Living history

Everyone in this country had the opportunity to know Angelo because of his columns and books, which he presented to us all with great enthusiasm and pride. Because Angelo followed his curiosity, we are all richer in our knowledge of history and how it defines who we are today.

Arguably, Angelo’s work kept him alive for much longer than even he expected after he received the news that he had pancreatic cancer. In a country that often seems to be defined by laziness and apathy, Angelo proved that true joy comes from hard work.

The gifts Angelo left us are immeasurable.

He taught us how to be uplifting and productive in even the darkest and most dismal times of our lives. He taught us to face life with humour and face our history with a light-hearted reverence as oxymoronic as that seems.

I credit Angelo and Kim Johnson, two pioneers on the opposite ends of the academic spectrum, for discovering what the greater world out there has begun to show us more and more: history should not be a heavy, dull or unattainable force meant only for snooty academics. It should not be condemned to a lifeless position on some library shelf where its main purpose is to gather dust.

Most definitely history should not be a chronological march through time. History is about people. The famous American writer David McCullough, who earned a degree in English and then began to write biographies like John Adams and Truman tells us that people make history. Angelo knew that so his musings on history overflowed with anecdotes that made history come alive. He approached written history like oral history with tales passed down through time.

History, Angelo taught us, is something that should live in our hearts and our imaginations. It should provide stories that we see and feel and taste and smell. It should make our senses come alive, transport us to that pleasant place of nostalgia and provide indelible images that become unforgettable stories we can conjure up in our own minds.

Much has been said about how Angelo made history popular in Trinidad. This is no small feat. My favourite books, internationally speaking, stand out in my mind because they brought history to the level of common people.

This is why The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown, The Wright Brothers by David Mc- Cullough, Isabel the Warrior Queen by Kirsten Downey and Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel are some of my favourite books. They cross genres. They are not merely biographies, they are history presented through the viewpoint of a character in history.

Kim Johnson does this regularly with the books he writes about Trinidad culture like If Yuh Iron Good You Is King: Pan Pioneers of Trinidad and Tobago and The fragrance of gold: Trinidad in the Age of Discovery.

Judy Raymond accomplishes this too in The Colour of Shadows: Images of Caribbean Slavery.

Angelo accomplished the lofty goal of making history tangible for everyone in his own, enigmatic style, which reflected Trinidad culture. He convinced us that history lives in all of us. It’s something that is passed down from generation to generation.

It is our duty to pass it along.

Because of history, no one ever really dies, and that offers a semblance of comfort because we realise Angelo will a l w a y s be an important part of this country.