When a young white child growing up in Tanzania discovers why her family’s African gardener so dislikes the chameleon she spots in a tree, she is plunged into a puzzled awareness of the complexities of race, colour and difference. As the ‘I’ of the stories grows into adulthood in Nigeria, she too becomes a chameleon of sorts, one thing when she is with her Nigerian friends, another with the white tribe when she can no longer resist the lure of the scarce luxuries to be had at the British embassy. When the ‘I’ makes the crossing from Nigeria to the Caribbean, she discovers that it is not only people who are chameleons. Osun, the Yoruba orisha has also made the journey, a little outwardly changed, but inwardly the same in Trinidadian and Cuban manifestations.
About the Author:
Jane Bryce writes: “Since joining Cave Hill in 1992, I have had responsibility for the Department's offerings in the area of African Literature, as well as teaching courses on the novel, poetry, literature of the colonial encounter, creative writing and feminist theory/women's writing.
“Although not a specialist, I cover Caribbean literature and film in a number of the courses I teach, especially at graduate level.
“I have taught Creative Writing: Fiction since 1997, a workshop based course designed to equip students with the skills for writing short fiction, some of which finds its way into Poui: the Cave Hill Journal of Creative Writing.
“Together with two other colleagues, I have been involved in the initiative to expand the opportunities for creative writing at Cave Hill. This has included summer workshops in prose fiction and poetry led by well known Caribbean writers, Erna Brodber (prose) and Lorna Goodison (poetry) in 1998, Olive Senior (prose) and Grace Nichols (poetry) in 1999, and Kendel Hipployte (poetry) and Merle Collins (prose) in 2001. I have also brought writers such as Gabriel Gbadamosi (poet, UK)), Niyi Osundare (poet, Nigeria), Colin Channer (romance fiction writer, Jamaica), as well as locally resident writers, to the campus.
Since its inception in 1999, I have been on the editorial board of Poui: the Cave Hill.”
Chameleon and Other Stories
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