Heritage minister: Writing surge would close cultural, educational gaps

Barbados needs more writers to safeguard its cultural identity and support national development, Minister of Pan-African Affairs and Heritage Trevor Prescod has warned, describing the literary arts as a critically underrepresented front in the struggle for regional preservation.

Pointing to a shortage of Barbadian-produced literature, Prescod issued an urgent appeal to writers to treat their craft as both a cultural responsibility and a viable economic enterprise.

“What this country needs is writers,” Prescod declared emphatically. “Not just writing an article occasionally… I’m asking for us to produce our own material that is a business. It requires all the skills of an entrepreneur.”

His comments were made at the launch of a writing contest for the Season of Emancipation. The competition, offering a top prize of $20 000, is open for submissions until July 32. Through the Office of Pan-African Affairs and Heritage, Prescod said the government stands ready to support writers and cultural practitioners seeking to transform their intellectual property into sustainable businesses.

The minister voiced concern about the content shaping the perspectives of young people, arguing that reliance on imported texts leaves many students disconnected from their own heritage.

“Our secondary schools, or primary schools, require books written in our primary school systems,” Prescod said. “I’m gonna take this opportunity to reach out to you. I spoke to other people in the library, and we need writers. Even some children do not even know who our national heroes are. They don’t have a mental construct of what they look like.”

Prescod challenged authors to develop and commercialise educational and historical works that reflect Caribbean realities, suggesting that such material could foster both identity and aspiration among young readers.

“I don’t see why some of us… cannot prepare some small books so that our children can see examples of our own talent, mirror any material which they read every day, and can say, ‘I want to be like A, B, or C,’ which is Caribbean, Barbadian, whatever, right? I think that is an area that we can also look at because society is starving for it.”

Referring to pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey, the central figure of this year’s Season of Emancipation competition, Prescod highlighted the historical example of self-publishing and media ownership. He noted that Garvey, despite lacking formal secondary or university education, established newspapers in the 1920s, demonstrating the importance of initiative and self-reliance.

Contemporary Barbadian writers must show similar “drive” in packaging, publishing and exporting their work to global audiences, Prescod said. 

(RR)