A new publication that traces the intertwined histories of sugar and rum is the latest project from pan-Africanist and writer William Thomas (Tom) Dalgety.
“It is a book that speaks about politics and technology, as I have pointed out that it is money from sugar that built the [Demerara] Harbour Bridge. It is money from sugar that made us who we are,” Dalgety told Stabroek News in an interview.
Dalgety’s book, “Sugar and Rum 1640-1892 in Diaspora Africa” contends that rum was exported to Holland in 1763 from Berbice. It also posits that because cane needed a highly steady temperature and adequate rainfall, islanders who first benefited from the growth and production of sugar were Barbadians.
Dalgety hails from Corentyne, Berbice. He told this newspaper that his father, who was a policeman, patrolled sugar communities on the behalf of the colonialists. Dalgety said his pan-Africanism was influenced by his parents who were part of the Negro Progress Convention.
He has also written other works, including “PNC Burnham and Beyond” and “Alternative Materials: Knowledge, Manage-ment and Wealth”. The former, he said, was challenged by former mayor Hamilton Green. “Although I am not a friend of his, I included Hamilton Green in an email I sent out to friends,” Dalgety said, recounting how the long-time PNC stalwart came to be at a presentation he made. “I received a call the same night and he [Green] said, ‘You are falsifying history. How could you write and say the Enmore monument was built by the PPP/C?”
However, he said, it was Green who sparked the general populace’s interest in his book. He shared, “At another presentation, Green, who had to speak, before even saying comrade and friends, started, ‘Did you invite Ras Dalgety to this conference? He wrote something that was sent out to his friends that should be read by a wider audience.’”
Weeks after he had greatly exceeded his target of selling 50 copies of “PNC Burnham and Beyond”, he said, he realized that it was Green’s comments that caused the sales.
“Alternative Materials: Knowledge, Management and Wealth,” he said, “took me to Africa in 2004. What happened was while I was at Guymine I fell in love with what is called the industrial minerals, those are minerals that build civilization.”
He said his inspiration to write “Sugar and Rum” developed after he wrote a long paper titled ‘Development of Sugar in the West Indies 1640 to 1892’. It is his hope that at a selling price of $8,000 he can have parliamentarians and stakeholders from the sugar estates and distilleries especially purchase the book as it is their story being told. For those desirous of purchasing copies Dalgety can be contacted on 592 690 7433
