Synopses & Reviews
Lionel Froad hopes to rediscover Lobo, his alter ego from ancestral times, while on an architectural survey in the horn of Africa. Instead, he finds himself having complex relationships between his filial, white boss and a stunning girl from Wales, both of whom distract him from his goal. Eventually, Lionel is forced to recognize the painful division between his New World self and ancestry as a result of slavery and centuries of separation.
Review
"A harsh but necessary book." Gerald Moore, author, The Chosen Tongue
Review
"Williams gives us a painter's vision of Africa . . . and it is this vivid artist's vision that opens the door to Africa as an area of mind." Louis James, author, The Islands in Between
Synopsis
Lionel Froad is a Guyanese who works as a draftsman on an archeological survey in the mythical Jokhara in the horn of Africa. There he hopes to rediscover the self he calls 'Lobo', his alter ego from 'ancestral times', a 'pregnant load' he has carried with him 'waiting to be freed', which he thinks slumbers 'behind the cultivated mask' of Lionel.
But Jokhara brings no magical re-immersion for 'Lionel looking for Lobo'. There are his complex relationships with other members of the team, his filial (and oedipal) relationship with Hughie, his white boss, and with Catherine, a Welsh girl on the team to whom Lionel finds himself passionately attracted, despite the disapproving inner voice of Lobo and Hughie's paternalistic interference.
And at the points where communication breaks down with local Jokharans, Lionel/Lobo is forced to recognize what a breach the there has been in his New World psyche as a result of slavery and centuries of separation.
With wit and above all with ruthless honesty in its exploration of the themes of identity and belonging, in Other Leopards, Denis Williams wrote one of the most important Caribbean novels of the past fifty years.
Introduction by Victor Ramraj.
Denis Williams was a highly accomplished artist, who also taught and published in the fields of West Indian and African art and anthropology, and, from 1974, was Director of Art and Archaeology with Guyana's Ministry of Education and Culture.
About the Author
Denis Williams is the author of Icon and Image and Prehistoric Guiana. He was a renowned artist in the West Indies and a former director of the Walter Roth Museum of Archaeology and Art.