Probably someone already mentioned this, but in case no one did, the Man Booker prize is hardly the only one of dubious origins. There's always the Nobel. And the Rhodes Scholarship.
5
Behind every great fortune...
5
So what? Who knew?
There is only 'bad history' born of nations built upon corrupt crony capitalist corporate plutocrat oligarch colored enslavement, conquest and colonialism.
See 'The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism" Edward Baptist and "Dog-Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class" Ian Haney Lopez.
See Rhodes Scholarships named after Cecil Rhodes. See how slavery made fortunes in France, Britain, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands.
2
Wow. Women have it even worse off than any of us could imagine in our "new age." There is nothing new under the sun. With disgusting foolishness like this going on, please, take me to Westeros.
Ties to black servitude are pretty much pervasive. My greatest disdain is for those who are tainted and accuse others loudly. There's hardly a New Englander who hasn't been to Fanueil Hall in Boston, funded and built by a filthy rich slave trader. The Ivy League is at least triply dirty. Brown University is named after a family who contributed to the school out of their huge slave trading profits. Such profits also got Harvard Law School going. And the first governor of Massachusetts was a slave owner -- among places that honor him are a Harvard dorm and a Boston suburb. A subway stop on Boston's blue line is named after an early colonist whose claim to fame was bringing his slaves to East Boston. During the Civil Wa.r there were 450,000 slaves in Union states. To protect their owners, Lincoln insisted that these slaves not be freed during the War.
Go far enough back in American history and you find that the 1%. North and South, was heavily tainted by slavery; Read up on the conditions aboard merchants' ships owned by Peter Fanueil and his ilk and you will find they were much like Nazi transport that took Jews to death camps.
The wealth of the North in the antebellum period is closely tied to the slave trade and slavery. Moreover, American industry, centered in the urban north, is the number one cause of global warming. And America is the greatest international supplier of military hardware. As they say, let he without sin cast the first stone.
4
In America, slavery's legacy lives, not only in Man Booker Prizes won by Americans, but in the unequal resources and, thereby, unequal opportunities of African-American descendants of slaves whose wealth was all stolen.
The no. 1 culprit in America's slavery was the federal government with its Constitution sanctioning slavery. The nation's economic success in the 19th century was fueled by slaved-grown cotton. Though it would be difficult if not impossible to fairly determine who is owed what and how much, it is not at all difficult to see that African-American descendants of slaves have paid and continue paying an enormous price for the theft of their forebears' wealth, not to mention the cost of their unequal treatment by fed.gov.
Reparations are in order, but who should pay? All Americans benefit from wealth produced by slaves and stolen from them. Wealth in America does not evaporate. It is invested and generates more wealth. But American taxpayers arriving long after slavery ended ought not be mulct to pay reparations.
The federal government owns more than $100 trillion in assets, which should be liquidated to pay a significant award to all of the descendants of slaves. While it might be argued that American taxpayers, not the government owns those assets, it is money they will never lay their hands on.
Justice delayed ought not be denied. Furthermore, selling fed.gov's assets to profit-seeking individuals to pay reparations would fuel an historic economic boom.
1
Writers and journalists are usually intellectually informed and curious individuals.I wonder if there is any documented history of persons who have declined the award,in reference to its infamously sneering legacy?The patrician appearance of the 'Man Booker Prize,is indeed illustrious and luminous,while simultaneously stained and suspect.One supposes the lack of comment on this article confirms a dreaded guilt that dare not show its face.I do thank the NYT and author for this information.The American experiment and experience is ever enhanced by the contributions of your organization and company...
Lest we forget, the granddaddy of prizes, the multifarious Nobel, was started by Alfred Nobel after a, er, prehumous obituary ran deeming Mr. Nobel and his fortune-making dynamite a “merchant of death.” He sought then to tephrase the words of what would be his legacy.
1
This is why I read the NY Times - Better than any history class I have ever had.
5
What major prizes aren't tainted in some way by the questionable behavior of those who initated them.
