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JAMAICAN writers invited to give talks at the Sharjah International Book Fair could not help recalling the devastation that Hurricane Melissa unleashed on their Caribbean nation late last month. 

One of them, Kwame MA McPherson, the first Jamaican to win the Commonwealth Short Story Prize broke down when he talked about the country he left behind. 

Melissa disrupted the lives of some 1.5 million Jamaicans in one of the worst climate disasters that claimed 45 lives. 

“When I see what happened to our country and our brothers and sisters, it really tears me apart.

“To be here (in UAE) really means a lot. Not just to me, but to other Jamaicans, too. Sharjah has been a wonderful opportunity,” Kwame said, urging those interested to help Jamaica rebuild to do so at supportjamaica.gov.jm. 

“Melissa devastated half the country. Lots of homes had been blown off, livelihoods lost.

“For me, being here is personal – in terms of representing and showing that we are around and have our stories to tell.”

Kwame said the hurricane with 130km/h winds struck a week before leaving the island. 

Another writer and author of “Rasta Wolf”, Marcus Bird, echoed the sentiment about the trail of destruction left by Hurricane Melissa:

“We’re coming from a land that has been devastated. And we left devastated, but we’re going back elated. We found a lot of joy and inspiration here (Sharjah).

“It’s about elevating your mind. Meeting people who have an interest in you, even if they don’t look like you,” Marcus told the audience during the “Culture in Motion” session at the book fair. Daily Express is one of selected global media regularly invited to cover the event.

Kwame’s winning story “Ocoee” intertwines Caribbean folklore and stories from African American history. Written in the form of flash fiction, his preferred writing style, the story centres on a driver who is pulled over by the police on a lonely road outside Ocoee. 

The protagonist later rediscovers a connection with his own past after finding out about the town’s dark history. 

Earlier, during the session, moderator Alia Al Mansouri said exploring different cultures via storytelling is only natural regardless of what they’re told.

“We’re talking about motion and cultures. It’s very interesting to explore different cultures via storytelling. Humans are storytellers by nature.”

She said today’s stories centre on human experience, identity and cultures. Curious, she asked the invited speakers on how they grew up consuming stories.

Both agreed that picking up books were a norm in their households growing up, so they’re great advocates for reading and especially the current festival they’re invited to. 

Marcus said children will be interested in anything they think is cool.

“We have TikTok and stuff, right? But as we see at the book fair here, you have thousands of kids just ready to grab the book and sit down and read because it has been presented as a cool thing to read.

“I find that if children have an interest in a book or an author, even if they’re on TikTok all day, when they need to read a book, they read a book.”

Going back to the session’s topic, the moderator highlighted about shared human experience in a highly globalised world.

“We’re talking about identity and storytelling, but at the same time, I think we sometimes overlook or neglect the beauty of our human diversity within those little things in our culture,” Alia said, citing the food, dances, music and literature, among others. 

“How do you balance between that and being rooted to your own culture and traditions, but at the same time go out to the world?”

Kwame said he does incorporate Jamaican touches like food, music and folklore into his writing.

“The majority of the time, that’s the way you get cultural references, things that someone can learn, including locations or sites, which I incorporate into my storytelling so someone can have a visual imagery of what Jamaica looks like.”

Marcus, who has lived outside Jamaica for a while, said he writes characters that are in a similar circumstance.

“Having lived in countries like Japan or the US, I am a Jamaican, but I am not in Jamaica. So, who am I? I find that when I do write about characters like that, the way I reference a person as a Jamaican sometimes is just by saying they’re Jamaican.

“So many people know Jamaica. But then the elements that make that person a Jamaican come out in their personality. So, it won’t be like an identity-based character,” he said, adding that Jamaica is also known for its multicultural backgrounds.

“We have people of African descent, Indians, Chinese, mixed – we all have our stories and languages.”

One of the more popular movies with deep Jamaican flavours is the Bob Marley biopic, “One Love”.

Kwame attributed it to the “No Woman, No Cry” singer’s global fame which also introduced reggae music at the global stage. 

“Bob Marley did not lose his Jamaican identity wherever he went,” he said, adding that when it comes to putting pen to paper, describing Jamaican culture is the same thing. 

“We know that the character is Jamaican. Everything about the mannerisms – how he interacts, wherever he goes, the culturalisms, all that kind of stuff comes into play.”