The chapter on Caribbean integration has yet to be written
• George Lamming honored with UNEAC Hibiscus Caribbean Prize
• Barbadian writer committed to participating in Cuba’s 2012 International Book Fair

"IT’S hard to define what you know best. I feel and think the Caribbean, but don’t ask me for a definition in a few lines. I only know that the first chapter is about the genocide which exterminated the majority of original peoples. Next came an episode unique in human history: the capitalist accumulation process based on African and Asian slave labor carried out by Europeans in a territory which did not belong to Africa, Asia or Europe. This is the common starting point; the rest is very diverse. I don’t know what the Caribbean will be like in 50 years, but I am sure that the chapter on real integration has yet to be written."

These were George Lamming’s words in May of 2011, in Havana, the city he first visited in 1963, invited by the Casa de la Americas, and which, he said, he will continue visiting as long as he is alive. He has just committed himself to participating in preparations for Cuba’s 2012 International Book Fair, which is dedicated to Caribbean cultures. At the UNEAC event, its president, Miguel Barnet, presented him with the Hibiscus Caribbean Prize which the organization is awarding for the first time to honor the most lucid intellectual works within the region. He was reunited with old friends including Roberto Fernández Retamar, Nancy Morejón, Yolanda Wood, Digna Castañeda, Graziella Pogolotti, Abel Prieto and began cultivating new ones.

Lamming had an opportunity to become familiar with the work of Kcho which deals with the issues immigration so close to him. He recalled words spoken some time ago, "When someone dies in St. George, that’s when we realize what migration means. Organizing a funeral in the Caribbean takes us down that road and we have to wait for relatives to arrive from other latitudes."

About to celebrate his 84th birthday, Lamming is one of the most universally recognized Barbadian writers. He got his start in poetry. His first verses were published by the recently re-launched magazine BIM – for which he hopes to create a special issue dedicated to Cuban thought and literature, looking to the Book Fair – though after traveling to Trinidad and establishing himself in London in the early 50’s, he turned his attention to fiction and essays.

The success of his first novel, In the Castle of My Skin (1953) and his collection of essays The Pleasures of Exile (1960) assured him not only a place in the front lines of English-language Caribbean literature but also in the vanguard of all literature. The Casa de las Americas has translated both works into Spanish.

Nancy Morejón, very knowledgeable of Lamming’s work, both The castle… and the work of fiction which followed, The Immigrants, commented, "They bear witness to the dilemma of the great Caribbean writer manifested in two themes which remain legitimate. One which lies in concrete settings and the social psychology of an historical context revealing the most diverse colonial structures that remained hidden from conscious awareness and until then little explored (…) The other, which leads him into the pressing tangle of emigrants’ economic and existential relationships."

As the new century advances, Lamming, who continues to remind those around him that he is the descendent of African slaves, affirms that he has not renounced the Caribbean’s "reign of emancipation."

"On our island," he says, "unfortunately culture is not a priority as it is in Cuba. We remember cultural elements when we want to adorn social events or tourist attractions. We neglect certain values in education. We are witnessing the emergence of a generation fascinated by new technology, but which reads less all the time. We are obliged to make the political and intellectual effort to turn this situation around."

The ideals of his youth are still blossoming in Lamming’s work, "I am more convinced all the time that we have a lot to do in the Caribbean."