Book Review
guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com

Guyana Metegee
Some Notes on Ovid Abrams - Book on Guyanese Culture

Posted April 24th 2000 - By David Hinds

I usually don't get into the business of reviewing books. To begin with, its not really my area of expertise. But more importantly, I am quite cautious about messing with people's creativity. You see , people generally expect a review to be a negative commentary on a work; you must tear it apart. Not me, I aint into that. If a book is destructive, I will take the writer to task and what follows that, follows.

So what I am writing today is not a typical review. Rather its a statement of gratitude to the writer for a necessary and proper book. I would not describe Ovid Abrams' Guyana Metegee as the most profound work of art. But in terms of its relevance, it ranks with the best artistic products that have come out of the post-colonial Caribbean experience.

I well remember the first edition of Guyana Metegee published some three decades ago. It was a small booklet of about sixty pages or so, but it was full of culture. This new Metegee is 456 pages of rich Guyanese culture. Its a cultural statement that must be embraced by all those inquisitive enough to know from whence we came or from what we are made.

The title itself tells the story. Metegee is a popular Guyanese dish consisting of Aplantain and duff, cassava, eddoe, yam, sweet potato, breadfruit, and tanya cooked in coconut milk with either saltfish, fresh fish, or meat spread out in the middle. I think I got it right. Metegee is a hell of a dish. We Guyanese A Country People call it Metem. Jamaicans call it A Tough Food and Trinis call it A Oildown. So you see, its a Caribbean thing.

Guyana Metegee is indeed a Metegee. It is a compilation of explanations and descriptions of Guyana's cultural festivals, cultural history, customs, sayings and myths. It has everything inside--Creolese, Proverbs, Queh-Queh, Jhandee, Obeah, Cumfa, Jumbie, Yag, Phagwa, Backoo, Jordanites, PorkKnockers, Garlic Pork, Nancy Story, Fairmaid, Sitira, Buck, Chinee, Putagee, Blackman, Coolie and Bakra. You cant ask fuh more. Or better put, ask fuh am and it deh in deh.

Ovid Abrams, meh country-man, Chalk-Hux, really went to town on this book--plenty, plenty research. As Teacher George Young, the ultimate exponent of Guyanese folk language, would say A He really extall heself. Its the only comprehensive book of Guyanese folk life that has been written thus far. Its a book that ought to find itself on every Guyanese and Caribbean bookshelf. I recommend it as the ideal resent, especially for the children.

Quite apart from the rich folklore jumping from the pages, you have some added information in the book--Baxes or Mecking-up. There are 134 pages of Guyanese history from slavery to the present. There are statistics on Guyana. There are folksongs and patriotic songs. There is artwork showing the Porkknocker, Tajah and Mother Sally. Then there is a Glossary that gives you the meanings of the Creolese words. Plenty mecking-up. Teck it from me, is a good, good book.

Guyana Metegee has among other things set me thinking about the very serious issue of the Guyanese nation. Is there really such a thing? Does the Guyana we know fit the label a Nation

Guyana Metegee, without setting out to do so, addresses these questions. Its an attempt to present Guyana in one big pot, with all its differences and sameness. Abrams chooses to put Metegee in the pot. Some may ask why not Dhall, Garlic Pork or Chowmein?

Well that's the dilemma of the Guyanese culture. I suppose the author chooses Metegee, an African dish, because he is African. But in that Metem he puts all the ingredients form the different race groups. Quite a feat I may say. And its not a hoge-poge, its the real thing. I, therefore, submit that Guyana Metegee is a genuine attempt at welding together the different strands of the Guyanese cultural experience. Hail up Ovid Abrams.

To obtain your copy of Guyana Metegee call Ashanti Press at (212) 512-2504, (718) 868-9201 or (202) 483-2803.