Cecil Rhodes of scholarship fame exploited African laborers on his way to making his fortune. Alfred Nobel gave the world better explosives. Joseph Pulitzer helped coarsen journalism. J. William Fulbright opposed civil rights legislation.
And, as the Harvey Weinstein scandal reminds us, the founders of the Academy Awards were mostly men who used their powers to exploit young women.
7
Not that this matters much, but so you know- Harvey Weinstein is not one of the founders of the Academy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives out these awards and the first one was given out in 1929, way before Weinstein was born. He was a member of the Academy.
1
Andrew Carnegie's steel empire that permitted him to fund libraries was built on the backs of many, including the coal miners who lived in company towns, were paid in "scrip" and who were arrested and beaten should they try to quit. My 16 year old grandfather preferred to run away and lie about his age to join the Navy in WWI rather than dig coal. His education stopped at age 12 because he was big enough to work in a factory.
5
Rich people are different from you and me. They like to milk every last dime from their holdings. This story and the story in Esquire about the Sackler family who has bestowed so much largesse on NYC, make for stomach turning reading. Really, there is no such thing as too much money for these people.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a12775932/sackler-family-oxycontin/
1
I just wanted to acknowledge I read your piece and will recommend it to all.
The West's exploitation of people of color is an underappreciated story.
2
next up, cecil rhodes...scholarships and blood diamonds.
2
While many wars can be traced to religion and nationalism, the belief in accumulating money brings daily misery to billions. We don't actually enslave the workers today, but the meager wages they're paid in their third-world countries is almost as bad. Until we take a close look at the belief system and all our beliefs, we'll continue our path of self-destruction and misery.
See:
RevolutionOfReason.com
TheRogueRevolutionist.com
2
Where do people think this kind of money comes from?
4
It seems that the board of the "booker prize" considers it a must to insult your native country, through its cultural norms expose a flaw in its society, so as to be considered to win a booker. Hmmm.. a few books come to mind where the indians / blacks are shown in poor light..
There's been press of the bookers ex-board members of racist outburst not too long ago. I wonder how many booker prize winners knew of this history and how many are willing to return their prize.
1
While appreciating Booker's sorry history in Guyana it should be noted that the prize has been wholly funded since 2002 by Man Group, the investment fund, who added Man to the Booker title
5
Nobel invented dynamite. Pulitzer was practically the father of the 'yellow journalism' that brought us into the Spanish - American War and eventually the war to suppress Philippine independence. The prize is not a shiny 'bauble' It is the highest award for English language literate fiction. Ms Hopkinson fails to mention the radical change of management at the company that occurred in the 1950s to champion workers rights in then British Guyana and philanthropy around the world including the Booker prize. The prize itself has no bad history. The company that founded it was guilty as charged for 100 years
before reforming itself and establishing the prize. This at a time when American companies with US government and sometimes US military backing continued to exploit workers and prop up dictatorships throughout South and Central America and the Caribbean
12
I don’t agree with Mr. Hopkinson’s disapproval of the Bookers. Man’s inhumanity to man comes from way back. The Bible tells us how the victors in any conflict would typically wipe out or enslave their opponents and rape their women. Was that despicable? Or just the status quo for the time. Is Thomas Jefferson to be despised for being a slave owner and having offspring with his black slave, or be praised for his role in the American Revolution, the US Constitution and the first years of the United States? Times change. Mentalities change. What is considred evil changes. People should be judged by their peers. It is simply not fair to measure people from the past by today’s rules. Memories need to be weakened over time. Fault people for their father’s sins, their grandfather’s sins, but at some point you need to forget.
7
Great article.
Seems that both the Nobel Prize and the Booker one show that crooks like to wash their names by pouring money into prizes. Perhaps one day we shall even have a Trump Prize for literature!
While appreciating the sorry history of Booker in Guyana the prize is now wholly funded by the investment fund Man Group who took it over in 2002 while retaining the name Booker.
