Description

Diasporic Rhythms:

Interrogating the Past Imagining a Future

Since the passing of our editorial advisory board member Edward Kamau Brathwaite, on February 4, 2020, across the diaspora, outpourings of gratitude, lyricized in readings, musings and other tributes continue. With this 35th anniversary edition, themed: Diasporic Rhythms: Interrogating the Past Imagining a Future, The Caribbean Writer (TCW) adds to the voices raised in praise of Brathwaite’s experimental linguistic, culturally probing thought, literary style and legacy. One legacy rippling among the waves of Caribbean linguistics is his coinage of the term “Nation Language.” As the best exemplar of this elevating and “creative system that infuses the imposed language with the attributes of the suppressed system”— often referred to pejoratively as “dialect” —Brathwaite has inspired many writers to explore the limitless possibilities of the language created in the crosswinds of relocation and colonialism within the Caribbean and its diaspora.