Professor Emeritus Dr. Frank Birbalsingh, a pioneer of Indo-Caribbean Studies

Feb 19, 2021 Letters

---

DEAR EDITOR,

Dr. Frank Birbalsingh was born in 1938 in Sisters Village, West Bank Demerara, Guyana (then British Guiana). His father, Ezrom Sahadeo Birbalsingh, was a teacher at the Canadian Mission school located at Wales, the nearby sugar plantation, and his mother Miriam Khan was a fulltime homemaker. One week after his birth, the family relocated further north to Canal Polder Number One, where his father assumed more senior responsibilities at another CM school.
A few years later the family moved to Better Hope, East Coast Demerara, where his father was appointed Headmaster of one of the largest CM schools in the country. It is there where Dr. Birbalsingh spent his boyhood years, where he observed the class/colour system operating on the sugar estates, and where he gained an appreciation of the plight of the mainly Indo-Guyanese sugar workers.
In 1949, under the tutorship of his father at the Better Hope CM School, Dr. Birbalsingh won a Government County Scholarship to attend Queen’s College (QC), a premier secondary school, where earlier alumni included former Presidents of Guyana, Forbes Burnham and Dr. Cheddi Jagan, and former Commonwealth Secretary General, Sir Shridath Ramphal.
Secondary education was not free at that time. QC for boys, and Bishop’s High School for girls were the only government-run secondary schools, and catered mainly for children from the privileged class. Dr. Birbalsingh’s entry into QC on a scholarship was a noteworthy achievement.
Dr. Birbalsingh obtained passes in 1956 in English, French, and Latin at the University of London-sponsored General Certificate of Education, Advance Level. Following this, he taught at St. Stanislaus College for one year, before leaving Guyana in 1957 to attend the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. At that time, the institution was operating as an overseas college of the University of London, and was known as the University College of the West Indies or UCWI.
Dr. Birbalsingh wrote short stories while attending UCWI, and in 1960, one story was read on the British Broadcasting Corporation’s overseas Caribbean Voices programme.
In September 1961, he graduated with B.A. Honours (London), and returned to Guyana as an Assistant Master at his alma mater, QC. However, a few months later, he left for India on a Commonwealth scholarship to pursue a Masters’ degree in Commonwealth Literature.
The scholarship gave him an opportunity to visit many parts of India, the land of his ancestors. However, the course work at the university was a repeat of what he had already completed at UCWI, so a year later, in 1962, he abandoned the scholarship and he travelled to London, England, where he experienced “Life in London” as envisioned by Guyanese who visited the metropolis of London for the first time, when they regarded the city as a place based more on their imagination than reality.
For the first time, for instance, Dr. Birbalsingh could enjoy a lifestyle visiting museums and theatres, and attend professional opera and ballet while immersing himself in British culture. He also enrolled at King’s College, London University, to pursue a Masters’ degree as a part-time student, and he became a Supply school teacher, that allowed him to visit schools in some of the poorest and roughest neighbourhoods in London.
He earned his M.A . degree from King’s College in 1966, by submitting his thesis, ‘Novelists of the British Caribbean, 1940-1963’. By that time also he was joined by his future wife, Norma, from Jamaica, who qualified as a nurse before, in 1967, they together migrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Once again, Dr. Birbalsingh turned to Supply Teaching, working in different communities in Toronto. He also enrolled at his previous alma mater, Kings College, London University, to pursue his Ph.D. in Canadian Literature, which he earned in 1972. His Ph.D. thesis served later, in 1995, as a basis of his book Novels and the Nation: Essays in Canadian Literature.
Prior to gaining his Ph.D., in 1970 a fellow Supply Teacher encouraged Dr. Birbalsingh to apply for a lectureship at Toronto’s York University, which was expanding rapidly following the opening of its Keele Street campus. He was hired at York, and commenced an illustrious career that saw him progressing through the ranks, becoming a full professor, ultimately ending with his retirement in 2003, when he was conferred with the title Senior Scholar and Professor Emeritus.
