In Vogue 4
Michelle Gonsalves

FUN-FILLED: Kaleidoscopic mini by is the perfect dress for a night out on the town. Lyndella complements her outfit with peep-toe stiletto heels. Dress (Baby Phat): $14,000 Shoes (Charlotte Russe): $7,500		RELAXED: Comfort and style make for a good combination as Teshina pairs her black & white plaid accented Bohemian mini with matching sandals. Dress (Funky Story): $7,500 Sandals (Beba): $2,500
			SEXY: Lyndella complements this little black number with red stilettos and matching clutch. Dress: $9,000; Bag: $4,500; Shoes (Charlotte Russe: $8,000; Accessories: The model’s
FLIRTY: Schlisa obeys fashion trends by wearing a hot pink mini dress and stiletto peep-toes. Dress (21): $8,000 Shoes (Charlotte Russe): $7,500
CASUAL: Tank, scarf and bag combo by Fresh Brewed are perfect with matching sandals by Beba. Combo (Scarf, top and bag): $5,000; Sandals: $2,500; Jeans: The model’s.
		TRENDY: Stylish frayed vest by Fresh Brewed adds flair to a simple white tank, and is complemented by sandals by Jenny. Vest ‘n tank combo: $5,000 Sandals: $3,000; Jeans: The model’s.

NO FUSS: Allan is in style and relaxed with shirt, jeans and flip-flops by American Rag. Shirt: $9,000; Jeans: $10,500; Flip-flops: $6,000

MODELS: Lyndella, Teshina, Schlisa and Allan

BOUTIQUE: Strawberry Fashions

LOCATION: City Mall, Regent Street

TEXT: Michelle Gonsalves

PHOTOGRAPHY: Carl Croker

In De Mood…
Hotel Rwanda star: Nollywood will make it big in time
ACCLAIMED British actor and producer, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, is optimistic that Nigerian movies will one day be in the running for an Oscar or Golden Globe or some such other international award.

Hakeem Kae-Kazim

Speaking in an interview with Jamati Online, Kazim, who shot to international fame with his brilliant performance in the Oscar-nominated movie, ‘Hotel Rwanda’, said that besides telling original African stories from an African perspective, Nollywood has great potential to stand the test of time.

“That is why they have had such a reach around the continent and throughout the Diaspora. I believe [that] in a few years, we will see some truly great African cinema, with international production values coming out of the Nollywood machine.”

Asked what could be done to improve the film industry in Nigeria, Kazim advocated budgeting more money into the making of Nollywood films, and also cutting down on piracy to enable the film makers to get a proper return on their investment and thereby increase production values throughout.

“I produced a Nollywood movie in the Nollywood style while in South Africa to see what it was like working in that way, and also to see whether it was a way of giving a voice to local film makers who had stories to tell but without the access to the local film making machine -- which I felt was more interested in making Eurocentric type of films or films in a more western type of way negating the African voice, even when they had an African theme.

Hakeem and acclaimed British actress, Caroline Chikezie, who, like him, is of Nigerian extract

Meanwhile, Kazim was the guest of honour at the 4th Annual Nollywood Foundation Convention, which was held in Los Angeles last weekend.

Themed ‘Monetizing Nollywood Media: Making the Most of Existing Content’, the convention was held in conjunction with the Los Angeles Film Festival and saw a number of Hollywood celebrities in attendance.

According to Foundation President, Professor Sylvester Ogbechie, the goal of the annual confab “is to foster initiatives on how best to market existing Nollywood media within the growing global market for media content.”

It also brings together, he says, “Nollywood filmmakers, academics, and media industry specialists to discuss how to add value to existing Nollywood media, and extend its capability for use as a global resource for educational content on Nigerian and African film.”

Said to be born in San Tome, Venezuela of Nigerian stock on July 2, 1955, Kazim was apparently raised for most of his life in the UK where he was not only trained in the theatre but also rose to prominence, sharing the stage with acclaimed actors the likes of Brian Cox in ‘King Lear’ and Sir Ian McKellan in ‘Richard III’ for the Royal National Theatre.

