These essays by Brian Meeks, a noted public intellectual in the
Caribbean, reflect on Caribbean politics, particularly radical politics
and ideologies in the postcolonial era. But his essays also explain the
peculiarities of the contemporary neo-liberal period while searching for
pathways beyond the current plight.
In the first chapters, titled "Theoretical Forays," Meeks makes a
conscious attempt to engage with contemporary Caribbean political
thought at a moment of flux and search for a relevant theoretical
language and style to both explicate the Caribbean's recent past and
confront the difficult conditions of the early twenty-first century. The
next part, "Caribbean Questions," both retrospective and biographical,
retraces the author's own engagement with the University of the West
Indies (UWI), the short-lived but influential Caribbean Black Power
movement, the work of seminal Trinidadian thinker and activist Lloyd
Best, Cuba's relationship with Jamaica, and the crisis and collapse of
the Grenadian Revolution.
As evident in its title, "Jamaican Journeys," the concluding section
excerpts and extracts from a longer, more sustained engagement with
Jamaican politics and society. Much of Meeks' argument builds around the
notion that Jamaica faces a crucial moment, as the author seeks to chart
and explain its convoluted political path and dismal economic
performance over the past three decades. Meeks remains surprisingly
optimistic as he suggests that despite the emptying of sovereignty in
the increasingly globalized world, windows to enhanced human development
might open through policies of greater democracy and popular inclusion.
