1999–2023
Collated & Edited by Christine Parris-Debique
“I cleared my mind from the negatives
And had to open up and see
That I have lupus
Lupus doesn’t have me!”
In her own words from her poem Lupus II, Kayla, forever the spirited child of words and passion, was a life force to be reckoned with during her years on earth. A fiercely intelligent and vivacious spoken word poet and performer, gifted with words and wit, she commented on what was going on around her from a very young age.
This memoir of Kayla’s life, put together by her grandmother, minces no words about how Lupus destroys, bit by bit, organ by organ, the beautiful strong body of a child, teenager, young woman—and that of her mother with a similar condition. But the many contributors to this book, and Kayla’s own words, balance this with what she was really about: a powerhouse of talent and determination, a Caribbean child full of love and kindness, a daughter, a sister and a great friend who was truly larger than life for everybody who had the good fortune to meet her.
Let Kayla-Jordan Parris show you what it means to live life to the fullest in the face of unsurmountable adversity.
About the Author/Editor:
Christine Parris-Debique was born in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and has lived there for most of her life except for sixteen years spent in the neighbouring island of Barbados. She holds a BSc in Management Studies from The University of the West Indies and is a Fellow of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants, U.K. She is the mother of three sons and grandmother of two granddaughters and two grandsons. She lives in Petit Valley, Trinidad with her husband and Standing Tall is her first published book.
ISBN 978-976-8341-43-3
Paperback
188 pages
Fully illustrated in colour
Available in select bookstores in Trinidad.
This legal textbook covers several areas of Labour Law, Employment Law and Industrial Relations. It discusses topics such as Dismissal (firing ,the termination of employment) the importance of work, workplace related issues,the right to be heard , among other things.
Work is the primary engine for the creation, distribution and utilisation of the economic resources within a state or a nation. Its multifaceted contributions to economic growth, income generation, resource allocation and social well-being, underscore its central importance in shaping the economic and social fabric of society. The effect of a dismissal can also be the cause of strained relationships between employees and employers, particularly if the dismissal is perceived to be unjust or unfair.
In addition, poorly managed dismissals can damage trust, morale and the organisational culture, which can lead to negative consequences for productivity and employee engagement. Moreover, dismissals raise issues related to employment rights, including the legality and fairness of the dismissal process. In many jurisdictions, workers have legal protection against dismissals which may be termed “unfair dismissals”, “wrongful dismissals” or “harsh and oppressive”.
These protections include legal requirements for due process, fairness, just cause, compensation, reinstatement and/ or re-appointment. Dismissals do not only impact individuals, but can impact Labour market dynamics by influencing factors such as the unemployment rate, labour supply and demand and job turnover. In fact, mass retrenchment or layoffs due to corporate downsizing for example, can have ripple effects on industries and economies.
548 pages
Paperback, Hardcover, Kindle
Available on Amazon
As one of the Souls on Fire of the early 19th century Romantic Movement, and as an alienist, Dr. Philip fought and won the first civil rights case in the New World on behalf of the free coloured people in Trinidad-an achievement that with emancipation benefitted the former slaves, and in the long run the entire population-while exploring the effects of colonial prejudice on the psyche of his people.
Book Third is a biopic of Maxwell Philip, another descendant of the Philip family in Trinidad. He became "The Representative Man", a political and legal luminary of Port of Spain of the mid-19th century. In a delightful plot the author lets C.L.R. James "discover" Maxwell in his interviews with Captain Arthur Andrew Cipriani in the 1920s.
About the Author:
Born in 1942, Gérard A. Besson is an independent researcher and scholar in the area of History of Trinidad and Tobago. His oeuvre comprises many titles, both non-fiction and historical novels as well as works about folklore. Besson is the recipient of the Hummingbird Medal Gold of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and of an honorary doctorate of the University of the West Indies. He is the founder and chairman of Paria Publishing Company Limited.
Other works by Gérard A. Besson:
Fiction:
Tales of the Paria Main Road (Creative Advertising 1973); A Diary of Dreams (Paria Publishing 1988); The Voice in the Govi (Paria Publishing 2011); From the Gates of Aksum (Paria Publishing 2013); Roume de St. Laurent ... A Memoir (Paria Publishing 2016); Philippine Vols 1 and 2 (Paria Publishing 2024).