He made a successful transition to British television with leading roles in ‘Trial and Retribution’, ‘The Bill’, ‘Grange Hill’, and ‘Ellington’, distinguishing himself in the title role of ‘Julius Caesar’ for the BBC.

Hakeem then moved to South Africa where he settled for a while and where his work in film and television not only brought him a huge following but also made him a household name. It was while in South Africa that he shot to international attention for his role in the Oscar-nominated film, ‘Hotel Rwanda’ with Don Cheadle.

Since moving to Los Angeles with his wife and two children, Hakeem’s career has grown from strength to strength, and seen him land prime roles in such movies as ‘Lost’; ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 3’ with Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Geoffrey Rush; ‘Cane’ with Jimmy Smits; ‘Law & Order: SVU’ with Mariska Hargitay; ‘The Triangle’ with Sam Neill; and ‘The Librarian’ with Gabrielle Anwar. Hakeem is often recognized for his recurring role as Dubaku on ‘24’s’ Season 7, and in the prequel movie, ‘Redemption’.

Nigeria, India plan joint film festival

Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili

The festival, which is scheduled to take place in Nigeria by January 2010, is expected to serve as a vehicle for strengthening the cultural and economic ties that have existed between the two countries over the years.

Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Mahesh Sachdev, said Wednesday while in Abuja to see the Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, that the two countries were the largest film producers in the world, and that the resulting partnership would benefit some 1.1 billion people in India, and another 140 million in Nigeria.

Mr Sachdev said that apart from collaborating with the audio-visual media in Nigeria, the Indian government has concluded plans to train about 100 top management employees of the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) on current methods of sorting and delivering mails.

The Indian envoy said that his government, through its technical and cooperation programme, recently trained some Nigerians on information and communications technology and suggested that the training ought to be extended to the postal sector.

Responding, the minister commended the effort of the Indian government in building the capacity of Nigerians on information technology, adding that the training of NIPOST staff would be a major boost to government's efforts at repositioning the postal sector to make it the highest employer of labour in the country in line with the seven-point agenda of the existing administration.

Ms Akunyili, who observed that the two countries have had a long-standing cordial economic and cultural relationship, commended the Indian government for the successful conduct of the recent election in their country.

Nigeria was recently rated the second largest film producer in the world after India.

Actress Tonto Dikeh seeing footballer Kalu Uche

Tonto	Tonto Dike	Kalu Uche

CLUB Insomnia was full on the night of Friday June 12, 2009, and those who went there to have fun could not take their eyes off pretty actress, Tonto Dikeh...and neither could Tonto take her eyes off footballer, Kalu Uche (the older brother of footballer, Ikechukwu Uche).

Word is the beautiful actress was more than a little miffed when some ‘handbags’ came over to say hello to ‘lover-boy’.

Sources close to the couple say: “She was all over Kalu, and her eyes monitored his every movement the whole night. They may deny it, but they have began dating.”

The pair was reportedly introduced to each other last December while attending Uche Jombo’s birthday party.

Tonto, who’s in her early 20s and a petro-chemical engineer by profession, was as recently as last Saturday spotted in New York having the time of her life.

(If you have any queries, comments or suggestions, you may call us on 225-3096 or drop us a line at: lindford2004@yahoo.com or Guyana Chronicle, Lama Avenue, Bel Air Park, Georgetown

Barclay
Meerbaux
Federal Supreme Court quashes larceny, forgery convictions
-all hands set free
IN 1961, the Federal Supreme Court, sitting in British Guiana, set aside three larceny and forgery convictions and sentences by a Demerara Assize Jury because the trial judge had, among other things, put forward for the jury’s consideration the last of three statements that was a complete denial of the other two versions.

That ruling resulted in the jury returning a verdict of guilty in relation to a statement that was truly not free and voluntary, the Federal Court ruled. The accused successfully appealed.

As a consequence, the appellants -- Thomas, Meerabaux and Seals -- were freed by the Federal Appellate Court.

The facts of the case disclosed that Meerabux was indicted for larceny of a cheque book.

