Race and Nationalism in Trinidad and Tobago

Book excerpt: Trinidad's population of about one million represents a microcosm of the world's peoples and is one of the most exciting laboratories for the study of race relations. Within its small compass are people of African, Indian, European, and Chinese extraction, most of whom are descendants of those who came or were brought to the island to cultivate or manage the sugar plantations which were the mainstay of its economy up to the turn of the century. This study focuses on Trinidad's political history from 1919 to the present. It analyses the transition to nationhood of this former British colony, and examines some of the problems with which it has been confronted since it gained independence. The author's principal aim has been to explore the influence which the island's cultural and ethnic diversity has had on the struggle for political and social reform and to suggest explanations for the failure of the programme of radical decolonization which nationalists had confidently assumed would follow upon political independence. Little has been written of the political history of Trinidad after 1919: this is the first unbiased and scholarly study of its evolution from colonial to independent status. Dr. Ryan has written a coherent, comprehensive, and highly readable study of a fascinating and important period in Caribbean history.