On the passing of acclaimed Barbadian novelist, essayist and poet, George Lamming, I express as President of the Democratic Labour Party and all its family, our sincerest condolences to the family of Lamming and to all Barbadians on the transition of this icon.
Lamming’s words and work were to embody and define a nation, and to shape many of us in personal ways. Work and words like his helped many Barbadians to understand their identity, their strength, as a people, as part of a new Caribbean civilization.
Just some days ago, I was reflecting with a non-Caribbean friend on my encounter with Lamming in his seminal work, In the Castle of My Skin. I was impressed that my friend knew Lamming’s work as she waxed lyrical about his style and prose, and his inclusion in the Queen’s Jubilee reading list. It is not surprising that people all over the world are meeting Lamming afresh.
Perhaps Lamming would have it no other way, a counter-colonial moment where his most famous work assessing the colonial encounter is discovered on a reading list to celebrate 70 years of the longest serving monarch in Britain. Maybe he has a wry smile about that.
He may no longer be with us but his work is, which means his message to his nation and the world, and his reflections on self and country are still with us.
George Lamming, walk with the icons of arts and literature! Your service to country and to defining Caribbean civilization has been, simply put, well done.
The next forty-five years as we march to 100 years of Independence and building our nation and Caribbean, is now for the next generation, using in part “language as a kind of passport” as you reflected on In The Castle of My Skin.
Dr Ronnie Yearwood
President
Democratic Labour Party
