Essays · Dispatches · Reflections
Rivers and Forests
Essays on Faith, Society and the Caribbean Mind. Fourteen meditations on memory, identity, and the textures of Caribbean existence — written between 2020 and 2026.
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Rivers and Forests: Essays on Faith, Society and the Caribbean Mind
Fourteen essays in three parts — Roots and Beginnings, Society in Transition, and Faith, Moral Reflection & Global Identity.
ISBN 979-8253982822 · Copyright © 2026
Order Now →From the Preface
A Caribbean Mind in Active Engagement
The essays that comprise this volume emerged from the confluence of three rivers: memory, observation, and conviction. Written between 2020 and 2026, they represent a Caribbean mind in active engagement with its inheritance — processing the soil of Barbados, the waterways of Guyana, and the broader currents of a world in transformation.
“Rivers suggest continuity; movement, memory, and the passage of generations. Forests evoke depth, root systems unseen, histories intertwined, and truths that must be sought rather than given.”
This collection stands as both testimony and invitation: testimony to a life shaped by faith, family, and Caribbean experience; and invitation to readers to examine their own histories with equal care. — The Editor, March 2026
We Tend to Forget the Fathers
Opening chapter · Part I
“65 million new fathers have been added to or remained within the stock of goodly men who have been responsible for populating the world and taking responsibility for their offspring.” An essay on the Fifth Commandment, a father’s daily prayers, and the sacred practice of placing your children’s names before God. Written with deep personal tenderness — from a son who found his late father’s journals.
Getting Older and the Benefits of Gardening
Now that he is called “Uncle” and “Pops,” Wayne reflects on how aging crept up overnight — and how the garden became an unexpected companion. A meditation on time, memory, and the quiet wisdom of growing things, viewed through the lens of Caribbean elders whose stories he once took for granted.
A Generation of Dogs with Attitude
“I do not get along well with human beings and less so with animals.” So begins this deceptively funny essay — which turns out to be a surprisingly tender portrait of the canine family and what dogs have taught one self-proclaimed anti-social man about loyalty, unpredictability, and respect.
If Music Be the Food of Life
From Shakespeare’s Orsino to calypso, gospel, and the songs that shaped a Caribbean childhood — this essay traces how music became not a pastime but “part of my life’s journey.” A joyful, wide-ranging meditation on what we hear and what it makes of us.
Good Music, Good Books and a Beef & Potato Roti
“As a teenager, all I ever needed was a delicious, warm beef and potato roti, an interesting book, some inspirational music, and a quiet place far from the maddening crowd.” An essay about solitude as a teenager, the books that cracked the imagination open, and why that particular trinity still holds. Rich with literary references and warm with Caribbean specificity.
Combing Through the Past
Opening a faded ledger containing names of relatives long dead but suddenly alive again through fragile paper — this essay takes Sheikh Zayed’s words seriously: “Those who do not know their past cannot shape their future.” A deeply personal excavation of family, lineage, and the Caribbean inheritance we carry without always knowing it.
Calypso Cricket: The West Indies and the Global Game
“A Caribbean cricket match is never merely a sporting event. It is closer to a festival where music, laughter, and the crack of the bat combine to create a spectacle unlike any other.” An essay on cricket as dignity, identity, and declaration — and what the West Indies’ place in the global game says about who we are.
Coming to Guyana
“Guyana in the 1990s was not the ideal place for any right-thinking Bajan to be.” No amount of preparation in stodgy Barbados had prepared him for the Land of Many Waters. A vivid, honest account of arriving somewhere unexpected and being irrevocably shaped by it.
My Journey as a First-Time Writer
Awaking to heavy raindrops on the rooftop, Wayne reflects on how a dormant literary impulse — sparked by Guyana’s 2020 election crisis — became something he could no longer suppress. An honest, funny, and disarming account of becoming a writer late, and why that might be exactly the right time.
Crime and Warfare Using Household Weapons
Opening essay · Part II
The idea of a future world operating with computers and robots led Wayne to consider ICT as a career as a teenager. Half a century later, he watches Sci-Fi concepts inserting themselves into our mundane world. This essay examines our vulnerability to the digital weapons now living inside our homes — phones, laptops, social media — and asks hard questions about what we have invited in and what it is costing us.
Personal Reflections on Bullying
A rampant increase in bullying — in schools and on social media — has pushed this essay into urgent territory. Too many students are resorting to suicide as a last resort. Too many perpetrators are using violence to enforce their dominance. Wayne draws on personal experience and observation to examine why this is happening, who is failing these children, and what the Caribbean community must confront if it is to protect its youngest members.
Christmas: The Mass Without the Christ
Opening essay · Part III
“I love the atmosphere of the Christmas season and the intended benefits. It’s that time of the year when I can tolerate mankind and am proud to be a human being.” And yet — Wayne’s sharp eye notices something missing in the tinsel and the commerce. This essay is warm, funny, and unsparing by turns: a believer’s lament for a sacred season that has been quietly hollowed out.
The Uninvited Guest in the Living Room
Earliest cinema memories: a crowded living room, a flickering screen, heroes who were flawed but honorable. Over decades, the screen in the living room has changed almost beyond recognition. This essay asks: what exactly have we allowed into our homes, our children’s eyes, and our collective imagination — and do we have the courage to show it the door?
Power, Silence, and the Crimes Against Children
Within the last five years, Guyana’s leading newspapers have cited an alarming rise in child abuse and incest. This essay — the most urgent in the collection — confronts the deteriorating moral fabric directly. Wayne writes as a father, as a community member, and as a person of faith who believes that silence itself is a form of complicity. The most sober and necessary essay in the book.