The Caribbean Review of Books (New vol. 1, no. 19, February 2009)
A sample of the new CRB, as published by MEP until 2009
A sample of the new CRB, as published by MEP until 2009
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Review</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Books</strong>, <strong>February</strong> <strong>2009</strong><br />
the topography Lovelace is writing about to really be able<br />
to show the relationship between landscape and text, and<br />
to properly evaluate the importance <strong>of</strong> what the author is<br />
saying. Often the essay seems to be imposing eco-criticism<br />
on an essay that is really about Lovelace’s views on politics,<br />
religion, and education. And urban planner Jim Armstrong<br />
contributes an essay to the Aiyejina <strong>vol</strong>ume about art and<br />
creativity in relation to identity. He looks at art as a prescription<br />
for post-traumatic stress disorder, and the importance<br />
<strong>of</strong> planning and development. In a very real sense he echoes<br />
In brief<br />
Daddy Sharpe, by Fred W. Kennedy (Ian Randle<br />
Publishers, ISBN 978-976-637-343-6, 411 pp)<br />
Daddy Sharpe, the debut historical <strong>no</strong>vel by Fred W. Kennedy,<br />
is a well-researched fictional narrative that recreates the<br />
life <strong>of</strong> the Jamaican National Hero Samuel Sharpe, whose<br />
leadership in the “Christmas Rebellion” <strong>of</strong> 1831 gave impetus<br />
to the passing <strong>of</strong> the Abolition Act in 1832 and eventually<br />
led to the end <strong>of</strong> slavery in the British Empire. Although<br />
Sharpe’s in<strong>vol</strong>vement in the rebellion was recognised by the<br />
Jamaican government in <strong>19</strong>75, the details surrounding his<br />
life remained in relative obscurity, and Kennedy deserves<br />
praise for clarifying the historical record.<br />
<strong>The</strong> narrative <strong>of</strong> Daddy Sharpe, told mainly from a firstperson<br />
point <strong>of</strong> view, begins with Sam Sharpe in jail and<br />
awaiting his death by hanging. By using a series <strong>of</strong> juxtapositions<br />
with the Anancy story “Bro Tiger Goes Dead”<br />
and John Bunyan’s allegorical <strong>no</strong>vel <strong>The</strong> Holy War as plot<br />
devices, Kennedy relates Sharpe’s story to the theme stated<br />
explicitly on the first page: “to reveal to you the madness <strong>of</strong><br />
slavery.” Looping the time frame, Kennedy manages to tell<br />
the stories <strong>of</strong> Sharpe’s mother Mimba and his wife Nyame<br />
— with whom he had a child, Juba — and to give a portrait<br />
<strong>of</strong> life during slavery and the hardships endured by <strong>New</strong><br />
World Africans. Kennedy also reconstructs the stories <strong>of</strong><br />
Mrs Samuel Sharpe, the wife <strong>of</strong> the slaveholder after whom<br />
Sharpe is named, and Reverend Henry Bleby, an eyewitness<br />
to Sharpe’s execution:<br />
<strong>The</strong> sun disappeared behind the clouds and a darkness<br />
came over the land. Saddened by his loss, we all left the<br />
town square, which some liked to Golgotha, the place <strong>of</strong><br />
a skull.<br />
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many <strong>of</strong> Lovelace’s concerns with art, the individual, and<br />
the environment without necessarily discussing Lovelace.<br />
Both books have their glitches, and could have benefitted<br />
from tighter editing. <strong>The</strong>re are instances <strong>of</strong> misspelling<br />
and punctuation errors, and it is even more irritating when<br />
the editor <strong>of</strong> a text is <strong>no</strong>t exacting e<strong>no</strong>ugh with his contributors.<br />
But both <strong>vol</strong>umes are starting-points for assessing and<br />
reviewing Lovelace’s contribution to the prose form for <strong>Caribbean</strong><br />
literature. Now if we could only get someone to say<br />
something about his plays. <br />
This fitting description <strong>of</strong> Sharpe’s death as a Christ<br />
figure is <strong>no</strong>t surprising, for throughout the <strong>no</strong>vel the overwhelming<br />
impression <strong>of</strong> “Daddy Sharpe” — “daddy” was<br />
a term used by Baptists <strong>of</strong> that time to de<strong>no</strong>te respect for his<br />
position as a deacon — is <strong>of</strong> a pious man:<br />
As God is my witness, you must k<strong>no</strong>w, Minister, that<br />
despite what everyone says, I did <strong>no</strong>t contemplate the<br />
shedding <strong>of</strong> blood and I did <strong>no</strong>t want the tribulation that<br />
has been brought down on the heads <strong>of</strong> my brethren. I did<br />
it for freedom’s sake in the name <strong>of</strong> Christ Jesus.<br />
By combining these various strands from the period<br />
between 1814 and 1832, Kennedy gives his reader a muchneeded<br />
perspective on the prelude to Sharpe’s fateful decision<br />
to lead a peaceful demonstration, before witenssing the<br />
turn to violence over which Sharpe has <strong>no</strong> control: “Our<br />
plan for peaceful resistance, which we had worked for so<br />
hard, went wrong all in an instant.” <strong>The</strong> meticulous scholarship<br />
that Kennedy demonstrates in reconstructing these<br />
events is to be commended, and Daddy Sharpe is an excellent<br />
supplement to the study <strong>of</strong> this period.<br />
As a <strong>no</strong>vel, however, the storytelling in Daddy Sharpe<br />
does <strong>no</strong>t match its historicity. Fiction, historical or otherwise,<br />
depends upon fully realised characters whose dramatic<br />
needs propel the plot and answer the reader’s desire to<br />
k<strong>no</strong>w what happens next. Although Kennedy creates a portrait<br />
<strong>of</strong> Sharpe as devout Christian, plot elements such as his<br />
relationship with Nyame as a possible reason for him <strong>no</strong>t to<br />
go to war (or vice versa), or the re<strong>vol</strong>utionary and religious<br />
fervour that would lead him to become a martyr, are never<br />
fully developed. In a pivotal scene, Sharpe tells us his life is<br />
changed after a vision quest in the bush. But instead <strong>of</strong> compressing<br />
the action (even at the expense <strong>of</strong> historical fact) to<br />
demonstrate the consequences <strong>of</strong> this epiphany, there is a<br />
break in the story line with Bunyan’s Holy War, followed by<br />
descriptions <strong>of</strong> two slave owners. And there are <strong>no</strong> scenes<br />
that convince the reader <strong>of</strong> the immensity <strong>of</strong> Sharpe’s conversion<br />
to the Gospels’ message <strong>of</strong> freedom. When he does<br />
act, Sharpe seems more like a victim <strong>of</strong> events than an actual<br />
leader, so his eventual surrender and martyrdom are almost<br />
anticlimactic: Samuel Sharpe and the reader remain bound<br />
to the grind <strong>of</strong> inevitable history.<br />
Ge<strong>of</strong>frey Philp<br />
<strong>19</strong>