Non-Fiction:
A Photograph Album of Trinidad at the Turn of the 19th Century (Paria Publishing 1985 and 2024); From Colonial to Republic (Republic Bank, with Selwyn Ryan 1987); Folklore and Legends of Trinidad and Tobago (Paria Publishing 1991); The Book of Trinidad (Paria Publishing, with Bridget Brereton 1991 and 2010); The Angostura Story (Paria Publishing 2000); The Angostura Historical Digest (Paria Publishing 2002); Scotiabank - The First 50 Years (Paria Publishing 2004); The History of Ansa McAL in the Caribbean (Paria Publishing 2006); The Cult of the Will (Paria Publishing 2010)
ISBN: 978-976-8244-55-0
460 pages
Paperback
Available on Amazon
Jerry was always very interested in J.B. Philip and in 1987, published "Free Mulatto" as one of the early publications by his publishing house, Paria Publishing, which he founded in 1981.
We found an essay by his good friend Bridget Brereton in our archives, which we reproduce below. She wrote this in early February 1988 as a newspaper article for the Trinidad Express.
Jerry's dedicated hi last book, "Philippine Book Second and Third", to Bridget, who truly can be described as his mentor and muse, and Paria Publishing's greatest friend and helper.
(PARIA PUBLISHING CO.,1987)
By Bridget Brereton
Dept. of History, UWI, St Augustine, February 1988.
Students of the social and political history of Trinidad and Tobago, and of the Caribbean, will welcome the recent re-publication of a long-neglected classic of the early nineteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Philippe's Free Mulatto, which first appeared in 1824. Paria Publishing, in the latest addition to a most impressive list of Trinidadiana, has just brought out what will clearly be the definitive edition of this work.
The history of this book is most interesting. It was written by Philippe, the son of the wealthiest coloured planter and slave-owner in Trinidad in the first years of the nineteenth century, a European-trained doctor who took on the leadership of the campaign by the island's free coloureds for civil rights and legal equality with the whites. Because of the political repression of the day, and because of the extreme frankness with which he 'names names', Philippe felt it necessary to have his book printed in London under a pseudonym, 'A Free Mulatto'.
It was written as an address to the Colonial Secretary, Lord Bathurst, and it was printed rather than published—that is, very few copies were produced, it may never have been bound as a book, and ostensibly it was intended only for Lord Bathurst himself, though clearly copies found their way back to Trinidad. Hence its rarity.
There were at 'least two attempts in the second half of the nineteenth century to re-issue the book: in 1862 subscriptions were opened for its publication, but, it seems, this plan came to nothing; then in 1882 a local firm, Allers and Blondel, put out a limited subscription edition with a new publishers' preface. In the edition under review this preface is reprinted with the suggestion that its author (it is unsigned) may be J.J.Thomas. I think that we can accept this as confirmed, for at least two contemporary newspapers refer to the preface as being his work.
It seems that Allers and Blondel put out a very small number of books, for the 1882 edition appears to be almost as rare as the original. Indeed it represented a real act of courage; people at the time were nervous about the effects of re-publishing. As one newspaper put it, "It would have been better to give a rest to the old soreness and references to obnoxious persons, whose children at least walk and move daily in our midst, till these had quitted this mortal stage"; and Thomas himself, in his preface, acknowledged the existence of these doubts.
The extreme rarity of Free Mulatto as a result of its chequered publishing history makes the appearance of this new and complete edition a truly important event. Its value is greatly enhanced by the inclusion, not only of the 1882 preface by Thomas, but also of a most informative introductory essay by Carl Campbell, the foremost academic authority on the history of Trinidad's free coloured community in the period 1783 to 1838.
Campbell brilliantly draws together the few facts known about Philippe's life with the social and political history of the free coloured community whose leader he was between 1816, when he returned from Europe, and his early death in 1829. Indeed, the essay is really a kind of summary or distillation of Campbell's extensive researches into the history of the free coloureds which, up to now, have only been published in scholarly journals not normally accessible to those outside university circles. This makes the essay, short though it is, indispensable for an understanding of Philippe and his times.
The preface by Thomas is interesting in its own right as a historical document and as a hitherto unknown sample of the writings of that extraordinary Trinidadian. Written in the heavy, literary and impressive style characteristic of Thomas, the preface dismisses the fears expressed by many about the possible effects of re-publication as unworthy of patriots. Thomas unequivocally claims Philippe as "the great Patriot of our country" and calls on all "Creoles" to venerate him as such.
The text itself is a lengthy and elaborate presentation of the free coloured case for legal equality with whites, with numerous appendices which illustrate in detail the various arguments by reproducing documents or expounding particular points. Philippe's style is rather ornate and self-consciously literary, but it cannot conceal the genuine passion, indeed the rage, which clearly lies behind the formal well-rounded sentences and Latin tags. The work is fascinating not only for the mass of information on the free coloureds and their situation which it contains, but also for the vivid glimpse of an intensely interesting personality.
