Jacob’s writing - a deep dive in T&T
If you went by Debbie Jacob’s prolific work in T&T as columnist, journalist, film producer, author of five study companions for Caribbean literature, four works of fiction and three works of nonfiction, you would find it hard to believe that her naval string wasn’t buried in these islands.
In fact, Jacob grew up on a remote dairy farm in Mansfield, Ohio, earned a BA in anthropology from Ohio State University and migrated to T&T in 1984. She first lived in Warrenville, central Trinidad, the setting for her six-part television drama Sugarcane Arrows, starring David Rudder. A practicing journalist for decades her fiction includes Legend of the St. Ann’s Flood, Nevile and the Lost Bridge, Nevile and the Duppy Master, and a collection of short stories, Speaking of Promises.
Her nonfiction books, all a deep dive in T&T, include Wishing for Wings, Making Waves: How the West Indies Shaped the US and Police Dogs of Trinidad and Tobago: a 70- year history. Her nonfiction books probe unusual angles to understand the region’s crime and history.
Wishing for Wings (Ian Randle Publishers, Jamaica) describes a CXC English class in YTC, made up of teenagers incarcerated for violent armed robbery and murder. They are outcasts who look to their English teacher and an education to redeem their lives. Making Waves: How the West Indies Shaped the US (Ian Randle Publishers, Jamaica) is a collection of vignettes about the powerful, influential side of Caribbean history.
Jacob thinks of her work “as an immigrant’s view of my adopted home – an island of beauty and crisis. I want writing about this region to awaken a new awareness and spirit of commitment to this region’s roots in readers.” Police Dogs of Trinidad and Tobago: A 70-Year History, which will be published later this year by McFarland & Co. in the US, uses police dogs’ files and interviews with canine police officers to trace the development of crime in this country from the arrival of the first four dogs in 1952. It spans the waning years of colonialism, Independence, the Black Power movement, the rise of the illegal drug trade, kidnapping and terrorism from the police dogs’ perspective.
Excerpt from Police Dogs of Trinidad and Tobago -- A 70-Year History published by McFarland & Company, US is available for pre-order. All rights reserved by Author, Debbie Jacob and Publisher.
“Chapter 1 Dog Days September 25, 1952
“Four Trinidadian police officers, accompanied by their newly acquired Alsatians, had no idea of the fate awaiting them as they boarded the ship that would carry them home. They had just completed a three-month course at the Metropolitan Police Training Centre in the UK. Cpl. Theophilus Thomas, Cpl. Carlyle Piggott; Sgt. Hamilton Bridgeman and Police Constable (PC) George Alexis must have felt excited about the new venture awaiting them in the British colony of Trinidad and Tobago. Quite possibly, they were unaware of a storm brewing in the Atlantic.
Storms in the Caribbean can take unexpected turns and curl towards any island – especially during the hurricane season from June through November. On September 25, meteorologists in Florida noted an easterly wave that showed signs of intensifying over the Atlantic, about seven hundred miles east of the Lesser Antilles. Aircraft scanning the area encountered squalls of sixty-eight knots over a considerable distance. Reports noted 100-mph winds. A hurricane appeared to be forming, but no closed centre of circulation could be found. The sea appeared rough and unpredictable. At around 8 am that day, the four officers arrived in Port of Spain, “justly proud of these dogs with which they were trained” (as Thomas would later write in Bruno’s file). Thomas and his dog Bruno, Piggott with his dog Winston, Bridgeman and Shah, and Alexis with Carlos landed in Trinidad without any recorded fanfare. The four officers, dressed in suits, ties, and the fedoras of the day, posed for a picture on the ship’s deck. With heads held high, the four dogs sat at their handlers’ feet.
The first official notation of the dogs’ presence in Trinidad came from a note Thomas wrote in Bruno’s file: “Bruno, Carlos, Shah, and Winston arrived in the Colony on September 25, 1952, and were taken on the strength of the force and posted to the Depot (DP 9031).” There, the dogs would await their first duties. On September 27, the Florida Met Office watched the weather pattern formed just before the officers’ arrival and finally assigned a name: Hurricane Dog. Thomas, Piggott, Bridgeman, and Alexis escaped that storm, but they would face unimaginable danger in the future while making history as the first four Trinidadian canine police officers.”
End of excerpt.
In 2019, Debbie Jacob (www. debbiejacob.org) received a commendation from the Mounted and Canine Branch for her work to improve conditions for police dogs and the Express Individual of the Year award for her prison work, which included forming prison debate teams and offering skills to re-integrate inmates into society. In 2020, she received a national award, Chaconia Gold, for her prison and police dog work.
IRA MATHUR is a Guardian columnist and the winner of the non-fiction OCM Bocas Prize for Literature 2023.