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According to the folklore of Trinidad and Tobago, Gang Gang Sarah is an African witch who was blown off course to Tobago on a strong wind and landed in the village of Les Coteaux. She chose to stay for a while to search for her family. but when at last she decided to go home found that she had lost the power of flight because she had eaten salt during her stay in Golden Lane, Tobago. She became the wife of Tom. She lived to a great age and is remembered for her kindness. [1]
This story functions as a myth dealing with the history of slavery in the Caribbean : « Gang Gang Sara's story speaks of the wish to return to Africa and of the impossibility of return. Sara's body has absorbed the salt of Tobago, a transformative experience that ties her to the Caribbean and provides her with a changed identity. » [2]
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Eric Eustace Williams was a Trinidad and Tobago politician. He has been described as the "Father of the Nation", having led the then British Colony of Trinidad and Tobago to majority rule on 28 October 1956, to independence on 31 August 1962, and republic status on 1 August 1976, leading an unbroken string of general elections victories with his political party, the People's National Movement, until his death in 1981. He was the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and also a Caribbean historian, most noted for his book entitled Capitalism and Slavery.
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Caribbean literature is the literature of the various territories of the Caribbean region. Literature in English from the former British West Indies may be referred to as Anglo-Caribbean or, in historical contexts, as West Indian literature. Most of these territories have become independent nations since the 1960s, though some retain colonial ties to the United Kingdom. They share, apart from the English language, a number of political, cultural, and social ties which make it useful to consider their literary output in a single category. Note that other non-independent islands may include the Caribbean unincorporated territories of the United States, however literature from this region has not yet been studied as a separate category and is independent from West Indian literature. The more wide-ranging term "Caribbean literature" generally refers to the literature of all Caribbean territories regardless of language—whether written in English, Spanish, French, Hindustani, or Dutch, or one of numerous creoles.
Paule Marshall was an American writer, best known for her 1959 debut novel Brown Girl, Brownstones. In 1992, at the age of 63, Marshall was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship grant.
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The Douen is an entity from Trinidad and Tobago folklore spelt Dwen in Saint Lucian folklore. Their most recognized characteristic is their feet are said to be backwards, with the heel facing the front and the knees are backwards also being faceless. If they hear a child's name, then they can call to the child in a parent's voice and try to lure the child into the forest. They wear a big, floppy straw hat to hide the fact that they have no face except for a small mouth to speak with. Largely mischievous, they play pranks on people, raid gardens, and seem to enjoy leading children astray until they are thoroughly lost in the woods.
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The Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence were initiated by Anthony N. Sabga, one of the Caribbean's most celebrated entrepreneurs and founder and chairman emeritus of the ANSA McAL Group of Companies in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
Mama D'Leau, also known as Mama Dlo and Mama Glo, is the protector and healer of all river animals, according to the folklore of islands such as Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica. She is usually depicted as a beautiful woman with long hair, who sits on upper body and arms and from her waist downwards twists into coils. Her tongue becomes forked and she holds a golden comb which she passes through her snaky hair.
Pearl Connor-Mogotsi, née Nunez, was a Trinidadian-born theatrical and literary agent, actress and cultural activist, who was a pioneering campaigner for the recognition and promotion of African Caribbean arts. In the UK, in the 1950s, she was the first agent to represent black and other minority ethnic actors, writers and film-makers, and during the early 1960s was instrumental in setting up one of Britain's first black theatre companies, the Negro Theatre Workshop. In the words of John La Rose, who delivered a eulogy at her funeral on 26 February 2005: "Pearl Connor-Mogotsi was pivotal in the effort to remake the landscape for innovation and for the inclusion of African, Caribbean and Asian artists in shaping a new vision of consciousness for art and society."
Nadia Batson is a Trinidadian singer, songwriter, producer and model. She was a runner-up in the Power Category at the 2007 International Soca Monarch with her song "My Land" with Kees Dieffenthaller.
Selwyn Cudjoe is a Trinidadian academic, scholar, historian, essayist and editor who is Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. He was also the Margaret E. Deffenbaugh and LeRoy T. Carlson Professor in Comparative Literature and the Marion Butler McClean Professor in the History of Ideas at Wellesley. Cudjoe's particular expertise is Caribbean literature and Caribbean intellectual history, and he teaches courses on the African-American literary tradition, African literature, black women writers, and Caribbean literature.
Amryl Johnson was a writer born in Trinidad who lived most of her life in Britain.
Annie Christmas or flatboat Annie is a character in the folklore and tall tales of Louisiana, described as a 7 feet (2.1 m) tall, supernaturally strong African-American woman keelboat captain. She has been described as a female counterpart of the John Henry character, another supernaturally strong African American folklore character. Like John Henry, the character may have been based on a real person. Stories of Annie Christmas have been included in several collections of folktales from the Southern United States.
Vashti Harrison is an American writer, illustrator and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. Her book, Big, received the 2024 Randolph Caldecott Medal. She was born in Virginia and her films and other artworks are rooted in Caribbean heritage and folklore.
Maureen Warner-Lewis is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian academic whose career focused on the linguistic heritage and unique cultural traditions of the African diaspora of the Caribbean. Her area of focus has been to recover the links between African cultures and Caribbean cultures. She has been awarded multiple prizes for her works, including two Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Awards, the Gold Musgrave Medal of the Institute of Jamaica, and she was inducted into the Literary Hall of Fame of Tobago.
Helen Pyne-Timothy was a Jamaican feminist literary critic and academic, who was a founder and the inaugural president of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars (ACWWS), a contributing editor of the journal MaComère, and the author of the 1998 book The Woman, the Writer and Caribbean Society.