There is no doubt that Philippe makes his case superbly and leaves his reader completely convinced of the justice of his cause. The special situation of the Trinidad free coloureds, expressly given rights and guarantees by the Spanish Crown, rights which were confirmed by the British king when the island changed hands in 1797, is clearly and amply documented. Indeed, the case was overwhelming, and the British government duly moved to cede legal equality to the free coloureds between 1826 and 1829 (the final grant of full equality was proclaimed just days before Philippe's premature death).
But what is likely to strike the modern reader forcibly is that Philippe writes as the slave-owner that he was. As Campbell points out, there is no call for emancipation of the slaves, though there is at points in the argument a concern that they be decently treated. Indeed, one of the burning grievances the book details was that coloured slave-owners like Philippe were forced to "lend" their slaves to the local commandant for "free" work on local roads, wharf development and so on, without compensation to their owners. No concern for the slaves can be detected in this discussion, only for the aggrieved slave-owners.
Campbell is right to ask whether this flaw may not prove to be an obstacle to a general acceptance of Philippe as a national "hero". But perhaps we should be as generous as J.J. Thomas, himself the son of ex-slaves, and recognise the inevitable limitations imposed by class and by the times on Philippe's capacity in the 1820s to identify with the slaves. His leadership of the free coloured cause required great courage in the face of real dangers, and equality for the coloureds was probably a necessary prelude to emancipation.
We can afford to agree with Thomas that Philippe deserves to be remembered as a true patriot; and we owe a debt of gratitude to Paria Publishing Company for allowing us to make his acquaintance.
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Bridget Brereton, Alice Besson, Giselle Laronde-West and Dominic Besson at the launch of "Philippine" (Photo courtesy Paper Based Bookshop) |
From the Booklaunch
The "Philippine" trilogy was launched on 22 November, 2024, at Paper Based Bookshop's "Tea and Readings" event at the Chancellor Hotel, St. Ann's.
Speaking on behalf of Paria Publishing were Prof. Emerita Bridget Brereton, who delivered remarks about the book; the author's son Dominic Besson, who read a passage from Book First; and the author's wife Alice Besson, who spoke about the making of the novels and why they had been dedicated to Peter Redhead and Bridget Brereton.
Prof. Brereton's speaking notes:
So this is a fictionalised narrative of real historical figures living in the Caribbean (and elsewhere) during the 1700s to 1800s. Gerry did a huge amount of research, and he tapped into research by Grenadian Peter Redhead, to whom the first Book is dedicated. The novel reflects Gerry’s lifelong passion for the history of Trinidad and the Caribbean during the era of revolution and war, roughly the 1770s to 1820s, and his fascination with the mixed-up, multi-cultural people who lived there. In many ways it follows on from his earlier forays into fiction, especially Roume, the novel that preceded this one.
What is the art of the historical novel? You do as much research and reading about your subjects and the world they lived in as possible. But then it comes to areas of their lives, often including their thoughts and beliefs and passions, where the historical sources may be silent. You’re then free to use your imagination and create episodes, scenes and narratives…BUT they must be plausible, they can’t conflict with what is known about the people and the times. Gerry’s immensely creative and fertile mind enabled him to do this brilliantly.
I remember telling Gerry more than once that not in a thousand years would I ever have thought of this narrative device, moving between the 1800s and 1929 and bringing in James, Cipriani and Mrs Broadway…this was the creative mind of the novelist. He was very pleased when I said this—my reward was his dedication of Book 3 to me, an honour I’ll always cherish."
This, Book First of the trilogy that is Philippine, captures the lives of the "Children of the Sun" of Jeanette, Free Negro Woman of Grenada, and her French husband Honoré Philip. In it, Gérard Besson places the various members of the Philip family sharply etched against the historical backdrop of the Revolutionary Atlantic, when the people of the Western World began to strain against the shackles of monarchy and servitude and the revolutions of France and South and North America, including Haiti and Grenada, uprooted the social order.
We explore the lives and characters of each of Jeanette and Honoré's children based on whichever historical evidence we have-e.g. for Judith, there is an abundance of record that demonstrates her success as a planter and business woman, as opposed to Nicolas-Régis, where all we have is his will and wove a story around him with fiction and leaving the rest to the reader's imagination. Two other sons, Joachim and Honoré fils, gave their lives in the Fedon revolution; both were convicted and hanged for their principles in their attempt of an armed fight for the rights of the Free Blacks and People of Colour.