Dr. Birbalsingh was hired at York where he met Clara Thomas, Professor of English, and one of the first academics to devote her work specifically to the study of Canadian Literature. He commenced his York career teaching a course in Canadian Literature, and later introduced a course in Caribbean Literature.
With this move, Dr. Birbalsingh became a pioneer in the teaching of Caribbean Literature at university level. At that time, the subject was not known in the university curriculum in Canada, or anywhere else outside the Caribbean.
In addition to York, Dr. Birbalsingh has been associated with other universities, for instance a post-doctoral fellowship took him to the University of Auckland, New Zealand, 1973-1974;, and a Canada Council Leader’s Fellowship to the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 1976-1977; then a sabbatical year was spent at the University of Rouen, France in 1983-1984; and a Visiting Fellowship at the University of Warwick in 1988-1989.
Also, Dr. Birbalsingh did not forget the land of his birth. Over the years he kept in contact with Dr. Jagan, who was returned to power as President of Guyana in 1992 after 28 years of rigged elections that had sidelined him as Leader of the Opposition. In an attempt to improve the University of Guyana following years of neglect, in 1996 Dr. Jagan appointed Dr. Birbalsingh as an external member of the UG Board of Governors.
Dr. Birbalsingh negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding between York and UG, which established a formal relationship for the benefit of both institutions. The MOU was signed by Susan Mann, President of York, and Dr. Jagan, President of Guyana.
In 1986, Dr. Birbalsingh and Indo-Caribbean activist, Deo Kernahan conceived the idea to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians in the Caribbean. Along with prominent Indo-Caribbean individuals in Toronto, the Ontario Society for Studies in Indo-Caribbean Culture (OSSICC) was launched in April 1987, with Dr. Birbalsingh as its President.
The 150th anniversary celebration took place in 1988, and was a great success. The event featured music, drama, poetry reading, storytelling, photographic and displays, academic presentations, and speeches by prominent Indo-Caribbeans Dr. Jagan himself, and Basdeo Panday, former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.
In 1989, a collection of academic papers presented at the event was edited and published by Dr. Birbalsingh under the title ‘Indenture and Exile: The Indo-Caribbean Experience’. In the years that followed Dr. Birbalsingh took a lead role in OSSICC, organising activities that included seminars, workshops, and lectures that highlighted the history, culture, and contribution of Indo-Caribbeans in Guyanese and Caribbean societies. Through its work, OSSICC gave voice and visibility to Indo-Caribbeans, and helped to dispel the perception that the region was primarily made up only of Afro-Caribbeans.
In September 2009, an article by Petamber Persaud in Guyana’s Kaieteur News described Dr. Birbalsingh as “a pioneer in Indo-Caribbean studies”. Persaud also noted that Dr. Birbalsingh “authored and edited several seminal works” dealing with that subject. Among such texts are: From Pillar to Post: The Indo-Caribbean Diaspora; and Jahaji Bhai: An Anthology of Indo-Caribbean Literature, valuable references on literature of the region.
Persaud also noted Dr. Birbalsingh’s scholarly writings on cricket, saying the game “is part of the West Indian psyche, debated in the same breath with politics and religion”.
He added, “In 1996, Dr. Birbalsingh published The Rise of West Indian Cricket. His writings, which gave pride and identity to various groups of West Indians, especially in literature, also brought those different peoples together in the name of cricket; the mark of a remarkable thinker.”
Dr. Birbalsingh’s other publications include: The People’s Progressive Party of Guyana, 1950-1992: An Oral History, and Guyana: History and Literature.
In response to a question from Vidur Dindayal for an article that was published in Guyanese Achievers USA and Canada: A Celebration, 2011, Dr. Birbalsingh stated, “When I began my research in the early 1960s, Commonwealth Literature was just beginning to appear; that is to say, literature in English produced outside Britain or the United States. It was a new field, and I spent my life exploring it because my colonial experience in the Caribbean is part of it. The exploration helped me to understand myself, my history, and my culture. Today the field is called “Post-colonial literature’”.
Dr. Birbalsingh lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his wife Norma, who is also retired. They are proud parents of two daughters, both accomplished professionals.

Harry Hergash

---

---