Clive Orminston Abdulah (born 5 June 1927) [1] [2] is a retired Bishop of Trinidad who continues to serve the Church as an assistant bishop [3] and a member of the Anglican Consultative Council. [4]
Born in Woodbrook, Port of Spain, Trinidad, [5] Abdulah attended Rosary Boys' School and Queen's Royal College, before continuing his education at the Universities of Pennsylvania (BA, 1950) and the University of Toronto. [1]
He was ordained in 1954 and began his ecclesiastical career with a curacy in Kingston, Jamaica. He was then Rector of Highgate and Rural Dean of St Mary's in the same country before his elevation to the episcopate. He was the first black bishop of the Anglican church in Trinidad and Tobago and was the first West Indian bishop to serve on the board of directors of the Anglican Centre in Rome, Italy (from 1992 to 1995). [5]
A noted Freemason, [6] Abdulah has spoken out about political deadlock in Trinidad. [7]
Abdulah's awards include the Hummingbird Medal (Gold) [8] and an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of the West Indies. [5]
Port of Spain (officially the City of Port of Spain, is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municipal population of 49,031, an urban population of 544,949 and a transient daily population of 250,000. It is located on the Gulf of Paria, on the northwest coast of the island of Trinidad and is part of a larger conurbation stretching from Chaguaramas in the west to Arima in the east with an estimated population of 600,000.
Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning was a Trinidadian politician who was the fourth Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago; his terms ran from 17 December 1991 to 9 November 1995 and from 24 December 2001 to 26 May 2010. He was also Political Leader of the People's National Movement (PNM) from 1987 to 2010. A geologist by training, Manning served as Member of Parliament for the San Fernando East constituency from 1971 until 2015 when he was replaced by Randall Mitchell and was the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives. He was the Leader of the Opposition from 1986 to 1990 and again from 1995 to 2001.
George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton is a retired Anglican bishop who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, having previously been the Bishop of Bath and Wells.
Samuel Selvon was a Trinidad-born writer, who moved to London, England, in the 1950s. His 1956 novel The Lonely Londoners is groundbreaking in its use of creolised English, or "nation language", for narrative as well as dialogue.
Michael Anthony is a Caribbean author and historian, who was named one of the "50 most influential people in Trinidad and Tobago".
Earl Wilbert Lovelace is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer. He is particularly recognized for his descriptive, dramatic fiction on Trinidadian culture: "Using Trinidadian dialect patterns and standard English, he probes the paradoxes often inherent in social change as well as the clash between rural and urban cultures." As Bernardine Evaristo notes, "Lovelace is unusual among celebrated Caribbean writers in that he has always lived in Trinidad. Most writers leave to find support for their literary endeavours elsewhere and this, arguably, shapes the literature, especially after long periods of exile. But Lovelace's fiction is deeply embedded in Trinidadian society and is written from the perspective of one whose ties to his homeland have never been broken."
Lawrence Scott FRSL is a novelist and short-story writer from Trinidad and Tobago, who divides his time between London and Port of Spain. He has also worked as a teacher of English and Drama at schools in London and in Trinidad. Scott's novels have been awarded (1998) and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and thrice nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award. His stories have been much anthologised and he won the Tom-Gallon Short-Story Award in 1986.
Boscoe Holder, born Arthur Aldwyn Holder in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago, was Trinidad and Tobago's leading contemporary painter, who also had a celebrated international career spanning six decades as a designer and visual artist, dancer, choreographer and musician.
Clive Malcolm Gregory is a British retired Anglican bishop. He served as the Bishop of Wolverhampton, an area bishop in the Diocese of Lichfield from 2007 until he retired in 2023.
The Anglican Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago is the administrative structure grouping together Anglicans in the nation of Trinidad and Tobago under a bishop. It is one of eight dioceses of the Church in the Province of the West Indies.
Martin Clive Warner is an Anglican bishop in England. He is currently the Bishop of Chichester.
Keith Christopher Rowley is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian politician serving as the seventh prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, first elected into office on 9 September 2015 and again following the 2020 general election. He has led the People's National Movement (PNM) since May 2010 and was Leader of the Opposition from 2010 to 2015. He has also served as the Member of the House of Representatives for Diego Martin West since 1991. He is a volcanologist by profession, holding a doctorate in geology, specializing in geochemistry.
Julian Ernest Chetvynde Rogers MBE is a Caribbean broadcaster and journalist. He has worked as broadcast manager, TV and radio host and producer, publisher, trainer, lecturer, media consultant and public relations professional. Involved since the 1970s with the building of national radio stations notably in Barbados, St Kitts & Nevis, and Antigua & Barbuda, and part of "the original team set up to 'revolutionise' the media industry in Trinidad & Tobago with the rebranding of the Trinidad and Tobago Television Company (TTT) into CNMG", he has been called "the Caribbean man" and has established a reputation as one of the region's most respected media practitioners. His characteristic style as a broadcaster is to conduct biting interviews; one commentator refers to "the persistent journalistic exploits of a resurgent, sharp-witted and emphatic Julian Rogers".
Sir Edwin Wilberforce Carrington, is the former Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), serving from 1992 to 2010.
Marina Salandy-Brown FRSA, Hon. FRSL, is a Trinidadian journalist, broadcaster and cultural activist. She was formerly an editor and Senior Manager in Radio and News and Current Affairs programmes with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London, one of the BBC's few top executives from an ethnic minority background. She is the founder and inaugural director of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, held annually in Trinidad and Tobago since 2011, "the biggest literary festival in the Anglophone Caribbean", and of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. She was also co-founder of the Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize.
The Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) is a socialist political party in Trinidad and Tobago founded in March 2009. Its logo is the Scales of Justice. Its current leader is David Abdulah, a former government senator and general secretary of the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union.
Ian Randle is a Jamaican publisher. He is the founder of an eponymous independent publishing company whose main focus is on English-language readers. He has won awards including the Prince Claus Award in 2012 and the 2019 Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for distinguished service to Caribbean letter.
Philip Louis Ulric Cross was a Trinidadian jurist, diplomat and Royal Air Force (RAF) navigator, recognised as possibly the most decorated West Indian of World War II. He is credited with helping to prevent some two hundred bombers from being shot down in a raid over Germany in 1943. He subsequently studied law at London's Middle Temple, and went on to fulfil a distinguished international career as a jurist across Africa and within Trinidad and Tobago. He also served as a diplomat for Trinidad and Tobago to the United Kingdom.
Knolly Ulric Alexander Clarke is a retired Anglican priest from Trinidad and Tobago. He served as Dean of Trinidad from 1994 to 2004.
Gérard Anthony Besson, HBM, DLitt. h.c., is a Trinidadian writer and publisher.