Philippine demonstrates how a mixed-race, slave-owning family was able to navigate those turbulent times so successfully, especially as it regards the upward mobility of the mulatto woman: all three daughters of Jeanette's marry white men, but the sons marry black or coloured women.
For the interested reader, the historical documents were placed on Gérard Besson's blog "Caribbean History Archives".
About the Author:
Born in 1942, Gérard A. Besson is an independent researcher and scholar in the area of History of Trinidad and Tobago. His oeuvre comprises many titles, both non-fiction and historical novels as well as works about folklore. Besson is the recipient of the Hummingbird Medal Gold of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and of an honorary doctorate of the University of the West Indies. He is the founder and chairman of Paria Publishing Company Limited.
Other works by Gérard A. Besson:
Fiction:
Tales of the Paria Main Road (Creative Advertising 1973); A Diary of Dreams (Paria Publishing 1988); The Voice in the Govi (Paria Publishing 2011); From the Gates of Aksum (Paria Publishing 2013); Roume de St. Laurent ... A Memoir (Paria Publishing 2016); Philippine Vols 1 and 2 (Paria Publishing 2024).
Non-Fiction:
A Photograph Album of Trinidad at the Turn of the 19th Century (Paria Publishing 1985 and 2024); From Colonial to Republic (Republic Bank, with Selwyn Ryan 1987); Folklore and Legends of Trinidad and Tobago (Paria Publishing 1991); The Book of Trinidad (Paria Publishing, with Bridget Brereton 1991 and 2010); The Angostura Story (Paria Publishing 2000); The Angostura Historical Digest (Paria Publishing 2002); Scotiabank - The First 50 Years (Paria Publishing 2004); The History of Ansa McAL in the Caribbean (Paria Publishing 2006); The Cult of the Will (Paria Publishing 2010)
ISBN: 978-976-8244-51-2
466 pages
Paperback
Available on Amazon
From the Booklaunch
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From the book launch: Paria Publishing's Dominic Besson, Alice Besson holding a picture of Gérard Besson, and Prof. Bridget Brereton (Photo courtesy Paper Based Bookshop) |
Speaking on behalf of Paria Publishing were Prof. Emerita Bridget Brereton, who delivered remarks about the book; the author's son Dominic Besson, who read a passage from Book First; and the author's wife Alice Besson, who spoke about the making of the novels and why they had been dedicated to Peter Redhead and Bridget Brereton.
Dominic Besson's excerpt from Philippine Book First - "Children of the Sun"
The man caught her by the neck and would have snapped it like a twig if she hadn’t plunged a carving fork into his face, which gave her a moment to get out of his grip. From the back room she heard an explosion and could smell the powder.
“Where is the food?”
“Look for gold. There must be gold somewhere.”
“She shot Beamer!”
Héloïse Dugué had defended herself against bandits before. She had held renegade blacks at bay and, at another time, faced down obnoxious French officers. She slept with a brace of loaded pistols within reach and a primed blunderbuss alongside her brass bed. They hadn’t taken her by surprise, she had been waiting for them for years.
“Take the door down, Francis!”
But Yewande wasn’t through with the giant and she stabbed him again with the carving fork, this time in the back. Francis Spriggs felt that he could not to get away from this old woman who barred his way, a carving fork in one hand and a machete in the other, and lashed out with his fist. The blow sent Yewande sprawling to the floor of the kitchen, but not before striking her head on the edge of the iron stove.
“Take the damn door down, Francis!”
Turning about, the man raised a huge boot and took the door off its hinges, only to face Héloïse Dugué sitting up in bed, levelling her highly polished brass blunderbuss.
“Va te faire enculer! T’as pas de couilles!”
These were the last words that Francis Spriggs heard.
As they ran into the night with what they had found in the bedroom, the storeroom and on the iron stove, the house ablaze behind them, they never noticed the young girl hiding in the cachot-brûlent, a look of terror frozen on her face.
Captain Ned Low did not discover Héloïse Dugué’s cache of gold coins. These, in small leather bags, were concealed within the magnificent magenta knots of an embroidered Venezuelan hammock, a parting gift from a Canary Island windjammer captain. Gaining the steep incline above Gran Mal Bay, the men were disgusted to discover that the iron box, small, square and heavy, which Low had snatched from Héloïse Dugué’s bedroom, was filled with donkey-eye seeds, jumbie beads and pretty shells. Delight, however, replaced disgust when the dawn’s morning light revealed a sail upon the horizon. It was making directly for Gran Mal Bay. Waiting and watching until the schooner’s crew had come ashore they swam out, boarded her, murdered the watch and, hoisting her jet black sail, they made for Nassau, where in the months ahead Captain Ned Low, ever a notorious figure amongst the Brethren of the Coast, would be laid low by the hand of the notorious Charles Vane, captain of the Ranger.