5
I’ll never look at the Man Booker Prize in the same way. Reading about the bailout of the slave owners and not the slaves (!) reminds me of the 2008 bank bailout in this country. The money went to the abusers instead of to those who were abused.
1
Cheap and easy target - The Bookers as the source of Guyana's woe - really - the source is people like Dr. Hopkinson - who after getting her advanced education in the USA would rather reside in the bowels of west Texas hell than return to Guyana to help her "people".
When the champions of Guyana would rather live anywhere else than in - you know - Guyana - it brings into quest their Trilling-like Authenticity versus the desire to make an empty protest against the Bookers.
15
Interesting but severe generalizing of the story of Guyana, formerly known as British Guiana.
2
And anyone who accepted a Rhodes Scholarship is disqualified from running for president.
6
Roy quotes Berger's "G" in the epigraph to "The God of Small Things." Wonder if she know about his protest and the provenance of the prize money she was awarded twenty five years after Berger.
You are blaming contemporary people for the acts of ancestors back in the early 19th century? That's a real reach.
14
Great article. I love articles that dive into the sordid history of slavery, it's beneficiaries, the slaves and of course the descendants, the colonizing countries and of course the workers who were exploited.
It seems so many were exploited for so few and still the poverty resulting from the mismanaged, misguided, immorality lingers and as someone else wrote today permeates society in such an ugly way.
Reparations for all slavery to all of the enslaved, just as with the Jews, until recognized will leave the ugly stain on this country, the colonizers that still exists today and will exist forever.
It is important to learn and remember the sordid episodes of western civilization. What is often omitted, however, are the sordid episodes of the countries portrayed as purely innocent victims in such stories--for example, demonizing the countries which imported slaves, but not the countries which kidnapped and sold the slaves.
Before the British, was Guiana a model of enlightenment? I do not know, but an imperial Britain deposing a dictatorship is very different from deposing a democracy.
4
This is a valuable article about the blood money behind the Man Booker Prize.
British Guiana, now Guyana, shows yet another population damaged by colonialism for so many generations that today their full recovery is maimed. You can only break the people's backs so many times before they lose the strength to keep healing themselves again and again.
Slavery, which then changed names and became the barbaric exploitation of indentured servitude has been the province of the sugar industry. And in this continuing imperial abuse, present-day Guyana joins two other decimated countries -- Puerto Rico and Haiti.
Puerto Rico was parasitized by the Spanish for centuries before we took it from them way back in 1898. We then turned PR into the world's largest sugar empire, Domino Sugar, after we killed -- literally -- every attempt Puerto Ricans ever made to become independent.
The French empire stole immense fortunes from Haiti's sugar industry, and when the Haitian people fought for and gained their independence, France fulminated against them severely, a contempt that continues to this day: France did practically nothing to help the Haitians after the giant earthquake killed a third of a million of them in 2010.
The only way to accept Man Booker Prize money is just so the recipient can give it all back to worthy humanitarian causes the way John Berger did back in 1972.
oz.
1
Hopkinson writes, "After the British left for good in 1966, the United States picked up the baton of control by meddling in Guyana’s elections, working through the C.I.A. to undermine Mr. Jagan, according Cold War historian Stephen G. Rabe and others. The country did not have what were considered free and fair elections until 1992, when Mr. Jagan, among the country’s most effective critics of sugar, returned to power as president." Why the erasure of the history from 1966 to 1992? Is is because of the inconvenient truths that would undermine the general tendencies of the Black intelligentsia to portray themselves as victims and not oppressors.
Anyone familiar with Guyanese history would know that was a period when the descendants of African slaves were oppressors.
12
I felt the author dropped us in 66, leaving huge gaps. What has happened since then, and what are the current goals of the prize? Who are the people of the last fifty years?
7
I infer from this article that it is better to be an exploited participant in the world economy than to be entirely outside of it?
Is this meant to be a Hillary-esque lesson for the Trump supporters?
