Think Piece on "Tanti at D Oval

Paul Keens-Douglas is a Trinidadian born playwright and performer. He spent his early childhood in Grenada and has gone on to spread the Caribbean diaspora to several parts of the world including the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. He has written and performed numerous literary pieces, all of which have been heavily influenced by Caribbean civilisation. For this paper, his piece entitled ‘Tanti at de Oval’ shall be examined. This particular short story was published by Douglas in 1992 and was written and performed in the first person narrative. The piece details the journey of the character ‘Tanti Merle’, a sixty-five year old Vincentian woman, who is taken to the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad to watch the cricket match between the Combined Islands, a union of all the smaller Caribbean territories, and Trinidad and Tobago. Tanti Merle, being from St. Vincent, was supporting the Combined Islands. It shares the antics of Tanti Merle and how she embarrasses herself and her companion at the Oval. The piece is set in the first person, from the narrator’s point of view and is performed in English Creole. The use of this dialect helps to solidify the piece as uniquely Caribbean. This short story highlights a multitude of issues that were present in the time when this story was set, many of which still persist in today’s society. This paper will seek to examine some of these issues such as the role of cricket as a sport in the Caribbean, the Caribbean dialect, and national pride and patriotism.

“Cricket is a game of high and difficult technique. If it were not, it could not carry the load of social response and implications which it carries.” – CLR James. The influence of cricket as a sport in the Caribbean has been immensely important to the shaping of Caribbean civilization since introduction of the sport during the period of Caribbean colonization by the British. The game was first played in the Caribbean by English soldiers as a form of recreation during...