Pax Britannica is a well known term which means ‘the British Peace’ and it is used to describe one of the proud periods of British history when Great Britain experienced a lengthy era of peace and power. Between 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1914, the beginning of World War I, the nation was free of major wars while at the same time wielding great influence over Europe and the world. This term used to describe it is borrowed from the Latin in more than language, because it was a kind of imitation of the Pax Romana (the Roman Peace) a similar period during which Rome enjoyed a long period of peace and unbridled power.
Thanks partly to Julius Caesar, Rome had conquered or settled all its enemies and lorded it over a great empire which included almost all of Europe and most of the known world. This overwhelming influence had meaning for the whole world ever since in more than empirical politics, and included language, culture, literature and civilization. Interestingly, the historical influence and literary imitation were felt in another period of English history, the Augustan or Neo-Classical era around the early 18th century when English society was said to reflect that classical Greco-Roman period ruled by Augustus Caesar (nephew of Julius).
Pax Britannica is also the title of a publication by Jan Morris, inspired by that same ascendancy of Great Britain 1815-1914 during which England accumulated an empire in every corner of the world, upon which “the sun never set.” Morris produced a grand survey of the economy, the history, the politics and the civilization, which reached well into the twentieth century. Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 ‘Britannia’ assumed power over Europe and “ruled the waves” as the most powerful nation on the seas.
What is of major significance here is the importance of the United Kingdom as a colonial power and the irony of ‘the British peace’ during a time when they colonised, often by force, and profited immeasurably from the spoils of plunder. This included sugar and slavery, Africa, India, the Far East and the Middle East. It is also significant, because of and in spite of it, there were amazing cultural complications and great literature was produced.
Pak’s Britannica is a product of this and eloquently articulates several of the complex and remarkable issues arising out of British colonisation, the empire, slavery, indentureship, race, 18th century and contemporary English societies, language, the West Indies, migration, ‘otherness,’ English and post-colonial literature.
Pak’s Britannica is David Dabydeen’s ironic, slightly mischievous response to Pax Britannica. But despite this tongue in cheek title and a tendency to poke fun, it is an extremely serious, significant, well researched and excellently written post-colonial response. It is a punning title, a Pak’s view of this (former) empire that solidified itself during 100 years of ‘everlasting peace’ on the wealth accumulated from the mass movement of people from two continents. It looks at this, the society, the language and the literature, from the point of view of a ‘Paki,’ a derogatory racial term used in Britain for people of Indian descent, (see Pakistani). It is Dabydeen’s response on behalf of Africans, Indians, immigrants and people dislocated by ocean-going ships whether Turner’s Slave Ship, the Hesperus in 1838 or the Windrush in 1948.
This is a collection of articles by and interviews with Dabydeen edited by Lynne Macedo and published by The UWI Press in Kingston 2011. Macedo is Associate Fellow of the Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick and a fine critic with a deep interest in West Indian literature. Her scholarly introduction makes sense out of a wide range of selections in the book and very sharply puts Dabydeen and the collection in context. She places “the first book to be devoted solely to Dabydeen’s academic works” and comments on their “abiding concern with highlighting the historical erasure of black history and culture in the West.” She is sensitive to the readiness of “this loose-tongued ambassador” to be controversial, forthright and provocative. He is all of those in this collection which she says will “confront, confound and surprise his colleagues and critics alike.”
Professor Dabydeen is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Guyana’s Ambassador to China) as well as Professor of Literature and former Director of the Centre for Caribbean Studies at Warwick. He has published three books of poetry and six novels as well as many works on English art, history and literature, and on West Indian literature. He has won the Guyana Prize, the Raja Rao Award for Literature, the Commonwealth Prize and the Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Award for Excellence and was shortlisted for others including the Impac-Dublin Prize.