I too had no idea about the Booker background. Abhorrent. Excellent article and food for thought. I often choose books off the Booker shortlist. However, not unusual given the time. Thomas Jefferson had slaves as he wrote the Declaration of Independence. DNA has proven he raped some of the women as well, though it wasn't considered a crime back then. Makes you think about the "good old days."
3
Most of the world was enslaved and savaged during the colonial era. Why fixate on the Bookers and Guyana while ignoring the much deeper crimes of the West everywhere else. To do so would mean daily self flagellation by folks who benefited by this past but did not participate. Acknowledge past evils but move forward to a better future.
9
Interesting opinion piece. However, it's a bit unfair to write about the Booker Prize history without a mention of the remarkable Jock Campbell, who reformed Booker Brothers in the 1950s and 60s, and established the Author Division. Would suggest a reading of Professor Clem Seecharan's book: 'Sweetening Bitter Sugar - Jock Campbell: The Booker Reformer in British Guiana 1934-1966.
11
I had no idea. Thank you for shedding light on Booker's ugly history.
Well written and researched, the piece is valuable, yet the simultaneous self promoting and self aggrandizing casts a long shadow that raises questions of opportunism. Certainly not atypical to synchronize commentary to present events for relevance, other reasons. so writing about the Bookers with the awarding of their namesake prize cannot be considered unique. Yet, it's almost like the ink isn't dry on the page, the awardee has not had an opportunity to savor his award, nor perhaps reflect upon its' history before being beaten about. All of this would sit better were it not for the banner raised for your upcoming book at the same time. Your message has merit, is of a piece with the progression of historical fact as truths are revealed but there is something mean spirited, wrathful, and self-serving that belies the high minded, high handed substance at the heart of the piece. If you were ever to be awarded such a prize or another might you be less glib in cutting the award to shreds and implicitly denigrating the winners of such prizes? That said, good luck with your book. It appears you learned a lot about self promotion from the Bookers.
9
What a devastating history. We need more articles like this that educate white people about the origins of white wealth and the horrors it leaves in its wake.
It's time we had Truth and Reconciliation Commissions simultaneously in the U.S. and the U.K. The two countries, with their destructive 'Special Relationship' have worked to support each other in so many coups and secret suppressions of national movements, even free and fair elections. The list is long.
Thank you for writing this. Too many want to brush the ugly side of our history aside.
Wonderful article. I had no idea about the origins of this prize.
I wonder if, in another world, Edgar Mittelholzer might have been a candidate for the Man Booker.
Bravo to John Berger and, for other reasons, to the brilliant George Saunders.
1
The Booker Prize is cousin to the Nobel prizes founded by a notorious munitions and arms dealer looking to burnish a tarnished reputation. Rockefeller Center exists because John D.'s intent to build a glittering new opera house in the midst of the depression was so offensive he had to literally change architectural plans. Today, Lincoln Center and PBS are indebted to the Koch Brothers.
When you look under the marble pedestals of philanthropy there are all sorts of creepy creatures crawling around.
9
It's obscene that the British government compensated people whose business was violent, false imprisonment (as the result of violent kidnapping); more violence to force people to work for free. Then to require those people to work four more years--without pay-- is to continue enslaving them, to further compensate the white wealthy criminals. At no point was the obvious even raised, immediate freedom, compensation and either prosecution or the threat of prosecution for continuing to exploit people. That the Booker family and company are still wealthy while Guyana is poor continues the obscenity once called slavery. What would happen if people from Guyana kidnapped the wealthy Englishmen and made them harvest sugar cane? That would be called terrorism. Yet every pound in the Booker accounts was predicated on violence. Every day that wealth remains in London while Guyana remains impoverished continues the crime.
1
The impulse toward democracy is an ongoing challenge. I had no idea this distinguished award had its origin in something so ugly. Nobel made a fortune in dynamite. Fortunes are made by a single-minded obsession with aggrandizement, and a corresponding unconcern about the manipulation of others.