The indictment also contained counts against him and the two other appellants for forgery and the uttering of two cheques, and obtaining money upon the forged cheques.

Meerabux was acquitted on the charges of uttering and obtaining money, but convicted of larceny and forgery.

The Police intercepted a sum of money which he’d handed to one Jean Chan. He was taken to the police station and questioned, and he told the police that R. had given him the money for safe keeping. He was detained at the station.

The following morning, he gave another statement in which he repeated that R. had given him the money to keep. He was still kept in custody.

On the following morning, Meerabux was again questioned. He was then confronted with R, who denied giving him any money to keep. As such, he was further questioned but made no admission. A recording machine was then brought in to play, and a conversation between the appellant and R. six days previously was heard when the machine was switched on. The appellant then admitted that the two statements he had given were untrue.

Subsequently, the appellant gave another statement admitting guilt. This was accepted by the trial judge as a free and voluntary statement, and was used by the jury to return a verdict of guilty.

The Appellate Court, however, held that the appellant must have given the third statement in order to secure his release. “It was not free and voluntary and was therefore inadmissible,” the Court ruled.

At the hearing of the appeal, Senior Counsel, Mr Fred Wills represented Meerabux, while Mr. EA Romao and D Singh appeared for the Crown.

Delivering the judgment of the Court, Chief Justice Gomes noted that the three appellants were tried on charges arising out of the disappearances of a cheque book containing 187 cheque forms from the Medical Department of the Government of British Guiana on July 25, 1959, and the subsequent presentation to the Bank for payment on August 26, 1959 of two cheques, which according to the evidence, came from that book.

The appellant, Meerabux, Justice Gomes noted, “was convicted on a charge of larceny of the cheque book, a charge preferred against him alone, and on two charges of forgery, and in respect of each of the two cheques presented for payment.

“He was found not guilty on two charges of uttering the cheques, and two charges of obtaining money upon a forged instrument, these charges being in respect of the presentation of the two cheques for payment at the bank.”

The other two appellants, Justice Gomes said, were jointly indicted and tried with Meerabux on all these charges, except the charge of larceny. The appellant, Thomas, he said, “was found not guilty of the two charges of forgery, but guilty on the charge of uttering and of obtaining money.” The appellant, Seales, on the other hand, was found guilty of all six charges brought against him.

According to Justice Gomes, all the appellants appealed against their convictions and sentences on a number of grounds, some of which were not pursued before the Court.

“The evidence,” he said, “established that the cheque book was kept in the custody of one Benjamin, a clerk in the Medical Department who, in 1959, was a cashier in the Mosquito Control Section of the department. He was issued with the cheque book in connection with his duties as cashier and kept it in a safe.”

He quoted Benjamin as saying that on the morning of July 25, on arrival at work, he’d opened his safe, checked the contents and saw that the cheque book was there. He then locked his safe again…and that at about 8:30 am, the appellant, Meerabux, came to him and told him that he’d heard he, Benjamin, was to be transferred, and that he, Meerabux, was named as his successor. He then asked Benjamin to show him the work.

In the course of doing this, Justice Gomes said, “Benjamin opened the safe in the presence of the appellant and the two checked the contents.” He recalled Benjamin leaving Meerabux alone at one stage at the safe for a short period.

He said it was while Benjamin was showing Meerabux other aspects of his work that the latter asked him not to look around as he didn’t want others to know that he was being taught the job.

According to Justice Gomes, the facts leading to the taking of the statements were as follows: “On the afternoon of December 8, 1959, the police intercepted the sum of $500 which the appellant handed to one Jean Chan. He was then invited or taken to the police station where he was questioned about the money, and at about 7:00pm, he gave a statement to account for the possession of the money, stating that it had been given to him by one Rodrigues for safe keeping. He was detained at the station and at the evening of the following day, December 9, he gave a further statement along similar lines.

“On the following evening, he was questioned by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr Rose, who had reason to believe that what the appellant had said in the two statements was untruthful. Mr Rose asked the appellant if he was quite certain that the two statements concerned the truth.

