The Works of West Indian Writer Samuel Selvon (May 20, 1923 – April 16, 1994)

INVITATION TO ZOOM PUBLIC MEETING by Dr. Kumar Mahabir

Selvon

Samuel Selvon was born in San Fernando in Trinidad in the Caribbean on May 20, 1923,
the sixth of seven children. He was the son of a first-generation Christian Tamil Indian immigrant from Madras and a Christian Anglo-Indian mother. After leaving Naparima College at 15, he worked as a wireless operator for the local branch of the Royal Navy during World War II on ships that patrolled the Caribbean, an experience that provided the setting for his first novel A Brighter Sun (1952). During his free time, he wrote poetry.

He later moved to the capital city of Port-of-Spain to work as a reporter and literary editor for the Trinidad Guardian. Much of this early writings have been later published in Foreday Morning (eds. Kenneth Ramchand and Susheila Nasta, 1989). In 1950, he sailed to London where he worked as a clerk for the Indian Embassy and wrote in his spare time. In London, he also worked with the BBC, producing two television scripts, Anansi the Spiderman and Home Sweet India.

Selvon published his first novel, Lonely Londoners, in 1956. It was lauded as a masterpiece since it combined native “broken English” and Standard English in an appealing manner. His other books, notably A Brighter Sun, were accepted for use by students in the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC’s) literature syllabus. In 1979, Selvon presented an important paper, “Three into One Can’t Go: East Indian, Trinidadian, West Indian”, where he explored his sense of threat from the conversion of “Negro nationalism” and his sense that as an Indian, ‘we best hads don’t talk too loud before we antagonise the Black people’.

Selvon was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships (in 1955 and 1968), an honorary doctorate from Warwick University in 1989, and an honorary degree of DLitt by the University of the West Indies (UWI) in 1985.

He died of respiratory failure on April 16, 1994, at the age of 70, at Piarco International Airport arriving from his residence in Canada. His ashes were subsequently interred at the UWI cemetery in Trinidad. Selvon had married twice: in 1947 to Draupadi Persaud, with whom he had one daughter, and in 1963 to Althea Daroux, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.

Please join us THIS SUNDAY for another ICC+AGI ZOOM Public Meeting, April 17, 2022 at (1.00 p.m. Belize), (3.00 p.m. New York/Eastern time), (3.00 p.m. Trinidad/Atlantic time), (3.00 p.m. Guyana), (4.00 p.m. Suriname), (8.00 p.m. England), (9.00 p.m. South Africa), (Mon 12.10 a.m. India, ND), (Mon 7.00 a.m. Fiji).

TOPIC: The Works of West INDIAN Writer Samuel Selvon (May 20, 1923 – April 16, 1994)

SPEAKERS:

  • Prof. David Dabydeen (UK/Guyana) – Professor Emeritus at the University of Warwick, Hon. Fellow at Cambridge University, and former Guyana’s Ambassador to China and UNESCO
  • Prof. Atreyee Phukan (USA/India) – Associate Professor in the English department at the University of San Diego, California; author of the forthcoming book Contradictory Indianness
  • Prof. Michael Mitchell (UK) – Honorary Associate Professor at the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies, University of Warwick; and a lecturer at Paderborn University, Germany

Followed by Q+A

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