Books are meant to be read, part two

‘Canoe and Camp Life in British Guiana’ by Barrington Brown ‘Welcome to another adventure in literature’ is the introduction to one of my television programmes ‘Oral Tradition’ (the other programme is ‘Between the Lines). 

The Guyana Classics Library is another adventure in Guyanese literature for me in that the release of the first eleven books of a projected thirty six titles is filling a gap in my library and on my reading list. Of the recently released titles by The Caribbean Press I previously browsed the Raleigh travel journal and was fortunate to study the Cameron anthology of poems courtesy of the National Library. But thanks to the establishment of The Caribbean Press by the Government of Guyana, I have the books on the early literature of Guyana to read at my leisure and to study at will.

After reading Raleigh’s adventures in ‘The Discovery of Guiana’, I was constrained to continue the adventure by plunging headlong into Brown’s ‘Canoe and Camp Life in British Guiana’, first published 1876.

And I was not disappointed for this book had me moving on various levels of reading.

‘Canoe and Camp Life…’ took me more on an adventure in research than an adventure of reading for pleasure, forcing me to revisit study notes on the writing of Wilson Harris in reference to the bone flute and to the writing of Waterton in reference to blood letting as a cure for all ailments and to ‘The Twelve Views of the Interior of British Guiana’ by Robert Schomburgk with reference to Brown’s use of Schomburgk’s map. Then the poetry of the language used by Brown sent me turning the pages of another book in the series, ‘Guianese Poetry 1831 – 1931’ by Norman Cameron first published in 1931. Herein I settled on the poem of Dr. Henry G. Dalton, titled ‘The Essequibo and its Tributaries’.

Dalton’s poem was published in 1858 in London, about two decades before Brown’s book. This is pure conjecture: (please remember I am the one doing the reading; when you get to read this book, you may interpret it differently – that’s the vagaries of literature) Brown may have read Dalton’s writing – both persons seem to be going in the same direction, encountering similar features of the land, both fascinated by the flora and fauna.

Both started from Georgetown, encountering the hazard of sandbanks, shooting the rapids, describing the sunset, moonlight, and spine-chilling night sounds, the penal settlement and its hospitality, encountering an old white settler, spending a night in an Indian hut and detail description of each Amerindian tribe.

Cameron describes Dalton as ‘being the first poet to describe the local life and nature’.

There was a parting of ways for the two writers. Brown extended the adventure all the way to the Potaro whereas Dalton exploration stopped in the vicinity of the Mazaruni. Brown extended the adventure in the wilds of Guyana using the map of Sir Richard Schomburgk.

By extending the adventure, Brown is said to be the first European to see Kaieteur Falls. The Kaieteur Falls has become a symbol of Guyana.

Brown’s ‘Canoe and Camp Life in British Guiana’ ‘encourages us to reflect on the historical construction of the Guyanese interior itself. Brown’s narrative operates on the threshold of what can be seen as three phrases of imaging the forest space.

The first of these is the early vision of the interior as a dangerous space of a yet concealed wealth, typified by the myth of El Dorado and the hopes that penetration of the landscape would both reward and economically drive the incursions of European empires in the Americas. Brown’s narrative emerges from the shadow of this conceptualisation and contributes to what might be seen as a nineteenth century adaptation of it. The forest space becomes then a botanical El Dorado, a storehouse of possibilities for scientific inquiry and the progression of knowledge, and a space which may hold answers to the great questions of the time. Finally, ‘Canoe and Camp Life’ anticipates more recent trends in conceptualising the rainforests of the globe’.

In closing, I present this trivia: Brown came upon Kaieteur Falls in April, Dalton started his adventure to the Essequibo in April, Cameron was induced by Dalton’s poem to visit Bartica in April and I am writing all of this down in April. 

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

What’s Happening

·        Look out for the National Library’s celebration of World Book and Copyright Day in April

·        Look out for the staging of the next ‘The Journey’ – an ongoing literature event hosted by the National Art Gallery, Castellani House.