“Upon the appellant replying that they did, Mr Rose caused the man, Rodrigues, to be brought into their presence. Rodrigues, on arrival, denied the claim by the appellant.

Following further information previously made on a recording machine, the appellant made a third statement implicating himself.

Having thus set the stage, Justice Gomes proceeded to say: “In these circumstances, we fail to see how it can be maintained that the statement was admissible as a free and voluntary statement. In our view, it was not.

“Agreeing as we do with the submission of counsel for the appellant in

regard to the conclusion or inference to be made from the jury’s verdict,

there only remains for consideration the question whether there is sufficient

evidence to support the conviction for larceny.

“We have carefully examined the remainder of the evidence that was

adduced on the count of larceny of the cheque book, and we have also

considered the facts and circumstances which were advanced in argument

by counsel for the Crown in support of the conviction, and we have come to

the conclusion that while they amount to a strong suspicion that the

appellant was the thief, the facts provided do not, in our view, establish that

convincing degree of proof, which is necessary for a conviction, and, of

course, a person cannot be convicted on suspicion alone.

“The conviction for larceny must therefore be quashed and, as the reasons

which we have given above apply equally to the charges for forgery, the

conviction for forgery must also be set aside.”

On that note, the appeal was allowed.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Sued Over Book
NEW YORK, NY -- Elisabeth Hasselbeck's new book about living with celiac disease has landed the TV personality in the midst of a legal battle.

According to the Boston Herald, ‘The View’ co-host is being sued in federal court by Susan Hassett, who claims Hasselbeck infringed on her copyrights after she published her new book about celiac disease, titled, ‘The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide’, which was published in May.

The suit claims that Hassett sent the TV personality a copy of her own book, ‘Living With Celiac Disease’, a cooking video, note, her business card and a newspaper article in April 2008.

Hasselbeck, who is expecting her third child, recently announced she suffered from the autoimmune disorder linked to gluten proteins in wheat, barley and rye. The disorder can cause chronic diarrhea and fatigue. The 32-year-old said she discovered she was afflicted with the disorder after appearing on CBS's ‘Survivor: The Australian Outback’ in 2001.

Reps for ABC and Hachette Book Group, Hasselbeck's publisher, could not be reached for comment when contacted by the Herald. (Access Hollywood)

Daniel Craig eyes ‘psycho’ thriller
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Daniel Craig can shake, but can he stir?

The latest James Bond has proved a critical and commercial success in his two turns in the iconic role, for ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Quantum of Solace’. But he has been deliberate in choosing his next live-action role.

Now comes word he is in early talks to star in ‘Dream House’, a psychological thriller to be directed by Irish filmmaker, Jim Sheridan for indie producer, Morgan Creek, though principals stress that the two sides have not reached a deal.

In the David Loucka script, Craig would play a man who moves his family to an idyllic small town, only to find his house haunted by its former inhabitants, who were murdered there.

With a pedigreed director like Sheridan (‘In America’, ‘My Left Foot’), the movie would accomplish the goal of branching Craig out into a more prestige direction post-‘Quantum’ while keeping him in the realm of the commercial.

Like other Bond actors, Craig has faced a crossroads coming off Bond hits. His two other roles, ‘Munich’ and ‘Defiance’, saw him essentially take on a more art house version of the Bond character of hit-man and vigilante.

Craig already has shown interest in more boutique fare, recently signing for the Broadway drama, ‘A Steady Rain’. His name also surfaced in connection with ‘The Eagle of the Ninth’, Kevin Macdonald's period pic for Focus Features.

Streisand, Krall in new jazz album
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Barbra Streisand has joined forces with Canadian jazz singer-pianist, Diana Krall on her first studio album in four years, which is set for release on September 29, her record label said on Monday.

Columbia Records said the album, ‘Love Is The Answer’ is Streisand's first full-length collection of new studio recordings since 2005s ‘Guilty Pleasures’, and her first album since ‘Live In Concert 2006’.

Last year, Streisand was preoccupied with the US election campaign, but the singer-actress said this year, she had managed to get back to the business of entertaining with a new president in the White House, as she was able to relax again.

