Gérard Besson (historian)

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Gérard Besson (2007)

Gérard Anthony Besson (born January 20, 1942 in Port of Spain ) is a Trinidadian historian, writer and publisher.

Life

Gérard was born in Port of Spain in 1942, the only child of Joseph and Margaret Besson. The father was a white plantation overseer whose family was originally of French descent, and his mother of color worked in the oil industry. After his parents separated before he even reached school age, he grew up in the Catholic, Patois-speaking household of his maternal grandmother. He attended a state primary school in Port of Spain-Downtown and then St. Thomas High School in Belmont . At 15 he entered professional life and worked a. a. in the service and manufacturing sector; he frequented intellectual circles and got to know Samuel Selvon and VS Naipaul . In the 1960s he sympathized with the black power movement, which also gripped Trinidad. In 1965, after the death of his grandmother, he inherited a significant sum of money and traveled to Great Britain, where he tried in vain to gain a foothold as a painter and writer. After his return he worked in Trinidad as a copywriter for various advertising agencies, where he received media attention in the late 1960s when he was the first advertiser in Trinidad to use black models to advertise high-priced products. In 1973 he set up his own agency together with the musician Clive Bradley . Also in 1973 he married Sheelagh Hezekiah, with whom he has three sons. From 1979 to 1985, Besson served two terms on the Council of the University of the West Indies (UWI). At the beginning of the 1980s, Besson was a member of the circle of writers and historians around Olga Mavrogordato, widow of Arthur Stephen Mavrogordato . The group, which also included Anthony de Verteuil and Michael Anthony , studied the history and cultural tradition of Trinidad and Tobago. In 1981, Besson founded Paria Publishing to reissue works on the history of Trinidad and Tobago that were no longer in print. In the following 35 years his publisher published over 130 books, most of them non-fiction by Trinidadian historians. From 1982 to 1985 Besson was director of the National Museum and Art Gallery in Port of Spain. 1995 Besson's advertising agency was bought by Lonsdale Saatchi & Saatchi ; Besson remained creative director. In 1996 he separated from his wife; In 1998 he married the German Alice Schwarz. In 2002 he retired from professional life, but remained in the cultural business on a voluntary basis. In the 2000s he curated exhibitions in several museums, such as the Museum at the House of Angostura (2001–2003), the Heritage Library (2004) and the National Museum and Art Gallery (2007). In 2005, Besson served on the governing body of the National Trust and the body that created the Academy of Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs at the University of Trinidad and Tobago . From 2011 to 2014 he was a member of the state anti-discrimination Equal Opportunities Commission at the invitation of then President George Maxwell Richards .

Besson is a member of the Association of Caribbean Historians and the Caribbean Publishers Network.

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Besson's work as a historian encompasses various aspects of Trinidadian and Tobagonian culture and history, which is partly due to research assignments from companies and institutions. A central element of his prose work is the story of the Afro-French Trinidadians, including his family. The fortunes of this ethnic group are a central element of his novels The Voice in the Govi and From the Gates of Aksum . The plots of his novels are fictional, but set against real historical backgrounds, especially Roume de St. Laurent… A memoir that is set close to the fate of Philippe Rose Roume de Saint-Laurent , a French adventurer who made significant contributions in the late 18th century Influenced the development of the then Spanish colony of Trinidad by making the Cedula de populacion known in the Caribbean, an edict of the Spanish minister responsible for Trinidad, José de Gálvez y Gallardo , which from 1783 increased the settlement of Catholic, especially French citizens on the until 1797 allowed the Spanish island of Trinidad and thereby enabled a significant increase in population and a rapidly increasing economic output of the island.

In 2000 and 2001, Besson was responsible for The Land of Beginnings , a 24-issue monthly supplement to the daily Trinidad Newsday with historical topics, which was filmed as a three-part documentary by the Trinidadian television channel TTT. His book The Cult of the Will , published in 2010, was met with controversy.It deals to a large extent with the former Trinidadian Prime Minister Eric Williams and assumes that he has a historically unestablished view of the role of Great Britain in the colonial history of Trinidad as well as racist echoes in shaping his politics .

With the Caribbean History Archives, Besson runs a private weblog that collects findings from Trinidadian historical research.

Works (excerpt)

Novels

  • 1973: Tales of the Paria Main Road (Creative Advertising)
  • 1988: A Diary of Dreams (Paria Publishing)
  • 2011: The Voice in the Govi (Paria Publishing)
  • 2013: From the Gates of Aksum (Paria Publishing)
  • 2016: Roume de St. Laurent… A Memoir (Paria Publishing)

Non-fiction

  • 1985: A Photograph Album of Trinidad at the Turn of the 19th Century (Paria Publishing)
  • 1987: From Colonial to Republic (Republic Bank, with Selwyn Ryan and Ronald Harford)
  • 1991: Folklore and Legends of Trinidad and Tobago (Paria Publishing)
  • 1991: The Book of Trinidad (Paria Publishing, with Bridget Brereton)
  • 2000: The Angostura Story (Paria Publishing)
  • 2002: The Angostura Historical Digest (Paria Publishing)
  • 2004: Scotiabank - The First 50 Years (Paria Publishing)
  • 2006: The History of Ansa McAL in the Caribbean (Paria Publishing)
  • 2010: The Cult of the Will (Paria Publishing)

Awards

  • 2007: Hummingbird Medal in Gold
  • 2007: Lifetime Achiever Heritage Preservation Award from the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago
  • 2015: Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Caribbean Beat # 136, November 2015: Gerard Besson: “I'm such a set of loose ends”. Retrieved October 21, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Shereen Ali: Land of Many Peoples: Migration Changing Trinidad's Identity . In: Trinidad Guardian . September 3, 2016, p. B1.
  3. ↑ Michelle Loubon: Gerard Besson: T & T's historiographer . In: Trinidad Guardian . July 5, 2007.
  4. ↑ Essiba Small: History, page by page . In: Trinidad Express . July 13, 2015.
  5. ^ Mark Fraser: Swearing-in for final 2 . In: Trinidad Express . May 11, 2011.
  6. ↑ Selwyn Ryan: Eric Williams revisited . In: Trinidad Express . July 3, 2010.
  7. ↑ UWI.edu: Our Honorary Graduates. Retrieved October 22, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Besson, Gerard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Besson, Gérard Anthony; Besson, Gérard A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Trinidadian writer and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Port of Spain