Caribbean nationhood has been, through a history marked by colonial imperialism, plunder, triumph and glory, intricately associated with and profoundly defined by its literature. This literature has been indivisible from history, international scholarship, and Caribbean philosophical thought. The artists of the region have told it all. By analysing our realities they have guided us through tragedy and comedy and with the aid of such mirrors have never ceased to tell us who we are.
George Lamming is among the Caribbean writers who have contributed to the building of its nationhood through entertaining story-telling in fictional narratives, deep and ever-relevant scholarship, and interventions in regional thought and philosophy. Lamming, who celebrated his 94th birthday on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, was born in Carrington Village, Barbados in 1927. He worked as a teacher in Trinidad from 1946 until he migrated to England in 1950. As part of the legendary Windrush Generation he was among leading West Indians, labourers and writers alike, who went into exile to develop their careers and were responsible for the main thrust in the rapid growth to prominence of West Indian Literature in London in the 1950s.