"‘Love Is The Answer’ presents the artist as a cabaret and jazz singer of emotional clarity, depth and maturity," Columbia Records, a unit of Sony Corp, said in a statement.

On the new album, Streisand works for the first time with Grammy-winning Krall and her quartet of guitar, bass, and drums, as well as songwriter Johnny Mandel, whom she worked with on her 1993 ‘Back to Broadway’ album.

Song titles for the album have yet to be announced.

Streisand, 67, has blazed an extraordinary trail through music, theatre, film and television in the four decades since she became the toast of Broadway.

She is the winner of 10 Grammys, two Academy Awards -- Best Actress, ‘Funny Girl’; and Best song, ‘Evergreen’ -- and numerous Emmys. Last year she was inducted as a Kennedy Center honoree.

Adam Lambert album due out this summer
LOS ANGELES - An album featuring Adam Lambert is coming out sooner than expected.

Songs from the ‘American Idol’ runner-up will be released this summer by Hi Fi Recordings and Wilshire Records, beginning with the single, ‘Want’.

John Hecker, CEO of Hi Fi Recordings, said the tracks were recorded in 2007 and 2008 before Lambert's rise on the popular Fox singing competition. The album will be titled, ‘On with the Show’.

"We were presented with a business opportunity," said Hecker. "We accepted because Wilshire Records had a long working relationship with Adam, and it resulted in excellent music that they had the rights to. The music has an audience, and it deserves to be heard. I think it's great music. At the end of the day, from my perspective, we're really helping Adam."

Hecker said Wilshire Records approached Hi Fi Recordings about releasing the material earlier this year when Lambert was gaining success on the show. He said the album will feature 11 or 12 songs, many of which were co-written by Lambert.

He described ‘On with the Show’ as a "complete album" that would include mid- and up-tempo songs, ballads and rock tunes.

Lambert inked a record deal with 19 Entertainment and RCA Recordings earlier this month after losing to Kris Allen on the ‘Idol’ finale. Lambert is scheduled to record that album while on the road with the show's finalists for the ‘Idols Live Tour’, which starts July 5 in Portland, Ore. The untitled album from 19 and RCA is expected for release in the fall.

Pilgrimage to village site of first Bajans
By Norman Faria
ACCORDING TO the history books, Barbados was first sighted by Europeans in the early 1500s when the Portuguese captain and crew of a sailing vessel passed by as they headed to Brazil.

It is not known for sure if any indigenous people were still on the then densely forested island. The first inhabitants were Amerindian-type people who had several villages with a sustainable agriculture. These were the first Bajans. Many centuries before, their ancestors had migrated from what is now Guyana and Venezuela in big ocean going canoes to the Eastern Caribbean Islands. Recent carbon dating of their pottery showed they had arrived in Barbados around 1600 BC.

In 1627, some 80 white settlers from England (together with ten African slaves) landed to start other settlements. There is a monument to them at Holetown on the island's west coast. By then, most of the indigenous people, (often called ‘Arawaks’and ‘Caribs’) had left, depleted by slavery raids or disease.

In the 1980s, teams from the University College London, in collaboration with the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, carried out the first systematic archaeological digs on the island at the indigenous peoples' former village sites.

One of them was at what is now Silver Sands district on the southernmost tip of the island. It is about three and a half kilometres east along the coast from Oistins town. A couple weekends ago, while spending the weekend with a Guyanese family at Oistins, I set out on a hike to the village site.

A pleasant walk
It was a pleasant walk in the early morning sunshine along Enterprise Road. This is in Christ Church parish, which is the equivalent of a region in Guyana. The road was lined with well-to-do middle and up market residences. Some were old, maybe a hundred years old. They were made of foot and a half thick coral stone blocks dug from quarries in the interior. They had inverted, V-shaped roofs, while newer buildings had flat ones.

Now and again, there were vacant lots where the hardy Acacia tree provided shade for cows tended by people from more working-class homes slightly to the north, on a parallel road, and along a minibus route. About halfway to the village site, I stopped to quench my thirst at one of the few remaining ‘standpipes’ (this was before the Barbados water authority extended their piped service to all houses).