Just as the Bookers made incalculable millions off the initial abuse of slaves, America's rise to preeminent world power was fueled by an economy based on free labor. Never in history was there a greater disparity of wealth than in antebellum South, until recently surpassed by present day United States.
2
Where do we start, and where do we end? The nefarious shadow of colonialism touched almost every British institution of that period. Britannia ruled supreme only by destroying and looting countries, killing and enslaving people, exploiting local economies, destroying cultures, and redrawing world maps to reap long-term gains.
Britain's fight against Nazism under Churchill allowed it to claim a high moral ground and overlook its own exploitation of the lands it colonised, and it is only recently that scholars are unearthing the country's long dark history in its colonies.
2
it is the sad reality of Western Civilization that many excellent institutions were founded by people engaged in horrible practices. indeed there is nothing about being cultured or civilized that means you are a decent person. Nazi Germany put that myth to a definitive rest. But none of us can own the past we were not a part of. We can learn from it. We can be better, but we cannot open it as we were not there. with respect to the Booker, what matters is who wins. First, is it great literature. Second does it inspire and motivate us to be better - more sensitive, emphatic, more honest, and yes, more decent in an era when decency is being remembered more than practiced. I think the Booklet does that, and that's enough for me.
this person practice does not urge is to ignore the past. it does say with love in the present and, God willing, arrive at work after a weekend of reading the award winner, ready to build a better tomorrow.
1
Oh how comfortable it is to sit in the smug, self-righteous certainty of 21st century Western civilization --- coddled, cuddled and sated as we are --- while we pass judgment on those who came before in an era for which we have no comprehension other than that we, of course, would not have sinned.
Frankly, I'm sick of it particularly because we live in an era which is, itself, full of sins and for which we seem incapable, despite the certainty of our self-righteousness, of doing anything about it.
At least the Booker Prize celebrates those who try to do something about it, unlike the author of this piece who just wants to judge the "dark side" of those from the past.
Instead, I wait for this author to write a book which is selected for a Booker Prize.
18
Wow. This is impressively written, and its impact ... well, I will never forget this. Certainly never see the phrase Man Booker Prize or read a book on its longlist or shortlist without thinking about this, and wondering -- do the chosen authors, who so often write (as good authors do) about social injustice, history, slavery, colonialism and its huge, still damaging, footprint -- do those authors know this? Do they think about their nomination for the prize in this context?
What an enormous burden of debt and shame and infamy the "civilized" west carries. Awareness is hardly enough to expiate it. But awareness is where it must begin. Thank you so much, Ms. Hopkinson, for beginning this part of it. I had to pause there and put my head in my hands, and blink back the tears. Thank you for telling me these things that I needed to know.
12
The article implies that the prize is tainted and the winners are in some way illegitimate. By the same logic Rhodes scholars are illegitimate.
"If not for the accident of history, I imagine these artists would get the kind of resources, support and recognition that are rightfully lavished upon the nominees of the Man Booker"
The winners of the Booker include names like Rushdie, Byatt, Ondaatje Desai and their skin colours range from pink to black. Any implication that the prize is somehow racist is not supported by fact. Furthermore the prize is now funded by the Man Group and has nothing to do with Booker-McConnell. The company that founded the prize may have a dark history but sometimes even bad people do good things.
19
Thank you so much. It's apropos of our historical moment that the prize is now funded by an investment bank. Man Group founded in the 18th century with its money also rooted in England's colonies -- and sugar. Plus ca change.... wouldn't it be lovely if George Sanders took a cue from Berger?
1
While I agree that all of this history needed to see the light of day, I’m find the timing of the publishing of it troublesome. George Saunders deserved to have this well deserved day for him without the taint of the article coming the same day, which I’m sure was purposeful.
8
Interesting story and true. But I wonder if there is anybody, anything, any history that isn't going to be linked somehow/someway to exploitation. What do we owe the past? What is owed for wrongs done by people long dead? Should the descendants of the Romans make restitution to me for the wrongs they did to my Germanic ancestors? When does it stop?
