NIHERST: Caribbean Icons in STI

This visually attractive and well designed book is a project of NIHERST and the Caribbean Council for Science and Technology, and is aimed at young readers. It presents short biographies of 35 Caribbean nationals who have excelled in the world of science and technology. These individuals were born in several different countries of the English-speaking Caribbean, though Trinidad and Tobago is particularly well represented. Just under half (16) are no longer alive.

The book features 25 personalities under four main categories: innovation; medicine; science; and science education. An additional 10 personalities are profiled under the headings: breaking new ground; discoveries; leaving a legacy; and trailblazers—although the distinction between some of these categories is not altogether clear. Some of the icons are quite famous, like Sir George Alleyne, Dr. Rudranath Capildeo, and Dr. Joseph Pawan; many are not at all well known.

Many work, or worked, outside the region in universities or other organizations abroad, but it is very pleasing to notice the significant number whose careers were mainly or wholly spent at the University of the West Indies. They include Prof. Nazeer Ahmad, Sir Harry Annamunthodo, Prof. Courtney Bartholomew, Prof. Julian Duncan, Sir John Golding, Prof. Oliver Headley, Prof. Julian Kenny, Sir Kenneth Standard, Prof. George Moon Sammy, and Sir George Alleyne, the current Chancellor of the University.

The short biographies are informative, written in a simple style, and attractively illustrated. Each one includes a ‘Key Words’ section in which technical or difficult words or phrases used in the text are explained. The special contributions made by each person are clearly explained, and for many of them, a sentence of advice to young people is included.

This is a timely and useful book. It is a fact that most of us, young or not so young, tend to think of Caribbean personalities and famous achievers as being in the spheres of politics, law, literature and the arts, and sports. Most of us, and most school children, could probably think of some of these fairly easily. But we rarely associate Caribbean achievement with science and technology. It is therefore valuable to introduce young readers to Caribbean ‘icons’ in this field. The book should help to inspire some of them to seek a career in science and technology, and, more generally, help to develop a rational and scientific mind-set and culture in the region—something we badly need.

Of the 35 icons, only three are women, which reflects the limited opportunities for girls and women in higher education and the professions in the past. Because of their rarity I will focus on them. Cicely Williams (1893-1992) was a most remarkable person. A white Jamaican, she qualified in England as a doctor at a time when female physicians were still quite rare, and served in the Colonial Medical Service (in the waning years of the British Empire) in Ghana and Malaya. She survived three years of brutal imprisonment during World War 11 in Malaya, caring for her fellow prisoners and helping them to stay alive. Williams was the discoverer of the protein deficiency disease ‘kwashiorkor’ and her work on this terrible killer of children helped to save lives around the world.

Norge Jerome (b.1930) grew up in Grenada, and has had a very distinguished academic career in the United States, mainly at the University of Kansas. She developed the academic field of nutritional anthropology, which links nutrition with the biology and culture of human beings. Besides her University career, she also served as Director of the Office of Nutrition of USAID, the main body in the US, which organizes overseas aid.

The third woman, Trinidad and Tobago’s Barbara Hull (b.1939), worked as a virologist at the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre and at the World Health Organization. She was involved in the world-wide eradication of polio, and contributed to the control of measles, yellow fever and HIV-AIDS in the region.

Three out of 35 is not a good score—but no doubt if a similar publication is undertaken say ten years from now, the gender balance will be much better. All those girls and young women doing so well in the scientific subjects, at CXC and A Levels and at University, upsetting so many prominent men in the process (‘male underachievement’, ‘marginal men’, ‘endangered men’)—some of them are bound to become Caribbean icons of science and technology in the next round!

Book Review