As I turned a corner, I saw a wonderful garden with some squash on the fence and some lying on the ground. I rang a bell and Leo Branch, one of Barbados' top astronomers (he has the most sophisticated telescope in the island besides the one in the main Harry Bailey Observatory), came out. We gaffed, and he gave me a dried squash from the ground for its seeds. It is the common long type like we get in Guyana.

By 10:30hours, I was descending a slight slope into Silver Sands proper and onto what I knew was part of the former Amerindian village. I walked across an open area which was recently bulldozed, probably for new housing. I knew it was on the outskirts of the village, because I had visited with Dr Peter Drewitt, head of the University team when they were digging there in the mid 1980s.

I saw shards (broken pieces) of pottery, made by the indigenous people, on the ground surface. Further east, going towards the actual village centre, there was a big drainage trench, and it had churned-up artifacts. I was surprised to find two shell tools, one of whose tips was broken off, while the original smooth surface of the other (see photo) had borer damage. These were axe/adze heads. They would have been fastened to wooden handles long since rotted away. A similar tool with handle is in the Walter Roth Museum in Georgetown.

The tools had to be of conch shell. Because Barbados is of coral formation, there was no hard stone-like granite found in neighbouring islands or Guyana. The coral stone is soft. The material from conch shells the ‘Indians’ harvested from the outlying reefs for food were ground down and made into these implements. The trench and surrounding area was littered with broken shells. As I cleaned away the dirt, I caressed the tools in my hands and threw myself back hundreds of years to a group of villagers lovingly making them to, perhaps, dig new holes for cassava plants.

As an aside, I had earlier found a similar adze head at another village site (at Heywoods, on the west coast), and wanted to turn it over to the Museum. But Director, Dr Allisandra Cummins said: "Don't worry, Norman, they are so plentiful, you can keep it."

Eureka!
The actual village site is now a public park and children's playground, shielded from the sun by towering Casuarina trees (or ‘mile’ trees as the Bajans call them because of their relatively great height). There is also a playing field, and on the Sunday morning I walked by, the local youths were playing football.

Adjacent to the park, there is still a fresh-water stream. This was a main reason the village was here. A hundred or so metres away is the sea, and a further five hundred metres out across a lagoon was the outlying reef where the Atlantic swells broke on the coral in shallow waters. As an aside, the word ‘Ichirouganaim’, said to be an Arawak word the Amerindians used to describe Barbados, is thought to refer to the imagery of the ‘teeth’ of the waves breaking on the reefs off most of southern and eastern coasts.

In the lagoons (between the shore and the outlying reefs), there must have been an abundance of conch for the villagers to harvest. Aside from the many discarded shells (a slightly different type from those found in the shell mounds in the Pomeroon area in Guyana), Dr Drewitt also found cleverly designed and made artificial lures and hooks to catch fish, perhaps from canoes that took the villagers beyond the reefs into deeper water. They probably also cast nets and captured sea turtles that came onto the beach to lay eggs. Birds, including ducks, were trapped. For the climate and their needs, the agricultural technology was probably on par with what obtained in Europe. Sadly, much of their artwork made of wood, feathers and leather has been lost forever.

It seemed like the Garden of Eden. But Dr Drewitt told me that even though there appeared to be a sustainable fish economy (and agriculture including cassava, corn, peanuts and fruit trees like papaw), life could be hard. Studies of the skeletons found at the site showed most people died before they reached their 30s.

Relaxing with a beer at a little bar overlooking the now slightly polluted stream, proprietor and now retired Bajan fisherman cum boat-builder, Graham Nurse related that as a teenager, he used to catch mullets in the stream. That would be back in the 1930s or 1940s, because he recounted stories of him helping shipwrecked sailors coming ashore in lifeboats after their ships were torpedoed in World War II. So the stream was most useful to the early inhabitants, not only for drinking water but for fresh water fish as well.

I watched, too, the Bajan fellows jump and whirl and shout as they played their football. I watched the children laugh happily on the swings and slides in the playground. I know the first Bajans, and their gods, would be pleased that the present villagers are themselves happy. As I walk towards the minibus turnaround point to take me back to Oistins, I pluck some wild flowers and place them on the ground.

