Frank Mahabal Birbalsingh

Sep 13, 2009 Features / Columnists, Guyanese Literature

By Petamber Persaud

From Pillar to Post: Indo-Caribbean Diaspora is a groundbreaking study capturing ‘a composite multifaceted picture of the ongoing search by a people for definition and voice, for recognition and ultimately a home’. This book was published in 1997 by which time its author, Frank Birbalsingh, had moved from the West Bank Demerara to East Coast Demerara, from the countryside to the top secondary school in the city, then from Georgetown to study in the West Indies before migrating to England, 1962 – 1966, and to sojourn in Canada where he has become an authority on Indo-Caribbean Literature.
Author, anthologist and Professor Emeritus, Frank Mahabal Birbalsingh was born in 1938 in Sister’s Village, West Bank Demerara, Guyana, into an intriguing set of circumstances; his father was Hindu and his mother Moslem; both converted to Christianity, paving the way for his father to become a primary school headmaster. This post caused the family to relocate several times as the breadwinner was shifted from school to school.
Young Birbalsingh found pillars of opportunities in relocations. From Better Hope Canadian Mission School, he moved to Queen’s College, 1949-1956, rubbing shoulders with the cream of society’s intellect, men that influenced the course of the country’s development. He taught at St. Stanislaus College for one year before studying at the University College, University of the West Indies, then returning to Guyana to serve as Assistant Master at Queen’s College.
He’s been a teacher ever since, all over the globe – England, France, India, Nigeria, New Zealand, moving up the ladder all the time and now to hold the revered post of Professor Emeritus at York University, Canada, in the Department of English. For 33 years – 1970 to 2003, he taught at York; many of his students are now established writers, professors and professionals making their mark on society, taking a page or two out of the master’s book.
He is a pioneer in Indo-Caribbean studies and has authored and edited several seminal works in that direction including Jahaji Bhai: An Anthology of Indo-Caribbean Literature, 1988, Indenture and Exile: The Indo-Caribbean Experience, 1989, Indo-Caribbean Resistance, 1993, and Jahaji: An Anthology of Indo-Caribbean Fiction, 2002. But that’s not the full extent of his scholarship. Birbalsingh’s books, Passion and Exile: Essays in Caribbean Literature, 1988, and Frontiers of Caribbean Literature, 1996, are extremely valuable references on literature of the region.
Cricket is part of the West Indian psyche, debated in the same breath with politics and religion. In 1996, Birbalsingh published The Rise of West Indian Cricket. His writings which gave pride and identity to various groups of West Indians with regards to their literature also brought those different peoples together in the name of cricket; the mark of a remarkable thinker.
Frank Birbalsingh has visited his ancestral home, India, several times, lecturing extensively at many the country’s leading universities, maintaining links from India to Guyana to Canada….

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com

What’s happening:
• The Guyana Annual magazine is inviting entries to its eight literary competitions namely Open Story and Open Poetry, Youth Story and Youth Poetry, Henry Josiah Writing Story for Children, Rajkumari Singh Writing Poetry for Children, Martin Carter Essay (under 13), Egbert Martin Poetry (under 13) and to its art and photography competitions. Closing date for entries is September 30, 2009. For further information, please contact me via above.

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