S7E5 The Unseen Caribbean: Kevin Jared Hosein on the dark history of Trinidad

“It is as foreign to some people here, as it would be to someone not living here. There’s a kind of feral nature to it that I wanted to capture."

Many of us hold a picture postcard view of the Caribbean - steel drums, calypso music and coconut trees - but places like Trinidad have a shockingly dark past. 

Kevin Jared Hosein is the author of ‘Hungry Ghosts’, a book which explores the impact of colonialism on Trinidad, taking us back in time to a snapshot in the country’s history when Trinidadians experienced subhuman living conditions, consigned to gruesome, barrack-type quarters. In this episode we learn about the violence that ensues as hardship forces a community to turn on itself, and explore the mythological concept of ‘hungry ghosts’.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How to use violence not for the sake of violence, but as a way of communicating a more fundamental message.
• How landscape can be used to convey emotion.
• Why it’s important to understand the whole history of a country, even the unsavoury parts.

Find out more about Kevin here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

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You can view the full transcript here.

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