Renowned Barbadian novelist and poet George Lamming died on Saturday at the age of 94. He passed away in Barbados four days short of his 95th birthday on June 8.
Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, in a release following Lamming’s passing, said there would be an official funeral for the writer who was so integral to the literature of the region.
“Our internationally recognised and respected novelist, essayist and poet, George Lamming without doubt stood for decades at the apex of our island’s pantheon of writers. Indeed, George Lamming must be considered one of the most famous writers this region has produced. Notwithstanding the fact that he passed away today, four days shy of his 95th birthday, I still declare that he has left us all too soon.”
[caption id="attachment_958101" align="alignnone" width="666"] In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming. [/caption]
She said she had been making plans to visit Lamming on Wednesday to celebrate his birthday with him.
“Unfortunately, we will now have to switch to a national celebration via an official funeral for a man who has given so much to his country, his people, his region and the world.
“George Lamming was the quintessential Bajan, born in as traditional a district as you can get — Carrington Village, on the outskirts of Bridgetown. And his education was as authentically Bajan as one could possibly acquire — Roebuck Boys’ School and Combermere. But as Bajan as he was, he still distinguished himself as a world scholar: teaching first at a boarding school in Trinidad, before emigrating to England, where he became a broadcaster with the BBC’s Colonial Service.”
Lamming held positions that included writer-in-residence and lecturer in the Creative Arts at the UWI Mona, Jamaica campus, visiting professor at the University of Texas, the University of Pennsylvania and Brown University, and a lecturer in Denmark, Tanzania and Australia.
Mottley said Lamming epitomised Barbados and the Caribbean everywhere he went in the world.
“While he has written several novels and received many accolades, none of his works touches the Barbadian psyche like his first, In The Castle of My Skin, written back in 1953, but which today ought still to be required reading for every Caribbean boy and girl. Barbados will miss George Lamming — his voice, his pen and, of course, his signature hairstyle — but I pray that the consciousness of who we are that he preached in all that he wrote will never fade from our thoughts”
Mottley extended deepest sympathy to the Lamming family on behalf of the government and people of Barbados.
Professor Richard Drayton said Lamming was part of his life from the earliest childhood.
“After my parents I can’t think of anyone who made a greater impact on me. His contributions to Barbados, the Caribbean, the Caribbean diaspora in Britain, and the world are measureless. He lived and struggled with such grace and generosity. Rest in power George. The ceremony of souls is never at an end.”
Poet Laureate Eintou Pearl Springer gave a libat
