Peter Kempadoo

Peter "Lauchmonen" Kempadoo (1926 – 24 August 2019) was a writer and broadcaster from Guyana. He also worked as a development worker in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. He moved in 1953 to the UK, where he built a career in print journalism as well as radio and television broadcasting, and published two novels, Guiana Boy in 1960 — the first novel by a Guyanese of Indian descent — and Old Thom's Harvest in 1965, before returning to Guyana in 1970.[1] He died in London, aged 92.

Peter Kempadoo
Born1926
Guyana
Died24 August 2019 (aged 92)
London, England
OccupationWriter and broadcaster
Notable work
Guiana Boy (1960);
Old Thom's Harvest (1965)
ChildrenManganita, Kamala, Shamanee, Roshini, Malasula, Oonya, Sanjhevi, Valmiki, Anoushka

Biography

He was born on a sugar estate to James Kempadoo, aka Lauchmonen, and Priscilla Alemeloo Tambran, both Tamils.[2] Peter Kempadoo was educated first St. Joseph Anglican School, then went on, at the age of 10, to attend Port Mourant Roman Catholic School. There he passed the Junior and Senior Cambridge examinations, before becoming a pupil-teacher at Port Mourant and, at 17, a certified teacher.[3] Moving in 1947 to Georgetown, he trained as a nurse at Georgetown Public Hospital, and reported on hospital matters for the Daily Argosy until he was invited to join the staff.[3]

Having married in 1952, Kempadoo migrated the following year with his family to England, where he worked for the BBC,[3] and the Central Office of Information.[1]

During this time he wrote his first novel, Guiana Boy. Published in 1960 (re-issued as Guyana Boy by Peepal Tree Press in 2002), this was the first novel by a Guyanese of Indian descent.[3] It draws on his own life as the son of sugar workers to portray a world lacking in freedom, but where the workers struggle to maintain their identity as Madrassis in their rice plots, their fishing expeditions and in the feasts and festivities their ancestors brought from India.[4] The Caribbean Review of Books described the novel as "an intimate, clear-eyed portrait of Indo-Guyanese rural life", in which the author "channels the spirits of dignified misfits to dismantle the rigid hierarchies governing former plantation societies, all while honouring the polyglot traditions their descendants have elected to preserve."[5]

In addition to Guyana Boy, he was the author of another novel, Old Thom's Harvest (1965), which focuses on religious and ethnic practices in the life of a rural family.[6] Kempadoo's work has been anthologised in The Sun's Eye (ed. Anne Walmsley) and My Lovely Native Land (ed. A. J. Seymour). He has also co-authored with his wife a booklet entitled A–Z of Guyanese Words.[3]

In 1970, Kempadoo returned with his family to Guyana, where he produced local radio programmes such as Rural Life Guyana, We the People, Our Kind of Folk and Jarai (with Marc Matthews).[3][7]

Kempadoo also lived for some years in Barbados, but was mainly based in the UK.[8]

In 2016, as part of activities held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Guyana's independence, Kempadoo was honoured at the Jubilee Literary Festival at the University of Guyana.[9] In 2018 he was honoured with a Windrush Lifetime Service Award.

He died in London on 24 August 2019.[10]

Family life

Kempadoo married Rosemary Read in 1952 and to Mayrose Abbensetts in 1992. He was the father of Manghanita, university professor Kamala, Shamanee, photographer Roshini Kempadoo,[11] Malasula, Valmiki, novelist Oonya, Sanjhevi and Anoushka. He lived in London, England.

Bibliography
  • Guiana Boy (Crawley, Sussex: New Literature). Reissued as Guyana Boy, Peepal Tree Press, 2002. ISBN 9781900715560
  • Old Thom's Harvest (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1965).

References
  1. Vibert C. Cambridge, Chapter 8, "The 1970s: “Making the Small Man a Real Man", Musical Life in Guyana: History and Politics of Controlling Creativity, University Press of Mississippi, 2015.
  2. Herdeck, Donald (1979). Caribbean Writers. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press. p. 121. ISBN 9780914478744. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  3. Petamber Persaud, "Peter Kempadoo – Preserving our literary heritage", Kyk-Over-Al, 18 March 2006. (Source: Interview with Peter Kempadoo on Monday 13 March 2006, Guyana Chronicle, Georgetown, Guyana.)
  4. Pirbhai, Mariam (2009). Mythologies of Migration, Vocabularies of Indenture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-8020-9964-8. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  5. "Patois canticles", The Caribbean Review of Books, August 2015.
  6. Jill E. Albada-Jelgersma, "Kempadoo, Peter (Lauchmonen)", in Daniel Balderston, Mike Gonzalez, Ana M. Lopez (eds), Encyclopedia of Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Cultures, Routledge, 2000, p. 811.
  7. Rakesh Rampertab, "Women Singers & Musicians of Grove", Horizons, Issue 4, 2009, p. 43.
  8. Peter Kempadoo Profile at Peepal Tree Press.
  9. "Peter Kempadoo Honoured At Jubilee Literary Festival". YouTube, 16 May 2016.
  10. Sutherland, Laurel (29 August 2019). "Celebrated Guyanese writer Peter Kempadoo passes away". Stabroek News. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  11. Nalini Mohabir, "An Interview with Roshini Kempadoo", exPLUSultra, Vol. 2, December 2010.
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