On a Sunday afternoon some days after her mother Yewande’s and Héloïse Dugué’s murder, the girl Jeannette went alone to say a final adieu to her mother’s Vodun, as the spirit was called in the language of the Fon people. She had earlier retrieved, from their barrack room, her mother’s only possession: the small, black clay jar that she called a govi. Then, running to the burnt-out house, she carried away the silken magenta knots taken from the charred hammock.
The evening’s warm air carried the sad smells of damp coal pot smoke and excrement from the compound’s latrines, familiar and pathetic, to blow about her as she stood in the shady hollow of the plantation’s cemetery. It was where Yewande was buried near to her owner. Jeannette, the magenta knots containing the little leather bags slung from her shoulder, knew that she was being watched. She feigned distress, as though grieving for her mother and her mistress and waited for their interest to wane as she knelt at the graveside in the gathering dusk before starting to dig, surreptitiously, deep into the soft earth into which she placed the knots that contained the little leather bags of Louis d’or.
She imagined that she was placing the little bags of gold coins into her mother’s hands. She thought of them as her mother’s wages for her labour and in a more obscure way in payment for her life. The maintenance of the small clay jar, she understood, was now her responsibility. She had an idea of sorts that it held not just the guardian spirits of her mother and her grandmother, but also their fetishes, the small personal objects and little lucky charms that served, in the ancient tradition of the Fon people, to retrieve the best of their past so as to gain a favourable future, even after death."
In 2024, to commemorate the first anniversary of Gérard A. Besson’s death, Paria decided to re-publish the book and make it available worldwide via online book stores in a somewhat smaller format. The book was also augmented — according to Gérard’s wishes — with some new old photographs that have been added to Paria’s archives in the last decades.
The publication of these photographs was made possible mainly because of two splendid albums of old photographs of Trinidad that were given to Besson by Michael Pocock and Ruby Harding Findlayson. They are mostly of the 1890's and they form the basis of this album. Various other contributors have added photographs to the Album.
About the Editor:
Gérard A. Besson, HBM, D.Litt.h.c. was the founder of Paria Publishing in 1981, and he held the position as our Chairman until 2023. A dedicated historian, there was little he didn't know about the history of Trinidad and Tobago. Jerry created Paria's historical archive that can make thousands of historical photographs and documents available for customers who are looking for content, and specialised in museum and exhibition design. Jerry was an independent scholar and author. He died on 25 July 2023 at the age of 81.
Other works by Gérard A. Besson:
Fiction:
Tales of the Paria Main Road (Creative Advertising 1973); A Diary of Dreams (Paria Publishing 1988); The Voice in the Govi (Paria Publishing 2011); From the Gates of Aksum (Paria Publishing 2013); Roume de St. Laurent ... A Memoir (Paria Publishing 2016); Philippine Vols 1 and 2 (Paria Publishing 2024).
Non-Fiction:
A Photograph Album of Trinidad at the Turn of the 19th Century (Paria Publishing 1985 and 2024); From Colonial to Republic (Republic Bank, with Selwyn Ryan 1987); Folklore and Legends of Trinidad and Tobago (Paria Publishing 1991); The Book of Trinidad (Paria Publishing, with Bridget Brereton 1991 and 2010); The Angostura Story (Paria Publishing 2000); The Angostura Historical Digest (Paria Publishing 2002); Scotiabank - The First 50 Years (Paria Publishing 2004); The History of Ansa McAL in the Caribbean (Paria Publishing 2006); The Cult of the Will (Paria Publishing 2010)
978-976-8244-57-4
240 pages
Hardcover
Fully illustrated in black and white
Available on Amazon.
Selected and edited by Robin McDonald
This book of heartfelt poems from the pen of one of the Caribbean region’s leading poets, Ian McDonald, reflects his love of life and family.
His beloved wife Mary is the muse whose inspirational influence can be sensed throughout the work’s pages.
McDonald, historian, as well as poet, invites the reader to meet his cherished family members: from ancestors long past to parents, wife, children and grandchildren full of life.
Ian McDonald, author of the Hummingbird Tree and 12 books of poetry, is the holder of an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from The University of the West Indies, winner of the Guyana Prize of Literature for four years and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 1970. He was born in Trinidad in 1933 and lives in Guyana. He is married to Mary and has three sons.
Cover painting by Zoey McDonald
ISBN 978-976-8244-58-1
126 pages
Hardcover
Fully illustrated
Available on Amazon
