The allegation that he was not invited to Carifesta X made by Harold Bascom against the organisers of the festival, may have resulted from a misunderstanding concerning whether an email had been sent in a personal or an official capacity.
The matter has now been settled amicably, Stabroek News was told.
Bascom, a Guyanese playwright now residing in the USA, wrote a letter which was published in the Stabroek News of Saturday, August 9 claiming that he and a number of other Guyanese had not been invited to participate in the upcoming Carifesta X activities.
In an invited response to Bascom’s letter, Artistic Director of Carifesta Dr Paloma Mohamed, said that she had been surprised about the allegations since she personally had contacted the dramatist via email very early in the preparations for Carifesta.
In the email she had suggested that he come to Guyana and direct one of his plays. She said that Bascom had replied saying he would “think about it.” She had explained that if Bascom were to come, he would be brought here by the sub-committee in charge of drama, and not by the literary arts sub-committee. In fact, she said that she had hoped that one of his plays could be used as the signal dramatic piece for the Guyana dramatic delegation. But since she never received an official response from him, she abandoned this idea.
As it relates to the other artistes, Mohamed stated that it was not possible to invite everyone. She said that each sub-committee had to shortlist a group of individuals who had made significant contributions in the area under their charge. According to her, the Literary Arts committee would not have only selected persons who would have made significant contributions to literature but those whose work thematically fitted into the focus of this year’s celebrations. After these individuals had been short-listed, they would have been contacted to see if they were interested and available for the event. If this had been communicated, an official letter of invitation would have been sent from the Secretariat. According to Mohamed, an official invitation meant that the Secretariat had undertaken to pay the airfare and accommodation for the individual.
But she explained that not receiving an official letter of invitation from the Secretariat did not prevent anyone from participating in Carifesta.
She used Dr David Dabydeen, the Guyanese writer residing in Britain, as an example. She said that when the writer had been contacted about Carifesta, he had immediately communicated his willingness to come and had said that he would pay for himself and three or four other writers.
Petamber Persaud, the head of the Literary Arts and Book Exhibition sub-committees echoed the words of Mohamed. He said that although official invitational letters had been issued to some writers, there was “nothing stopping individuals from contacting the Secretariat and communicating an interest in coming for the event.” In this sense, Persaud explained that everyone had been invited to Carifesta since no writer would have been turned away. He too mentioned that several of the writers who were coming for Carifesta were paying their own expenses.
Persaud said that efforts had been made to contact as many overseas-based writers as possible, but he confessed that it was a difficult task. In his letter Bascom had indicated that other Guyanese authors residing abroad such as Harrischandra Khemraj, Rooplall Monar and Churaumanie Bissundyal had not been invited to the event.
When Bascom was contacted he said that Mohamed had indeed emailed him, but he figured that it was in a personal capacity rather than an official one.
He said that at the time contact was made, he was unaware that Dr Paloma Mohamed was the Artistic Director of Carifesta. He explained that over the years Mohamed would occasionally email him to inform him of literary and dramatic events, and he assumed that this was the case with this particular email.
In her response to the letter, Mohamed mentioned that she was unsure whether she had identified herself as the Artistic Director of Carifesta in her email.
However, both Bascom and Mohamed have indicated that since the publication of Bascom’s letter, the matter had been settled amicably.
