Georgetown : The Berbice Uprising 1763 was launched last evening at the Umana Yana, Kingston, Georgetown.
Minister of Culture Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony said he welcomed the book and noted that the intended audience would find it very useful. “It is very easy to read and that’s something that has been missing in a lot of text books.” He said that a decision has been made, with the printer Caribbean Press, to have the book available at the National Library and schools with some being made available to Austin’s Book Store in Georgetown.
The book, the Minister said, will be added to the list of the Guyana Classics which now number 38.
Professor Emeritus Dr Alvin Thompson in giving a brief review of the book said that though many other books were written on the subject of the Caribbean’s first slave revolt, none were designed specifically as classroom texts. He described the publication as, “a workable book for the layman who wanted to know what happened in Berbice and the implications for slavery further afield”.
The professor, who hails from the History and Philosophy Department of the University of the West Indies, hailed the book as, “an outstanding and significant work as it is based on careful research from published and unpublished sources, a work that deserves a place on book shelves and in schools.” Author Anna Benjamin, who published the book under her maiden name A.J. Mc R Cameron said it was commissioned 20 years ago by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) as a school text for students studying the Resistance and Revolt theme on the CXC History Examination syllabus. It was never published by the Council owing to a lack of funding. Tailored as the material has been for classroom purposes, full citations of sources have not been included except in the case of the documentary extracts, as well as in those instances where modern secondary sources have been relied upon – namely, Ineke Velzing and Monica Schuler.
She thanked Ian Mc Donald and Professor David Dabydeen for assisting her to finally get her work published along with the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport for its support.
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