Tanti at the Oval

‘Tanti at the Oval’ by Paul Keens Douglas

Born in 1942 to the twin isle republic of Trinidad and Tobago and spending his early academic life in Grenada with his family, Paul Keens-Douglas has delighted and captivated audiences worldwide. A successful poet, storyteller, dramatist, lecturer, producer and the list goes on; his work has caused most to find within them a Caribbean identity through the creation of characters such as “Tim Tim”, “Slim and Tall boy” and “Tanti Merle” among others. These characters help portray some of the writer’s own life experiences and highlights Caribbean society within those time periods. His ideology is not about the profits made, but about the art form of Caribbean poetry and storytelling being delivered to persons in a way it can truly touch the soul. “I write not for today, but that someday it will be found. By someone who will have the sense, to know what is, and what is not profound.” This excerpt was taken from a poem of Paul Keens-Douglas “Who will tell my story” and reiterates the pioneering of the oral traditions and the use of vernacular/ dialect in literature. His influence can be gauged in retrospect to one of his inspirations, a fellow West Indian by the name of Mrs Louise Bennett-Coverley. Her focus was to give her fellow Jamaicans a sense of National identity by focusing on dimensions such as language, identity, gender and race. This was accomplished through similar use of characters that each focused on a specific element of what it meant to be Jamaican. When compared, one can see that Paul Keens-Douglas took a similar route and fashioned his career similarly in a time of post independence for Trinidad and Tobago and helping its people find their own identity and highlighting social issues and norms within culture.

The work under review for this think piece, “Tanti at the Oval” brings to life one of the writer’s, Paul Keens-Douglas, many characters in his culture closet that is Tanti Merle. Taken back to an era of...