Book Review: Latin America and Caribbean: Race and Colour in Caribbean Literature
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900441 |
| Author | Elisabeth Wallace |
| Date | 01 December 1964 |
| Published date | 01 December 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
594
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
and
forthright
effort
to
fill
an embarrassing
void
in
Middle
Eastern
studies.
The
author,
for
years a
colonial
servant
involved
in
South
Arabian
affairs,
is
as
eminently
qualified
as
anyone
at
present
to
under-
take
this
formidable
task.
The
central
theme
is
an
ancient
religious
idea
now
in
conflict
with
Arab nationalism
of
the
Nasserite
hue,
and,
while
realistic
in his
evaluation
of
the royalist
cause,
Ingrains
is
unquestionably
skeptical
of
what
he considers
recent Egyptian
imperialism
in
the
Yemen.
A
brief
but accurate
outline
is
given
of
the
rise
and
development,
within
the
context
of
fierce
tribal
individualism,
of
the
schismatic
Zeidi
Ima-
mate
with
its
dual
claim
to
sovereignty
through
descent
from
the
Prophet
Muhammad
and
the
pre-Islamic
Tubba
kings
of
Himyar.
This
cursory
review
of
the
past
millennium
of
Yemeni
history
reveals
one
consistency-the
political
dichotomy
between
the interior
pro-Zeidi
regions and
the
coastal plain (Tihamah),
the
latter
forever antagonistic
towards
the
former
and more
vulnerable
to
foreign
influences.
Pre-
occupation
with
Imamic-British
relations
in
the
southern
Yemen
is
justified,
for
it
was
the
belligerent
opposition of
Imam
Ahmed
(1948-62)
to
the
post-World
War
II
British
"forward
policy"
in
the
Western
Aden
Protectorate
that
for
the
first
time
compelled
him
to
seek
outside
Arab
assistance.
His
country
was
thus
exposed
to
the
influences
of
Nasserism,
which
culminated
in
the yet
unresolved
republican revolu-
tion
of
1962.
The
book
ends on
a
pessimistic
note
regarding
the
future:
whereas
the
Anglo-Yemeni
treaty
of
1934
divided
the
country into
three
regions,
Aden
Colony,
Western
Protectorate,
and
Imamic
Yemen,
the
revolution
of
1962
has
redivided
it
into
Egyptian, Imamic,
and
British
Yemen,
none
of which
promises
permanency.
The few
minor typographical
errors
detract
little
from
the
over-
all
merit
of
this
work.
Its
lucid
style,
factual
material,
and
systematic
arrangement
enhance
the
value
of
a
study,
indeed
the
only
study,
of
a
remote
country
now
attracting
the
attention
of
the
world
press.
University
of
Toronto
J. R.
BLACKBURN
Latin
America
and
Caribbean
RACE
AND
COLOUR
IN
CARIBBEAN LITERATURE.
By
G.
R.
Coulthard.
1962.
(New
York:
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press.
152pp.
$4.50)
A
national
culture
is
usually
considered
among
the appropriate
trappings
of
a
country,
especially
of one
newly-independent. Local
in-
dustries,
however,
are
more
easily
produced
than
good
poets
and
novel-
ists.
Fashioning
a culture,
as Canadians have
reason
to
know,
is
likely
to
involve
heart-searching,
self-consciousness,
meditation
on
the
national
"image"
(good,
bad,
non-existent?),
and
a
spate
of
books
on
a
brave
little
(or
vast great)
country's search
for
an
identity.
West
Indian
writers
place
a
familiar
emphasis
on
local
subjects
and
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