Pak’s Britannica is a companion volume to Talking Words also edited by Macedo and published in 2011, which is a collection of criticisms on Dabydeen’s work by diverse hands. Both the papers by Dabydeen and the interviews reveal not only his willingness to talk (“loose-tongued” according to Macedo) but the range and depths of his interests and concerns, his plain-spoken forthrightness, his downright honesty and generosity of spirit. His positions are never neutral; he takes risks with no fear of controversy in a manner that is almost Naipaulian. Ironically, he is able to pay homage to the giants of West Indian literature, to revere and praise them while being incisive as well as critical and sometimes disapproving of their attitudes and positions. Ironically, his criticisms of Naipaul unwittingly reveal a kindred spirit where risk-taking is concerned. Dabydeen is only slightly aware that many of Naipaul’s postures and uncharitable utterances arise from his ploy of using and inviting controversy, taking risks and sticking his neck out. In similar fashion, Dabydeen remains in awe of but criticizes Eddie Kamau Brathwaite for being stuck in an outdated Africanist position of 30 years ago.
Some of his impressions on these writers come in the interviews in Section 2 of the book. Two of the most interesting are contrasting in structure. In talking with Letizia Gramaglia about “A Forced Indianness” Dabydeen is given brief, stimulating questions and allowed to speak freely, releasing several biographical and critical insights into his reading of other writers, of English and West Indian society and of ethnicity. Yet Gramaglia is a scrupulous researcher and is able to fortify the many references with editorship and evidence. In contrast, Chelva Kanaganayakam interrogates Dabydeen closely on several points and might have been as disappointed as some readers might be to learn that some of the most brilliant references and artistic engagements found in the poetry were not deliberately put there, but were “pure intuition” or “happy accidents,” according to the author.
It is noteworthy that Pak’s Britannica pays a great deal of attention to Dabydeen’s poetry, all published in the first half of his career (1984-1994). A series of novels followed in 1996 to 2012 unanswered by any new volume of poetry, but Slave Song, Coolie Odyssey and Turner are major subjects right across the collection. It may be that the issues of language are ventilated several times in the interviews as well as in ‘Eighteenth Century English Literature on Commerce and Slavery,’ ‘On Not Being Milton: Nigger Talk in England Today,’ ‘Hogarth and the Canecutters’ and others, which all drive the writer to expound upon his own poetry and other English verses that he has researched. Many who might know Dabydeen as a novelist will learn extensively; Macedo feels they will be surprised.
Actually, weaknesses found in this volume have to do with poetry and language.
It is not always easy to find empathy with some of Dabydeen’s utterances on the Creole language(s) which “gang aft agley [awry]” with modern linguistic theory. The Creole is far more structured and stable than comes over in his discussions, which are inconsistent because he often gets it right. The subject is advanced considerably, for example, by his appreciation of the rhythms and expressive quality, while his comparison with the alliterative Middle English rhythms is inspired. Unlike Dabydeen, however, Derek Walcott has found useful compatibility with the English pentametre, which is highly used in calypso and a number of traditional speech performances in the Caribbean.
In addition to the language question, Dabydeen treats the major and extremely important matter of the close relationships between slavery and the might of Great Britain.
The way in which Britain was enriched by the financial gain is thoroughly articulated as is the moral support given to it by writers and poets. Reading Dabydeen one is invited to explore a fascinating matrix of inter-relationships among economics, morality, literature, art and society. Not only is this relevant to the 18th century, but the discourse in various chapters of the book is remarkably instructive about connections right up to the 20th century. In effect this book is an excellent document about post-colonialism and the creation of post-colonial literature.
The most famous piece included in the volume is ‘From Care to Cambridge’ which is deceptively simple.
Dabydeen’s plain spoken, first person and personal style belies the profundity of his thoughts on the social angsts, the important economic underpinnings, the literature and his precise and insightful readings of other writers. He also enters into intertextual engagements with Shakespeare’s The Tempest which actually helps him to explore his interesting research on the art of Hogarth. But The Tempest is also the archetypal drama on colonisation, ‘otherness,’ power and sexuality.
Dabydeen writes beautifully and expresses thoughts well supported by research with such ease that the weight and complexity of the scholarship seem “obviously a part of it.” Generally this book is eloquently delivered. All these qualities put together make Pak’s Britannica very easy to read. It is an articulate treatise on post-colonial literature that is provocative, controversial, highly informative and something that one can actually enjoy reading.
