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By Selwyn R. Cudjoe, Ph.D.
August 28, 2024
I hope to finish my series on our heroic black female ancestors before responding to the superficial remarks of those who attack me on behalf of their leaders (The Express, August 6).
Although the PNM Women’s League’s press release claims to be the brainchild of its members (I’d guess there are close to 20,000 of them), the League could not have consulted its members overnight to arrive at the claim that its leaders had a “powerful message.” Nor could they have formed a collective response overnight. The PNM Women’s League’s letter was written by one or two people.
Ten years ago, I strongly condemned the disgusting sentiments of Camille Robinson-Regis, chairperson of the Women’s League of the MNC party, when she extols the sexual prowess of her leader (Confessions of a Soft Man, The Express, 10 April 2014).
I wrote: “According to the Trinidad Express, Ms Robinson-Regis assured the nation at the People’s National Movement party Women’s League conference that despite his love of shouting, Anil Roberts was actually a ‘hollow and weak man’ deep down.”
The Express article reported, “After Ms. Robinson-Regis announced that Dr. Rowley was the Man of Steel, Penguin played ‘Weak Men.’ The audience sang along, then shouted out the names ‘Faris and Hinds.’ Ms. Robinson-Regis told them that, as far as she knew, they were also the Man of Steel. As Penguin put it, weak men ‘never get the respect of women/Everyone calls him stupid.'”
Such misogyny is “not good for our society”. I concluded: “Language matters. The messages we convey to young people can be very powerful, especially when they are integrated into popular culture. The fight for women’s dignity should be at the forefront of our party and society.
Something is terribly wrong if 30 years later we are still maintaining relationships that we thought we had left behind long ago.”
Three weeks ago, I pointed out that the leader’s call for us to look for “African spirit” in the biographies of our black compatriots was superficial at best. There are already several biographies and studies of the people he identifies.
William Kane and I co-edited CLR James: His Intellectual Legacy; Colin Palmer wrote an outstanding work, Eric Williams and the Making of the Modern Caribbean, which I reviewed in the Journal of British Studies; Selwyn Ryan wrote a biography of Williams, and Caroline Elkins wrote an illuminating chapter on George Padmore in The Violent Legacy.
Herbert M Hunter and Sameer Y Abraham edited Race, Class and World Systems: The Sociology of Oliver C Cox. They called Cox the “founder” of the branch of sociology in the United States, although WEB Du Bois is considered the “founder of American sociology”.
Although Owen Mathurin’s biography of Sylvester Williams focuses more on the national level, Origins of Pan Africanism by Marika Sherwood is an important biography on Sylvester Williams.
I wondered what “Africanisms” these newly required biographies were supposed to contain; what the research was expected to cost; how the government planned to pay for it. In other words, how serious was this off-the-cuff proposal?
The Women’s League letter states that ‘the Prime Minister emphasised that it is vital to understand our challenges, failures and successes through the lens of these historical contributions’. Our grief leaders should tell us why they are so important to understanding our society.
The letter writer hopes to “encourage Dr. Cudjoe to develop the habit of reading for comprehension rather than for reaction.” What nonsense!
Reading, or the act of reading, is more than just interpreting signs or symbols on a piece of paper or a Kindle. French literary theorist Pierre Macheret reminds us in his book Theory of Literary Creation: “The act of reading is itself a form of creation, which produces interpretations and meanings beyond the author’s control.”
Gerard Genette’s Narrative Discourse is also significant in this regard. He says that “the depth of his exploration of the complexity of narrative form and function has profoundly influenced scholars’ views on texts and their construction”. Reading is a creative exchange between readers and texts, which means that meaning can only emerge through active participation.
Next Saturday, I will be speaking at the African Studies Association conference at Oxford University in the UK about the contributions of James’ thought. We will respond to these writers’ writings, the contexts in which they produced their art, and the philosophical principles that underlie their work.
We will seek to discover the importance of their contributions through discussion and debate, rather than paying homage to the folly of leaders who need more intellectual restraint.
Serious leaders advance their positions by providing concrete details and possibilities, not by issuing orders. That’s how it works in my field.
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