, developed that with its partners into what has now become a national film festival.
Many of those who participated in those awards developed confidence to advance their creative interests.
“With Naipaul’s Laureate, the then Minister of Culture, Ganga Singh, had endorsed a proposal for then new National Library to be named after Naipaul but there was widespread negative reception, even from among the so- called intellectual and academic and many who should be supporting efforts not tear apart our society. Surveying the state of the country, riddled with crime, mindlessness and disrespect of elders, groups and others, some of them may want to rethink their stance and let go of animosities or other recalcitrance in the interest of next generations,” Dr Rampersad said.
Inviting partnerships, she said the ‘Year of LiTTributes to the LaureaTTes’ will include a number of grassroots-driven developmental actions that would secure legacies of learning, aspirations for excellence and appreciation for generations to come, while stimulating new paths for economic, cultural, social and political development.
“We lament the state of our society but we do not take the actions to transform it,” said Rampersad. “We have a historically ingrained cultural habits that scoff and downplay achievement, intelligence, knowledge and book learning and we are still saddled with systems that treat literature and learning as elitist, exclusive clubs and cliques.
“LiTTributes have infinite number of forms with a blueprint of many exciting actions for anyone who may be interested in meaningful social development and cultural transformation. These include but are not limited to developmental initiatives associated with sprucing up or engagement with the natural, built and cultural environment promoted by LiTTours and LiTTeas and LiTTevents.
“Awareness and appreciation are precursors to respect and understanding that break down animosities, make connections, foster intergenerational and elderly appreciation and value the positive and creative stimuli that spring from our natural social and cultural impulses, so as to downplay those negative elements. By this, we will be not only reclaiming ‘writers’ in the process, but our environment and people as well. A more successful education system would tap into this, not try to impose forms and formats that frustrate the development and blossoming of natural talents.
“Naipaul, in fact, summed up the education system in his rather succinct satirical statement placed in the mouth a caricature of one of his teachers as Queen’s Royal College, ‘the purpose of education is to form, not to inform’. We are reaping the whirlwind of this depreciation of knowledge and intelligence and uninformed approaches to development.
“Dubbed ‘the reading room outside the reading room’, with LiTTscapes, LiTTributes, LiTTours and related events, existing arenas become our classroom, whether it is industrial or community spaces and our medium is those already practiced lifestyle and habits— the vast and open landscapes, cultures, habits and activities through which persons of any age, any field, interest or discipline can identify, participate and share confidently his/her or their value with others. They are geared to reawaken our sense of self, as several of the reviewers of LiTTscapes have noted, but also to attract interest, and investment as well.
“So, the targets are not only to children and families and communities and schools, but the industries and industrialists, social planners and investors as well in a range of spheres too, who want to distill the best of what they have to offer to their employees, investors and others.
“Other specific elements of the vision to encourage those with resources to make more meaningful investments in developing the social and cultural capitals of the fields, spheres and districts they occupy—and not just in the physical sense—will unfold as we move forward. There are many ways we can plant the best of us into the landscapes and mindscapes of our country and people for the better evolution of our society.”
For books, bookings and to advance partnerships and collaborations email Dr Rampersad with the subject ‘Laureates’ at lolleaves@gmail.com and visit and follow developments on social media.
