Did you know that the Belizean literary work Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell is 30 years old this year? Zee Edgell’s first novel, Beka Lamb, was published in 1982 and has since become a Caribbean classic. The Minister of Education of Belize at that time, Mr. Said Musa, pushed for the book to be used at schools in Belize.
Beka Lamb has been continuously in print since it first appeared in 1982. It has been required reading for CXC-takers around the Caribbean, and is on syllabi for university literature courses around the world. The Belizean novel has also gained an international audience when it won Britain’s Fawcett Society Book Prize. An entire generation of people in the Caribbean read Beka Lamb as part of their High School literature curricula. The book has been translated into German, is taught at universities in the United States and the Caribbean, and is enjoyed by readers around the world.
“My mother wrote Beka Lamb so that, in her words, she could “document the Belize of the 1950s for future generations of Belizeans,” commented her daughter Holly Edgell. “She didn’t write the book for the world, but the world found it. She is especially pleased that the book resonates with young people around the Caribbean who have so much in common with Belizean youths.” – From zedgell.com
Dorian’s Angels had the opportunity to meet with Beka Lamb author Zee Edgell when she addressed the students at San Pedro High School in March 2011. Click Here for the Angels’ article.