13
Thank you. Your comments are what I wished to state; yours is more eloquent than my thoughts.
4
Thank you for this shocking and yet somehow not in the least surprising essay. I am disgusted by the legacy of cruelty that underlies the festive glamour of the Booker awards.
sad history. saunders' book the only real contender this year. great book!
Fascinating article, but it seems to completely ignore the history of the prize itself, and of Booker. The company absorbed Curtis Campbell and one of the Campbells, Jock Campbell went to Guiana famously in 1950. There he was horrified at the conditions that workers faced. Campbell created the Commonwealth Sugar Association which dramatically altered the politics and economics of sugar production, stabilized sugar prices and gave emerging economies preferred access to British sugar markets, returning much more money to the nations where sugar was produced and to the workers who produced it. He had the company invest large sums into schools, hospitals, housing, sports facilities and into arts programs.
Campbell did much to atone for Booker's sins, and failing to mention his amazing legacy with the company and with sugar does a disservice to to this essay. He was the man who decided to diversify Booker's holdings and invest (literally) into popular fiction, purchasing 51% of Ian Fleming's literary rights shortly before James Bond's creator passed away, and later investing in Agatha Christie's literally output. From those investments, a call from Jonathan Cape sparked the English language's most valued literary prize.
We will never wipe away the sin of slavery, colonialism and exploitation. But we should remember its history in full.
8
This is only half the story and leaves out the important part. In th30's, a remarkable man, Jock Campbell, came to Guyana and, outraged at the circumstances he found there, through himself into the goal of reforming Bookers from the inside out. The result was a complete turnabout: Bookers beca,me a force for good in Guyana. I am a novelist from Guyana and -- by sheer coincidence -- me next book is a historical novel that covers this transformation. It's called The Girl from the Sugar Plantation and goes on sale tomorrow. Jock Campbell is a main character; fictionalised, but the facts behind it are real. It's Jock who created the Author Division and thus set in motion the foundation for the Booker Prize.
6
And how many human beings have died as a result of the inventions of Alfred Nobel?
Nearly all of our wealth is blood money, from one industry or the other.
That's unregulated Capitalism in action- original sin- and the pleas for forgiveness for this guilt that we all share.
1
That is the way the British Empire worked always have divisions in the populace either by ethnicity or religion even if you have to import the opposition. It helps to keep them from forming a rebellion against British rule. In Guiana Cheddi was a nationalist/socialist labelled as a Communist to get U.S. support in deposing him, a great loss to Guiana.
Of course the U.S. "Empire" used the same tactics labelling all national movements the did or do not like as Communists or Terrorists to excuse intervention and never ending war.
1
Thank you for the background. It puts the Booker Prize into perspective by adding the sad history of Guyana. Much like other seemingly pretty examples of life in this world with hidden ugliness lying beneath. I've found that history is generally only nice when read superficially.
all literary awards are completely meaningless. they are given out
in terms of which country is "due"
or of a sense of being original or
unorthodox, as in Dylan's award
last year. Joyce,Lawrence, Proust
and Woolf never won a Nobel Prize
and as for the Man Booker Prize, I
have only a vague idea of who in
God's name half of these individuals
are,though' Lincoln in the Bardo'
was a first rate reading experience
for me.I read books that I think might
be interesting, not books that have won
awards. as for Nobel or the Booker Brothers,
(ie:dynamite and slavery) any award
named for them is more of a sick joke
and an attempt at respectability and
shoul not be attached to any honor.
1
just a clarification, one that may sound like a quibble, but is necessary because of widespread misconceptions. The author compares the 1800s slaveholder buyout with the US bank bailout, but fails to mention that the 2009 bailout of financial institutions - 900 separate entities - has resulted in a profit to the US of over $70 billion. Americans need to understand the reality of the "bailout", not the misinformation hype.
