Sylvia Wynter's Dream

By Natalia Downer

“Create and Celebrate or be Cast Aside?” – Godforsaken Globalization

There are certain questions that must be considered when investigating the reason behind why Jamaican creatives are seemingly being forced to make their writing conform to local restrictions. Some include:

• How does globalization affect our creations?
• Who is trying to keep our writing local?
• Why are they trying to keep our writing local when we are living in a global era?

So, first of all, what is globalization?

According to the Collin’s Dictionary, it is “the expansion of many businesses into markets throughout the world, marked by an increase in international investment, the proliferation of large multinational corporations, worldwide economic integration, etc.” There are also about three types of globalization which can be considered, namely:

• Political,
• Economical, and
• Cultural

the third being the most impactful to this conversation.

But…how does globalization factor into the publication industry?

Photo by Ravi Kant: https://www.pexels.com/photo/word-define-on-spelling-dictionary-page-5929346/

There is a conversation going around concerning the issue of the modernization of cultures – which came as a result of globalization – destroying tradition. One source specifically tackles this conversation, paying close attention to novels written around the globe. This thought can very much be seen echoing within the Jamaican publishing houses, as well as amongst our people. This also happens to give somewhat of an answer to the other two questions.

So, who is trying to keep our stories local? Our publishers. And why are they trying to do this? Because they would like to uphold tradition…or so it seems.

Let us, once again, take a look at Ian Randle Publishers, for example. This publishing house, founded by Ian Randle, began in 1991 and was run by Randle himself for around 40 years – give or take – before his daughter Christine took over management sometime in the 2000’s. Now, the culture of Jamaica has changed in the past 40+ years. However, as Ian Randle Publishing is known to have been responsible for decreasing the Caribbean’s dependency on its colonizers (the UK,) in regards to getting work (such as history, culture, and sports-related texts) published, why would Randle want to break this tradition, today, for the modern Jamaica?

With the establishment of his very own Caribbean-based publishing house, why should he allow Caribbean writers…Jamaicans…to write ‘Eurocentric’ or related books and have them published in his establishment that aimed to give Jamaicans colonial independence in the publishing industry?

Let us also consider his daughter, Christine Randle. Yes, she is younger than he is, but that doesn’t mean that she is any more ‘modern’ than he is.

Maybe this is all too confusing.

What I am trying to say is that, perhaps – especially because of her father’s legacy – she has also conformed to his way of thinking, his traditions, and his beliefs. It doesn’t help that her profession originally lied in the legal field. With all of this pressure (maybe) and tradition that she grew up around, she is only doing what she believes is right which is to protect and carry on the vision that Ian had for Ian Randle Publishers. We cannot then blame her, can we? What if we were in her position?

BUT, regardless of tradition and trying to ‘please Pops’, she, just like anyone else in the industry, has a responsibility to advocate for Caribbean voices, Jamaican voices, to be heard, to be represented…in all the shapes, colours, and accents that they come in. Do you not agree?

Here are some other notable links to consider:

The Globalization of Culture

Globalization of Culture Through the Media

The Novel and the Globalization of Culture

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