Feature

Colonial Contacts and
the Caribbean Context

Sumaiya Ahsan and Sarah Z H

SECOND of its series, Colonial Contacts and the Caribbean Context, a seminar brought to life by the department of English and Humanities of BRAC University (BU) was a rather riveting experience for its kind. Divided into a neat organization of three sessions, it started off with Prof Firdous Azim, Chairperson, ENH, BU settling to welcome the keynote speaker Dr. Sharmila Sen, General Editor for the Humanities, Harvard University Press. The Chief Guest's address given by Prof. Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, VC, BU had lead to the keynote speech.

The opening session offered five spectacularly thought provoking papers by speakers teaching in different institutions sharing a common adoration for this rarely discussed section of Other Englishes.The session aptly chaired by Dr.Niaz Zaman had Shamshad Mortuza, presenting on 'The Men from Jamaica are Settling Down': Benjamin Zephaniah and his Dub Poetry; Mashrur S. Hossain on “Resisting the 'way fi kill Originality': the folk things in Benette and Brathwaite''; Syed Manzoorul Islam on Sex, Sugar and Slavery: David Dabydeen's 'Slave Song' and the Colonial Experience; Kaiser Haq on Arre' mamoo bakwas bund karo aur kela khao!-An account of Sir Vidia's way in the world; and Rashida Ahmed on Bob Marley and the Politics of Subversion.

Dr. Zaman's particular interest in studying literature in new ways and reaching had some mighty arguments favouring the study of Commonwealth Literature at the department of English in Dhaka University. However, due to unavoidable circumstances, it was not made possible, to teach this different genre of English.

In the paper, 'The Men from Jamaica are Settling Down', Shamshad Mortuza emphasized Dub Poetry and its significance, he quoted Zephaniah saying, “Dub Poetry is dubbing out the error and dubbing the truth”. Futhur on he spoke about Mimicry, as being a defensive and an offensive mechanism and also stressed a little on Rastafarianism.

Resisting the 'way fi kill Originality': the folk things in Benette and Brathwaite, in this paper, Mashrur S.Hossain highlighted the Folk Things, which included the Creole, drum and rhythm. He explained the Creole as a language that evolved from several source languages and reached a point where it has developed both lexically and syntactically. He ended his paper, by marking the suffering of Louis Bennette, who gave mass prestige to culture but her value was only recognized 50 years after her death-'Transforming suffering into something productive like the limbo'.

Rashida Ahmed presented on Bob Marley and the Politics of Subversion, where she spoke about Bob Marley being a free spirit carrying free speech, with and insight of a philosopher. She explained the spiritual use of Marijuana as uplifting to the divine. She highlighted on Bob Marley being the Rastafarian prophet, who wanted the people to forget their difference and live in harmony and peace. He wanted the misconception of 'us' and 'them' to be erased-the continual clash between colonial margins to be demolished. She ended her presentation with a capturing statement saying, “I cannot imagine what Bob Marley could have done, if he was alive-the biggest global superstar”, and to him music is like a rainbow-it is universal.

In between the presentations, the audience was asked to share their opinions, thoughts and comments regarding the Caribbean Literature and how they could relate to it.

Prof Firdous Azim, Chairperson, ENH, BU, discussed the significance of the seminar and its importance in the academic curriculum. She mentioned that, the seminar was part of what they taught at the Department of English and was a technique to widen the range of academic curriculum. She highlighted it as being 'less literary and closer to our heart'. The teaching of English literature is being revised and the focus is now on the Indian subcontinent, but the debate is whether we teach it in English or Bengali. However, in the Caribbean, literature is being created and in forms of English itself-they do not have to justify their work.

Then followed the between session which had Manzur Karim, Dept. of Economics and Social Sciences, BU speaking on Cricket, communism and the Caribbean: the story of C.I.R James; Utpal Shuvro from Prothom Alo presenting Slideshow on the Caribbean and the session much to the audience's delight was chaired by Mumit Khan, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, BU. The final session in store primarily involved a collective of recitations by Writers Block-Bangladeshi writers in English, Kaiser Haq, Dhaka University, Sajjad Sharif from Prothom Alo (presenting a Bangla translation of Derek Walcott's selected poems), ENH students, BU (presenting Caribbean poets). The session was chaired by Rukhsana Rahim Chowdhury, Dept. of English, BU.