Merle Hodgeâs rare achievement is to create a dynamic portrait of the life of an unquestionably good woman: Gwynneth Cuffie, teacher, lover of children and music, and pillar of her community. Though devastated by tragedy in her politically militant youth, Gwynneth never gives up the struggle against colonialism on the Caribbean island of Cayeri. Her triumph is to build a treaty between the world of colonial education of her socially aspiring father, only too ready to deny his blackness, and the world of her Mummaâs Spiritual Baptist village where, though the church is banned, Africa remains a real, enlivening presence. It is from the rhythms of Africa that the local youth, whom Teacher Gwynnie supports, develop the iron bands that grow into the national culture of steelband. If the class and racial tensions within the Cuffie family continue through the generations, the family that gathers on the Cuffiesâ gallery has little to do with biology, and everything to do with love. There are the two men with whom the sisters have deep friendships, but from whom they maintain their independence; their neighbours â and Sonny, the child of Mummaâs carer who has left him in the sistersâ capable hands. It is Sonny, the pinnacle of Gwynnethâs life work, who promises to hold the future to account. This richly womanist novel shows the constant interpenetration of past, present and future. Its subject is life â tragic and comic â but moved onward by people who believe that through struggle better must come. It has much to say, by implication, about the present.
Price history
Nov 8, 2022
€9.27