Thank you for this. I am reminded of Robert Hayden's great poem, "The Middle Passage," which alludes to the ways the slave trade has permeated all aspects of American life ("Of his bones New England pews are made"). Look at the privilege enjoyed by many of the descendants of slaveholders/traders today. The wealth of several Ivy League colleges is just the beginning.
1
IMO, harvesting sugarcane by hand is one of the most brutal jobs out there. Cane fields can be rife with centipedes, rats, and other vermin. The leaves of sugarcane are so sharp they give razor cuts. I only know this because I lived in Barbados from 1960 to 1965 while my father was working there for WHO. Our house was surrounded by cane fields. Even with the eyes of a young child, it was obvious that this is not a job anyone would take voluntarily unless they literally had no other way to feed their families. I have several prints and paintings from that era depicting work in the cane fields as something benign and bucolic. No way. That's just wrong.
This is one of the most egregious and clear-cut stories of ill-gotten colonial gains I have ever read. And one of the best arguments for reparations.
I feel strongly about support for the arts. But it's outrageous that this corporation, which effectively functioned as a rapacious klepto-state that ruthlessly exploited Guyanese workers and siphoned the value of their labor for its own coffers, then had the audacity to style itself as a cultured and magnanimous corporate citizen, should be permitted to do anything with its profits other than put them back into the nation it impoverished.
Thank you also. I read "A Brief History Of Seven Killings", a winner several years ago and this article definitely confounds whatever impressions I had about the meaning of the prize - as I am sure it does to any number of the winners.
If Guyana is the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, why believe it has anything to do with what the Booker family did or didn't do in the 1800s?
That belief isn't based on economics, or on social science of any kind: it's a belief based on magic.
1
Really, we have to jettison backwards for yet another unworthy antecedent to a worthy reward today?
Trying to get what this is leading to - this angle by the writer?
There are very excellent stories of wounds within a family, within their generations which are so relevant. Let us understand and heal the wounds we experienced.
But really, Isn't there a statute of limitations about acts committed by people long dead? Or are we , as a people, going to dig up all the disgraceful acts of past, long dead generations forever?
I, for one, am tired of it and find these stories tiresome.
5
The prize does not have a bad history,Lady.You are trying to make it something it is not. There are lots of terrible things in history.All we can do is try not to do them again.
3
While the award is prestigious, from a monetary perspective, the prize money is really small -- 50,000 pounds. It should be possible to have the award continued under a different name with a more worthy sponsor -- there would not be any shortage of sponsors.
Thank you for sharing this vital and important history.
1
I can’t speak of Britain — frankly we have our hands full in the United States — but figures in history have pasts that judged by today’s standards — and I emphasize today’s standards — may be less than admirable. See Jefferson and Washington. However, their contributions are worthy. Lincoln had colonialist views and was not enlightened by today’s standards but can we discount his contributions to our country? Senator Fulbright didn’t have enlightened racial views but can we forget the Fulbright Program of scholarship and the thousands upon thousands of people it has benefited in our country and abroad. I think not.
Frankly, this article struck me as just another angry rant in the vein of throw out the baby with the bath water.
3
On the other hand, the government bail out, as the author puts it, meant that slavery was ended in the British Empire without war and bloodshed, as happened three decades later in the United States. An interesting note is that the British Crown was able to pay the slave-owners compensation due to a loan of 15 million dollars - around half a billion today - from the Rothschilds. So even if the payoff was immoral, was the outcome worth it?
1
This piece does so much for the cause.
What cause I don't know since this piece has zero reason to believe the author has any interest in solutions much less any solutions. But the author has made what happened more than a century ago her own personal validation on October 17, 2017.
Perhaps this is the legacy of humankind, built on the innocent blood of woolly mammoths, hippos, horses, cows and any large or small creature they could kill and eat. All the humans do is cursed with innocent blood and it takes a brave human to give themselves a pat on the back for saying so.
