David Dabydeen lives in London. He is a professor in the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies at Warwick University, editor of the Caribbean Publishing House and he holds a Ph.D in 18th century literature and art from the University College London.
In late 2009 Dabydeen was singled out as the individual who nominated President Bharrat Jagdeo, his personal friend for the Nobel Peace Prize but Dabydeen has since denied the accuracy of such action noting that someone else did.
Now Dabydeen is being tapped to serve as Guyana’s Ambassador to China.
Indeed Dabydeen is quite accomplished in his field of expertise, as he is the author of six novels, three collections of poetry, several works of non-fiction and Guyana’s Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO.
He was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for his first book of poems, Slave Song, in 1984, and was shortlisted for the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for his book, Coolie Odyssey. His first novel, The Intended, was runner-up for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. He has co-edited The Oxford Companion to Black British History (2007) and published in 2008 his sixth novel, Molly and the Muslim Stick (Macmillan). In 2004, he was awarded the Raja Rao Award for his contribution to the literature and the intellectual life of the Indian Diaspora and in 2007 he won the Hind Ranttan Award (Jewel of India) Award for his outstanding contribution to literature and the intellectual life of the Indian diaspora. In 2008 Dabydeen picked up the Anthony N Sabga award for literature, the Caribbean equivalent of the Nobel prize.
But is David Dabydeen qualified to be the ambassador of Guyana to China or is this simply an act of nepotism by the government of Guyana?
