Jamaica novelist Marlon James was yesterday presented with his 2022 Anthony N Sabga Award,
Caribbean Excellence, by Deputy Governor General Stedman Fuller at King’s House in St Andrew.

James was awarded the prize in Arts & Letters for his novels which have told the stories of Jamaica, in the Jamaican language, and been acclaimed worldwide.

His best-known novel is A Brief History of Seven Killings which won the Man Booker Prize in 2015. Filming of the television adaptation of another work, Get Millie Black, is currently taking place in Kingston.
 
The Arts & Letters prize is one of four awarded annually by the Anthony N Sabga Awards, Caribbean Excellence. They include Public & Civic Contributions, Science & Technology, and Entrepreneurship. The other 2022 laureates are Dr Kim Jebodhsingh of Barbados, and Anuskha Varsha Sonai of Suriname (joint laureates) in Public & Civic Contributions; environmental consultant Shyam Nokta from Guyana in Entrepreneurship; and virologist Prof Christine Carrington from Trinidad & Tobago in Science & Technology.

REALISATION OF A DREAM

Diana Mahabir Wyatt, director of the ANSA McAL Foundation which funds the prizes, also spoke briefly about the awards being the realisation of a dream of the awards’ founder, the late Dr Anthony N Sabga.

Sabga was one the region’s most successful businessmen. He was the founder of the ANSA McAL conglomerate, which is based in Trinidad, but which has interests throughout the region, including in Jamaica.

Wyatt said the Foundation and the Sabga family were happy to make his dream a reality, that is, the realisation that “we have the skills, resourcefulness and talent within our region to transform our lives and the well-being of our people here in the Caribbean”.

FIRST YEAR LAUREATE NAMED FROM OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL TERRITORIES

The Anthony N Sabga Awards, Caribbean Excellence (formerly known as the Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence), were launched in 2005, and the first three laureates were named in 2006. Since then, 54 laureates, including the current year’s five, have been named from Jamaica, Barbados, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago. This year, 2022, marks the first year a laureate from outside the traditional territories has been named – this is Sonai, who is from Suriname.

Several other Jamaicans have received Anthony N Sabga awards. They include Prof Terrence Forrester and Monsignor Gregory Ramkissoon (2006), Claudette Richardson-Pious (2008), Kei Miller (2018), Kimala Bennett (2019), Professor Michael Taylor (2019), Dr Olivene Burke (2020), Prof Rupika Delgoda (2021), Dr Guna Muppuri (2021), and Dr Floyd Morrison (2021).

The prize comprises a medal, cheque for TT$500,000, and a citation.