When I was teaching both an anthropology survey course on the Caribbean and one on Women of the Caribbean, I was surprised to find out how very few of my students could name a novelist, poet, or scholar from the region, or even non-Caribbean scholars whose area of focus is Caribbean history or culture. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised, given that few of them could even locate most Caribbean countries on the map—including those students who were Caribbean by birth or ancestry.

We are now faced with a political firestorm here in the U.S. about the teaching of history, with racist politicians and members of school boards opting to sanitize and whitewash reading materials. I can’t help but wonder how this will affect the introduction of writings from the Caribbean, which already get short shrift.

So, in the weeks and months ahead, I will be featuring Caribbean writers and scholars and their work, alongside urgent Caribbean news.

Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.

Let’s first address the basics: “What is a Caribbean writer?” An Oxford University graduate student named Dominic Davies raised this question, through the school’s “Great Writers Inspire” initiative.

Also key to a better historical and cultural understanding of the area, is the work of anthropologists who have been dubbed “Caribbeanists.” (Many Caribbeanists are not Caribbean.) For a synopsis of their work, what-when-how offers this historical overview of the field.

When I was in graduate school, much of the Caribbean anthropology we explored was the work of Sidney Mintz.

One of the most important contemporary anthropologists of the Caribbean was the late Michel-Rolph Trouillot.

Political anthropologist Yarimar Bonilla explored Trouillot’s work for the North American Congress on Latin America in 2013.

Shifting to the literary world, there is a bottomless cornucopia of writing from Caribbean poets, novelists, and playwrights to add to your reading list, though a complete collection would be far too long to post here. Writing in English, Spanish, French, Hindustani, Dutch, and Creole, these writers were both born in the Caribbean, or of Caribbean ancestry, based in the lands of their colonizers.

I think of Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay in that context.

I have never forgotten reading “If We Must Die” as a young person. 

If we must die, let it be not like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Then there are contemporary writers as well. A Twitter search offers numerous posts and links to introduce us to their work.

There’s Barbados’ George Lamming …

… and Antigua’s Jamaica Kincaid.

There’s also Haiti’s Edwidge Danticat …

… and Dominican American Julia Alvarez.

Moving to the world of history and historians, C.L.R. James’ The Black Jacobins should be required reading for everyone.

The work of Eric Williams is a must-read. Williams was not only a historian, he was also the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

This is just a snapshot of some of the writers we’ll be exploring in-depth in the coming weeks. I would love to hear suggestions and recommendations from readers, so join me in the comments section below to post your thoughts and reviews, and for the latest Caribbean news updates.