I say a little tribute, a little homage, to the first true settlers and great explorers with their civilisation who came to Barbados from today's Guyana and Venezuela so many years ago.

(Norman Faria is Guyana's honorary consul in Barbados)

Preserving our literary heritage
Syble Douglas: In transition
WITH THE launch of ‘Transition, Poems Old & New’, Syble Douglas joined a small group of poetesses who have gravitated beyond the realm of a single publication.

This is in no way denigrating writers who have one publication to their name; very often, that one publication may represent a writer’s life work. Also, there are many ‘one-book wonders’ that have made a name for themselves, and have made significant contribution to literature with that one publication.

It would be useful to note that Guyanese women writers were always operating at a disadvantage, buffeted by numerous constraints in the world of writing.

‘Transition’ is Douglas’ fourth publication, birthed because all her previous publications are now out of print. Her first book, a collection of poems, was ‘Fulfilment’, published way back in 1967, and numbering among the first set of collections of poetry by Guyanese women.

The others in that first set, all surfacing in the 1960s, include Waveney E Rodrigues, Cecile Nobrega, and Leela Sukhu.

‘Fulfilment’ was a slim volume, wherein ‘Sudden Death’ has become the best known poem -- sound, grounded and philosophical, ‘but life goes on/despite our loss/…while memory weaves/a thread of gold/into the fabric of our being.’

Douglas’s second publication was ‘Guyana Drums’, published in 1972 for the first Carifesta staged in Guyana. This was an anthology of six women writers, including the anthologist, Douglas, and Pat Cameron, Sheila King, Evadne D’Oliveira, Mitzie Townshend and Shana Yardan.

A notable poem coming out of ‘Guyana Drums’ was ‘The Return’, by Douglas, which was later set to music by the ‘Together Brothers’.

The elapse of time between first and second publication was some four years. The elapse of time between the second and third publication was about fourteen years. That publication, ‘Random Harvest’, was a celebration of Douglas’ sixtieth birthday, and it was co-authored with her eldest son, Allister.

‘Transition’ came some two decades after the third, and some four decades after her first publication. This collection of poems is dedicated to women everywhere; women writers need the inspiration and the support in this field. And Douglas has shown it can be done with dedication and vision.

‘Transition’ is made up of poems old and new, dating back to her first collection in 1967. That is over four decades of dedication to her art.

Syble G Douglas was born and raised in Guyana, ‘a Mud-Head through and through …In Guyana – I am me!’ She is well known as an artist, teacher and journalist.

As an artist, she was trained by the best, firstly by Marjorie Broodhagen, and later by E R Burrowes; she was one of the few women who enrolled when Burrowes started his Working People’s Art Class in 1941.

Douglas was later to make significant contributions to art in Guyana; she was instrumental in the founding of the Malcara Gallery; she started an ‘Art Circle’; and organised lectures on art appreciation.

In the print media, she wrote a column titled, ‘Just Between Us’, and was editor of both the Women’s Page and social columns in the now defunct Daily Argosy.

Although she was trained as a an Home Economics teacher at the Carnegie Trade School, she taught Art at Bishops’ High School, her alma mater.

She was married to Ivan Douglas in 1949, a union that produced three talented children.

Syble Douglas is still in transition, sprightly flitting about among art, poetry, and culture.

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com

What’s Happening:

• Call for papers on ‘Re-reading Edgar Mittelholzer’

• The Guyana Annual magazine is inviting entries to its eight literary competitions and to its art and photography competitions.

• Be a part of the centenary celebrations of the National Library; see press for details.

	Name: Ornella Ramcharan Age: 19 Height: 5’ 8” Where from: Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara Career Goal: Professional Teacher Designer: Rishma's Collection		Name: Rachael Bakker Age: 22 Height: 5’ 7” Where from: S/Ruimveldt Gardens, G/Town Academics: Final Year Student, International Relations, University of Guyana Career Goal: A Lawyer Designer: Shasha Designs
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