When author Joanne Haynes published Sapotee Soil – A Call to Memory over a decade ago, little did she know it would still be making inroads into the literary landscape, with absolutely no marketing on her part.
The book – a collection of ten short stories and narratives about Caribbean legends and folklore – has been selected for Nalis' 2023/2024 One Book Many Schools (OBMS) annual, nationwide, secondary-school reading programme and will be placed in secondary-school libraries.
In a release, Nalis said the initiative is to encourage students to read Caribbean literature and bring awareness of its importance and value, inspire a love for reading, introduce local authors, foster an appreciation of local culture, cultivate critical thinking skills, strengthen the use of media and information literacy skills and broaden the horizons of the students – all objectives that align with Haynes' LegendizeU project, which focuses on the way Caribbean people learn.
She said, "Having Sapotee Soil selected as the Nalis One Book Many Schools is a tremendous opportunity for reach, as it puts Sapotee Soil in the hands of every secondary-school Trinidadian student. I’m very grateful for another opportunity to serve" – one she intends to use to bring about change in the education system in Trinidad and Tobago.
“Instead of fitting our students into the world mould, we should be impressing on our students that the Caribbean is a value to share with the world.
“We are creative, colourful, dynamic, innovative. We learn through curiosity, imagination, investment and connectivity. We are creators not merely consumers,” she told WMN.
She said the foundation of LegendizeU comprises what she calls the four Cs – curiosity, colour-in, creativity and consciousness – and Sapotee Soil is the first tool of LegendizeU.
"Curiosity because the most powerful tool is to want to learn something. In colour-in I find the ways to bring colour to those black-and-white areas through storytelling and drama. Caribbean people are imaginative and vibrant, so that's where creativity comes in. And consciousness involves connecting the dots: making sense from the syllabus to life."
She said education is not just about passing exams, but also about doing what you do to the best of your ability.
"It’s about continuing to learn and to keep honing your skills, connecting to our space and connecting our space to the world."
Sapotee Soil, illustrated by Haynes' then 16-year-old son, Ka'en, was the winner of the 2005 Derek Walcott/TTW Children's Literature Prize.
[caption id="attachment_1046039" align="alignnone" width="765"] The front cover of Sapotee Soil. -[/caption]
"The cover of the book was one of his (Ka'en's) art SBAs," Haynes boasted.
One of the stories in it – The Fallen People of the Black Land – was adapted into an animated short film that was an official selection of the Anime Caribe and the TT Film Festival. Four other shorts were added to create the multi-media creative documentary Legends Revisited, which premiered at the 2016 Can