6
There would be no end of whining if we went through all the misdeeds done in the 1830s, fcol. The wealth and might of every power, be it state, church or industry is based on some plunder and murder which might have happened yesterday, 100 or 500 years ago. That´s how the world is set up.
2
Quite an eye-opening piece. Thank you.
Thank you for this informative article. Since stumbling upon the book White Tiger in high school I've tried to read each new Man Booker prize winner and I regularly look towards the past recipients for good reads. This was the first time that I'd heard of the darker origins of the prize, and I'm shocked and dismayed. While I believe that the prize itself has become a force for good in the world, in fact illuminating many people (including myself) to the deep scars of colonial abuse and systematic racism that continues to shape the nations of prize-winning authors to this day, it is necessary and important to remember the roots of this literary institution aren't fully innocent. So again, thank you for this article and this sad but important truth.
14
Sorry, I don't think this has any relevance at all to the literary award.
History IS important to know and learn from. But it should not be used as a system of accounts through which competing grievances demand retribution across centuries and generations.
27
This was a fascinating and enlightening article. All too often we are unaware of the history behind endowments and other philanthropic expenditures. I must admit of being absolutely ignorant of the Booker sugar empire and the exploitation of Guyana, African workers, and Indian indentured servants. It is this type of historical writing that is needed to give clarity and understanding as to why wealthy nations, corporations, and people became rich, and many of the world's poorest people and regions remain impoverished.
George Saunders, other nominees, as well as past recipients of the Man Booker Prize should not be diminished by the facts of history. Nevertheless, the past always has a more interesting story to reveal even if it regards the title of a literary award.
22
I'm sorry, I fail to see your point. Are the sins of the fathers to be visited on their modern-day successors in interest forever? Is every imperialist company propped up by the British Empire to be confiscated and its assets spread to the wind? Most of the civilizations of the world, sadly, have been built on the backs or blood of someone. I don't think a prize awarded to quality new literature has to be condemned because its funding - in whole or in part - came from less than stellar sources. Let's try to move on to the extent that we can. Write about the wrongs done to the people of Guiana, certainly, but let's please not curse the prize for the actions of people now dead.
24
Where in the article do you see the prize condemned? The final sentence sums it up, as we celebrate the literary excellence of the nominees, "let's recognize the people who have paid its price."
Considering the legacy and its aftermath, I would easily answer yes to your first two questions.
An excellent piece. Although reparations was not the subject of this article it certainly established an argument for some kind of compensation.
But unfortunately reparations is typically and exclusively thought of in purely monetary terms, and just as quickly dismissed as impractical or unjustified.
But maybe the deep connection of the Man Booker prize to the world of literature and ideas will help resurrect a moral dialogue about the exploitation of the global south by the global north, as exemplified by the history of Britain and Guyana.
Moral dialogue searches for truth and connection to man's higher purpose. It is both individual and collective. It doesn't seek victims or victimizers, but instead measures us all against certain values core to all of humanity. If we can look at ourselves and our history through that lens maybe, just maybe we can find a collective way forward in this troubled world.
5
Thank you for this well written, informative article. I look forward to reading your book. And, yes, recognition to the people who have indeed paid the price for the Man Booker Prize ... and so much else.
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I would be interested in reading similar articles on how many of our famous philanthropists - Carnegie, Rockefeller, among the better-known, now associated with charitable foundations and good works - acquired their wealth with ruthless practices. If good works are to be a form of penance, then perhaps they should go towards those who were most harmed.
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Most--if not all--of them were ruthless capitalists. Start with Wikipedia and branch out from there.
2
You can find that all on the net if you are interested.
Thanks for this article. I often look to see who’s on the Booker list for ideas on what next to read. I had no idea who the Booker behind the prize was. Thanks for enlightening me and for spreading the truth.
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Don't forget to add to these robber barons the name THE KOCH BROTHERS.
Dmv74, I hope that I'm mistaken in the tone of your letter. I hope that reading this article didn't affect your views on the prize itself.