Ivan Van Sertima.....Guyanese, West Indian

we not talking about west indian impse all over the place. we talking about solid west indian people of any ideological stripe. as long as they intelligent and organized. dem I call west indian

Van Sertima is of the first order of this group. Stokely...James..Nurse...Sylvester Williams, Garvey, J A Rogers..the great Bajan literary artists...Naipaul..Kanhai, Sobers, Richards, Selvon..........

those are whom I call west indian..proud to call dem west indians. the body of the west indian people is another story. these people are exceptions who prove the rule of the general body of impse we are

I will add Naipaul to this thread....celebrate another great west indian

I love/loved Naipaul..sweet writing, serious but make you laff yuh head off at the same time..sweetening up the bitter pill as the message cut through yuh soul. but Naipaul never put sal' in he mout' to talk about anything as he saw it

I loved that quality and Naipauls real skill as a writer, his powers of observation and analysis, the way he saw deeply into thins and his skill at writing it..even avoiding controversy..rather minimising controversy. if it was me I would be lynched

not Naipaul..too smart fuh that..too skillful

as Naipaul described himself he is a natural man. look at that eh. there was little to nothing planned about his books. he wanted to write about something he never planned it out scientifically, worked out structures and do terrific research to ensure he was not wrong etc. Naipaul's experience was sovereign, supreme, his own analysis of the reality he lived and came out of was a part of alive. he thought of it sat and wrote... and the worked took shape out of his experience, his study, reading t tat point..what he knew.

now he says what he did with Mimic Men turned out to be a study of/in skidzo (schizophrenia) and Mimic Men is one of the greatest books so far in understanding of the effects of colonialism on a people..which is also what I have come to know as post Slavery/Colonialism Syndrome. yes..Slavery was a long war that exploded on the slaves and the continent from which they were ripped out of...and the century plus of war that Africa was put through until recently...in some cases like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia..still going on.

Naipaul was tremendous..imagine that..a man living observing and taking apart and putting back together with the resulting gained..rather earned clarity...for all to see, with his own skill, ability almost alone yet we must consider that he was part of global human reality, a part of it indeed, none more so involved with life and as a human being relying on himself alone to make sens or not of what he saw, what he lived and codified in his books.... available to all

I know of Naipaul's social warts, what a whole lot of people appear to have descended on him in condemnation for. I don;t care. I never saw Naipual that way. in fact what I read of Naipaul of what he said of west indian people I found he was totally accurate. it was harsh but true and that hurts nobody save for a moment. it is either to use and correct and ignore and continue in shit. west indians ignored him. where Naipaul may have gone to far I don't care. it is not as if we are all saints and on that basis free to judge and point our fingers in disgust. I don't know of any dam west indian who have earned any such
right. I have the absolute worst opinion of west indian people. I am no saint either but I know west indian people to their core..and they are for the most part are a rotten disgusting treasonous people

it is utterly amazing as a result that from the west indies we have actually produced real strong powerful, sincere and committed people..committed to the survival and well being of humanity. the great individual humans have come to the worst people, an oppressed and poor people, to help them out of their darkness..a historical fact. Krishna, Jesus, MLK and Malcolm, Marcus Garvey, Stokely CarMichael/Kwame Ture'....they all came to the people and for the people in their darkness provinding some light for their paths out. that too was Vidia Naipaul, along with James two of the greatest ever west indians, world intellects of the first order, second to none, and totally committed to clearing up the world in assistance to the people

I bow to Naipaul as I bowed to James and Van Sertima. I am happy that Naipaul made 86 and wished that Van Sertima had lived as long..even more. I am happy to speak of Naipaul. he was person who slapped me in the face hard but made me laff just as hard. his was a light I saw early and followed it all the way through. RIP

Mapster, very well articulated.
I always wonder why these guys were not radical in the W.I. political landscape.
I know Dr. Walter Rodney was assassinated for attempting to be vocal against the dictator in Guyana!
Garvey was disgraced via trumped up chargesin the USA ......but effective upon return to Jamaica politics.

Kofi Anan finally laid to rest

www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45507124